Wisdom, Faith and Glory
Wisdom – Faith - Glory
Sunday – 19th February 2023
Overview
1. Introduction
2. Wisdom of God increases our Faith
3. Faith brings healing into our lives.
4. Faith in God also leads us to Salvation
5. The wisdom that produced faith brings Glory to God
6. Conclusion
Introduction – Wisdom, Faith, and Glory
This message was preached by Pr. Anish Mano Stephen
This is the third part of a series of messages on the “Wisdom of God”
We have been meditating on the Wisdom of God since the beginning of this month. The Wisdom that we find in the Word of God is not Wisdom from God but it is Wisdom of God. We are New Covenant believers and the Lord Jesus Christ; the Wisdom himself lives inside us. Godly Wisdom helps us to understand who God is, who God is in us, and Who we are to God. We can grow in Godly Wisdom when we develop an intimate relationship with God. We discussed many instances from the Bible where men and women of God used Godly wisdom and glorified the name of God on the earth. Then we saw how the Wisdom of God is related to Worship. The wisdom of God coupled with understanding brings blessings into our life. Last week we saw the hidden wisdom of God, Jesus manifesting as flesh, dying on the cross, and offering a powerful way of redemption to all mankind. This Wisdom of God is concealed from normal people and is revealed to only mature sons and daughters.
Our key verse was from the book of James;
if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
James 1:5
Wisdom comes from God. Godly wisdom is not to get the first rank in any examinations or tests in this world, but Godly Wisdom is to understand the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to understand the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ and the plan and purpose of the Almighty God for our lives. In other words, Godly wisdom makes us understand who God is. People struggle in this world and worship anything and everything because they do not have an idea of who God is.
Wisdom leads us to Faith
The wisdom of God is very important in our life because wisdom leads us to faith. Faith gives us miracles in our life. The Bible says when Jesus saw people without faith, he was not able to do miracles. Many times, we struggle and say we believe that God can do a miracle, but we do not see the miracle happening because the Faith that we have is sometimes based on information that we have seen and heard but not based upon the Wisdom of the Almighty God. There can be much information about Lord Jesus Christ, about God, but information cannot release miracles, only Faith coupled with the wisdom of God releases miracles.
Many times, we struggle in our life because we do not have the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where the Bible says “if anyone of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who will give him liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him.” When we have the wisdom of God, we will be able to realize who God is and what God can do in our lives. This will increase Faith inside of us. We can be Christians for generations, but if we really do not have Godly wisdom, there will be no faith to fuel our life and we might still struggle. The Bible says the manifestation of the Glory of God is in signs, wonders, and miracles. And signs, wonders, and miracles happen through Faith in God. Jesus, while releasing every miracle, He asked one question frequently about having Faith. The Holy Spirit helps us to discover Lord Jesus Christ using Godly wisdom. The revelation about Jesus Christ creates a deeper relationship with Him. The Wisdom of God that manifests in our life releases faith in us to believe in Jesus for a great miracle in our life.
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
James 1:3-6
When we are in any kind of problem in our life, there can be situations we are driven and tossed by strong winds, that is when we need more wisdom of God because the wisdom will release the faith of God into our lives to overcome that situation.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17
A. Faith that brings healing
When we hear the Word of God, there is godly faith being built up in our life. We see in the Old Testament, whenever God met Abraham, he introduced Himself to Abraham, revealing several characteristics of God to him which increased the Faith of Abraham in God and he was able to witness impossible miracles and interventions from the Almighty God. In other words, the wisdom of God is not released instantly, but as we grow in a relationship and intimacy with Lord Jesus Christ, we will get to know who Lord Jesus Christ is in our life. Today, we have the Holy Spirit God who will reveal the Father God and Lord Jesus Christ into our lives.
Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
Matthew 9:2
Now when Jesus was in this world, faith was the key to releasing every miracle. In the healing of this paralytic man, Jesus saw the faith of his friends, and ideally, Jesus should have said to the paralytic man, ‘you're healed’ but the wisdom of God forgave his sins first, which released faith, and the healing miracle followed. That is where we need to know who God is before God can release any blessings or miracles in our lives, it is the heart of God to forgive our sins because forgiveness opens open heavens over our life and the hand of God will be with us in our life.
B. Faith that brings Salvation
The wisdom of God leads us to faith to believe that we can be saved by the remission of our sins. Whatever our past life will be, if we come to Jesus with a broken heart with a contrite heart that we need the help of Jesus to come out from all the sins that have happened in our past, Jesus tells us, “I am more than enough to forgive us even today.” The Bible says in Acts chapter 4 that there is no salvation in anyone else's name other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 1, the Bible says the gospel of Jesus releases the power of the Almighty God for salvation for everyone who believes in Him.
“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
2 Corinthians 7:10
Worldly sorrow is condemnation and produces a guilty feeling but godly sorrow takes us to repentance. And repentance takes us to salvation. In the world, we will have the sorrow of the world but if we come to God in godly sorrow the Holy Spirit will forgive all our sins, and will make us new, and will anoint us with new oil so that we will become the children of the Almighty God.
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
Matthew 9:6
Through the godly wisdom, the Son of man has power on the earth to forgive sins and then he said arise pick up your bed and go to your house. We see there were two things that happened when godly wisdom was released and faith was produced, first there was a healing in his physical body and second thing is, there was a restoration to his home. If we get the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life, he will release faith into us. Faith will take us to a miracle where we will be welcomed with glory back to our homes.
Faith leads us to Glory
“This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
John 2:11
The Wisdom of God leads us to Faith, and Faith leads us to glory. Glory when it is manifested, will make people around us believe in Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever Jesus manifested the glory people believed in Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of God in our life is that when God gives us godly wisdom and when God gives us Faith from godly wisdom, that faith manifests the glory of God and we become a channel of godly blessing to others.
Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Acts 3:6
The wisdom of the Almighty God will help us to know who Jesus is. When Peter was walking, there is a man lying from birth, he is a beggar asking for alms. There are two options, human wisdom, and godly wisdom. According to human wisdom, Peter would have collected money and given alms, and gone his way. But Peter, filled with the Wisdom of God, and the faith he had, released a miracle and in verse number 16, we see, believing in the name of Jesus released the Glory of God and made him stronger. Human wisdom brings temporary solutions but when we get the wisdom of God there will no more be temporary fixes in our life the Holy Spirit will release permanent blessings in our life. Any struggle in our life if we can come closer to God to get the wisdom of God, that wisdom will release faith in our life, and that faith will release the glory of God in our life. The Holy Spirit will release godly wisdom in our hearts to take everything to the Lord in prayer. If it is a sin, if it is a sickness, the godly wisdom will prepare our hearts to produce more faith, which will release forgiveness and miracle, thus glorifying the name of God.
Concluding Prayer
Lord Jesus, we pray that you help us increase godly wisdom inside us which will increase our Faith in you, so that it will release miracles, and display the Glory of God through our life.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.