Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
One of the signs of the last days is a great need for wise men and women (Matt. 23:34). We are seeing that now. We have TV shows that are about relationship and life strategy experts helping people with their problems and civil court judges who preside over real-life family and civil disputes. There is also a relatively new phenomenon called life coaching. Life coaching is a future-focused practice with the aim of helping people determine and achieve personal goals. It seems our society on a whole lacks the wisdom to deal with the basic issues of lifestyle and morality and have to seek out help from specialists.
The Bible clearly reveals it is God’s intention for the church to be the vessel in which His wisdom is made known (Eph. 3:10). One of the streams of the river of life flowing from the throne of God is the river of wisdom. We need to pursue this river so the world can see how great our Father is. The Bible also reveals how we can lay hold of the river of wisdom. We can pray without doubting and receive wisdom (Jam. 1:5-6). Wisdom is a Spirit that can be imparted by the laying on of hands by a person of wisdom, like Moses did with Joshua (Deut. 34:9). Wisdom is also a gift that can be imparted into our hearts through heavenly encounters (1 Kin. 3:5-15; 5:12).
Wisdom can also be cultivated and grown in our hearts. Joseph is an example of this. We see the word of the Lord testing Joseph until his time came to pass (Ps.105: 19). The day came when the preparation and testing was over and it was time to fulfill the dream of God for his life (Ps. 105:20). Joseph was promoted to head over all of Egypt because Pharaoh saw the wisdom through Joseph’s insight and advice concerning his dream of the seven fruitful years and seven years of famine (Gen. 41:33-36). It is important to see that when the Lord gives us a promise, many times everything that follows seems to be the opposite of what God has promised.
This is a very confusing and vulnerable time and the enemy tries to take advantage of us by getting us to doubt the character of God, doubt if we really heard God in the first place and provoke us to self-pity, unbelief and hardness of heart. The wisdom of Joseph gives us the ability to see through all of this and trust in the character of God and His perfect timing in our lives.
It has been said that wisdom builds character and although that sounds right, it does not appear to be true all the time. Solomon was the wisest man to ever live (1 Kin. 4:29-34); however in the words of Arthur Burt, “Solomon ended up on the junk heap of life.” The thing missing in the wisdom of Solomon was that he was not wise concerning his lifestyle and morality. The last thing we hear about him was that he did evil in the sight of the Lord and was worshipping the demonic gods of his many wives (1 Kings 11:4-8).
Unlike Solomon, Daniel excelled when it came to the wisdom of lifestyle and morality (Dan. 1:8). He had self-discipline when it came to the passions and desires of the flesh such as food, sex and personal comfort. These things are not inherently wrong and have a legitimate place in our lives, but if we constantly cater to our fleshly desires and have little self-control we are heading down the same road as Solomon. The Apostle Paul had this wisdom; he disciplined his body and made it a slave – a slave that served his spirit so that he would not disqualify himself in the end (2 Cor. 9:27).
In all our acquiring of wisdom, let’s make sure we get the wisdom of morality and lifestyle.
Many Blessings, BW