Sermon Notes

February – Month of Wisdom

Sunday – 05th February 2023

Overview

1. Introduction

2. Understanding the Wisdom of God

3. Wisdom and Knowledge

4. Godly Wisdom is understanding God’s Will

5. Godly Wisdom helps us to know God’s purpose 

6. We should not seek the Wisdom of God in a wrong way

7. Knowing the purpose of God for our lives makes us wise.

8. The Word of God makes us Wise

9. Wisdom of God in Churches will bring Revival

10. Conclusion

Introduction – Wisdom of God

This message was preached by Pr. Anish Mano Stephen

This is the first part of a series of messages on the “Wisdom of God”

Welcome to the month of February. As we were preparing the verses for our new calendars for the year 2023, the Holy Spirit prompted the prayer team led by Pastor Greeshma Mullakara to assign the month of February with the theme of ‘Wisdom.’ This month we shall look deeper into what the Word of God tell us about the Wisdom of God.

Let us turn our attention to the book of Ephesians 1:17

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,”

Ephesians 1:17

We may have a good education. But that is not the wisdom that God is talking about because the Bible says the wisdom of man is equivalent to the foolishness of God. This is something very different from what Paul says, the father of glory may give us wisdom from above. One of the greatest gifts that can come to us is the wisdom of God, which comes from God. According to the Word of God, the wisdom of God is right inside of us because we are the more glorious third temple of the Holy Spirit. Now the Bible says, the Father of glory may give you the Spirit of wisdom. It is not written as a gift. The Holy Spirit is a gift. But this is giving and giving is always related to asking. The more and more we ask, the more and more God's wisdom we will get. 

We need Wisdom from the Almighty God. The problems that we see in the world, in our personal life, in your family, in and around us are just because of one sole reason wisdom was not applied. Most of the time, it could be that one decision that we took without the wisdom of God makes us fall inviting a problem into our life. 

Understanding the Wisdom of God

I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him.

Ephesians 1:17 (TPT)

Wisdom is knowing who really Jesus Christ is through a deepening intimacy with Him. Having wisdom about Jesus Christ is very important for us to understand who we really are. If we do not know Jesus, we would not know who we are. Though we are Christians, if there is no wisdom of God in us, we would indulge in every sinful activity with our minds and bodies, because of the lack of understanding that Jesus is a holy God and our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Everything in our life can be controlled if we have the wisdom of God in our life. 

Wisdom and Knowledge

The wisdom of God reveals Jesus more and more into your life. Wisdom is to know Jesus in the realm of the Holy Spirit. Bible says in John 4:24 that God is the Spirit. And those who will come to worship Him will worship Him in spirit and truth. There is a difference between having wisdom and having knowledge. To explain in simple terms, some of us might have seen a gun in real. Knowledge is seeing a gun and knowing about a gun. Wisdom is how to operate it and when to operate it. We need to be full of the wisdom of God, so that every decision that we take, every thought process that we have, and everything that comes out of our family, in our personal life, in our finances, in our job, will be absolutely pleasing to the Almighty God that we will be blessed. 

Godly Wisdom is understanding God’s will for others.

“Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David. For I will harm you no more because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Indeed, I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.”

1 Samuel 26:21

In the Bible, the first king of Israel, whom God appointed, is addressed as a fool. Saul is calling himself a fool because he failed to understand the heart of God for David and instead, he tried to kill David. Primarily we need God's wisdom that makes us understand the heart of God. King Saul could not understand the will of God, though they were multiple experiences and testimonies to tell him that David is the next king of Israel. The Bible addresses it as Foolishness. David is an anointed boy. This boy killed Goliath, which Saul saw. Now Saul could never be terrified because he was such a great warrior. But now he saw someone else bigger than him. And the prophecy has already come to Saul that King David will become the king. Jonathan is in support of David becoming the king. The people are in support. Already there is a relationship happening between David and Saul's daughter. If God's wisdom would have operated, Saul would have paved way for David as the king. But because he did not have godly wisdom, he lost his own life. One wrong decision, where he could not understand the heart and the will of God. Not only lost his life, but the entire family of Saul also fell, except for a handicapped son, only because the Bible addressed him as a fool.

Godly Wisdom is Understanding God’s purpose for our life.

I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.

Psalms 57:2

God will fulfill all the purposes that He has for our life. Understanding God's purpose for you is godly wisdom. Many times, we limit God’s purpose to our desires. We all have various desires for ourselves in our life. The Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord. And he shall give the desires of your heart. We can delight in the Lord by doing what pleases God. The Lord becomes happy when we understand His purpose and His will, and if we go in that way, He is the happiest person. We need to have the faith to throw away all our desires and to know the heart of God. 

Seeking Wisdom in the wrong way

When we do not understand the purpose, the biggest problem is that we will fall into sin. Sin takes us away from God. Sin cancels the presence of God in our life. King David was a man who knew God’s heart, but for that small moment, he sinned with Bathsheba and killed her husband, Uriah. He mistook the purpose and fell into sin. When he understood his mistake, one thing he came and said was, Lord, do not take away a Holy Spirit from me, because he understood that the purpose went wrong. When the purpose went wrong, he fell into sin. We need godly wisdom to understand God’s purpose for our lives.

“The wise shall inherit glory,”

Proverbs 3:35

Bible says, the wise shall inherit the glory, but the shame shall be the legacy of the fools. So, to inherit more glory, the Bible says we need more wisdom. More wisdom comes from spending more time with the Holy Spirit. 

“So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was [a]pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate it.”

Genesis 3:6

Seeking wisdom was the primary issue that man had fallen into sin. They both failed to understand God’s purpose for them and sought wisdom through the wrong method. We need godly wisdom but if we choose the wrong way, the wrong method of getting godly wisdom, we will end up with a wrong revelation of who Jesus is. Every revelation that we get about Jesus is through Holy Spirit and will be based on the Word of God. When we choose something which is outside the word of God, out of our own flesh, which is not in that pathway of the word of God, that is a very dangerous situation. In the book of revelations, we see Nicolaism, an early Christian sect. The Nicolaitans had dared to insinuate that freedom in Christ granted them a blank check to sin. The wrong revelation, not based on the Word of God, will make us sin. In Genesis 3:7, the Bible says their eyes are understanding they are opened and they knew that they were naked. The fruit was to discern between good and evil, but when the source was wrong, the impact also was wrong, which made them fools. When we pick up wisdom from the wrong source, we will end up picking the wrong wisdom. 

Knowing the Purpose of God for our life makes us Wise

“Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.”

Genesis 41:39

The first person whom the Bible calls as wise is Joseph because he knew the Will of God for his life. He saw the dream that was given by God and he believed it to be his life’s purpose shown to him by God. This strong faith saved him throughout his hard journey and did not let him fall into the hands of Potiphar’s wife. Sometimes, God elevates us to a certain level, and because we do not have a clear idea about God’s purpose for our life, we become complacent and use our human wisdom and abort God’s plan. That is the same that happens when a hard test comes, we give up and it destroys the entire purpose of God in your life. We should be tuned to the Holy Spirit and have a clear vision of our life, which will help us to become wise.

Word of God makes us Wise

“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

2 Timothy 3:15

Holy Scriptures make us wise. It is the most powerful, active, tool, which has the power to make us wise and understand the will of God for our lives. Philosophies have changed, and theories have changed, but the Word of God has never changed. Heaven and earth will pass away but God’s word will never change. God did not just send us to this earth clueless. He gave us a powerful weapon in our hands to know his heart. If we really want to be practically wise, every thought, every decision, and every purpose that purpose in our hearts, we can check with the word of God. Sometimes God wants a correction to be done in our lives to bless us, He will speak to us through His word. 

Church operating in the Wisdom of God will bring Revival

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”

Joel 2:28

The revival that we are praying for will come only when we the church operate with Godly Wisdom. God says, turn to Him, with a repentant heart and confess the sins before God, as the Lord is kind, He will forgive the land and bless it. When we operate in Godly Wisdom, we will have the discernment to understand where is the fault and we will turn to God and correct every wrong decision that we have taken so that He can bless us and can send a glorious revival When we come back to the Godly Wisdom, that is when the Churches will be able to experience the real beauty of everyone worshipping God in one accord, along with the manifestations of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. 

Concluding Prayer

Lord Jesus, we pray with a sincere heart that we need Wisdom from you to understand Your will and Your purpose for our lives. Help us to trust in you, believe in your written and spoken words, and not seek you in any other ways, which is not from the leading of the Holy Spirit. We also pray right now for Godly wisdom to serve you and to operate in the kingdom of God to glorify your name. 

In Jesus’ name, 

Amen.