The children of God are free men. They were called by God from bondage and into freedom. God has broken their bonds by His power that they may live their lives with inheritance and honor. They are like those that sit with the king in the royal places. They possess an identity of their own. God has given them an identity so that the world may discover them as pious people. They are a unique set of people. They rule over all that God has set under them. They receive power, wisdom, authority, glory and workmanship from the God Almighty. God did not choose them that they should crumble to slavery. “But Solomon did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen” (1 Kings 9:22).
When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He brought them out to make them His children. He made them His glory. His intention in bringing them out of bondage is to make them a people worthy of His calling. He guarded them, guided and gave them victories. He desired that they be a unique set of people, a people that are of the God of heaven and earth. Through them He made His Name known throughout the world. He wanted them to be above the unbelieving world and therefore, became a Shepherd and a King to them. He gave them such honor that they should never have to fall back into bondage. When all things were going according to His plan, His children enjoyed a supreme status. The kind of status they enjoyed is seen in the days of King Solomon. They were never meant to be slaves. Not only was God mindful of this, but His wisdom working in Solomon made him mindful of His desire toward His people. Therefore, Solomon did not make slaves out of them. God always looked after them more than they knew and desired. For when once He called them His sons He took upon Himself the responsibility of honoring them, except when they did not permit for things to work according to His plan. For this reason, a man of God once said, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” (Ps. 1:1).
Certainly, this does have a phenomenal influence over a man who desires to be honored by God. For the Lord to be a Shepherd and a King to His people there is nothing more for them to perform than the wisdom of the man of God. God makes them stand above the rest of the world. The illustration of the shepherd and the sheep is for no reason carries any less importance in the lives of God’s children. That He is a Shepherd means He guides feeds and protects His children. That He is a King means He made His children into His princes, captains, servants and commanders. Because He rules unconditionally, they also rule with Him. They cannot be enslaved again. Because He possesses limitless power, they will be like five men that drove away a hundred.
Yet, the greatest debacle for many children of God to this day is from their walk of life. They have not fully perceived the blessedness of a man through Christ; though they perceived it they are not keen for it. Surely, many creep into the church without the mind of Christ. And, because of them the children are being enslaved to sin all over again. Their counsel, their paths and their seats, which are an abomination to the Lord, are keeping them away from His power, wisdom, authority, workmanship and glory. Nevertheless, it is for the children to value their following the Shepherd and ruling with the King. When they are called by Him out of bondage, they are called not to disrupt His plans for them. Then, they will know what it is to be blessed. His plans are for their well being. Through them He guides, protects and abides in them. The ungodly that crept into the church will no longer be a threat to them, but will be men over whom they gain unconditional victory. The wolves in the sheep’s clothing cannot survive the presence of the power of God in His children. He who does not understand this does not have God’s calling in him. He takes hold of the counsel of the wicked; he is lured into the paths of the sinners and mocks deliriously. He has become arrogant. Therefore God said, “Concerning Edom. Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman? Has good counsel been lost to the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed?’” (Jer. 49:7).
When men walk in the wrong paths and seek false counsel, they lose wisdom. They can no longer be cautious of the ways of God. They lose the power of discretion. They cannot be the pious of God. This has been the trait of many current churches. They are walking according to the counsel of the flesh. They seek God through the flesh and not in the Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives us the wisdom of God, which is Christ, and Christ is what saves us. “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:” (Matt. 1:22). If this Christ has been yours, you are being saved from the counsel of the wicked. When Jesus was born of a virgin unlike the birth of any man born on this earth, it is the wisdom of God. That His birth was God’s wisdom reveals He is the wisdom of God. In wisdom He was born that He might become the wisdom to all who desire God. Wisdom is a characteristic of God that someone like Edom could not lay his hands upon. Therefore, he paid the penalty. But now God has made provisions in such a way that all men possess His wisdom in them. And, through Christ He makes it possible making them His royal priests, a holy nation and a chosen race. This is their glory from God.
For the Wisdom of God did not appear among men to be for a brief moment but forever that God should continue to rejoice in His children. If we as the children of God seek His wisdom, we are indeed seeking the Christ who appears forever in the Spirit. He becomes our counsel that we become and remain as God’s children. We will not be like the men of whom it was elsewhere said as claiming to have prophesied and performed miracles in Jesus’ name and still were rejected by Him. They were enslaved to sin all over again. They were called, but they did not keep their calling in as much as they did not do the will of God till the end. They received the way of God, but they exchanged it for the path of flesh. Realize that Christ in the Spirit, the Wisdom of God, is exceedingly necessary for us for this reason: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
All have sinned and all have entered the way of death. But, he who has in him the Christ in the Spirit has escaped it. For it is the only way for the wisdom of God to work in us. His wisdom takes us through the paths that do not meet death. He keeps us from the wicked, the sinners and the scoffers. He helps us to be the men that do not sin and therefore, do not spread death to men. How wonderful it is that we have been capacitated by God to restrain the death that is by sin! It is a gift of God. And, what man is able to hold on to it? The Spirit informs: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:7).
Beware brethren of the mystery of lawlessness that is working among us! There are those among us with sin that call themselves as the children of God. Be filled with Christ in the Spirit and you shall know them. This will do bundles of good to you in that your piousness will remain forever before God. We are called by God to restrain lawlessness and in doing so we restrain the death that comes by it. We ought to restrain it till the time God takes us out of the way. In other words, God has called us to remain faithful to Him until death that He might at the right time put an end to lawlessness. And, His Wisdom is what enables us for it. As many as we are in the Lord, if we hold fast the Wisdom in the Spirit, we shall perform the will of God. Our standing in Christ will permit God to work all things according to His plan. God displays us to the dying world as those that restrain death that is by lawlessness. We become His instruments for the salvation of men. He made us into His princes, commanders, captains, servants, horsemen and the like for the building up of His Kingdom.
O, what glory has God Almighty bestowed upon His children! Are they not for freedom filled with the Christ in the Spirit? They are blessed! They obtained an inheritance and a perpetual identity from God. They perform works for God and His Son Jesus doing their share for the sake of the church. God is rejoiced by them, because they considered His Wisdom as worthy for their souls. Of this Wisdom we have the saying, “For there are three that testify” (1 John 5:7).