At the beginning of the fall semester during my first year of college, I met with an academic adviser to receive counsel on what courses to enroll in for my degree. Being new to the university, I trusted this adviser to help me in an area that I didn’t know much about yet. One of the classes he suggested took place during the same time that my fellowship met. When I asked for another class option that wouldn’t interfere with my fellowship’s meeting time, the adviser responded, “You’re a college student now; your first priority should be school, not your Bible study.” This was absolutely not reliable counsel! We see in God’s Word that there are great benefits to keeping God as our first priority (Matthew 6:33). That counsel is reliable!
Counsel is throughout God’s Word. We trust and value the counsel we receive from God’s Word above all other counsel because it’s absolutely reliable. As we follow God’s counsel, we receive many benefits. Let’s look at three reasons why the counsel of the Lord is reliable.
First, God’s wisdom is the greatest wisdom. As the Creator of the heavens and earth, God authored all life and made complex and intricate systems to provide us with a beautiful home.
Jeremiah 51:15:
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
By His power, God designed all the earth’s systems to function together. He designed plant life, animals, and people, and He also established the seasons and made the planets and stars. It took God’s wisdom to set all this in order. And this is just one example of the greatness of His wisdom!
Second, God’s counsel is always accurate. We see this from an account of King David, in which he sought God’s advice on whether or not to respond to the Philistines’ challenge to battle.
I Chronicles 14:10,11:
And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto him, Go up; for I will deliver them into thine hand.
So they came up to Baal-perazim; and David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.
To know if he would be successful if he fought against the Philistines, David sought God’s counsel in the situation. He followed the counsel to go up against the Philistines, and God provided him with the victory.
Later, the Philistines challenged him again. Instead of carrying out the same counsel David had received before, he once again sought the counsel of the Lord.
I Chronicles 14:14,15:
Therefore David inquired again of God; and God said unto him, Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
And it shall be, when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle: for God is gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.
Even though this seemed like a similar circumstance, God gave different advice specific to this situation. David was meek to the counsel of the Lord and was therefore successful.
I Chronicles 14:16:
David therefore did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gazer.
God’s specific instructions were accurate in the given situations. His counsel is reliable because it is always accurate.
Lastly, the counsel of the Lord is reliable because it stands forever.
Psalm 33:11:
The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
God’s counsel will always come to pass because it stands the test of time; it stands forever! God, with His great wisdom and foreknowledge, has the authority to make this claim.
I Peter 1:24,25:
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever….
We value and put our trust in God and His Word because only there will we find absolutely reliable counsel. God’s wisdom is the greatest wisdom, His counsel is always accurate, and it stands forever. Man’s plans or ideas can never compare to the counsel of the Lord. His counsel is true, and following it will always cause us to be successful and have the victory in life.