Where do we start in our quest for godly wisdom? God tells us exactly where to begin.

The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge; its starting point and its essence; but fools despise skillful and godly wisdom, instruction, and discipline.
(Prov. 1:7 AMP)

Walking in the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. In fact, it's the only place there is to start! You will never be able to walk in the wisdom of God unless you reverence Him and give Him honor in your life. Without honoring God and giving Him His place of preeminence, you will continue to walk after your own desires instead of His and you'll never experience the high life of God's plan for your life.

Honoring Him
The more you change your decisions and your lifestyle to line up with God's Word, the more honor you are giving God in your life. And God said, "For them that honor me I will honor" (1 Sam. 2:30).

Failure to honor God is when you face a choice between going God's way or your way and you choose to do what you want to do instead of what He says. A lack of reverence for God is what causes the foolish to eat of the fruit of their own way (Prov. 1:31 AMP).

To eat the fruit of your own way is to experience the consequences of choosing to be your own god—and that's a pitiful situation in which to find yourself!

When you exalt and obey your desires more than you exalt and obey God's desires for your life, you take yourself out of God's hands and separate yourself from His provision. You become your only deliverance—and we all know that relying on ourselves for deliverance just isn't enough!

For example, after Adam disobeyed God, he had to live by the sweat of his brow instead of according to the provision of God. His disobedience forced him to live under a curse that he could not cure. He ate the fruit of his own way.

You see, when you go God's way, you eat the fruit of His way, and His way is good.

The abundant life He gives is full of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness and all the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 & 23. Give God first place over all your desires, over your own ambitions—over everything in your life.

That kind of honor and reverence for God will pull you back from the snare of temptation to do wrong and cause you to do what's right. And as you walk in God's ways, your obedience will bring continual good in your life. His life is the "good life."

I remember when Ken and I first found out about the integrity of God's Word. We were so excited to learn that the Bible was just like God talking to us personally—that we could act on it, count on it, and base our lives on it. So we made a decision that we would honor God by obeying His Word.

Whatever we saw in the Word, we would do, whether we wanted to or not. There were definitely times when we saw something we didn't want to do. But we did it anyway, because God had commanded us to do it. (By the way, when we fail at this we repent, receive forgiveness and start again!)

That kind of quality decision is necessary if you want a successful life in God. You must decide, "I'm going God's way, come hell or high water! I choose God's will for my life. Whether it seems easy or difficult, I'm going to do what the Word says."

A person who makes that type of decision cannot be defeated. Nothing can keep him from success. No devil in hell can keep him bound because commitment to God's way brings success. On the other hand, every single choice that goes against God's laws will only produce sin and death.

The Scripture says that, "the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life" (Rom. 6:23). So if you want to walk in God's kind of life, you have to walk in His ways.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
(Rom. 8:5-6)

If you choose to walk the world's way, you're going to have a hard walk. And in the end, you will come out defeated and worse off than you were before.

My son, hear the instruction of your father (Prov. 1:8 AMP). The key to life in the wisdom of God is "Hear!" All through the Bible God has required of His people this one thing: "Hear what I say and do it!"

As you read the Bible watch how many times God says to hear or to hearken. How we hearken determines our outcome in every situation.

A revelation of hearing and obeying God is the Basic Bible Course to Victory! When temptation and pressure come, the wisdom of God will cause you to choose God's way if you truly reverence Him as God.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries