God’s Wisdom: A Brief Study E-Book

Riaan Engelbrecht

• Herausgeber: Riaan Engelbrecht
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

How we need the wisdom of the Lord once again in our churches and for the wisdom of the Lord to rest upon the lips of His servants! It says in “Job 28:28 But to man He said, Behold, the reverential and worshipful fear of the Lord—that is Wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” These days man seeks after his own wisdom, and relies upon his own intellectual faculty to determine the Truth of God. Godly wisdom comes by fearing the Lord, obeying Him, seeking Him and walking in His Spirit. Such wisdom speaks not of foolishness, ignorance or deception as we seen so often in Churches, but it speaks of God’s will, His plan, His Kingdom, His Truth and His Way. God is all-wise, infinitely wise. God’s wisdom is also vastly superior to human wisdom and He remains the source of wisdom. Wisdom is not just knowledge, but “know how.” It enables us how the follow God’s will and to know how to move in His Spirit at all times. Thus, we don’t just need knowledge, but we need God’s wisdom to conduct our lives to His honour all day!

Leseprobe

Series of work by the same author:

––––––––

Perilous Times

In Pursuit of God

The Holy Spirit

The Disciple of God

Deliverance

Crossroads to Freedom

The Kingdom of God

The Prophetic

Apologetics

End-Time Remnant

Table of Contents

Title Page

God’s Wisdom: A Brief Study (In pursuit of God)

A cry for wisdom

The wisdom of heaven

Walking in the wisdom of God

Wisdom settled in the obedience of the Lord

Wisdom that guides our path

Speaking wisdom and not blasphemy of the dragon

Spiritual maturity breeds wisdom

Beatitudes of wisdom

The futile quest for false wisdom

Seeking wisdom in the Spirit

Motivation for wisdom

Disciple of wisdom

Led astray as wisdom lacks

Wisdom to know God’s time and seasons

Heed the counsel of God

God’s Word is God’s Wisdom

Gift of wisdom

Conclusion on the matter of wisdom

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Also By Riaan Engelbrecht

About the Author

God’s Wisdom: A Brief Study

This is a distributed edition from Avishua Ministries.

The author’s intellectual property rights are protected by international Copyright law. You are licensed to use this digital copy strictly for your personal enjoyment only: it must not be redistributed or offered for sale in any form.

Scriptures quotes from the New Kings James Bible, Amplified, and the New International Version.

For more free study material and audio visit http://avishuaministries.wixsite.com/avishua

Table of Contents

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A CRY FOR WISDOM

The wisdom of heaven

Walking in the wisdom of God

Wisdom settled in the obedience of the Lord

Wisdom that guides our path

Speaking wisdom and not blasphemy of the dragon 

Spiritual maturity breeds wisdom

Beatitudes of wisdom  

The futile quest for false wisdom

Seeking wisdom in the Spirit

Motivation for wisdom 

Disciple of wisdom  

Led astray as wisdom lacks  

The value of wisdom  

Wisdom to know God’s time and seasons 

Heed the counsel of God

God’s Word is God’s Wisdom

Gift of wisdom  

Conclusion on the matter of wisdom

A cry for wisdom

How we need the wisdom of the Lord once again in our churches and for the wisdom of the Lord to rest upon the lips of His servants!

It says in "Job 28:28 But to man He said, Behold, the reverential and worshipful fear of the Lord—that is Wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

Several years ago, the Lord spoke about the lack of wisdom in His Church and this is so true. We have many teachers and preachers speaking on many subjects, but somehow it seems we are still falling short of speaking God’s wisdom. False prophecies abound, and so do erroneous doctrines and deceptive teachings.

Why? Because man seeks after his own wisdom, and relies upon his own intellectual faculty to determine the Truth of God. And such Godly wisdom comes by fearing the Lord, obeying Him, seeking Him and walking in His Spirit. Such wisdom speaks not of foolishness, ignorance or deception as we see so often in Churches, but it speaks of God’s will, His plan, His Kingdom, His Truth and His Way.

It says of God’s wisdom the following:

Job 12 v 13: To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.

Isaiah 40 v 28: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

Romans 11 v 33: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

God is all-wise, infinitely wise. It says for example in Psalm 147 vs 5: Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

God’s wisdom is also vastly superior to human wisdom. Isaiah 55: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Let us remember God remains the source of wisdom. It says in Proverbs 2 v 6: “For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth [come] knowledge and understanding”, and also Daniel 2 v 20: Daniel answered and said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him.”

It speaks of the mind of God, His intentions, His plans and purposes. There is indeed much deception and deceptive teaching in churches these days (2 Timothy 3, 2 Peter 2, Book of Jude), as well as idolatry, New Age practices, enlightenment, humanism and rationalism. What we need is the wisdom of God!

Wisdom is not just knowledge, but “know-how.” God’s wisdom enables Him to “know how” to do anything (see 2 Peter 2:9). It enables us to follow God’s will and to know how to move in His Spirit at all times. Bezalel was a craftsman, a man with incredible “wisdom” in the art of making the furnishings for the Tabernacle (see Exodus 31:1-5). Joshua had been given the wisdom to know how to lead the nation of Israel (Deuteronomy 34:9). Solomon asked for and received the wisdom and knowledge needed to rule Israel (2 Chronicles 1:7-12). We don’t just need knowledge, but we need God’s wisdom to conduct our lives to His honour all day.

What we need is God’s Word spoken in a time like this! Not a word to please man, not a word out of which man can benefit, not a word that will entertain, not a word to exploit God’s Kingdom, not a word without power, but indeed, we need a word that shakes the gates of hell, sets people free from spiritual bondages, shatters demonic strongholds, that breaks every false teaching and prophecy and that manifest the power of God!

Wisdom is not merely about “knowing good and evil.” Wisdom is also about knowing good from evil. Eating the fruit of the forbidden tree did cause Adam and Eve to know evil. They knew evil by experience. The worst of it is that Adam and Eve did come to a new awareness of “good and evil,” but notice what happened in the process. What was evil became “good” in their eyes. Eating of the fruit of that tree was forbidden by God. To eat that fruit was to do what was evil. And yet, with a little prompting and deception by Satan, Eve came to see this “evil” (by God’s definition) as “good” (in her perception, as suggested by Satan).

This is something that has been happening a lot in our world these days, where what is natural to God becomes unnatural to man, thus what is now natural to man is natural to God. It is because what is natural to man has been deemed no longer good but it has somehow been twisted to become evil.

It says in Isaiah 5:20: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

We live in a time where man’s wisdom prevails, to such an extent that the world has now determined what is good, what is real and what truth is. Moral relativism has been promoted, where each man determines his own truth at the expense of absolute truth. Where the truth and wisdom of man prevail at the expense of God’s wisdom, then corruption of mind and spirit follows (Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 1). We live in a time where often people have turned what was once evil into good, and where good has become unpopular.

This is why it says in the Scriptures to seek wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, for wisdom is to know what is good and what is evil and to know good from evil. And once we know what is right and wrong, we need to follow such a path. That is wisdom.

Indeed, it is time to speak God’s wisdom, but such a word spoken must be spoken in wisdom, but not the wisdom that the Church deems to be important, wise or clever, but the true wisdom of heaven causes demons to flee and the sinner to repent and the backslider to leave his iniquity and for the immorality of this world to shudder in the presence of the Almighty! How we need speakers of wisdom, and doers of wisdom, indeed, how we need disciples we seek Wisdom and who seek the Wisdom of God above all!

What we need is not more teachers or preachers speaking empty words and clever sermons of shallowness and emptiness, but men and women of courage who speak as the Lord commands! It says in Matthew 4 (Jesus teaching): 4 But He replied, It has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

It is the words of God, thus His wisdom that sustains us, not our own words or our intellect.  Lord, let the word of the Lord rests upon our lips!

We all know the story of the wise man that visited Jesus at His birth. Matthew 2: 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The wise men bowed before Jesus because the wisdom of God is far greater than any other human wisdom. They bowed before the Lord because they realised their wisdom paled in comparison to the greatness of God’s wisdom! We also need to be like wise men by bowing before the Lord and laying down our wisdom to obtain the wisdom of the Lord. We need to realise we are indeed not as clever as we think – our wisdom will never exceed the wisdom of God, and our wisdom will never be superior.

Paul realised this truth as well, which is evident in his writing in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 1 and Colossians. He was after all often preaching to Greeks, who for a long time believed they were the guardians of the wisdom following the Hellenic Age and the philosophical teachings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Let us indeed be like the wise men and come before the Lord to admit we need His counsel, His Truth and guidance, for that is indeed wise!

The wisdom of heaven

What is then this wisdom that we should acquire? We read in James chapter 3: 17, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

Moses cried out “So teach us to number our days,  that we may get us a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90: 12). The wisdom that we should seek is not founded upon education or intellect, for it is the wisdom of heaven that surpasses the simple knowledge of man.

And such wisdom is all that James surmised. Indeed, wisdom is knowledge and understanding of God’s Truth, coupled with spiritual and revelation insight that reflects the reality of the Kingdom of God. It is the wisdom that speaks of God’s character and nature, reflected in our walk through life. It reflects His holiness, beauty and purity. It is even greater than applying logic, which is merely the application of reason.

We need wisdom in our time and age; wisdom beyond mere human reasoning or logic, for the wisdom of God surpasses the greatest knowledge of man.

For a long time, man’s prowess to master logic has been seen as a standard by which to measure wisdom. Logic is the use and study of valid reasoning. The study of logic features most prominently in the subjects of philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. Logic was studied in several ancient civilizations, including India, China, Persia and Greece. In the West, logic was established as a formal discipline by Aristotle, who gave it a fundamental place in philosophy. The study of logic was part of the classical trivium, which also included grammar and rhetoric.

Yet with God who is Spirit and who is Supernatural, reasoning and logic remain far inferior to the Wisdom of Heaven. It doesn’t matter how well we can reason or master logic, the fact remains that this natural world remains inferior to the supernatural world. This world with all its logic and reasoning will pass away, with only the Kingdom of Heaven standing triumphant.

Again, Paul writes about the dangers of man’s wisdom and logic preventing them from submitting and following God in Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 1. This is simply because our logic and reason can never define God, can never analyze Him or determine His True nature. God made man, and thus a part of God’s wisdom is within the DNA of man, yet man remains man no matter how lofty we think of ourselves. It is written in "Isaiah 26: 4 Trust in the LORD forever,

for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal. 5 He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low."

There is no one greater than our Lord. He has reduced kingdoms and empires throughout the ages to ashes and dust for trying to exalt themselves above God.

We are reminded of the story of the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11: 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel - because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

From the days of Babel to our modern times, man has tried to be gods and to rule their own fate. We have come up with all kinds of inventions and designs, hailing our technology as a testimony of our greatness, but we forget we are but human and in the eyes of God can be reduced to dust within a mile-second. Matthew 10: 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar? In Daniel 4 he had a disturbing dream of a tree which Daniel interpreted: 24 “This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: 25 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes. 26 The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules. 27 Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”

28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. 32 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.” 33 Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. 34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the peoples of the earth

are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” 36 At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble."

Nebuchadnezzar, despite his so-called power and arrogance, was brought to his knees by God. He realized the greatness of God and God’s far superior power, and so after his ordeal praised the Lord and His dominion. Sadly, there are many even within the folds of the Church that needs a Nebuchadnezzar awakening where they realise God remains God and man remains man. We are His servants, serving His Kingdom and dominion. We can never lose sight of God’s superiority, especially when it comes to His Truth and Wisdom.

Paul sums it up beautifully in "1 Corinthians 1: 17 For Christ (the Messiah) sent me out not to baptize but [to evangelize by] preaching the glad tidings (the Gospel), and that not with verbal eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be deprived of force and emptied of its power and rendered vain (fruitless, void of value, and of no effect). “18 For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will baffle and render useless and destroy the learning of the learned and the philosophy of the philosophers and the cleverness of the clever and the discernment of the discerning; I will frustrate and nullify [them] and bring [them] to nothing. 20 Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world’s wisdom?  21 For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching [salvation, procured by Christ and to be had through Him], to save those who believed (who clung to and trusted in and relied on Him). 22 For while Jews [demandingly] ask for signs and miracles and Greeks pursue philosophy and wisdom, 23 We preach Christ (the Messiah) crucified, [preaching which] to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block [that springs a snare or trap], and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense. 24 But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek (Gentile), Christ [is] the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. 25 [This is] because the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men. 26 For [simply] consider your own call, brethren; not many [of you were considered to be] wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth. 27 [No] for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame. 28 And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are, 29 So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God. 30 But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin]. 31 So then, as it is written, Let him who boasts and proudly rejoices and glories, boast and proudly rejoice and glory in the Lord."