Pr 8 -- Discerning the truth

1 Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?

Do not use the excuse that it is hard to know what to believe or to find reliable channels.

2 At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

There are those who are taking a stand. There are those who are standing against election fraud, against censorship, against lies and deceit.

3 beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud: 4 “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. 5 You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.[a] 6 Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.
7 My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. 8 All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse.
9 To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge.

So how do you know who to listen to, it is so confusing.

1. Trustworthy things to say -- the liars are speaking opinions, slander and insults. It isn't based on fact, it isn't trustworthy. For example based on the main stream media I was sure that Mueller would discover Russian collusion. I have complete confidence in forensic techniques. I know that you cannot collude with Russia without leaving a trail. $40 million and three years by expert investigators is plenty of time and resources to uncover evidence. I was assured that they would find it. But then that assurance turned out to be untrustworthy. Later I learned that an anonymous source that had been feeding the NY Times inside stories of the Trump administration, someone they portrayed as a high ranking official in His administration was in fact a low ranking clerk working in another building. The NY Times article was not trustworthy. Why do you listen to people and companies that don't have trustworthy things to say? I have heard the argument that you need to hear "both sides". There are not two sides to trustworthy things to say. There are two sides to opinions, to a discussion on the best course of action. But facts and evidence only has one side. If someone is manipulating the facts and the story to push their own agenda they are a liar. Don't listen to them.

2. They speak what is right. You may feel very strongly, very passionately about something, that doesn't give you the right to speak what is not right. When comedians "joke" about assassinating the President, stop listening to them. When politicians justify riots and looting stop listening to them. Maxine Waters is despicable, De Niro is despicable. When Chris Cuomo justifies the riots saying "show me where it says a protestor is supposed to be polite and peaceful" stop listening to him.

3. They speak what is true. One year ago Steve Bannon started his podcast "War Room Pandemic" saying that this virus in China would be a pandemic and was an act of War from China. He was vilified as a tinfoil paranoid conspiracy theorist. A year later his words have been proven true. He had a Chinese epidemiologist on as an expert. China slandered her and tried to shut her down. Her words have been proven to be true. There was a Harvard researcher who published the same warning a year ago. He was ridiculed and mocked and yet today he has been proven to absolutely true. When you find people who speak the truth to you despite the harrassment, slanders and insults treasure them. In contrast Adam Schiff said that Hunter Biden was not relevant to the impeachment hearings a year ago. Today that word has been proven to be totally false, even a lie. Adam Schiff said that Hunter Biden's laptop had been shown to be Russian disinformation by the intelligence community. The Director of National Intelligence had to come out the next day and dispute that saying there wasn't any intelligence that the laptop was Russian disinformation. When people tell you things that are patently false and not true, stop listening to them.

4. Their lips detest wickedness. A number of bloggers are putting together montages of the main stream media embracing wickedness. "Riots are the voice of the unheard", "looting is reparations", "are rioters really the problem or is it systematic injustice", etc. "Punch him in the face", "put a bullet in him", "where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him". When you hear someone who is embracing wickedness stop listening to them. They are poison. James said we don't drink fresh water from a well that has salt water. If CNN is spewing salt water don't think that maybe tomorrow will be different. Find another well.

5. All of their words are just. I have heard a number of people who condemn violence regardless of the perpetrator. Dan Bongino is an excellent example. No compromise, no quarter is given, regardless of who is to blame. That is not true of many, many others. The very same people who were justifying riots two months ago are condemning them now. They lie about what they said, they lie about the context, their hypocrisy is off the charts. It isn't sufficient that some of your words are just, that simply makes you a hypocrite -- rules for thee and not for me. Stop listening to them.

6. None of the words are crooked or perverse. Twitter justified banning the President of the United States from Twitter because they said the use of the word "Patriot" was hate speech. On their platform you can see many tweets using the N word in a very derogatory way. To say that "patriot" is hate speech but the N word is not, that is crooked and perverse. They said that Donald Trump saying "we will walk down to the Capitol and peacefully protest" was a coded message to riot. Maxine Waters told people that when you see anyone from the administration at a restaurant or in the street "get in their face". People began doing that attacking anyone from Trump's administration or with a MAGA hat on in public. Twitter didn't ban her, this is crooked. Pelosi said there should be uprisings in the street, Kamala Harris said that the riots are not going to stop and shouldn't stop. Twitter didn't ban them. When you discover someone is crooked and perverse avoid them, boycott them, stay away from them.

10 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, 11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

The prophets of Baal prophesy for money. Balaam, the example of a false prophet, was a prophet for hire. Judas who betrayed the Lord did so for money. It can be that simple, someone is paying the people who lie and deceive to do that.

12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. 13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil, I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. 14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power. 15 By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just; 16 by me princes govern, and nobles—all who rule on earth.[b]

So let's look at an example, a man telling the truth, a word filled with wisdom and power versus the prophets of Baal.

1Kings 18:16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. 19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

There was a great dispute at the time as to who was "troubling" Israel. Jezebel had 450 prophets of Baal and four prophets of Asherah. Worshipping Baal is to worship your career, money. The worship of Ashterah was a female goddess so this may refer to the pro abortion faction, the "pro choice" faction. It is like the political parties today composed of factions. There are those who support the Democratic party for economic reasons, perhaps they want the government to exhibit more power in suppressing competitors, regulation helps the giants and hurts the small businessman. Others are more concerned about getting pro choice judges, packing the court, bringing in more states to control the Senate and Congress. On the other side of this debate you have those that worship God. They don't accept Jezebel and all her idol worship. They don't like the changes taking place in Israel, the things that are undermining the word of God and the freedoms that we have in Christ.

20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

So you can see the people are not sure what to believe. How do you discern the truth? On one hand you have 850 "prophets" (talking heads, experts, news anchors, etc) on the other hand you have your conscience. They are censoring people? They are banning certain books? They want to declare 75 million Americans are terrorists and extremists because they voted for a different party in the election? There are some very troubling things going on. They blame Elijah for being the source of the trouble and he blames Ahab, so who do you believe?

But the people said nothing. 22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”

Elijah will not even recognize the 400 pro abortionists. So this is all about election fraud. Who is the legitimate ruler of Israel.

Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

For the last three months the news anchors and tech giants have told people that Biden was elected President. No one has paid attention. On the contrary they have become more and more frantic, censoring people who question this, trying to wipe them off the internet and yet despite all that approximately half of the US feels the election was rigged. There is no legitimacy, no fire, despite doing everything that they could. They feign indignation, they even cut themselves, openly saying things that are completely hypocritical, completely opposite to things they said just a few months ago. Their credibility is draining away. Twitter has been banning their biggest and best accounts, while their stock price has dropped 21% in just the last two weeks. They are losing market cap, they are losing credibility all in the vain attempt to convince people that a man who told the US he was going to raise their taxes, who didn't campaign, who looks like he belongs in an old folks home, who told people he didn't need their vote, that this man got 11 million more votes than Obama did when Obama set the record. A guy who will get 1,000 views for a press announcement is supposed to be the most popular, dynamic and charismatic president of all time by a wide margin. No one believes that.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

Now let's be real, Trump didn't just lose, they have certified his loss. He has really, really lost. They are calling for him to be declared unfit for office, they are impeaching him. If they had any more water they could pour on this campaign they would. We have seen people lose an election. We have seen them lose and election but contest it and then get declared a loser by the courts. But we have never seen them declared the loser of the election, have the courts declare them the loser, and have the Federal government declare them the loser. Everyone who could possibly pour water this has poured water on it.

36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

This is what it means that wisdom cries out. Wisdom cries out at the highest point, where the paths meet. This is what it means that Wisdom takes a stand. The problem with all these prophets of Baal and Ashterah, they don't hate evil, they don't fear the Lord. They are proud, they are arrogant they are perverse. They will do anything to get their way, lie, cheat or steal. They don't care.

40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

They don't get the fact that they are the ones who will be sacrificed. They threaten God's people, that is why no one responded to Elijah. They knew the prophets were liars but they also knew they were murderers and anyone who spoke out got killed (cancelled, doxed, etc).

17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. 18 With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. 20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, 21 bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.

If you love the Lord you will do His commandments. This has been the strategy of the synagogue of Satan. They attack you as "hateful". You are appalled, I am not hateful, and so instead you embrace things contrary to the Lord's command. So if you are going to discern the truth you have to also discern who it is that loves the Lord and who it is that the Lord loves. With the Lord are riches, honor, wealth and prosperity. So the prosperity gospel says "hey, you are prosperous it is because the Lord has blessed you and therefore that is how you know who the Lord loves". But His fruit is better than gold or silver. The story of Midas brings home that fact that it is life that is better than gold or silver. No, if we read this carefully you have to seek the Lord in order to find Him. He is walking in the way of righteousness so you will not find Him unless you also are walking int he way of righteousness. He is walking along the paths of justice, so you also must walk along that same path. If you take a different path you will never find Him. So then, if you love the Lord you will do what He says, and He loves those that love Him. you will walk in the way of righteousness and along the path of justice. If you do that you will find Him and with Him, walking with Him, you will find not just riches but also honor. There are many rich people who have no honor. Right now Dorsey and Zuckerburg are very much dishonored. Not only so but with Him is enduring wealth and prosperity. You can look at the wealth of the tech giants: Amazon.com, Facebook, and Twitter. Is that going to endure? Well what is it that they have? You need some computer code but there are a million people who can do that. You need some capital to get started but again, there are many people who will invest in a company that could replace any of the tech giants. So what do they have? Amazon.com is the easiest to answer that question, they make shopping easy. They don't manufacture the products, they aren't cheaper, and they don't have loyalty because they are your neighbor and part of your community. No, the one and only reason people choose them over a hundred other options is that it is easy. Walmart used to be that place. It used to be very quick to pop into Walmart and you were relatively certain you would always get the best price there. But when Walmart got a bad reputation people began to look for other options. If Amazon.com gets a bad reputation as colluding with the Tech giants to put competitors and small businesses out of business people will abandon them like they did Walmart and Kmart before that. Who wants to put their business on Amazon.com's servers if one day they just pull the rug out from under you the way they did to Parler. There are 80 million people who are vowing not to have anything to do with Amazon.com. They are cancelling their "prime" membership, cancelling all their subscriptions, and completely leaving the platform. Amazon.com has very thin margins. They have to maintain huge server farms, a fleet of trucks and warehouses all over the country. Cut their revenue by 15% and you will see them wither away like Kmart. Twitter is far more precarious than Amazon.com. The only thing Twitter has is trust. People use Twitter thinking they can communicate with the world and it will keep a record of what they say. By censoring the president and erasing him that trust has been irreparably damaged. You don't just have 80 million Americans boycotting them, you have the leader of Germany, France and Mexico expressing their dismay at what they did. You have Uganda blocking them during an election. You can be sure that behind the scenes every country, every corporation, every person is realizing they need a back up platform to move to discreetly until they can fully move. Sites like Gab and Clouthub are growing exponentially. It will take a month, maybe several months for them to grow their infrastructure, but Twitter has permanently and irrevocably destroyed their business model. You don't treat your best client (Donald Trump) the way they did. That is not a successful business model. In a short while you will see the lawsuits from the investors. There have been many tech companies that have gone into oblivion, Twitter will follow them. Take a look at them in four years and tell me if they have "enduring prosperity". Finally, what about Facebook? This was supposed to be a place where every person could set up their own website, homepage, easily. Now we discover it isn't ours, it is theirs. They decide what you can and cannot say, what is and is not true, and what you are allowed to think and not think in your own site. It isn't your site, it is theirs, and they only want you there so they can sell all of your information about you to advertisers, marketers, and pollsters. If you discovered your landlord was doing what Facebook is doing you'd move as soon as possible. It isn't easy to move, so this could take a year to become completely apparent, however, stock prices are based on growth. It will be very apparent as earnings are released that these tech giants are no longer growing but shrinking. Eliminate growth and the stock price could drop to 20% of what it is now. You will see these companies go from being the rich, well watered seaside property of Sodom and Gomorrah to barren cursed salt marsh.

22 “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,[c][d] before his deeds of old; 23 I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. 24 When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; 25 before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth,
26 before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth.

By comparison think about God's kingdom. It is composed of the poor, the outcasts, the off scouring of the world. Yet it has grown from a few people in an upper room to a Body that covers the globe, hundreds of millions, even a billion people. Think about this, if you go back to Abraham God's people were before He made "the dust of the earth". What a great image. We usually say "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" meaning everything eventually will return to dust. Great works of man one generation become dust the next. But before all those great works were made God was raising up children of faith. One empire after another has come and gone and is now dust. We are still here, growing and becoming more and more an expression of His handiwork.

27 I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, 28 when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, 29 when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. 30 Then I was constantly[e] at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence,

Is it wisdom to treat your best customers disrespectfully, unrighteously, and for the whole world to see? What they did to the President, what they did to Parler, the whole world can see. If they will steal an election for President of the US, do you think they would hesitate in Mexico, France or Germany? Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, you need to beware. Why would any country allow Amazon.com or Apple or Google come into their country to take over? There are plenty of companies that make computers and phones, there are plenty of companies that have servers and there are plenty of computer programmers that can make apps to replace them. They overstepped their boundaries, pride goes before a fall.

31 rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind. 32 “Now then, my children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. 33 Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it. 34 Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. 35 For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. 36 But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”

The left tried to "cancel" a book by Andy Ngo, an expose on Antifa. The book immediately jumped to number 1 best seller and it hasn't even been released by the publisher yet. It is number 1 based on pre orders. What has happened in the last three months has been epic, it has opened the door for many smaller companies to step in and replace these giants. But they need to listen to the Lord and keep His ways. Don't disregard His instruction. Your business needs to be a blessing to mankind, not a curse. The lesson here is that the collapse of Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com and Google will be self inflicted. They have harmed themselves. They didn't harm Trump, his poll numbers are as good as they ever were. They didn't harm Parler, the minute they are back up they'll have twice as many users as before because now we know they can be trusted. No, the only ones that the tech giants harmed was themselves.

The beginning of February these tech giants have to release their earnings. Donald Trump had 100 million subscribers across a number of platforms. By booting them they are going to lose 100 million subscribers. It will hit them hard. Meanwhile Parler when it is back up will also have Trump. In the last year they went from 1.5 million to 15 million. Trump will be on their platform so that could easily propel them to 100 million users. Parler has been forced to leave the US and find foreign countries that will host them. The same countries that have seen what happened and been horrified by it will help.

If they simply lost 100 million subscribers but were able to keep them from going anywhere investors could be mollified as this being a longterm strategy to eliminate competitors. But if they boot 100 million people off their platform and they go to someone else's platform the investors will be livid. Their stock price will crash while the stock price of the victors will soar. I suspect this collapse will be much faster and bigger than I had guessed. If Parler can get back up and running before the earnings report and Trump and his subscribers move to it, the defeat of Twitter, Facebook, Amazon.com, Google, and Apple will be stunning.