Proverbs
20:5
“Counsel
in the heart of man is like deep water;
but
a man of understanding will draw it out.”
{1} What is counsel?
Counsel is bringing others
God-ward, teaching them the Bible, and showing them how to walk with God. {Exodus 18:19-20} Good counsel comes
from many sources, but it will always point towards God. {Proverbs 21:30} Counsel is known as good advice {Proverbs 20:18}, it is of the Lord {Proverbs 8:14}, it is the thoughts of
God’s heart {Psalm 33:11; Micah 4:12},
and it is instruction from the Lord {Proverbs
19:20; Psalm 16:7}. Throughout scripture, counsel is linked with
understanding, wisdom, and strength…without counsel the other three cannot be
yours. {Deuteronomy 32:28; Job 12:13;
Proverbs 8:14; Proverbs 21:30; Isaiah 11:2} Counsel isn’t there to just
receive, but also to give. {Proverbs
27:9; Exodus 18:19; Judges 20:7; 1 Kings 1:12} Counsel is not to be used
only once and then be put aside because it is ‘inconvenient’, counsel is to be
used daily (like a medicine) to prevent sin (like a disease). {Daniel 4:27} Counsel is to be drawn
out and used for God. {Proverbs 20:5}
{2} What will I do with the counsel I’ve been given?
Take it or forsake it-
simple as that. Unlike salvation, choosing counsel will have to be repeated
several times throughout your life. You must constantly decide to ‘take it or
forsake it’ because it is constantly being given to you. Unfortunately, for
most of us, we choose to forsake more often than to take. {2 Chronicles 25:15-16} King Amaziah went after strange gods, so
God gave him a chance to repent by sending a prophet. Amaziah forsook the good
counsel of the prophet and was destroyed. God gives each of us a chance(s) to
repent, but how many chances will he give? Each time we forsake good counsel,
it’s another chance gone…although God, in his mercy, can give us more than one
chance, we have no way of telling which will be our last. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah
and Lot’s wife ran out of chances- don’t let it happen to you. {Genesis 13:13; Genesis 18:20-32; Genesis
19:1-26; Luke 17:32}
As believers, we know what
is right…we have been taught it and have seen it many times, yet, we have
purposely chosen sin, knowing that it is wrong, knowing what right is- this is
called Rebellion. Many people think Rebellion a rather small and insignificant
sin, they seem to believe it to be a short stage or phase that everyone goes through.
I must disagree, no one has to be rebellious to get through life- Rebellion is
a choice of the heart. The Bible shows both rebellion and stubbornness (for the
two go hand-in-hand) in a different light- in a far more serious light than we
choose to show it. {1 Samuel 15:23} We
seem to look at certain sins to be very small and others to be very great
(almost like a scale of 1-10). No sin is too small to be considered right or
even “ok”, we truly need to start looking at our “little” sins and “big” sins
as God sees them. To him they are all wicked to the fullest degree, not one is
“not as bad” as the others. Each sin is an abomination to him and so it should
be with us. If we start looking at it from God’s perspective, we will start to
see how serious an epidemic there really is. Stop making yourself blind to the
realization of Rebellion; it’s a sin that so often is given free-reign. You don’t have to rebel, you don’t have to do
wrong.
If you do, however, decide
to rebel against the good counsel given to you, you need to understand the
depth of the quicksand into which you just stepped. It will take you deeper
than you want to go. Don’t let your ignorant pride stand in the way of reason
and right. Don’t look at counsel to be something you ignore and retaliate
against, it’s something that you are supposed to use- to draw out of your
heart.
Perhaps you have already
rebelled, but God is still giving you chances- even this essay is providing a
chance to reconcile. {Revelation 3:19}
Some of you have been rebelling for years and others perhaps only a moment, but
no matter how long and hard you rebel you can still be given another chance to
turn around. You’ve been given counsel before, so will you draw it out and use
it, or will you bury it deeper?
{Psalm 25:7 “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions:
according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.”} Choosing
to draw out the counsel within your heart isn’t a weakness or compliance.
According to the bible, you will be esteemed as one with understanding! Dig up
some counsel you’ve already been given…think it over…is doing wrong really
worth all the regret only to finally admit that you wish you had lived your
life differently? You don’t have to wait 5, 10, 20 years for the realization to
‘click’ in; you can choose to see and accept and understand the truth now. You
can skip right past the regret that follows foolish decisions and start serving
your Saviour today. So many people have gone through their whole lives putting
off God, forsaking the truth, trying to make their way by going ‘their way’,
then they realise what they’ve been running from is what was missing. They have
an empty space in their hearts (where God should be) that they have filled and
re-filled with anything and everything this world can offer, yet that space
remains empty – their lives unhappy. All of this was because of a wrong
decision that they continued to make day after day, year after year. Constantly
telling God no; they wanted just a little more time to play and to have ‘fun’.
You don’t have to turn out this way, you can decide differently. You can draw
out that counsel and use it before it’s too late. God has so much more in store
for you; he will give you experiences that this world cannot give. What will
you do with the counsel you’ve been given?
{Proverbs 19:21} The heart of man contains many things, including the counsel of the
Lord. No matter how much wickedness that man puts in, he will never be able to
rid himself of the counsel of the Lord- it will stand! Counsel may be buried
deep, but it’s still there. Will you be drawing it out? Will you be a ‘man of
understanding’? {Proverbs 20:5; Proverbs
1:5; Proverbs 10:23; Proverbs 11:12; Proverbs 15:21; Proverbs 17:27-28} Will
you have good understanding? {1
Samuel 25:3; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 3:3-4; Proverbs 13:15}
{3}
Am
I going to be considered wise or foolish?
{Proverbs 12:15 “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that
hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.”} The only thing that a fool has is his
folly…it’s his ‘best friend’, it goes with him everywhere, it’s what gets him
into scrapes, it’s the only thing that stays when everyone else has left, it’s
bound to give him a ‘good time’ (for a season), and eventually [whether it
takes a week or a lifetime] it’s what shows him how much of a fool he truly is.
{Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 8:5; Proverbs
10:8; Proverbs 10:21; Proverbs 10:23; Proverbs 13:16; Proverbs 14:8-9; Proverbs
14:16; Proverbs 14:29; Proverbs 17:10; Proverbs 17:12; Proverbs 17:16; Proverbs
17:21; Proverbs 17:24; Proverbs 18:2; Proverbs 18:7; Proverbs 20:3; Proverbs
23:9; Proverbs 24:7; Proverbs 26:1; Proverbs 26:11; Proverbs 27:3; Proverbs
27:22; Proverbs 28:26; Proverbs 29:11; Ecclesiastes 10:3} {Psalm14:1; Psalm
53:1 “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God…”} Though he be a
saved fool, because he is running from God he attempts to get God out of his
mind. He continues to convince himself, but finds that his plan backfires…one
who is saved cannot run from God because God is in him, though he hides it.
Now, I know that if you have
already decided to risk making a fool out of yourself that no amount of
scripture or words I write will affect you. You do not want this counsel. {Proverbs 15:5; Jeremiah 38:15; Luke7:30}.
But just because you have ridden the rollercoaster of Rebellion doesn’t mean
you can’t get off, and just because you are waiting in line to get on it doesn’t
mean you can’t say ‘No.’
{Proverbs 19:20 “Hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou mayest
be wise in thy latter end.”} There are many who are ‘waiting in line’, many
who are considering but haven’t made up their minds yet. Please consider carefully!
You are teetering on the fence that separates you from the world- its lusts and
pleasures. You are considering the world, but have you considered God? You can
still be wise- no need to be a fool. {Proverbs
22:3 “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass
on, and are punished.”} One who is prudent or wise can see the evil and
knows it won’t do him good, so he avoids it. One who is simple or foolish sees
the evil and thinks he can pass it without being affected; he gets in the midst
of evil and expects to come out unharmed. If you know that it’s wrong and that
it will hinder your spiritual growth then get away from it!
{4}
Am
I getting good or bad counsel?
If you are going to store
counsel in your heart and use it, you need to be sure that you are getting only
what is good for your spiritual growth. Determining counsel as good or bad
isn’t always easy because our hearts are wicked and deceiving. {Jeremiah 17:9} If our hearts are right
with God, then we can distinguish between the good and bad, because our hearts
are seeking for what is right. When we are only half-hearted about serving the
Lord Jesus Christ we are in very great danger of taking bad counsel that
encourages bad decisions. You cannot possibly accept all the counsel given to
you; there will always be someone(s) that is out to ruin your testimony and get
you to do wrong. {Numbers 31:16; 2
Chronicles 22:3; Nahum 1:11} But, just as much as someone will be seeking
to trip us up with bad counsel, often times we will choose bad counsel on
purpose because our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. {1 Kings 12:6-16} King Rehoboam was
given both good and bad counsel, he chose wrong because his heart wasn’t right.
{1 Chronicles 10:13-14 “So Saul died for
his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of
the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a
familiar spirit, to enquire of it; And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he
slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.”}
The simplest way to decide a
counsel’s identity is this: Good counsel points to God and bad counsel points
away from God. {1 Kings 12:26-28; Exodus
18:19-20} Bad counsel doesn’t have knowledge, it has no foundation, and it
is foolish. {Job 38:2; Luke 6:48-49; 2
Samuel 15:31; Proverbs 14:7-8; Proverbs 15:7; Isaiah 44:25} When you
purposely stay away from ungodly counsel, God will bless you! {Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 10:6} A good
counsellor will be good and just and will take no part in evil counsel. {Luke 23:50-51}
{Isaiah 30:1-3} The Christian “rebellious children” of this age have taken counsel
that isn’t God’s – they have lain aside the Spirit of the Lord for a strange
and devilish spirit – they do not want their conscience bothered by the Holy
Spirit’s prodding – they wish to add to their debt of sins – they walk after
the world – they strengthen themselves within the world – they foolishly trust
the world – if they do not repent, their strength will become their weakness –
they will be a shame unto themselves – their trust in the world will be their
confusion. {Isaiah 36:5-6}
{Proverbs 1:24-33} Deciding against good counsel can be the worst thing you could ever do
to yourself. God is gracious, but if you keep rebelling and forsaking, he will
give you what you deserve- what you think you want. I always say, the best
place to be is right in the center of God’s will; the opposite is also true,
the worst place to be is outside of God’s will. Forsaking the counsel of your
Heavenly Father could send you into the shadow of death, like it did Nabal. {1 Samuel 25:37-38; Psalm 107:10-12}
The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Counsellor, though others fail you in their counsel, he will not. {Isaiah 9:6} The Lord God is “great in counsel and mighty in work” –
he is willing to give counsel if his children want it and he will do a mighty
work in you if you heed his counsel. “…to
give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his
doings:” – Whether you choose to do right or wrong, God will give you the
fruit of your labour, if it is good or bad is entirely up to you. What kind of
fruit do you wish to yield? {Jeremiah
32:19; Proverbs 1:31; Proverbs 10:16; Proverbs 11:30; Isaiah 3:10; Jeremiah
17:10; Jeremiah 21:14; Micah 7:13; Matthew 7:16-20; Matthew 12:33; Luke 6:43;
Luke 8:14-15} Is the counsel of the
Holy One something you look for, hope for, and yearn for? {Isaiah 5:19b}
{5} Draw it out.
Counsel is very important to
our Christian lives, and we must draw it out! There are countless situations in
all our lives where we aren’t sure what to do and then the Holy Spirit brings
to memory a piece of counsel. The counsel in your heart may be packed down
small and pushed into a corner, or it might be on the brim of your heart, but
nevertheless, it’s still in there and it needs to be used. We need to plead
with the Lord for a heart prepared to take
good counsel and then to use it and
then to give it. What are you going
to do with the counsel in your heart? Will you draw it out? {Proverbs 20:5}
