Tools are used to carry out functions.
Skill is the ability to use a tool well.
Tools can make you effective; skills make you efficient.
I have seen nations, groups, and individuals try to replicate things they do not have a deep understanding of, simply because they believe they can acquire the tools.
Most times, they end up worse off than they were before taking such a step.
Having tools in your hands does not automatically make you skillful, but a skillful person can make the best use of the tools available to them.
The fact that you can buy it does not guarantee that you can use it.
You need money to acquire a tool, but you need humility and patience to learn and build a skill set.
Tools in the hands of an unskilled person can do more harm than good.
As believers in Christ, it is imperative that we understand that we all have the same tools at our disposal, but our experience is largely determined by our skillfulness in their application and our willingness to apply ourselves to them.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Hebrews 5:11–13 (KJV)
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
The word “unskilful” there speaks of inexperience—not yet having been pierced or deeply formed by the reality of the truth.
Maturity is not measured by how long you have stayed around the Word, but by how deeply the Word has pierced into you, sharpened your perspective, and produced the fruit of the Spirit in you: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
Most people use God’s Word primarily in response to a problem. This is not necessarily bad, but it is not the best approach. When the Word is only a response to problems, all you may experience is temporary relief rather than total victory.
To walk in consistent victory, you have to live by the Word as much as you desire to keep winning by the Word.
What you live by is not difficult to use when opposition comes.
Remember, the Word was not primarily given to solve problems; it was given to lead us back to God.
And it is in finding God that we receive our identity and discover the strength to overcome challenges.
Sharpen it before you serve it.
Live it before you wield it.
