God, Gifts & Getting Them Straight

II COR. 12:11 AMP

All these [gifts, achievements, abilities] are inspired and brought to pass by one and the same [Holy] Spirit, Who apportions to each person individually [exactly] as He chooses.

JAMES 1:17 AMP

Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].

I KINGS 3:3-15 AMP

3Solomon loved the Lord, walking [at first] in the statutes and practices of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
4The king went to Gibeon [near Jerusalem, where stood the tabernacle and the bronze altar] to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. One thousand burnt offerings Solomon offered on that altar.
5In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, [1] Ask what I shall give you.
6Solomon said, You have shown to Your servant David my father great mercy and loving-kindness, according as he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart with You; and You have kept for him this great kindness and steadfast love, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.
7Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of David my father, and I am [2] but a lad [in wisdom and experience]; I know not how to go out (begin) or come in (finish).
8Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who cannot be counted for multitude.
9So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people?(1)
10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.
11God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or for riches, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize what is just and right,
12Behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise, discerning mind, so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall any arise after you equal to you.
13I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings equal to you all your days.
14And if you will go My way, keep My statutes and My commandments as your father David did, then I will lengthen your days.
15Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

I KINGS 4:22-32 AMP

22 Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, sixty measures of meal,
23 Ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl of choice kinds.
24 For he had dominion over all the region west of the [Euphrates] River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River, and he had peace on all sides around him.
25 Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all of Solomon's days.
26 Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.
27 And those officers provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to his table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking.
28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was needed, each according to his assignment.
29 And God gave Solomon exceptionally much wisdom and understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand of the seashore.
30 Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.
31 For he was wiser than all other men--than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame was in all the nations round about.
32 He also originated 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.

I KINGS 11:1-8

1 But King Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women- the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites.
2 They were of the very nations of whom the Lord said to the Israelites, You shall not mingle with them, neither shall they mingle with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Yet Solomon clung to these in love.
3 He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart from God.
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abominable idol of the Ammonites!
6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abominable idol of Moab, on the hill opposite Jerusalem, and for Molech the abominable idol of the Ammonites.
8 And he did so for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Eccl. 1:1-2 AMP

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David and king in AMP Jerusalem.
2 Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities, says the Preacher. Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities! All is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and vainglory).

Eccl. 1:12-2:1 AMP

12 I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 And I applied myself by heart and mind to seek and search out by [human] wisdom all human activity under heaven. It is a miserable business which God has given to the sons of man with which to busy themselves.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity, a striving after the wind and a feeding on wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is defective and lacking cannot be counted.
16 I entered into counsel with my own mind, saying, Behold, I have acquired great [human] wisdom, yes, more than all who have been over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of [moral] wisdom and [scientific] knowledge.
17 And I gave my mind to know [practical] wisdom and to discern [the character of] madness and folly [in which men seem to find satisfaction]; I perceived that this also is a searching after wind and a feeding on it.
18 For in much [human] wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
2:1 I said in my mind, Come now, I will prove you with mirth and test you with pleasure; so have a good time [enjoy pleasure]. But this also was vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!

10 And whatever my eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion and reward for all my toil.

7 Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart [if you are righteous, wise, and in the hands of God], for God has already accepted your works.
8 Let your garments be always white [with purity], and let your head not lack [the] oil [of gladness].
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun--all the days of futility. For that is your portion in this life and in your work at which you toil under the sun.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (the place of the dead), where you are going.

8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

21 Blessed (happy--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition--and to be envied) are you who hunger and seek with eager desire now, for you shall be filled and completely satisfied! Blessed (happy--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition-and to be envied) are you who weep and sob now, for you shall laugh!
22 Blessed (happy--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition-and to be envied) are you when people despise (hate) you, and when they exclude and excommunicate you [as disreputable] and revile and denounce you and defame and cast out and spurn your name as evil (wicked) on account of the Son of Man.
23 Rejoice and be glad at such a time and exult and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is rich and great and strong and intense and abundant in heaven; for even so their forefathers treated the prophets.