Do Not Correct a Scoffer, Lest He Hate You - Proverbs 9:8

A person that is a gossip and a person that is always running down the names of people and pastors of the churches they are going to is not the person to try and correct. A man of great pride can really cause you grief when you try and correct them. Have you got people in your life that has not got a good word to say about anyone? This person says the same about you when you are away. Let the Lord discipline these people and go and walk with people of wisdom.

Proverbs 9:8

8 Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you;

Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.

A man that is wise in his own eyes does a lot of talking and not much walking in the truth. A man that spends a majority of his time sitting around doing nothing but gossip is a waste of time to you. It is better to only have two wise friends then spend your time with people that mock everyone.

I had a friend for a few years that from time to time would ask advice and then not do it. He repeated the same thing with the pastors of churches booking appointments with them and asking the same advice and then leaving and doing the opposite.

When a person is going to make a foolish move and you are one of his friends and you tell him this is not the right way to deal with it, but he goes ahead and does it anyway, what can you do? The person does not respect you or the Jesus who gave the commands about how we should deal with things.

Yet when a person of wisdom who makes his moves as the Holy Spirit tells him to, is given counsel by you against what they are about to do which is wrong, they love you. Having the courage to correct a person who is close to the Lord is an act of love.

Experience teaches us things. When you have had the same choices to make and a friend of yours have the same choices to make, you can speak of your own folly and the way your learned to obey the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is always the best way.

When you are being trained up to be a prophet, sometimes all you see in the church is the error. It takes maturity and humility to keep your tongue from trying to teach pastors a better way when you are really new to their flock. Living in the Spirit is a discipline that is made from step to step. Once you obey the Spirit in one step, you are given the next. And you don't correct a pastor and the way he is going about things until the LORD through the Holy Spirit gives you the go ahead. Who knows the time that you pick to correct the pastor might be the same week he read a book that showed him the better path and the things he is doing wrong. As he has been pondering changing his direction in his church, the Holy Spirit gives you the go ahead to speak to him of the issue.

Many of the tears of Jesus were about things he could not change. He was the greatest prophet, but still His Father did not allow Him to have his own way but only allowed Him to speak when the Father chose. To be in submission and to live in humility you sometimes have to just cry alone about the wrongs that are being done I the world.

You may want to correct a wise man but the Holy Spirit says no don't do it. Then you watch the wise man make a mistake and suffer. Than the Holy Spirit might send you in to give him counsel and show him that, in the future he is never to take that course of action. You follow the wise counsel of the Holy Sprit and you will have a life of success in many things that you do and say.

In prophecies the Lord has told me that he loves my humility. That was a welcome relief to hear as for many years I walked with the scoffers and I was a fool puffed up with pride. It's not a hard thing to see the wrongs in the church, but a better thing is to come alongside a pastor and be his friend and earn the right to speak into the way that he does things.

Get rid of the scoffers in your life. Even if you have to be lonely for a while.

Be blessed.

If you have enjoyed my article you can read the book "The parables of Jesus made simple" for free here in its entirety or just selected parables in chapters at http://www.parables-of-jesus-christ.net/ The book will be published in book form in January 2011