My Father's Instructions

My Father’s Instructions


The book of proverbs passes on the knowledge, and the experience, that God says we must have to live successfully. In this book, God gives us instruction in wisdom, life, and the ways of life in God’s world. In this book , we find that Solomon’s father, David, is giving him life instructions that were passed to him by his forefathers. Solomon is technically, getting instructions from God through his earthly father.

Now we all have been given instructions to follow by our parents. Sometimes, we follow them, and sometimes we don’t. When are successful at following our parents instructions, we reap the benefits that come with being obedient, but when we don’t follow those instructions, we find that we will be disciplined to no end. But, no matter what happens we still understand that our parents love us and will remained concerned for us. God gave us these instructions to follow but he also put discipline into place so that we don’t get too far out of line, all because he loves us. And within the 5 verses of our text, we find 6 specific instructions that God gives us as our Heavenly Father.

Number 1 hear and receive
Proverbs chapter 4: verse 10 says “Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

Now I know most of us probably had a hard time listening to our parents growing up, because we couldn’t see past our immediate gratification. We couldn’t see, that our parents had already been there, and done that, that what our parents were telling us would benefit us in the long run. Well, Proverbs contain many statements in which there are benefits given to us, by just LISTENING to God.

Lets take a look at the first half of Proverbs chapter 4: verse 10. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings. The word hear, in Hebrew means to listen to, to yield to, and to obey. The word hear in English is a stative verb and a stative verb refers to something that is not CHANGING, will not CHANGE in the future and does Not have a distinct ENDPOINT. When the two are combined, God is saying LISTEN to me because what I have for you to HEAR is NEVER going to CHANGE. God wants us to listen to him continually and without end.

Receive my sayings this means that whatever you hear you HAVE to receive. WE have to HEAR AND RECEIVE. The two verbs are joined together by the word AND, meaning you CAN’T do one and NOT do the other. Have you ever heard the phrase “It WENT IN one EAR and OUT the other?” Well I’m pretty sure most of us have been guilty of doing this, when we were told to do something that we didn’t like. God doesn’t want us to do that because what WE HEAR, and what WE RECEIVE, is tied up to a storehouse, of blessings that GOD has for us. Let me give you an example, a mother tells a child to clean their room but before she can get the rest of the sentence out, the child has stomped away only to miss the last part of the sentence…clean your room and we going to Disney World.

This brings me to the second half of the verse: “and the years of thy life shall be many.” Here is the use of the word AND again, it ties the first half of the verse to the second half. It means that the person who has to HEAR and RECEIVE is the same person that will RECEIVE a long life. You can’t get one thing without doing the other. You have to HEAR, And you have to RECEIVE and in doing so you will live a LONG LIFE!


BE QUIET! and, LISTEN and God WILL tell you what you NEED to know! And when GOD tells you something and you receive it, you have to take it one step further and retain it, which leads me to the next instruction, Let thine heart retain my words


2 let thine heart retain my words
Proverbs chapter 4: verse 4 says He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments and live.

God is not only just concerned with our actions, but he is greatly concerned with the condition of our hearts. Just because we have HEARD and RECEIVED God’s instructions doesn’t mean that we are RETAINING them.
Like our parents, the Lord is our father and our teacher. We are God’s children, and as God’s children, he has been given us instructions for living BECAUSE He loves us. Most parents show their love for their children, by giving them instructions or guidelines to make sure that their children are safe and prosperous in life. In other words, we as GOD’s, children MUST be directed! In Hebrew the word retain means to hold on to or to hold fast to.

Proverbs chapter 4 verse 4 says He has taught me and said to me let your heart hold fast to my words. In most instances in order for US as human beings to learn anything, and retain what we have learned, we learn through repetition. There have been studies suggesting, that repetition is important to the wiring of the brain. If we are repeating to ourselves the instructions that God has given us; OUR minds become HARD WIRED to and for GOD.

Let me break this down, The first time we learn anything, it goes into our short term memory. OUR Short term memory only last from 20-30 seconds. That means by now you have probably forgotten my first point. And this is how, we sometimes TREAT, what God has to tell us. In that process of hearing and receiving, we have failed to input His instructions into our Long Term memory. But to overcome that short term memory loss, you have to learn how to HARD WIRE your HEART and your MIND to GOD! By reading God’s Word, by going to church, and by living the Word, is how we get God’s instructions to stay Hard Wired in our minds, And as it gets into our minds, it can filter into our hearts.

God gives us instructions that are simple enough for us to understand. This leads me to the next instruction, God says Keep his Commandments

3 keep my commandments and live

Proverbs chapter 4 versus 4 continues with God’s words KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS and LIVE.

Found in Exodus chapter 20, is a list of 10 commandments , that God gives us to live by, and God was SO SERIOUS about these commandments that He sent his SON JESUS to sum them up AGAIN in Matthew, chapter 22, verses 36 through 40 Thou shalt LOVE, the LORD thy God, with ALL thy HEART and with ALL thy SOUL and with ALL thy MIND. And though shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!



Keep God’s commandments and live. Simply enough, God is telling us that we have to FOLLOW His commandments and in doing so we will have a long life. God says Keep my commandments and my commandments will keep thee!
You will be more productive and prosperous in life as long as you are following GOD’s instructions.

Obey the commandments and by doing this you will increase you knowledge of them. Which leads me to the next instruction. GET WISDOM!


4 get wisdom (go to next page)
Prov 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
4:7 Wisdom is the principle thing: therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

The Proverbs chapter 4 verse 5 begins with GET WISDOM and proverbs chapter 4 verse 7 begins with wisdom is the principle thing: therefore get wisdom.
The wisdom that Proverbs refers to, is a knowing how the world works and how we should work in the world.

When a person seeks wisdom he will find it in the fear of the Lord (what is the fear of the Lord) The fear of the Lord, IS the BEGINNING of KNOWLEDGE, it IS the BEGINNING of WISDOM, it IS a FOUNTAIN of LIFE that one may avoid the SNARES of DEATH, it IS the INSTRUCTION for WISDOM, and it LEADS to AND PROLONGS LIFE.

Wisdom means the skill of living meaning that a person (you and i) can live a RESPONSIBLE, PRODUCTIVE, and PROSPEROUS life.

God is commanding us to GET WISDOM because you GET WISDOM by praying for it, you GET WISDOM by working for it, you GET WISDOM by your experience. Wisdom is God’s gift, he doesn’t give it to the LAZY and he doesn’t give it to those that won’t USE it.

For unless you have wisdom, knowledge can be dangerous. Knowledge can destroy. Think about this we have created, nuclear energy, but it has only created Devastating Destruction. Wisdom is the principle thing, which means it’s the correct application of knowledge. Wisdom is knowing what to do, with what you know. Thus leading me to the next instruction. God says Get understanding.
5 get understanding (go to next page)
prov 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words or my mouth.
Prov 4:7 Wisdom is the principle thing: therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

In Proverbs chapter 4 verses 5 and 7 The getting of wisdom is always followed by the getting of understanding. You can’t have wisdom if you don’t understand it. Proverbs chapter 2: verse 6 says “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
You get your wisdom from the Lord but you also get your knowledge and understanding from him as well. Even when we are seeking God for wisdom you also have to seek Him for understanding. It is through understanding that we become intelligent.

Let’s make that live, have you ever studied for a test and still didn’t pass it, or has someone ever said to you “all you have is book smarts and no common sense” all this is said because you or we lack the understanding of a subject matter. In God’s case, we all, are guilty of lacking the understanding, of the wisdom that God gives to us.

In Proverbs chapter 4: verses 6-10 Wisdom is personified, meaning made to appear as a pleading woman, so that men would pursue her. Take this one step further, and one can say that, wisdom is God, and HE is PLEADING with us to follow Him.

When seeking God, ask for wisdom, but don’t forget to ask him for understanding of the wisdom that you are seeking.

After God has given you all of these instructions, HE still isn’t done with YOU yet. One last instruction from God, STICK to, LIVE by and Don’t forget HIS instruction!


6 Stick to instruction, Live by it and Don’t forget it
Proverbs chapter 4: verse 13 says Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

Take a FAST hold of instruction, it doesn’t say take a SLOW hold, but Take a FAST HOLD, because what God gives you, he GIVES to you for the NOW, in order to preserve your future. I remember as a child, that when my mother or father said do something, I did it now, and NOT on my OWN TIME. For if I did it on my OWN time, then I ended up with a RED BEHIND. I’m pretty sure that nobody in here wants GOD giving them RED BEHIND, but He WILL when HE has to get you back INLINE.

You should study God’s instruction as you would study in college to get that degree; 2 timothy verse 15a says study to show thyself approved. Studying God’s word, is the ONLY way to get HIS instruction. Satan is always trying to throw in his two cents anyway he can. BUT The MORE you study, the MORE you will learn to stick to God’s WORD. With CONTINUAL study of GOD’s word, IT will become EASIER to remember . And I’m going to say this again, the HUMAN BRAIN learns through repetition. The more you do something under the DIRECTION of GOD, the BETTER YOU, you will become.

When you follow GOD’s instructions your life changes. You are living For God, Don’t let that instruction go, Don’t Let it leave your MIND, Don’t let it Leave your Heart, because God’s instructions are life. John chapter 10 verse 10 says The thief cometh not, but for to STEAL, KILL, and to DESTROY: I AM come that they might have LIFE, and that they might have it MORE ABUNDANTLY!
The instructions of GOD is for us to have a more abundant life! His WORD IS your LIFE and you should NEVER let it go.

Proverbs chapter 4: verse 5 says Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words or my mouth.

The instructions that God gives us, are a GIFT to us, and they should not be taken for granted. They are the laws by which we should govern ourselves in the world. NEVER FORGET nor TURN AWAY the instructions that God has given you.
Like Solomon, we should not forget the instructions that our Heavenly Father, has given us.
How can you not forget you ask? You commit these instructions to your memory and your heart by sharing them with others. Psalms chapter 78: verses 5-6 can be summarized as, we TEACH or are DIRECTED that we might LEARN ourselves, but that we might TEACH our children, the GOOD knowledge of God.
If we VALUE what God has given us we will NOT forget it and we WILL share it with EVERYONE!

Conclusion:

We must see this instruction coming from God. Our Father in heaven. We Pray to him, we seek Blessings from him, and we seek him for our wellbeing. And ALL he asks us to do is FOLLOW His instructions. It is through God’s instructions, that we will get the ultimate knowledge, and ultimate understanding of how to NAVIGATE this life.
God gives us instruction not to condemn us, but to convict us. To make us look inside ourselves, to make us realize our shortcomings, and how much we NEED redemption. And that our ONLY REDEEMER, is JESUS CHRIST! If we hear and receive Jesus, we can, not only live a long life on earth, but also a long life in HEAVEN.
If you are not allowing God to Direct your life, then you are giving God the permission to END your life any way he sees fit, BUT if you will SURRENDER your HEART and your MIND to him, God WILL fulfill ALL his promises to you. There is NO place mentioned in the bible when GOD failed to DELIVER on a promise. Satan seeks to destroy you but with GOD’s INSTRUCTIONS you WILL RECEIVE DIVINE PROTECTION!