LIVE TO LOVE

ROMANS 12

12:1 Therefore: In light of the great plan of salvation outlined in chs. 1—11, particularly all the mercies (benefits) it brings to us as Christians, let us respond appropriately.

12:2 World is literally “age,” referring to a godless system. We are not to accept the pattern of an age whose god is the Devil (2 Cor. 4:4). On the contrary, we are to be transformed by a renewed mind committed to the ideals of the kingdom of God. Prove means to test and to prove by practice in everyday life that God’s will for us is good and acceptable and perfect.

12:3–8 Transformed kingdom living calls for lives marked by humility and service through giftedness to the body of Christ. In discussing the matter of giftedness, Paul reminds us that just as the physical body is made up of many members, each with a different function, the church is a body of many members, but all closely related and constituting a unity in Christ, with each one having individual functions and responsibilities. We are not to inflate our own position nor to begrudge others their office.

12:3 Paul refers to his own function in the body as an authoritative apostle through the grace given to him. The measure of faith is not saving faith but the faith to receive and to exercise the gifts God apportions to us. The term “measure of faith” is best understood as a synonym for “spiritual gift.”

12:4, 5 Our different gifts and abilities should make us love and depend more on one another, and therefore should make us more united as one body in Christ.

12:6–8 There are basically two interpretative approaches to this passage on gifts: 1) To see them as a category distinct from that of other NT passages, often referred to as the Father’s creational gifts. See note on Eph. 4:8, 11; or 2) to see them as a repeat or overlap of many of those mentioned in either 1 Cor. 12:12–29 or Eph. 4:11.

Ephesians 4:8 Amplified Bible (AMP)

8 Therefore it says,

“When He ascended on high,

He led captivity captive,

And He bestowed gifts on men.”

Ephesians 4:11 Amplified Bible (AMP)

11 And [His gifts to the church were varied and] He Himself appointed some as apostles [special messengers, representatives], some as prophets [who speak a new message from God to the people], some as evangelists [who spread the good news of salvation], and some as pastors and teachers [to shepherd and guide and instruct].

12:6 Prophecy refers either to those whose creation gift from the Father enables them to view all of life with special ongoing prophetic insight, independent of public office or special use by the Spirit in giving public prophecy; or to the manifestation of public prophecy, speaking something that God has spontaneously brought to mind (1 Cor. 12:10). In proportion to our faith likely means that prophecy of any sort is to be exercised in accordance with the biblical maturity God has granted the speaker, recognizing that God is the originator of the gift.

12:7, 8 Ministry suggests either those whose special creation gift enables them to most effectively serve the body in physical ways; or the rendering of any type of service by anyone in the church (1 Cor. 12:5). Teaching refers either to those who are specially gifted to keep an eye on and instruct the revealed truth of God’s Word, regardless of public office; or to those in the public office of teacher (Eph. 4:11). He who exhorts describes either those whose creation gift enables them to best apply God’s truths through encouragement; or to those (such as pastors) who are called to publicly bring encouragement to the church.

12:9–21 Love is to be the guiding principle in Christian relationships not only with fellow believers (vv. 9–13), but with enemies as well (vv. 14–21). Paul mentions many specific Christian duties that are to characterize transformed living, but love is the dominant note in all the exhortations.

-Love is to be sincere and active [the real thing—without guile and hypocrisy].

-Hate what is evil [detest all ungodliness, do not tolerate wickedness]; hold on tightly to what is good.

-Be devoted to one another with [authentic] brotherly affection [as members of one family], give preference to one another in honor.

-Never lagging behind in diligence; aglow in the Spirit, enthusiastically serving the Lord.

-Constantly rejoicing in hope [because of our confidence in Christ], steadfast and patient in distress, devoted to prayer [continually seeking wisdom, guidance, and strength].

-Contributing to the needs of God’s people, pursuing [the practice of] hospitality.

12:13 Hospitality is the fruit of a transformed, Spirit-filled life. It is showing an interest in others and giving ourselves to loving and supporting them, even as God does us (see Phil. 2:4). Leaders are to be front-runners in the practice of hospitality (see 1 Tim. 3:2).

-Overcome evil with good, having love for God and love for others your motive.

12:18 Because some people may remain violently opposed to us, there are times when all efforts toward peace fail. However, the Christian is to make certain that he is not at fault when peace breaks down.

12:19 Instead of taking vengeance ourselves, we should give it over into God’s hands and thereby give place to wrath. God will exact vengeance at the final judgment or even in this life, sometimes through the instrumentality of civil government (13:4), When government officials use force to restrain and punish evil, they are not doing wrong. Rather, they are God’s minister (servant) and are doing good. Therefore, Christians may serve as police officers and soldiers in good conscience.

In the book of Romans the Holy Spirit gives power in preaching the gospel and in working miracles (15:19), dwells in all who belong to Christ (8:9–11), and gives us life (8:11). He also makes us progressively more holy in daily life, empowering us to obey God and overcome sin (2:29; 7:6; 8:2, 13; 15:13, 16), giving us a pattern of holiness to follow (8:4), guiding us in it (8:14), and purifying our consciences to bear true witness (9:1). The Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts (5:5; 15:30), along with joy, peace, and hope by His power (14:17; 15:13). He enables us to pray rightly (8:26) and to call God our Father, thereby giving inward spiritual assurance that we are God’s children (8:16). We are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit if we wish to be pleasing to God (8:5, 6). Though Paul discusses spiritual gifts briefly in Romans (12:3–8), he makes no explicit mention of the Holy Spirit in connection with these gifts, except to refer to them as “spiritual” (or “of the Spirit”) in 1:11. The present work of the Holy Spirit in us is only a foretaste of His future heavenly work in us (8:23).

In the book of Philippians the Spirit’s work in three areas is mentioned in the letter. First, Paul declares that the Spirit of Jesus Christ will direct the accomplishment of God’s purpose in his own experience (1:19). The Holy Spirit also promotes unity and fellowship in the body of Christ (2:1). Common participation in Him breeds singleness of purpose and maintains a community of love. Then, in contrast to the lifeless ritual observance of formalists, the Holy Spirit inspires and directs the worship of true believers (3:3).

Direct references to the Holy Spirit in 1 Timothy are rare, but He was at work from the inception of the church at Ephesus (see Acts 19:1–7). The “intercessions” (2:1) are prayers that involve the Holy Spirit’s assistance (Rom. 8:26, 27). The statement that “the Spirit expressly says” (4:1) underscores the continuing activity of the Holy Spirit and Paul’s sensitivity to His promptings. In 4:14 Paul reminds Timothy of “the gift” that was given to him “by prophecy,” a special ability for ministry given as a charisma of the Spirit when hands were laid on him. Further, “a good testimony” (3:7) would also include a leader’s being “full of the Holy Spirit” as with the first appointment of leaders (Acts 6:3).

In the book of 1 Corinthians (12:13) Paul states the basis for the principle of unity within diversity. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the common life of Christians and a greater dynamic than all human distinctives. The Greek grammar in this statement parallels other passages that speak of being “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (see Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16). While Spirit baptism describes a primary spiritual reality for all believers, Paul still pleads for a Spirit-filled experience (Eph. 5:18) that includes the manifestations listed here.

1 Cor. 12:8–11 These nine gifts specify the varied distribution necessary for a full manifestation of the Spirit: The word of wisdom is a spiritual utterance at a given moment through the Spirit, supernaturally disclosing the mind, purpose, and will of God as applied to a specific situation. The word of knowledge is a supernatural revelation of information pertaining to a person or an event, given for a specific purpose, usually having to do with an immediate need. The gift of faith is a unique form of faith that goes beyond natural faith and saving faith. It supernaturally trusts and does not doubt with reference to the specific matters involved. Gifts of healings are those healings that God performs supernaturally by the Spirit. The plural suggests that as there are many sicknesses and diseases, the gift is related to healings of many disorders. The working of miracles is a manifestation of power beyond the ordinary course of natural law. It is a divine enablement to do something that could not be done naturally. Prophecy is a divine disclosure on behalf of the Spirit, an edifying revelation of the Spirit for the moment (14:3), a sudden insight of the Spirit, prompting exhortation or comfort (14:3, 30). Discerning of spirits is the ability to discern the spirit world, and especially to detect the true source of circumstances or motives of people. Different kinds of tongues is the gift of speaking supernaturally in a language not known to the individual. The plural allows different forms, possibly harmonizing the known spoken languages of Acts 2:4–6 and the unknown trans-rational utterances in Corinthians, designed particularly for praying and singing in the Spirit, mostly for private worship (14:14–19). The interpretation of tongues is the gift of rendering the trans-rational (but not irrational) message of the Spirit meaningful to others when exercised in public. It is not the translation of a foreign language. Note: None of the gifts require a “public” setting, although each may and should be welcomed in corporate gatherings.

1 Cor. 12:12–26 In comparing the church to the human body, Paul shows how the wide diversity of gifts assures unity in the church. Each gift contributes something necessary to the common life and growth of the whole.

1 Cor. 12:27–30 Members individually: The lessons from the human body are now practically applied to individuals. No one has all the gifts. Any order of ranking would contradict the context, which is a mix of the gifts, ministries, and activities of the Trinity, illustrating how variety and diversity operate in different people (12:4–6). Helps describes all forms of loving service and support, a manifestation of the Spirit often overlooked. Administrations is another of the less honorable, that is, less noticeable ministries (v. 23), giving guidance and assistance behind the scenes. 
~Bits and Pieces of NSFB

"YESHUA IS MY NAME" in Ancient Biblical Codes! | Dr. Joel Young

On "It's Supernatural" Sid interviews Dr. Joel Young,  a Jewish chiropractor who had an encounter with Jesus about the amazing codes discovered in the Bible that prove the New Testament is from God.  

Sid:  Joel has found it in code, in the Jewish Scriptures that conclusively prove that the New Testament is by the same author as the Jewish Scriptures.  Before we get to that I want to find out how a Jewish chiropractor had an encounter with Jesus.  So what did you do with this revelation?

Joel:  My personal experience was very interesting.  I was at school.  I was pretty much introverted, which my mother said, I'm making up for lost time now and in school.  One particular day, no different than any other, I went into the bathroom just to shut the stall to have a little quiet time in between classes and I had a vision of the Lord.  No one had witnessed to me before, no one had spoken to me before in my personal experience, and there was an instant knowing that He is the Lord himself.

Sid: How did you get into this Bible code business?  I mean, it's hit the news.  It's a bestselling book.  And most people are hearing little bits and pieces.  Is that how you got in to it, you read the book?

Joel: No. What happened to me, I was preparing a Bible class, Isaiah 53,  that technically starts a few verses earlier, 52:13, and at the time the Lord had spoken to me and he said, once I had done a certain level of studies he told me, "I'm in there" and I began my studies.  So I began to study.   Well, some say I was between a rock and a hard place.  I figured I was standing on a rock at this point, and that was the right place to be.  I went home and I was in college at the time, in graduate school, and I started to read the Brit Hadasha, the New Testament, and I found it was written by a bunch of Jewish boys, and it was Jewish, straight through.

Sid: He is, Jesus is in the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah in code.

Joel: Very much so, in plain text, yes sir.

Sid: So how did you find this?

Joel:  What we did is, we went on a premise of not being seekers, but researchers.  I don't believe in just shooting in the dark, I needed a guideline, and the New Testament was my guide.We understood that St. Augustine said a statement, "Once the new in the old is concealed, the old in the new is revealed."  I would say the new in the old is clearly concealed, the old in the new is clearly revealed.  So the premise and understanding that we're going to look for is what God has revealed, but find it in the Tanakh, and the Hebrew Scriptures, that was the understanding.  We already knew that in Isaiah 53:8, 9, 10, he would be cut off, he would be buried, he would be resurrected.

Sid:  Explain for those of us that haven't studied this simplistically what is the code?

Joel: One of the understandings of the code is just the same way they have won wars.  Codes are encrypted.  That's not a new phenomenon.  They win wars. You want to send a message, so you hide in a normal text.  The letters don't change.  God wrote it, you can't add, delete or change.  Every so many spaces is one hod, you look for a code, and then when you drop off the rest of the text, those letters that remain give you a message, and wars have been won and lost on that, too.

Sid: So let's say you cracked the code.  Is that fair?

Joel:  We were there and available, thank God, yes.  Exactly, and it's spelled out letter by letter that Yeshua is there.  We have a code that says–Yeshua.  I believe it satisfies every serious seeker who is open to the truth of God.  We found all of his apostles.

Sid:  All right. Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus.

Joel: Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus, and we will not find it in English or in his English name because he's Hebrew all the way through.  We don't find Paul, we find Saul, as Shaul, because his name is not Paul.  The Hebrew Scriptures are in Hebrew, not in English.  Therefore, God gave it in a Divine language.  There are 6000-plus languages, but there's one Divine one, it's Hebrew.

Sid: Okay. Let's take you back to what you found in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah.  

Joel: We found Yeshua.  We found Messiah, which is the Messiah, the Mashiach, that he is the anointed one.  We found all of his apostles except one.

Sid: There were 12 followers of Yeshua.

Joel: Yes, yes.

Sid: And you found, did you find their exact names?

Joel: Yes, we found their exact names and one of the names is also by inference that is brought out.  It's a little more technical. The one name though that we didn't find was Judah.  Judas is the Greek form, but Judah, which means "praise".  The Hebrew is not there.  We searched over and over.  But the one who refused to give him his own name, "Judah, praise the Lord", because he sold it out to another to praise who we won't even mention.  But we found, well you say, if he's not there what does Acts 1 tell us? There's a replacement.  Let's think.  We found his replacement there, Mathias. 

Sid: So when Judas died they replaced him with Mathias and you're saying he is in code in Isaiah?

Joel: Yes, exactly, the one that is replaced.  He has lost his office, he's not there.  Now how did Isaiah know this 700 years before?  He didn't know.

Sid: Seven hundred years before Jesus came.

Joel: Yes.

Sid: That was encrypted in code.

Joel: Yes.

Sid: Well how do we know, and I have to be candid with you, how do we know this wasn't just a coincidence that you found those names there?

Joel: Several things mathematically when something goes beyond 1 to the 50th power, physicists will technically tell you it's technical absurd.  Our stats are better than 1 to the 50th power when we start to crunch out these numbers, number two.  Number, the next issue is that all of the facts we find are already in the New Testament.  So you would have to control both the Old and the New Testament to put this all together and not change the grammar, not change the text, not add, delete or change a letter, which would throw the whole thing off.

Sid: Have they tried to crack codes in the same way, let's say in the Koran or in the Talmud, or any of these other books?

Joel: In the Koran they had tried and I believe they have not.  They may have found one pattern, but it falls into probably what we call randomness there.

Sid: Okay. But did they find anything so direct as we find in the Torah?

Joel: No, no.

Sid: Nothing.  How about in the Talmud?  Do you know if they tried that?

Joel: I don't know.  But the premise of the Talmud is that it's not from God.

Sid: I see.  So I mean, this is really fascinating.  If you were not a believer in Jesus, which you are, and you examined these codes, would that convince you?  You're a scientist.

Joel: Intellectually, yes, it would, because I would say you've had to control the text and the context before.  Because to encrypt a code I would to design a program, I'd have to control the text, the story at every level to bring out the same message.  We'd have to have all the players, the right thing at the time.  How do you do that without a Divine hand and a fingerprint, if you will, on every facet of it?

Sid:  Now tell me about what you have for us.

Joel: This is for all the fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters that are here so they can see what the Lord has always revealed.  The Lord has revealed himself very clearly, and for those that have the eyes to see and the heart to feel, may their hearts be open to see this, too.  In Isaiah 53, we're going to see that we find the text very clearly, "Our ministry is called For His Glory" and we will see Yeshua in John 12:21 is exactly what we're all about.  When we go to Isaiah 53, we're going to see as an intro and now we're going to see the whole code, the first code, we're going to see Yeshua's name encoded in the text, straight up and down, this is Yeshua in Isaiah 53.  His name appears in a vertical column. 

Sid: Which again, for those that didn't listen earlier, Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus.

Joel: Yes.  So we're looking without disturbing the arrangement of the normal letters, there is Yeshua.  And if we add on the words above and below, and we just keep looking, we find "Yeshua is my name" and we continue to the next, we find–

Sid: Excuse me.

Joel: Yes.

Sid: This is so good I don't want to skip something.  Yeshua is my name in Hebrew!

Joel: He signed it.

Sid:  It's saying, in Hebrew, it's saying, "Yeshua shemi."

Joel: Yeshua shemi, yeah. 

Sid: Jesus is my name.

Joel: Jesus is my name.

Sid: Go on, Doctor.

Joel: "Yeshua is my name" and we add on a few more letters.  We just keep looking in the same sequence, equidistant letters, spacing just on Yeshua.  First we see, "the one rushing from above, Yeshua is my name way from above".  He said, "I'm from above, you are from below."  He's rushing because he's on a mission and a message for the masses to save their soul.

Sid: So in Hebrew it says "rushing from above"?

Joel: Yes, sir.  [Hebrew].  "The one rushing from above.  Yeshua is my name." Jesus is my name.  Phenomenal.  And then it gets even more phenomenal.  Criss-crossing it, we find the name, "Messiah" and it criss-crosses at the shin.  Now we all remember this symbol, this is the shin.  Remember Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy was Jewish, I understand.

Sid: He was doing the shin.

Joel: This comes from the Aaronic blessing. This is the shin.  They cross at the shin for God's name.  So we see Yeshua is the Messiah on this code.  And then as we go forward, we continue to find, as you go from one code to the next, we begin to find, well who else is there?  I expect to find all the apostles there.  As you go through the codes you begin to find each one of the apostles is there.  We find, Yeshua the Messiah.  The next one we find is Peter and you continue to go through all of the apostles all the way from Andrew, all the way down, we're going to find, just scroll to Jacob, not James.  James is an English boy's name.  It's Yacov.  We find John, Yochanan.  All the way down we're going to find that there's one man missing, Judah, or Judas in  the Greek.  But we don't look for Greek.  This is Hebrew.  We find, and the missing one, Mathias.  Mathias was the one who replaced Judah.  How does Isaiah know? The  apostles didn't even know who's going to be the replacement.  They were there. 700 years before, Isaiah, didn't even know who the apostles were.

Sid: So what's your explanation?

Joel: The explanation is there can only be a Divine hand orchestrating it because the apostles when they drew lots, they did not yet even know who the replacement was among their own living souls.  Isaiah was 700 years before.

Sid:  Help me, Doctor.  What would a skeptic say to you?  What could a skeptic say to you?

Joel: Usually it's an emotional answer, not an intellectual one.

Sid: Forget the emotional for a moment.

Joel: Okay.

Sid:  On an intellectual plane, how could a skeptic say, yes but.

Joel:  I haven't heard a but that's substantial yet, to be honest.  I haven't heard a good answer back intellectually, and I'm open to it, and that's not meant to aloof.  It just meant I'm a good student and I'm willing to listen.  I haven't heard a good response yet that meets the text in context at this level and can intellectually battle it.

Sid: Is there more than that in this code?

Joel: Yeah, it gets even more.  Now we keep looking, we find several other offices here.  As we continue to the next slide, we find that several, and we're going to run down the list here, on the next slide, we find the name "apostle" [Hebrew], the apostles, the term "apostles" is there.  We continue to go on right down the list, we find "Saul", we find Mary as "Miriam", and we go right down the list and we're going to find "lion", "lamb", "prophet", "priest", "king" and his three offices there.  The Passover is there encoded in the text and the list goes on and on.

Sid: Does it say Pesach?

Joel: Yes, Pesach! Yeah, exactly.  It's phenomenal.  And every code has a meaning.  I'll just illustrate one if I may.  When we find all these things they just become more and more phenomenal.  We find Elijah, we find Moses, we find "resurrection", we find "ascension", we find "crucifixion".

Sid: No one could say this is just a coincidence, finding so much in just one chapter.

Joel: Yes. There's much more yet.

Sid: More?

Joel: Which we're going to do for book 2.  Book 1 is already 608 pages.  We had to stop before making it 2000.  It's there.  Come and see.

Sid: Now it's one thing to prove to someone intellectually Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.  But it's another thing to have your own encounter. Now Dr. Joel Young had quite an encounter.  I mean, Jesus came to him and I found that the majority of Muslims that are coming to the Lord are having an encounter, and a large number of Muslims are becoming believers in  Jesus, are coming to the Lord because of personal encounters.  But I have good news for every one of us and that is God is so good that if you take a step towards him he will reveal himself.  When we come back, we're going to find out that God not only had these hidden codes in the scriptures, but he's also a God of miracles.  If you think it's been something until now, wait until you find out what else he has found encoded in the Jewish Scriptures.  We found all these things in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah.  Let's go to another Messianic scripture, because Messianic it describes perfectly a crucifixion before they even punished people for crimes with crucifixion, hundreds of years before that.  It's Psalm of David, the 22nd Psalm. Dr. Young, what did you find in code in the 22nd psalm?

Joel:  Phenomenal.  Phenomenal. Many things.  There's one code I want to focus on though, in Psalm 22, when we looked at Psalm 22, we're going to find an amazing alignment here where we see Yeshua, which is in Hebrew for  Jesus, and a psalm that's a first person narrative.  We're going to look at Psalm 22, we see Yeshua's name encoded there.  We're going to find above and  below the name, there's Yeshua, Hebrew for Jesus, in Psalm 22.  And we look above his name and just keep going in the same sequence and then below right there we'll take a look now, two vavs, the vav of two above, one below.  What's a vav?  A vav is a letter, it's the sixth letter of the alphabet.  But if you look in the Hebrew dictionary and you look up the word "vav", vav means a nail, or wooden peg, but it's a nail.  Now wait a minute.  In this text written about a thousand years before David, you look and you go, now wait a minute, as you mentioned earlier, Sid, nobody knew about crucifixion.  This was much later.  The Romans perfected it in about 90 B.C.  You're looking at it. We find two of those letters which equal, the vav is the sixth letter of the alphabet and one below, Jesus was crucified with three nails in a non-Jewish way.  We stoned them.

Sid: So the vav means "nail".

Joel: Yes.

Sid:  There are two nails above Yeshua and one below.

Joel:  One below.

Sid:  Explain that.

Joel:  Now exactly that's what we find in Psalm 22 without disturbing the text.  The letters are left alone.  We're not allowed to add, delete or change the Word of God.  And just looking at the text, looking deeper.

Sid: So when someone was crucified how many nails were used?

Joel: Three, one for each hand and the feet are together, and it's driven through the ankle and between the two wrists.  Now we don't find three above or two below, we find just exactly the way Jesus was crucified that's encoded in the text, and the Jewish Scriptures and non-Jewish method they didn't even know about, two nails above, one below.  And from a spiritual point of view there's another factor.  That vav is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  What's the thing about that?  Six, 666. The whole 666 system is nailed to the cross of  Christ.

Sid: And you're saying, no, you didn't say it.

Joel: I'm just speaking what the Lord said.

Sid: The Bible says that the nails were 666, which were nailed?

Joel: Yes.

Sid: That is phenomenal.  You realize that alone could heal people right now.

Joel:  It should because 666 is not on us.  It's nailed to the cross.  They're free from it.  God freed them.

Sid:  Did you hear that?  Well our Messiah said all things are possible.  All things are possible.  All things are possible, but first you have to repent of your sins and you have to make Jesus your Messiah and Lord.  Start reading that Bible, and recognize that 666, every sickness, every disease, every sin was nailed on him and by his stripes, you know what happens with stripes?  Blood comes.  By those nails in his hands, those nails in his legs, he suffered because he didn't, did you ever think that no one loves you?  He does.  He suffered for you and by his stripes you were led. Not you will be, but you were.  If you start just raising your hand and getting a little meshuga, that's crazy in God and celebrating, before you see this event that's called faith. Faith calls those things that are not as if they were. Start celebrating and say, thank you, Jesus, I'm healed, I'm whole.  Oh God, let your power fall, let your glory fall, let your healing fall now in Jesus' name.  ~Bits and Pieces of It's Supernatural interview by Sid Roth with Dr. Joel Young

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL WOMEN

A VIRTUOUS WOMEN

A WOMEN OF ETERNAL SIGNIFICANCE

WOMEN IN GOD'S DESIGN PROVERBS 31 

A  virtuous woman not only cares physically for her home, but she is also a "watchman" over the emotional and spiritual condition of her family (v.27).  Tsaphah, Hebrew for "watches" (Strong's #6822), is also translated "watchmen."  She works willingly with her hands, two kinds of which are mentioned in Prov. 31: Kaph, symbolizing upturned hands extended in prayer (v.13), and yad, ministering or serving hands (v.20).  Confident in the God to whom she prays, the effective woman knows she has eternal significance.  (Prov. 12:4/Eph. 5:21-32) J.H.

(31:1)  It is difficult to argue that women are rightfully forbidden from teaching or preaching Scripture when there are instances such as this of a woman authorizing scripture.  (31:2-9) The threefold warning against womanizing (v.3), drinking (vv. 4-7), and injustice (vv. 8,9) is specifically for a ruler, not just for the general population (see v. 4).  For example, Lemuel has been exhorted not merely to abstain from oppressing the poor and needy and condemned, but to speak up on their behalf.  Solomon has quoted his father (4:4); Lemuel quotes his mother (31:1).  Wisdom is not sexist...In fact, the personification of Wisdom is normally feminine throughout. Nevertheless some passages (such as 8:23–31) seem an unmistakable description of Jesus Christ, who was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:2), is “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), and “became for us wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:30).

BLESSED (v. 28), 'asher (ah-shar); Strong's #833:  Happy, blessed, prosperous, successful, straight, right, contented.  It's original meaning is "be straight."  Note the use of the word in Gen. 30:13; Leah gave birth to a son "Asher" (from ashar), meaning "Happy One."  Both the Messiah and the nation of Israel will be called "blessed" ('ashar) by the whole world.  "Men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed" (Ps. 72:17), "And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land" (Mal. 3:12).  

In our era, a time of the special work of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who helps us mine the riches of the Proverbs, rather than Proverbs helping us understand the Spirit. It has been said of the Old and New Testaments, “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”

(31:16)  She engages in real estate transactions and channels her independent earnings into further investments.

(31:18)  Merchandise is literally “profit.”

(31:24)  From the raw materials that she secures (v. 13), she has a business of manufacturing and marketing goods.

(31:26)  She is known for her wisdom.

(31:27)  She, not her husband, manages the household.

(31:31)  A woman’s abilities are to be allowed full use and given fitting commendation.

~Bits and Pieces of Proverbs 31 from the NSFB