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http://www.worldforjesus.org/articles-teaching.php?ID=181

very encouraging

excerpt of The Reigning Ones Part 3

... time in the Word and prayer because it takes wisdom to seek and desire God. If you don’t have a healthy prayer and Word life, as well as a hunger for God, you are lacking wisdom. It takes wisdom to hunger for God.

It is the beauty of wisdom which leads us into a hunger and a quest for God. Furthermore, it leads us on the journey to God; it is something we absolutely need. Without it, we are almost completely useless to the kingdom of God; with it, we can be of great value to the kingdom.

Proverbs 8:1-11

1Does not skillful and godly Wisdom cry out, and understanding raise her voice [in contrast to the loose woman]? 2On the top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, stands Wisdom [skillful and godly]; 3At the gates at the entrance of the town, at the coming in at the doors, she cries out: 4To you, O men, I call, and my voice is directed to the sons of men. 5O you simple and thoughtless ones, understand prudence; you [self-confident] fools, be of an understanding heart. 6Hear, for I will speak excellent and princely things; and the opening of my lips shall be for right things. 7For my mouth shall utter truth, and wrongdoing is detestable and loathsome to my lips. 8All the words of my mouth are righteous (upright and in right standing with God); there is nothing contrary to truth or crooked in them. 9They are all plain to him who understands [and opens his heart], and right to those who find knowledge [and live by it]. 10Receive my instruction in preference to [striving for] silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold,11For skillful and godly Wisdom is better than rubies or pearls, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

People desire a home, cars, clothes, position, respect, and ministry, none of which can be compared to wisdom. You can go through your life’s list of passions, desires and wants and place these on one side of a balance scale; put on the other side wisdom, and it will outweigh all else.

You can put the world itself, the very globe upon which we stand, walk and live and it cannot be compared to the gift of wisdom. So great is this wisdom, that no amount of diamonds, gold, silver or gems of any kind can be measured against it. Nothing in this life can be compared to the gift of wisdom.

These are not my words; the Bible says that wisdom is to be desired above all things. Only by wisdom are you led into God. Without wisdom you do not know how to find God. Even if He were standing right in front of you, you would not recognize His ways, much less be able to walk with Him.

The only way to enter into the heart of God is to understand Him and you can never do that without wisdom. It is the most treasured and precious gift, because without it, you are forever held away from the One you desire the most.

With it, you can search the inner chambers of God and learn and discover all things.

Proverbs 8:12-14

12I, Wisdom [from God], make prudence my dwelling, and I find out knowledge and discretion. 13The reverent fear and worshipful awe of the Lord [includes] the hatred of evil; pride, arrogance, the evil way, and perverted and twisted speech I hate. 14I have counsel and sound knowledge, I have understanding, I have might and power.

This is all about wisdom; did you ever think that wisdom had might and power?

Proverbs 8:15-21

15By me kings reign and rulers decree justice.16By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges and governors of the earth.17I love those who love me, and those who seek me early and diligently shall find me.18Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness (uprightness in every area and relation, and right standing with God).19My fruit is better than gold, yes, than refined gold, and my increase than choice silver.20I [Wisdom] walk in the way of righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation), in the midst of the paths of justice,21That I may cause those who love me to inherit [true] riches and that I may fill their treasuries.

... You could be a genius and work a whole lifetime in finance and economics, and at the end of your life what you have would not even come close to the riches that wisdom can bestow. You could leave this world a multi-billionaire and not have the riches — the true wealth — that wisdom will give you.

Proverbs 8:22-30

22The Lord formed and brought me [Wisdom] forth at the beginning of His way, before His acts of old. 23I [Wisdom] was inaugurated and ordained from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth existed. 24When there were no deeps, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains laden with water. 25Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth, 26While as yet He had not made the land or the fields or the first of the dust of the earth. 27When He prepared the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there; when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep and stretched out the firmament over it, 28When He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep, 29When He gave to the sea its limit and His decree that the waters should not transgress [across the boundaries set by] His command, when He appointed the foundations of the earth — 30Then I [Wisdom] was beside Him as a master and director of the work; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always.

To provoke the delight of the Lord, get wisdom. To please Jesus, be wise.

Proverbs 8:31-34:

31Rejoicing in His inhabited earth and delighting in the sons of men. 32Now therefore listen to me, O you sons; for blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who keep my ways. 33Hear instruction and be wise, and do not refuse or neglect it. 34Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

Listen to this invitation! In the days of old, the Jewish Sages would wait at the gates of the city and there they would hold their conversations morning, noon and night. They would discuss the affairs of the city and of the Word. There, at the city gates, they waited in their day.

Today, we wait at the gates of wisdom. This is where the sages, the wise men of Israel, waited, and it is also where the wise man must wait today: at the gates of wisdom. We wait to hear the words of wisdom. She says, “I call out in the city streets.” Wisdom calls with a silent voice, heard only by the spirit of man. She cries out into the city streets and the wise hear her, because they are waiting at the city gates for her words. Those who are not wise do not hear her and wouldn’t recognize her if they did hear her.

Forgive me, but a fool cannot understand wisdom.

The words can be laid open before them, laid out and clearly articulated in black and white.

But a fool cannot understand; they will fight, contest and war against it because they simply cannot comprehend it.

The one who does not wait by the city gate and does not have the grace and understanding that this city gate is an important place to sit is not going to hear the Word when it is released into the city streets because they are too busy.

Their ears are too full of spiritual static to be able to hear the words of wisdom coming from the Spirit of Grace.

There is too much static because there is too much soul.

Wisdom is something to be embraced by the spirit of man, something to be desired by a spiritual man/woman.

The more spiritual you become, the wiser you become, and as a result, the more you want wisdom. The more you want wisdom, the more spiritual you become.

Wisdom is full of love and all good fruits. All of these create the life of the Spirit within. “For whoever finds me [Wisdom] finds life and draws forth and obtains favor from the Lord” (Prov 8:35).

You want favor from God? You want favor from man? Be wise.

You want favor from God concerning the things He has called and created you to do? Obtain wisdom.

You want favor from man? Then seek wisdom diligently every day.

Wisdom through the Word

Earlier on in the book of Proverbs it talks about digging for wisdom as for hidden treasures, like a miner going deep into the earth and banging at the walls with his chisel trying to chip away at the jewels buried within the walls, digging as for hidden treasures under the earth.

Now, we are not talking about sitting with your cup of coffee, relaxed and reading the Word casually.

We are talking about getting the chisel of the Word and Spirit, desiring and searching deeply into the Word, praying and meditating on the word, seeking and fasting, praying that God, will give you the wisdom of His Word!

I cannot tell you how many years I have spent doing that very thing: fasting, praying, pleading, begging God, “Give me the wisdom of Your Word, help me understand your truth, make me worthy of your truth.”

You have to be worthy of it, you cannot come by the deep Wisdom of God if you have not prepared your soul for it.

Wisdom never leads you deeper into the world. God may give you the gift to make money but He doesn’t want your soul following after and lusting after wealth.

Do not touch it, but use it for God and His Kingdom!

Wisdom will never take you deeper into the world, because it is diametrically opposed to everything that the world stands for. Wisdom takes you into God, not the world. The man who has wisdom will never go into the world, but he will seek the face of God all his days.

If you have favor from God you will also have favor from man to accomplish whatever He has created you to accomplish. Beyond that, you do not need favor from man; you only need enough to get the job done.

Wisdom says, “But he who misses me or sins against me, wrongs and injures himself. All who hate me love and court death.”

Wisdom is an awesome gift from God. When the people of Israel heard the Lord Jesus speak, they said He spoke with such grace and such wisdom; He spoke princely things that were so high and holy. He talked as one who had lived with God. He made the Father so real because He walked closely with God. He hated all things in the world and loved all things in God, so when he spoke of God, the love of God poured forth from every cell of His being. He spoke as one who had given his whole life to the quest to walk with God. Who could ever know the depths of all He spoke in His earthly life?

His words were so high and noble because they spoke of the highest kingdom of all, the Kingdom of Heaven. They spoke of the highest One in all the earth, the Sovereign Ruler and Creator, the Father of all mankind. His words were more to be desired than fine gold, than all the fame and fortune that any man or woman could ever want or have.

Saul of Tarsus came to understand this truth. Born in a wealthy city to wealthy parents, the world was his oyster. The man lacked nothing he could possibly ever want; everything was accessible to him, but he threw it all away the day he heard the voice of the Word because he had wisdom to understand the preciousness of the words of the Almighty.

God is my Shepherd, He is the Shepherd to the one who knows His voice and how to follow Him. “My sheep know my voice,” is what He said.

How can they know His voice except that they understand wisdom? Every word that comes forth out of the mouth of Jesus Christ is Wisdom and it will bring life, even the fullness of life, abundant life.

No words of man can ever do that, no thoughts or works of man could ever do that.

They will spend billions of dollars to pave the way for you to come to the finest enjoyments of the world. The foolish at heart will spend their money and their time to go to these places, yet when they are finished with the temporal enjoyment, they leave as dead as when they came. Billions of dollars and untold numbers of lives have been spent building them, but they add nothing to life.

But just one word from the mouth of God is life eternal. One word from Him is worth more than all that was spent on those attractions.

The Bible — the Word of God — is the life of your soul. The wise at heart know it and they love this book. But their aim isn’t just to study it, because to study it and then turn around and walk in a way that opposes the Word of God makes you a greater fool yet, because you are walking in self-deception.

It does not matter if you can quote 10,000 Scriptures. If you cannot live the life that this book is calling you to, what have you gained?

Wisdom will lead the way. Wisdom will show you how to live the life you’re reading about. When you don’t have wisdom, you can study it and study it, quote it and quote it, and you will not understand how to apply it. You need wisdom.

The Bible says to love your enemies. If you don’t have wisdom you will hate your enemies and feel quite justified in doing so. Every time you think of that guy or gal, you will remember how they looked at you, spoke to you, and thought about you in a wrong manner and you will justify your anger because you have no wisdom.

When you have wisdom, you will learn love because wisdom carries you into the bosom of God who is love.

When you have it, you have humility; when you do not, you are proud.

When you have wisdom, you forgive. When you do not have wisdom, you hold bitterness.

All of the works of every Christian are made known to man by whether they walk in wisdom or not; they become evident immediately.

God is calling the Church to prepare and adorn herself with glory, but it takes wisdom to accomplish this. Wisdom speaks princely and excellent things that fill the hungry soul and that will make you whole.

I can remember that in my early years after first being saved I was so fractured and broken because of my childhood and the destructive words that had been spoken over and to me.

Some well-meaning people would advise me, “Why don’t you go get counseling?”

“Counseling?” I would respond. “Why would I want to do that? If the Word can’t heal me, why would I entrust my whole life to it? The Word can heal me, and it will heal me if I obey it. If it can’t do that, how am I going to walk on it and set my whole life on it, if I can’t even believe that it can reform my soul and change my mind and heart? How in the world could I put my whole life on it? I’m being called to the ministry and into a life of faith! If I can’t trust God to take care of the inside of me, how can I trust Him to take care of all the things I do?”

I meant that with all my heart, so I studied this Bible and begged Him to heal me and tell me what to do to get out of the brokenness and get into wholeness. I cried out, “Heal me! I know You can do it and I know Your Word can do it!”

How could I have ever known back then? I was so young in the Lord, and yet what I was actually asking Him to do was to carry me into the life of the Spirit where all things are made new.

If you follow the Bible, it will take you there.

If you do not, you will be a soulish Christian all your days.

Isn’t it wonderful that wisdom gives us all this? I love this scripture:

Proverbs 8: 7For my mouth shall utter truth, and wrongdoing is detestable and loathsome to my lips.

What recreates the soul in Christ? It is the Spirit of truth; wherever truth reigns, Jesus reigns, as do light and wholeness. Where truth does not reign, darkness, deception, confusion, destruction, and death reign. “And my mouth shall utter truth.” Who’s mouth? Wisdom’s. How do you get truth and righteousness, how do you find God and faith, love and the truths of the Kingdom? Go to wisdom. In the lap of wisdom lay all good things. Outside of this bosom will be futility, strife, disappointment and discouragement.

Today, the Lord is calling us to walk higher. Those who are wise recognize it and they are going to heed the call. Those who are not wise are not going to be ready when darkness assails.

Isn’t God good? He is so wonderful, so great, intelligent, wise, kind and awesome. He is the most awesome Counselor because He reveals to us the ways of wisdom, and He does it because He wants us to draw near to Him.

He is like a father who calls out to his son who is hidden in a very dark place, “I’m here! I’m here, son! Can’t you hear me?” The son is groping around, saying, “Where? Where? I can hear you but I can’t see you!”

But God is a wise father. He says, “Here I am! I am going to sprinkle the light of wisdom and create a path for you to find Me; just follow the light.” And if you follow it, you will return to the arms of your Father; if you don’t, you will stay lost.

He’s a kind, good, generous, gracious God, to be highly desired and sought-after for His goodness.

I want to encourage you. One of the seven Spirits of God is wisdom. You must be developed in divine wisdom to be given that higher gift, because your soul has to be prepared for it, but anyone can have it.

If God is going to give a gift, why would He give anything less than the best? Anyone can have it, but you have to be willing to pay the price. Now, if you don’t have the Spirit of wisdom, you can still have great wisdom, but you have to learn to live by the Word and what the Word says. We do not study it just to have head knowledge, but to learn how to live it in our everyday lives.

In Him,
Nita LaFond Johnson