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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior, written permission of the publisher.

Published by:
Godly Writes Publishing
P. O. Box 2005
Orangeburg SC 29116-2005

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King
James Version of the Bible.
Public Domain.

UNDERSTANDING — ALL SUCCESS IS ATTAINED BY IT

ISBN 10: 0-9704093-3-8

ISBN 13: 978-0-9704093-3-1

COVER DESIGN BY GREG JACKSON, THINKPEN DESIGN

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FOR WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION, PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

WWW.UNDERSTANDINGNOW.COM

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my awesome church family, The Feast of the Lord.

Your growth in God has inspired me to continue teaching the Word of God with all I have and will have for His glory! I love each of you so very much!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The #1 editing team in the world:
David C. Marshall, Jr. — davidhelp.me
Keith Carroll — christianliteraryagent.com
Jordone Branch — jordonewrites.com
Eddie Massey, III
G. Miki Hayden

My wife, Jasmyne
My father, Hoover Wall

Pastor Hayward Jean and family
The Feast of the Lord family
The Church FM (Fellowship Ministry)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: What is Understanding?

Chapter 2: Seeking Understanding

Chapter 3: What is God’s Understanding?

Chapter 4: Getting Understanding

Chapter 5: Your Understanding

Chapter 6: Understanding Beyond Experience

Chapter 7: Kingdom Keys of Understanding

Chapter 8: The One Who Understands

Chapter 9: Commanding Understanding

Chapter 10: What to Do with Understanding

Chapter 11: The Habit of Understanding

Chapter 12: Five Levels of Understanding

Chapter 13: Praying for Understanding

Chapter 14: Wisdom and Understanding

Chapter 15: The Attractiveness of Understanding

Chapter 16: Understanding Replaces

Chapter 17: The Students of Understanding

Chapter 18: Costs of Understanding

Chapter 19: Giving Understanding

Chapter 20: Success From Understanding

A Call From the Altar

About the Author

Contact Information

INTRODUCTION

When I mentioned to a number of people that I was writing a book on understanding, I began noticing that many of them responded by displaying the same facial expression: a look of wonder and contemplation. I knew the exact thought they pondered before they even spoke.

They’d say, “Understanding...the Bible? Understanding...what?

I’d just smile and say, “No, just understanding.”

“How in the world can you find enough information to write a whole book on such an abstract subject as understanding?”

I shared with them a brief revelation concerning the topic, and afterward, the proverbial light bulb of understanding lit up over their heads.

“Ah! I get it now...wow!”

I came to expect these and similar types of initial responses as I presented the "understanding" message. To be honest, I was myself pleasantly surprised when the Holy Spirit revealed such an untouched theme to me. Early in my exploration of the subject, I heard this comment: "Just when you thought every major topic in the Bible had been preached, written about, discussed and/or published on, God unveils yet another.”

Even a pastor friend of mine remarked about understanding, saying, “I’ve been to church every week of my life and have ministered in over 60 countries, but I’ve never even heard one sermon on understanding.”

I myself am 45 years old, and having been a church-goer since infancy, I’ve attended thousands of church services. At no time had I ever considered understanding to be a prime issue to teach or preach about because it simply wasn’t a popular theme that I’d heard ministers share. I did know that the Bible declares, “... in all thy getting get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7, KJV) I had also heard several preachers say that we are not to lean to our own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5) That was about the extent of my knowledge concerning understanding.

What subjects in life do you deem to be major? Which valued reference would you elect to use that would support your choices?

The Holy Bible is a highly recognized resource that presents vital subject matters and answers to everyday problems in our lives. The 2013 State of the Bible report produced by the American Bible Society reveals that a majority of Americans own a Bible and believe what the Bible says. An impressive 88 percent own a Bible, 80 percent say the Bible is sacred and 61 percent wish they read it more often.

These statistics make overwhelmingly clear why even across religious divides, the Holy Bible is the number one bestselling book of all time. Undoubtedly, its pages include unmatched wisdom and advice for dealing with all of life’s problems.

The Sacred Scriptures, another term used when referencing the Bible, are paramount. This is the literal Word of God. Psalm 138:2 even declares that God has magnified His Word above all His name, meaning, if God Himself disobeyed even one part of His own Word, He could no longer be enthroned as King of the Universe.

With that in mind, contextually speaking, certain topics are considered important because of the way they’re introduced or mentioned in the Bible. The subject of understanding has equal, if not greater importance alongside many other points of attention in God’s Word.

Themes such as faith, love, wisdom, righteousness and healing are dwelt on extensively in the Scriptures. We find these especially important because of how the verses tend to command our focus when they’re discussed. Therefore, since Proverbs 4:7, KJV, relates that in all we get, we need to get understanding, the attention bestowed on understanding reveals its high level of importance.

In the King James Version of the Holy Bible, the word understand appears 91 times. The word understandest appears four times; the word understandeth appears 11 times. The word understanding appears 160 times, and the word understood appears 37 times. That’s a total of 303 times, which is more than the words joy, grace and believe can be found, inclusive of their derivatives.

Due to the fact that understanding is so frequently mentioned in the Bible, I wanted to conduct a search before titling this book. I was instructed years ago that before deciding on a book’s title, searching for that title at Amazon and other similar sites is wise.

My search yielded a startling discovery. I couldn’t find a single book entitled Understanding or any other title discussing only this subject.

I used the Holy Bible as the sole, written resource to build material for this message of understanding. The Holy Spirit, the only other Source of information I’ve accessed for this project, gave me many revelations concerning understanding, and the knowledge offered me fills this book’s pages.

The Holy Spirit also shared with me that understanding brings success. He explained that success is the continual occurrence that comes about when we strive through understanding to fulfill our life’s mission on this Earth.

When God created our lives, He didn’t ask Himself, “What am I going to do with this child?” My studies have led me to conclude that God creates a purpose, and at the same time, He creates an individual to fulfill that purpose. I believe the Lord then places that individual in a set of intentional events called life. As we journey through life, purpose reveals the assignment that God expects to be faithfully executed until completion. The working toward that end is true success.

Success must first begin in us before it can be presented by us. Understanding applies a molding effect on our minds and character, shaping us into that which God desires for us to become, resulting in imminent success.

As you read the remaining pages of this book, allow the Holy Spirit to impart understanding into your heart. Then you will have satisfied the prerequisite for experiencing all the success God has made available to you.

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS UNDERSTANDING?

My mother died unexpectedly in September of 2008. The entire ordeal was hard for me to grasp emotionally. Later, after she was taken to the emergency room and pronounced, I had a few minutes with her alone, a time that sticks out vividly for me.

I remember being at the foot of my mother’s bed. I hit the bottom of her feet with my hands and said, “Get up in Jesus’ name!” Immediately after the words emerged from my mouth, a strong feeling came over me. I felt as if electricity was flowing through every vein and artery in my body. I thought to myself, Could this sensation be the power of God? Is this evidence that I’m about to see a miracle? The feeling was intense enough for me to believe that my mother was about to be raised from the dead, right before my eyes.

I was so moved by God’s electrifying presence that I looked directly at my mother’s face, expecting her to open her eyes and breathe. But she didn’t. As her body remained in its lifeless state, I felt a wave of embarrassing disappointment; tears began to well up in my eyes.

My oldest sister and a few other people came into the room. Ashamed and saddened at my defeat, I moved to a side wall and leaned on a counter. God spoke to me there and said verbatim, “I heard you, but that’s not what I wanted to do.”

I had mixed emotions at that point, very mixed emotions. Despite the confusion those feelings caused, the Lord’s voice allowed me to confirm as truths a couple of notions. One was that my mother wasn’t going to receive the miracle of being raised from the dead. The other was that God’s timing was for her to leave.

Psalm 111:10 declares that when we get good understanding in our lives, our praise of Him will endure forever. My praise endured through this very tough time because I received God’s own perception of that event. If I hadn’t received God’s understanding so I could make it my own, I would still be wondering if my mother died before her time.

Life has a way of presenting some peculiar situations that cause us to wonder. Understanding, however, replaces wonder— though grabbing hold of this can be a challenging sport of its own.

Understanding is essential to completing each everyday activity. Whether you’re drinking a glass of water or managing a Fortune 500 company, you need to have understanding in order to carry out your tasks.

Information can give birth to understanding, just as it did when God told me that my mother’s demise was His will. That settled all the questions that were in my mind.

Ask a man what understanding he has about taking care of a family and he will give you knowledge. Ask a mother what understanding she has about giving birth to a child, and she will give you knowledge. Ask a multimillionaire what understanding she has about producing wealth, and she will give you knowledge. Receiving knowledge enables us to gain understanding.

The primary reason most of us don’t understand certain ordeals in our lives is simply because we have yet to receive enough knowledge to cancel our bewilderment. When we have trouble accepting that particular events have happened to us, instead of using the Word of God to move past these circumstances, we put ourselves in a state of uncertainty that leaves us baffled.

In life we face many problems needing resolution. Frequently, we quickly find ourselves deciding that the situation is too challenging for us to conquer.

If we would be honest with ourselves, we would confess that we often give up on solving these dilemmas far too quickly. Usually, a lack of understanding is at the base of our surrender to the difficulty. Not only are we adding disappointment to our lives by simply capitulating, but we also forfeit the opportunity to advance our understanding.

Most of us retreat from dealing with troublesome situations because our past experiences have convinced us that we’re much weaker than the problem. This notion may be true, but our inability was only based on what we understood at the time.

What frustrated me most about my mother’s death was not that she died so abruptly, but rather that she refused to go to the hospital to receive the proper care. She had been sick for about a week prior to her death, and that whole week was a process of back and forth arguing about the severity of her condition.

“I only have a common cold,” she would reiterate in a firm tone each time a member of my family tried to convince her otherwise.

Somehow I knew her illness was more than just an ordinary ailment. I could feel the distress creeping into my bones as she continued to exclaim what we all knew was wrong. That I knew better, but still felt so helpless, irritated me. As I watched her breathe in pain from an apparent soreness in her clavicle, I could feel the anger boiling inside of me because she declined the medical care I knew she needed.

I offered to take her to the hospital or call for an ambulance. She refused both. I just could not fathom why she wouldn’t let me help her.

Not until after she died was I able to understand why she didn’t want medical attention. Although she never said so out loud, I sincerely believe that she knew her time of death was close. She wanted to die at home in peace, and that she did.

I would have been in much greater anguish had I convinced her to go to the hospital. If she’d died in the hospital only because I forced her to be there, I would have neglected to fulfill her unspoken desire. She wanted to rest in her own bed and go to Heaven from there.

I felt an overwhelming sense of peace in my heart as I embraced this revelation. My frustration with her stark rejection ended when I understood her reasoning.

What is frustrating your life right now? Could it be that understanding is waiting to rescue you, saving you from this (unnecessary) exasperation? Where then is your understanding? How do you get it? What happens afterward?

The following pages of this book will help you determine, define, and destroy the major and minor encumbrances that prevent understanding. You may have spent years attempting to comprehend the loss of your marriage, job, or any other relationship—for example. Receiving truth on issues like these will reward you with achieving your life’s goals and give you peace of mind to boot.

The following scripture, for one, arouses much conviction. It is the textual, focal point of this book’s message:

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Proverbs 4:7, KJV

This scripture isn’t shy in demanding that definite attention be given to understanding. There’s no doubting here that wisdom is indeed the principal quality required for understanding one’s life. The definition of understanding that I have formulated is revealed insight. On the other hand, wisdom is defined as the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.

An observer may call a brilliant scientist wise beyond measure. While the scientist may be full of wisdom, understanding is the quality that gives his research true success. Because he understands science, his ability to research can give rise to many astounding discoveries. Understanding is the force that takes our gifts, abilities, and talents to transform them into practical tools. Even though the scientist may have wisdom, understanding is the quality that makes the observer really discerning.

We can say that wisdom causes us to know, while understanding enables us to act. Pondering on such a thought shows its truth, particularly when examined in the light of the following scripture:

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Psalm 119:34, KJV

Keeping the Law of God refers to being obedient to whatever God says—taking action (whether exterior or interior). Observing His Law with our entire heart also refers to our obedience but is further referenced by our passion and drive to know and to act on all He has commanded.

The psalmist who wrote this verse felt his life was void of the important component necessary for him to successfully complete what he desired to do. His request to God was not to help him be obedient, nor was it to help his whole heart be toward God’s Word. His wise request was for the attribute he needed to fulfill those desired tasks. He needed understanding.

God longs to give us understanding, His understanding. Our unwillingness to trustingly believe Him can interrupt or cancel His gift of understanding.

If we have understanding, God is the One responsible for giving us the knowledge that brings it.

He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding!

Daniel 2:21

The wise are wise because God gave them wisdom. Those who understand do so because God first gave them knowledge.

If I could interview Abraham, Moses, Noah, or any other major Bible character, I’d ask, “What is understanding?” Having myself gathered much knowledge from God’s most Holy Word, I sincerely believe in my heart their response would be, “Every Word that God speaks is truth. Therefore, understanding is whatever God speaks.”

How then do we get understanding from God? We must wholeheartedly believe what He says. Whatever God says is the understanding.

No added thoughts to what God says are necessary because He has already invested all the thought needed into what He declares. Any additional thoughts, considerations, or wonderings concerning what He speaks are the forbidden acts of leaning toward our own understanding.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5, KJV

If you want to get understanding from God, believe that what He says is correct and critical to your learning. Doubting Him, just because what you believe is different, will prevent you from getting His understanding.

Everyone wants success. The problem is not that other people hinder us from achieving success in life nor is the problem the fact that money isn’t freely accessible to us. The real problem that we have is getting understanding, because understanding is the element that attracts success into our lives.

Understanding can take us to notable places in life. Understanding is attractive, respected, honored, and is even envied.

But there is one thing that understanding is not. It is not highly sought after.

CHAPTER 2

SEEKING UNDERSTANDING

Do you remember how peppy jingles used to be? Our favorite brands would use those short songs to grab people’s attention. A couple of my favorites were, “I like the Sprite in you" and, “The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.”

In my teen years I discovered a knack for writing jingles. I badly wanted to know how to break into the jingle business, but what I learned was quite discouraging. Advertising agencies hired jingle houses to produce the songs for their commercials, but jingle houses didn’t accept unsolicited jingles.

Determined to break through this brass ceiling, I looked for opportunities to submit a jingle to a local company. My mother sold insurance for Primerica back when it was still AL Williams Insurance Company. One day, I asked the manager of the local office about writing a jingle for the company. He gave me the address where I could send whatever I came up with.

I wrote the lyrics and composed the tune for a 60-second jingle and sent that with a letter to the company’s home office. My talented cousin Michael Ross helped by supplying the musical accompaniment for my little song. It wasn’t long before a blue envelope from the company arrived in the mail. My parents woke me up that morning, grinning from ear to ear.

I opened the envelope, my hands trembling, and read it aloud.

Dear Shane,

Thank you for sending your jingle to us. This is an excellent representation of our company, and we’d love to use it for our employee satellite broadcasts. Unfortunately, since this is for an internal channel, we’re unable to provide you with compensation should you release the jingle to us.

They wanted me to sign a form stating that the company wouldn’t owe me any money if they used the jingle. I signed and mailed it back to them. They used the jingle on their international, interoffice, satellite network for the pleasure of tens of thousands of their executives and representatives. This notoriety opened doors for me to write jingles for a couple of local companies.

In those days, state-to-state calls were charged by the minute. I made so many calls trying to pursue understanding and dive further into the jingle business that my parents’ monthly phone bill ran over $300. A talk-show radio host suggested that I needed to travel to a larger city where the jingle houses were located and there knock on doors. My funds, though, weren’t supportive of that suggestion.

I did my best, but then ended my pursuit of making it big in the music portion of the advertising business. My failure wasn’t at all because I was lazy, but because a career writing jingles wasn’t really my dream. Writing these songs was just a hobby that I thought would make me famous and wealthy one day. My actual dream was to preach everywhere I could to save souls for God.

Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21

I worked passionately to get understanding about the jingle business. I purchased books and made phone calls to all the places I could think of. I searched to find the right information that would make me a great success.

What I found, though, was a greater understanding than just of the advertising industry. This understanding revealed my heart’s true passion, which was stronger than my transitory desire to produce jingles for commercials. No matter the exact results, seeking whatever kind of understanding we desire seems to have the power to uncover who we really are.

We can find countless true stories of those who never stopped persevering in their quests to fulfill their missions on the earth. The reason the popular all-purpose cleaner is named Formula 409 is because two young Detroit scientists tried 408 formulas that failed to meet their expectation. They accomplished their goal because they sought after and then continuously applied the understanding that the right formula was their life’s mission to create.

In my case, I don’t feel guilty about quitting my pursuit of success in the jingle trade because it simply wasn’t my life’s purpose.

When our life’s meaning is realized, that understanding is sewn into the very fiber of our existence. That consciousness opens our eyes, lifts our heads, and has us standing in firm confidence. Our state of being then transforms along the way from confidence to real enthusiasm.

Another observation that comes with the above is clear. We aren’t just existing to take up space. Our lives have purposes here that we need to determine. Seeking for that specific understanding gives us a very targeted focus and fuels our drive toward fulfilling our destiny.

Every waking day dawns with a new opportunity to experience a wonderful state of becoming