Your ability as a believer in Christ Jesus to live and walk by faith, enables you to also walk in the wisdom of God. In other words, a man of faith is a man of wisdom.
Faith is the key that unlocks the wealth of God’s wisdom into our lives as Christians. It causes us to respond with insight and understanding to the word of God with the application of His wisdom.
This basically means that it is baseless and meaningless to just be reading the Bible without having faith in it.
In order to unlock the wealth of God’s wisdom into your life as you are reading and meditating on the scriptures; you’ve got to unleash your faith into what is being read, so as to make it work for you in the insight and understanding of God’s revelation in it for you.
Faith is also the key in laying hold of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If a believer in Christ Jesus is not living and walking by faith, he will never be able to walk in the wisdom and in the supernatural things of God.
Application of Godly Wisdom.
The word of God works through the life of every believer in Christ Jesus by faith, bur in the wisdom of God. Our application of the promises of God in His wisdom, is derived from our faith in the word of God.
Faith is what gives you the guarantee that you will receive whatever you are believing God for, as you are standing on His promises for His wisdom to come to you, in the application of those promises to your specific needs.
If you don’t believe that the word of God works in power, then it won’t work in His wisdom for you also. God’s power is His wisdom.
Whatever you believe God’s word to be for you is what it will be to you.
The Wisdom of the Spirit.
But being able to differentiate the word of wisdom from the wisdom of God, is a vital key to success in spiritual warfare.
The word of wisdom for example is a very powerful gift of the Holy Spirit in spiritual warfare.
But in most cases your past experiences as you are walking with God in its application, requires the wisdom of God also from those same past experiences.
This means the gift of the word of wisdom and the wisdom of God do often function together in spiritual warfare.
Elihu (an acquaintance of Job) once told him:
“I said, ‘Age should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’ But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.”
Job 32:7-8 NKJV
Elihu in his conversation here with Job and his three friends clearly highlighted the difference between the word of wisdom and the wisdom of God.
He identified our past spiritual experiences in life as a source of wisdom. But he also went further to reveal that the word of wisdom (understanding) primarily comes to us from the Holy Spirit Who’s living in us.
This is remarkable because there was no infilling of the Holy Spirit during his time, and in fact throughout the Old Testament there is no evidence of anyone being filled with the Holy Spirit.
That means Elihu must have learnt this spiritual truth from his own personal relationship with God.
Our spiritual experience with God teaches us how to walk in His wisdom. It is impossible for a new believer in Christ to be able to do this.
Wisdom in this way comes through the application of God’s word into our daily Christian life’s experiences.
But Elihu made us to realize here that the word of wisdom comes into our spirit man through the “breath of the Almighty” – the Holy Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit Who gives us the insight and understanding of issues with the word of wisdom, so that we may be able to confront the issues of life that we face daily as Christians.
For example, when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples after His resurrection; He was breathing on them the wisdom of God that enabled them to walk in the calling of God for their lives (John 20:22).
Without His breath in them, the wisdom to be able to walk by faith with God, as they daily gathered together in the Upper Room was not with them.
Without the works of the Holy Spirit on the earth today, all humanity would have been destroyed by the evil one and his works.
The Holy Spirit is the One holding all things together on the earth today; until Jesus will return to take possession of His Kingdom on earth.
But until Jesus returns it is important for us as believers in Christ, to be training our spirit man always to listen and to hear His voice to our hearts.
His voice comes to you through the Holy Spirit Who is living in you. Without faith in God, it will be impossible for you to hear Him.
Listening for Wisdom with discernment.
Elihu said again to Job and his three friends:
“Hear my words, you wise men; listen to me, you men of learning. For the ear tests words as the tongue tastes food. Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.”
Job 34:2-4 NIV
What a wonderful comparison between how we taste food and how we hear from God by Elihu! Any human being with a heartbeat can listen for the voice of God into his heart, just as much as that individual can taste food with the mouth.
There is therefore no excuse for even the unbelievers in God to say that they do not know Him.
The Apostle Paul explained this further in his letter to the Romans:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things”.
Romans 1:18-23 NKJV
Unfortunately, many are so accustomed to listening to the physical world around them. They are barely paying attention to God’s voice through the Holy Spirit speaking into their hearts.
The way a Christian is training his spirit man to listen and hear from God, is the same way faith comes (see Romans 10:17).
Evidently Elihu was accustomed to hearing the words or promises of God ring like a bell in his heart on a daily basis. He had become wise through his daily experiences with God.
This was what made him wiser than the other three friends of Job. Elihu had trained his ears to listen and to hear from God, just as his tongue could taste food.
His words were the only words which actually touched the heart of Job, so that he could eventually be opened to hear God speaking to him in the midst of his sufferings. Elihu was truly an encouragement to Job, unlike his other three friends.
Discernment of spirits.
The gift of the discernment of spirits is different from the discernment that comes through the knowledge of the insight and understanding of God.
Discernment of spirits is a gift of the Holy Spirit that comes to us only when we are in the spirit.
Even though you are born again, it is not all the time that you are in the spirit. We are limited in our abilities into the spiritual realm, because we do live in a natural and physical world.
That is why faith is very important for us as believers in Christ Jesus, to be able to live a successful Christian life.
Faith enables us to move from the natural world into the supernatural. Without the exercise of your faith in God, you will never be able to get into the spirit.
Discernment of spirits is listed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 as one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. And like the word of wisdom, discernment of spirits is a weapon in our spiritual warfare against the enemy.
You cannot win the battle against the evil around you, if you are not ready to covet and embrace these nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. These nine gifts are for the edification and building up of the Body of Christ.
The Apostle Paul said:
“Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.”
I Corinthians 14:12 NKJV
Your ability to covet and embrace the gift of discernment of spirits will guide you into the wisdom of God in your spiritual warfare against evil. You will know exactly how to apply the wisdom of God; into whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to you in discernment.
There are those within the Body of Christ who often get zealous for these nine gifts of the Holy Spirit without having biblical faith for them. This causes them to become flaky in the Kingdom of God. They become overzealous for spiritual truth, without even an iota of bible faith in their lives.
The wisdom of God is spiritual and never sensual. There is nothing wise in anything that the devil does in this world. His wisdom only leads the world into stupidity, shame and destruction.
Are you intelligent or Wise?
Unfortunately, there are so many in the world today, who will want to equate intelligence with wisdom. This is a deception from the pit of hell. Being smart or intelligent does not necessarily mean that you are wise.
The source of all wisdom is God. Being intelligent is good, but the evil one often uses it in leading people into his deceptions. He uses it to deceive the unsaved world away from God, and deeper into sin and destruction of lives.
The source of godly Wisdom.
A wise man is a man of mercy and compassion. He is merciful and compassionate because he has experienced the same from God.
The Psalmist wrote concerning the Lord God:
“With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;”
Psalms 18:25 NKJV
The Apostle Paul also wrote:
“For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So, then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”
Romans 9:15-16 NKJV
It is the mercy of God that manifests His wisdom into your life. Being wise has nothing to do with your personal desires, or how smart you are. But it has everything to do with His mercy and compassion working in your life.
To the unsaved world being smart is the advantage that they use, to exploit the weaknesses of others so as to benefit themselves.
The wisdom of God will always lead us to strengthen the weak and the disadvantaged in our world today, and not to exploit them. A wise man’s heart will always long to help the weak and feeble in the world.
For example, Paul and Silas were once preaching at Philippi, where a teenage slave girl kept following them with the spirit of divination.
The Bible says:
“This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
Acts 16:17 NKJV
Apparently, she was saying the truth for many days about them, but she was doing this under the influence of an evil spirit.
By the standard of her world, she and the people using her for profit were smart. But in reality, they were deeply in sin through the deception of the enemy.
Compassion and mercy cried out through Paul for the soul of this girl, in order to save her from this exploitation.
The scriptures say:
“And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.”
Acts 16:18 NKJV
We need to note here that Paul was not able to pick up the activities of the evil spirit on the first day, even though he was in the spirit.
Why? Because the gift of the discernment of spirits cannot be effective against Satan without the wisdom of God working in us through it.
Paul had the wisdom of God, but it took the Holy Spirit to open his spiritual eyes of understanding to see what was going on with this girl. This was the moment Paul was able to recognize the evil spirit.
Oh! How we need the wisdom of God within the Body of Christ today. The enemy can never mess around with a believer who walks in the wisdom of God.
When you are fully yielded and devoted to praying in tongues, spiritual truth will always come to you in the application of the wisdom of God.
Praying in other tongues is really intercessory prayer. It is what often enables us to get into the realm of the spirit.
Many problems in life do have spiritual undertones. When you are praying in other tongues, you are able to get into the spirit world where God dwells. Your spiritual eye is opened into this spiritual realm, so that you can become more effective in your prayer life.
That’s why Paul encouraged us:
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.”
1 Corinthians 14:39 NIV
He continued:
“Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:20-24 NIV
Till next week keep your spirit man alert – praying in the spirit.
