Week 11

Proverbs Chapter 11

Our theme verse is: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who called you is faithful, who also will do it.

Last week we drew a circle, within a circle, within a circle. This represented our spirit, our soul, and our physical body. The soul touches the spirit and the soul touches the body, but the spirit does not touch the body. This indicates that the soul must choose between relying on the spirit to direct her or revert back to the allowing the body/flesh to make it’s decisions.

Who would like to explain the opening that should always remain open, and where there is an opening that needs to remain plugged up “most of the time”!

What was my explanation of what it might mean to be spirit filled, spirit led and filled with the spirit? When using the three circled diagram, I believe that it means to always keep an opening between the soul and the spirit. In other words, your life’s decisions should be based on the Word of God not on emotions (soul). If we have a born-again spirit, then the Holy Spirit will always leads us as to what we should do and say.

How can we be sure what the Spirit of God within us is saying?

Listen and wait.

Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.

Jer 42:6 - "Whether {it} is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."

Jer 42:6 – (NLT) It does not matter if we like the message or if we don't like the message. We will obey the Lord our God. We are sending you to the Lord for a message from him. We will obey what he says. Then good things will happen to us. Yes, we will obey the Lord our God."

What does listening to the voice of the Lord mean? Obedience. Not our way but The Way. How do we know what obedience is? By listening to the voice of the Lord. He speaks to us through prayer, through reading His Word, through trials, through songs, through other people.

We just have to be listening.

We saw on our circles that the soul and the body connect or touch. I am totally convinced that there is a direct connection between mind and body. An unhealthy mind can cause an unhealthy body. But how is it that we can have a healthy mind? If we look back at our three circles we can now answer that question. The mind has to go to the spirit first for wisdom thereby opening the valve between the spirit and the soul. Once this has happened, the overflow of the spirit flows into the soul and body.

Remember, the mind must choose to either act according to the spirit or according to the flesh. There are only two ways to turn; inward or outward. If left alone without the power and knowledge of the spirit, the mind will turn to the flesh. Over time this choice will cause disease because you are not being spirit led and spirit filled.

Personally I know for myself that eating organic raw fruits and vegetables is just not enough. The mind if allowed to react in the flesh is much more of a fatal threat to the health of the body then eating processed foods.

A mind controlled by the flesh can cause heart and vascular problems, gastrointestinal problems, headaches, skin conditions, urinary problems, pain and inflammation, lung and breathing problems, immune problems. What does the physician blame these problems on? “Just because” you are old, or your family history. When was the last time a medical doctor ask you about your spiritual health?

Ever wonder why it takes us so long to listen to the voice of God when He tells us to

“Be still and know that I am God”.

1Jo 3:20 - This is the way we know that we belong to the way of truth. And when our hearts make us feel guilty, we can still have peace before God. Why? Because God is greater than our heart (conscience). God knows everything.

Our theme verse is: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through...

I believe God created us for a purpose and unless we are seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our lives, we will never fulfill that purpose. We will be in continuous turmoil. We will not have peace or joy, nor will we ever be able to love. Nor will we ever be physically well.

Instead we will live in a continuous environment of argument, mental or verbal abuse, seeking the next task to take our minds off of what is really happening, over commit ourselves so we don’t have to face the pain, live in the outer courts of our temple and when the head hits the pillow at night, we cry ourselves to sleep.

Meanwhile we are creating a toxic mental and physical environment in our bodies making them excellent targets for any disease to slowly destroy the residence of the Holy Spirit.

Think you are handling everything OK?

Do a health analysis. Be honest with your overall health. List what is wrong. Then ask God to reveal to you any area of your life where there is not peace.

Keep this information in mind J! Is reverting to the ordinary responses worth your health spiritually, mentally or physically?

Homework – Proverbs Chapter 11

Chapter 10 began the breakdown of teaching us how to listen to the voice of God by choosing to follow His commands. We learn by following His commands.

May we only choose righteousness.

1. Pray for each lady represented in our class. Call someone or send an email to encourage them sometime throughout the week.
2. Give an old friend a call.
3. Smile at everyone you see.
4. Read Chapter 11 several times this week.

5. Funny! Verse 1 of chapter 11. (NKJV) Aren’t all scales dishonest? I like my scale at home. It cost $9.99 from Walmart and it weighs me less than the one at the gym. The gym scale is honest and so is the one at Publix. I’m sticking with my dishonest scale!

6. Oh but look after the but………….. God loves a just “weight”! No excuse now J
Now this obviously doesn’t mean a scale to weigh ourselves. The Lord hates cheating, and he delights in honesty. But couldn’t we apply this to our scales as well? Do not allow a $9.99 scale have any power over you. It is a piece of metal. The truth behind your weight does not come from the numbers on a scale but instead comes…according to this verse from honesty. You know the truth regardless if you get on a scale or not. How? From how you feel and how your clothes fit. Allow honesty to be your scale. Cheaters never win in the game of life.

7. vs 2 Are you a Self-centered person? Look up the definition.

Self-centered - Synonyms: selfish, self-absorbed, egotistic, wrapped up in oneself. Concerned only with one’s own desires, needs, or interests. You center life around yourself.
8. While you have the dictionary out, look up pride (egotistic, self-importance, self-satisfaction; arrogant, pretension), shame (guilt, remorse, self-disgust, dishonor, disrespect), and humble. (unpretentious, without arrogance, gentle, meek, unimportant)

The verse says: When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom…. Or NLT - Pride leads to disgrace; but with humility comes wisdom.

We will see this verse repeated over and over in Proverbs. To be humble is to be obedient to God. Am I seeing that our three circled diagram will begin to make more and more sense as we read Proverbs.

Let’s begin a big circle with spirit-filled words. Our first word is humility: unpretentious, gentle, meek, unimportant.
9. Which one best describes you? I would prefer to say: humble. Truth is, I am pretty self-absorbed. God’s word tells me to be unpretentious, gentle, meek, unimportant,

Interesting: When I was looking up humble in the thesaurus, I glanced up at the word listed just before it. The word was humane (what every human should be). The synonyms were: gentle, meek, unimportant, kind, sympathetic. Was there some correlation here? Sad isn’t it? God made us to be human, but yet often we choose to be other than human, like aliens or foreigners.

La 5:2 -Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, And our houses to foreigners.

Le 19:34 - You must treat foreigners the same as you treat your own citizens. Love foreigners like you love yourselves. Why? Because you were foreigners one time--in Egypt. I am the Lord your God!

10. Where does integrity come from? Defined as: purity, moral stature, honesty, wholeness, completeness. This can only be a gift from God nothing that we can force ourselves to obtain. Pray for this gift.
11. vs 4 verifies our prosperity discussion. Riches do not…. ……_profit in the day of wrath (judgment), but right living is a safeguard against death. It is never a dying man that wants to hug his money. Money can be a brick wall for living a “human” life.
12. vs 7 This is very interesting. Expectations…I have a lot of those. But this verse is telling me not to have them because expectations are for a wicked woman. Is that what I read here?
Vs 7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes.

13. vs 7 what hope does a unbeliever have? None other than to find Christ’s redemption before she perishes.
What part of your body destroys your neighbor? _vs mouth
Mt 15:11 - It is not the things a person puts in his mouth that make him wrong. It is the things a person says with his mouth that make him wrong."
Mt 15:17 –Surely you know that all the food that enters a person's mouth goes into the stomach. Then that food goes out of the body.
Mt 15:18 - But the bad things a person says with his mouth come from the way a person thinks. And these are the things that make a person wrong

14. I want knowledge, knowledge and more knowledge (vs 9) Where am I going to get this knowledge? HIS WORD.
15. vs 13 I remember telling my sister she was getting an etch-a-sketch for Christmas one year when we were little. I have a real hard time keeping a secret. My daughter “inherited” that trait from me. It is a weakness really. We want to be the one who gets recognized for being “in the know”. But really it makes us foolish. What comes after the but __he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.__The spirit should be directing our integrity. We should always be faithful in saying nothing to anyone (including prayer chains) about anything that someone has confided in us.
16. vs 16 A gracious woman retains honor. She does not come and go with her character. She keeps her honor. The Way to Go Lightly woman has only godly characteristics. Honor is one of them. Forgive yourself for being anything other than honorable; then ask God to forgive you. THEN get back on the Way!

17. vs 18 Do you sew? How long does it take to make a home sewn garment or a hand quilted quilt? How long does it take to sow righteousness? The completed project is so rewarding. Why not give both of them a try?

A godly woman Sows righteousness…in return she receives a sure reward.

Vs 18 Righteousness leads to life. Vs 19 Is it possible to be living dead?
Vs 20 The Lord hates people with a twisted heart? How can a Christian have a perverse heart? They are seeking the flesh for repetitive destructive advice and not the power of the Holy Spirit within them.
18. vs 24 What is one scattering? _giving of themselves __________If you are not scattering, you are withholding something. What is it (themselves /stingy and why are you withholding it? Self-centered (back to verse 2) It doesn’t belong to you anyway? (You are not your own you were bought with a price) Is it yours to withhold?

19. vs 25 The soul is described as generous. Because you understand the difference between spirit and soul, you understand that you can now CHOOSE to be generous in your soul. (Generous in your soul means living by the spirit and doing for others, not yourself.) If you choose to be generous, what will you become? Rich/Watered_(living water John 4:10,11)______________Is that monetary?

20. vs 25 what are you watering with? City water or living water. ____________________ Find the verse to back up Living Water? John 4:10, 11) Restate this verse changing the word water to explain its meaning.

It is all about doing for others. Whatever you do for others is an indicator how much living water is flowing through your soul.
The Samaritan woman answered, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink! You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman!” (Jews are not friends with Samaritans.
10Jesus answered, “You don’t know about the thing God gives. And you don’t know who I am that asked you for a drink. If you knew these things, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water.”
11The woman said, “Sir, where will you get that living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. 12Are you greater than Jacob our father? Jacob is the one that gave us this well. He drank from it himself. Also, his sons and all his animals drank water from this well.”
13Jesus answered, “Every person that drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14But the person that drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. That water I give will become like a spring of water flowing inside that person. That water will bring that person life forever.”

21. Are you seeking evil of any sort? Are you trusting in your money? Vs 28

22. Is your plant still alive that you planted at the beginning of the class? I bet you thought I forgot about that plant. Vs 28 says what?

If you take care of your body/temple (plant), it will flourish like (foliage) leaves in spring.

Reap what you sow.

Vs 30 (NLT) The godly are like trees that bear life-giving fruit, and those who save lives are wise. (NKJ) And he who wins souls is wise.

What does this mean? I believe it means that we need to be showing the Living Water that is flowing in our soul so that the lost will see the spirit within us is different than the one in them. The winning (victory) does not have a thing to do with what we have done, but has everything to do with what we are (our tree must be showing life-giving fruit). Personal witness comes from demonstrating love, (watering someone else’s garden with your living water) not judging them for their lifestyle.


23. What does vs 31 mean? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

24. Read and study Romans 14:1-23. Write down your thoughts regarding if you believe this verse is saying to you about food.

22. PLEASE start paying very close attention to what you are eating. I believe that if we would only eat God-created foods, most disease would cease to exist. Don’t ever say that whole foods are expensive. What is expensive are doctors and hospitals.


Homework for December 19, 2007
Proverbs Chapter 12


A lot of times we can hear the word of God but obeying it is difficult. Vs 1 tells us that obedience is absolutely essential, not optional. Or you should refer to yourself as ________________.
vs 2 What is an example of wicked intentions?
vs 4 is a tough eye-opener. I am sure I have caused some deterioration in Dennie’s bones. Ask yourself the tough question. Am I a crown on my husband’s head or do I cause his bones to rot?
vs 5 Who do you chose to receive counsel from? Someone who will cause you to go further into sin or one who points you to the Word for decision making. Ever wonder when you do receive deceitful counsel if perhaps it was given with an ulterior motive? The heart can be deceitful.
Vs 5 suggests that we will eventually become what we allow our thoughts to dwell on. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 to dwell on what is ____________________________________________________
Vs 11 He who tills his land will be satisfied with ______________.

This verse may be referring to being too busy but not accomplishing anything. What do you think? _______________________________

Do you covet any thing another person has? Think before letting yourself off of this question. Then answer the question why?
The topic of the transgression of my lips (vs 13) just keeps coming up throughout Scripture. Am I learning about the importance of keeping my mouth/tongue behind bars?
Words can bring destruction or bring peace. What do my words bring?
vs 17 Speaking truth with no exaggeration to make you look good in front of others may be something you struggle with. But the tongue of the wise promotes health. What does this verse say to your spirit? __________________________________________
Calculate your deceiving heart’s attempt by writing down any thought or words used to talk about someone.
vs 25 Even when life is really tough, kind words are so important to hear. Tough times bring tough decision making, and that is something not too many of us have as our #1 thing to do. How exciting is it when you receive a message from God via a devotional, a person you run into that you haven’t seen in a long time, a word from the word, a phone call. Can you name an incident there this happened?





Start evaluating your friends. Vs 26 Are they leading you astray?

Vs 28 What does it mean to follow the way? Vs 28… In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death.

Could you explain what things means? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Take time to rediscover the baby in the manger. J