The Prophet Jeremiah once said concerning God:
“He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.”
Jeremiah 10:12 NKJV
In other words, wisdom has always been with God before the foundation of the earth. Everything on earth was created by God’s wisdom and power.
God in His plan wants us (as His people) to be able to tap into the depth of His wisdom, for the same purpose in which He created all things. His wisdom is available to us, so that we can continue His work at creation here on earth.
He sent His Son, Christ Jesus to earth so that we may have access into all of His wisdom.
Paul told the Corinthians:
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—”
I Corinthians 1:30 NKJV
The wisdom of God is revealed to us in Christ Jesus. He is for us the wisdom of God. If we are abiding in Christ Jesus and in His word, we are empowered to walk in the wisdom of God. All of our wisdom are hidden in Him. Christ is not only our wisdom, He is also our righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
In other words Paul is telling us here that, we cannot receive the wisdom of God, if we do not know that we had been redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus. That Christ is now our sanctification, and that we are made righteous only while we are abiding in Him.
CHRIST IS THE WISDOM OF GOD
Paul again in reminding the Colossians about the life of the believer, revealed to us that the treasure of wisdom and knowledge of every believer are actually hidden in Christ Jesus.
He wrote:
“that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians 2:2-3 NKJV
When we are abiding in Christ and His word is abiding in us, we are actually living in the wisdom of God. God’s wisdom are revealed to us in every advise or commandment of Jesus to us.
No matter what the enemy may be bringing across our pathway while we’re abiding in Him, it will never be able to stop us. God’s wisdom working through us while we are in Him is what makes us fruitful as Christians.
Jesus said:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5 NKJV
If our life is not hidden in Christ Jesus, then we are not walking in the wisdom of God. As a consequence of this we will not be fruitful in our Christian life. Our fruit are the works of God’s wisdom through our lives. We are fruitful because of Him working through us in a His wisdom. Many who never understood this spiritual truth will often see nothing profitable in being a Christian. They’ve stopped practicing Christianity as a way of life, because they don’t get it. We must be abiding in Him and in His word, for Christianity to make any sense in our daily lives.
WHAT OF FOOLISHNESS?
For us to be able to understand wisdom fully, we need to understand what it really means to be foolish. The modern definition of foolishness is constantly changing, due to the works of the evil one on earth today.
What we see in God’s word as His wisdom, is often referred to by the standard of the world today as foolishness.
That is why we need to constantly be renewing our minds, so as not to be conforming to the standard of understanding in the world today (Romans 12:2). Paul told us about our changing world, in relation to what is foolish or wise:
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
1 Corinthians 1:27 NIV
Those who are wise by the standard of this world are actually foolish before God. Being smart in itself does not necessarily make anyone wise. A man who thinks he is smart in himself is actually a fool before God.
Solomon once declared:
“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11 NIV
The manifestation of the knowledge and understanding of God in our lives, as believers is what makes us wise. The world does not understand us by their own standard, because we are governed by the spiritual standard of God who created this world and everything in it.
Foolishness is the opposite of wisdom; but foolishness can not only be in reference to the deficiency of intelligence in a person. It does also has a godly standard or moral ethics associated with it in its meaning.
For example, the heart of any man who is insensitive to godliness, or any moral standard of living is foolish (Psalms 14:1).
In other words foolishness is any deficiency in godly or moral character traits.
Jesus said:
“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Mark 7:21-23 NIV
All these are the works of a foolish heart. Just as wisdom comes to our spirit man or heart, foolishness is manifested in the same manner also.
In this scripture text, Jesus puts foolishness at the bottom of the list in the character traits of an evil man. That means basically that a man with any one of these character traits in his life is a fool. These character traits defiles a man (according to Jesus) and make him unwise.
THE HOLY SPIRIT “BEARS US UP” IN OUR LACK OF WISDOM
That is why it is not enough to just be abiding in Christ and in His word only, for us as Christians to be walking in wisdom here on earth. We do need the help of the Holy Spirit as well.
Jesus said about the Holy Spirit:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 16:13-15 NIV
The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives today is to reveal to us, and lead us into all the hidden wisdom of God in Christ Jesus. When we stay in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to walk in the wisdom of God.
He is the One who draws out of the treasure of God’s wisdom from His throne in the heavens, where Christ is seated on the right hand of God, the Father and imputes wisdom to us.
The Holy Spirit is the voice of God’s wisdom to us today. He brings wisdom from the presence of God, the Father and God, the Son to us.
The most practical way to draw from that wisdom of God is by praying in the Holy Spirit. When we do this, we are penetrating into an unseen world where God, the Father rules in His kingdom.
God’s kingdom just as His wisdom is spiritual, and we cannot see into that kingdom except when our spirit man is alert and sensitive to Him. Praying in the Spirit helps us to be spiritually alert to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Amplified Bible translation puts it in a much more precise way. It says:
“So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will.”
Romans 8:26-27 AMPC
The Holy Spirit helps us in our deficiencies of wisdom (weaknesses or infirmities – Romans 8:26-27). He brings wisdom to us from the kingdom of God, so that we can live a triumphant Christian life here on earth.
One of the greatest hindrances for us in getting access to the wisdom of God, stems from our inability to be able to bear up or hold on with the Holy Spirit as we pray in tongues. This happens often when a Holy Spirit filled believer is not abiding in the will of God; even as that believer tries to penetrate into the spirit realm, so as to get insight into the wisdom of God.
The Holy Spirit will not help us in our weakness or lack of wisdom, while we are not abiding in the will of God for our lives. He will always point us back to what we needed to do, so as to fall in line with the will of God.
When we are not bearing up or holding on together with the Holy Spirit in prayer and intercession, by not abiding in the will of God, the Father, we are blocking our access into the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit will not bear us up also, while we pray in this manner.
This is where a lot of Christians becomes soulish, and often gets deceived by the desires of their flesh.
We must understand that the Holy Spirit is the sole administrator of all the riches in the kingdom of God. Everything we need from God are given to us by the Holy Spirit, or He will lead and guide us to where those riches are. He will always lead and guide us into the wisdom of God.
Whatever you are expecting God to do for you in your life right now are available to you; but you do need the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you to them. Wisdom for your family life, marriage, a new job, a new career, a business deal, healing and good health. For everything we do need the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit can lead, guide and get it all for us.
I remember some years ago, while I was praying for wisdom and guidance into taking some very important decisions in ministry. As I prayed in the spirit I discovered that even though I was praying; but right there in my human spirit the Holy Spirit was not helping me or bearing out with me in prayer.
This can happen while we are praying, and do experience a spiritual vacuum as we pray in tongues, about specific issues. That spiritual void often leaves us spiritually lost in our human spirit. We become agitated or uncomfortable in the spirit, and unable to advance through prayer into spiritual reality or truth.
While we pray in tongues the Holy Spirit brings interpretations to our spirit man, about what we are praying about; even though the human mind does not understand what we are praying about. It never makes sense to our human mind as we pray in tongues (see 1 Corinthians 14:2,6 and 13-15).
As I felt uneasy that the Holy Spirit was not bearing up with me in prayer, I asked Him why He was doing that to me? If you had ever felt like this while praying, you can always ask the Holy Spirit why He is not praying with you. The Bible says in Romans 8:26-27 that, He is supposed to help us as we pray.
And just immediately He came like a flashlight through my human spirit, and reminded me of something He had told me to do a year before that time.
I stopped praying immediately so as to start taking steps in implementing that thing right then. And within a few days after doing what He asked me to do, my concerns in prayer were resolved without me having to do anything else at all about it.
Are you abiding in the word or will of God? There are many things that you can resolve in your life by just doing what God’s word says you have to do. You will never even have to pray about it, before God matches up with your act of obedience to His word.
There are so many believers today who (for example) do need wisdom in managing their finances. But their problem can easily be resolved when they start obeying God’s word about tithing. You will not have to worry anymore about where the finances will come from, to do what you need to do. Giving our tithes to God opens the window of blessing into our lives. Are you faithful before God in this? Now that is wisdom.
WORKING ON THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
How intimate is your relationship with the Holy Spirit today? We must learn to always live in harmony with Him, if we want Him to help us or bear with us in our weaknesses. We must learn to listen to Him, and yield to His ways always.
The tendency is there for our flesh to try to override the will of God for our lives, even as we seek the wisdom of God in any situation. That is why we need to daily die to the flesh (Romans 8:12-14).
We definitely cannot ask God to do something for us, when we are not doing His will. If we want the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us into the wisdom of God, then we need to first put away those selfish desires, that are not in line with the will of God for our lives.
The will of God for us in everything that we desire are in the Bible. Get it, read it, study it as you pray in the Holy Spirit about it. That is how the Holy Spirit will begin working in leading and guiding us, in the application of the word of God in the wisdom of God to fulfill the will of God for our lives.
Many believers do often get into trouble these days, not because the Holy Spirit never leads or guides them. They often get into trouble, because they are ignoring the uncomfortable nudges or warnings from the Holy Spirit to them.
When we do this, then trouble will come. It is wisdom during those moments, telling us not to move in the direction of the flesh in life. When we are not listening to Him, we are then not listening to wisdom.
I had have moments like that also, just as we all had. But the only way we get wiser is by going back to God and asking for His wisdom.
As mentioned before, God is never mad at us for missing those spiritual nudges. It is a learning process and we all learn from it always.
So do not get upset for making mistakes in the past. The enemy wants you to be upset because he will rather like to see you being defeated. Learn from those past mistakes and move on with God. With God on your side, there is nothing the devil can do in defeating you.
Oftentimes the nudges from the Holy Spirit into the wisdom of God, comes in leading us to do what we often do not want to do due to our struggles in the flesh. But in our little steps of faith in obedience to God is the wisdom of God.
BEING PRACTICAL WITH WISDOM
Let me end this week with a practical guideline from Solomon about wisdom. He told us in the opening words to the book of Proverbs, what we get from following wisdom. He wrote that book in the Bible to us:
“for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young—”
Proverbs 1:2-4 NIV
These are the words of a wise young King, and if you ever want to reign in your world, follow those words of wisdom in the book of Proverbs. If you do you are learning from those who had experienced what you are going through right now. May you find wisdom in your time of need, in Jesus name. Amen!
