WISDOM
AND HOW TO OBTAIN IT
© John Armstrong
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index_.htm

THE PATH TO SPIRITUAL HEALING
We sometimes attend church with very different expectations of what we want it to be: a place of belonging, of welcome, a haven from a harsh and unloving world, a place rich in life-giving fellowship, where we can be loved and appreciated for the gifts that God has brought in each of us. We still have a way to go don't we?

Yet a church led by the Holy Scriptures also offers more:

This seems a contradictory picture to that above. Why? Because to bring about our haven we have to dispense with our carnal nature. To do that requires some hard and painful work. So the haven can be a centre of hardship, of pain, of being re-moulded into a new image; taking some edges off us that don't belong. Yet we still love some of those edges and they don't go easily.

This, however, is the necessary path of true spiritual healing.

WISDOM AND "THE WISE"
Today I also want to consider our journey into reform and change,

What then is this wisdom we are exhorted to obtain? I have to get it, but what is it? How will I know when I have obtained it? From a worldly perspective, wisdom—or to be wise—is often regarded as a skill associated with wise sayings. Here are a few of these: BIBLICAL DEFINITIONS
Those who write about wisdom tend to see it as a combination of intellectual factors together with aspects that transcend the purely intellectual domain; that is, the qualities of insight and discernment. The Greek word is gnosis—for knowledge and comprehension—compared to the word epiginosis that implies a fuller sense of knowing—what might be referred to as the supra-rational domain: to be fully acquainted with something.

Many traditions see wisdom as a natural ability or a gift:

Or when lessons about life are distilled from experience, as with those who are older: Job did recognise much about the mystery of wisdom, even in the early stages of his recorded experience, but seemed not, at least until later, to fully comprehend the meaning of his own insight (see Job 28:12-20).

We see at the natural level then that wisdom involves more than just intelligence and that people can be highly intelligent but very foolish. A Greek word that captures this is amathia, used in the Scriptures to convey the sense of not only lacking knowledge, but also judgment—in other words, ignorance. Notice 2Pe 3:16:

Conversely, it is possible to be not very bright or intelligent (a word that didn't really have much meaning until the turn of this century and the invention of the IQ test) and yet be quite wise—or at least become so: Of course, it is not intended that we should stay foolish, weak or base!

A study of biblical wisdom cannot ignore the descriptions of wisdom found in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the Book of Proverbs:

Note the similarity of these statements to those found in the Gospel of Matthew: Continuing in Proverbs: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO "FEAR THE LORD"?
In my work with people who have an intellectual disability, one apparent asset that many of these people have in their worship of God is a clearer sense of how great God is compared to their own state. They know they are not the brilliant people of the world—yet there is a God, and He is Almighty. It's as though there is less vanity that might otherwise act as a barrier in one's relationship with God. Notice: Back to the second chapter of the Book of Proverbs: DESTROYING AND REJECTING WISDOM
If fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then pride is its destruction: So we see that naturally intelligent people are at greater risk of being turned foolish by their pride. Pride cuts off discernment, closes even the senses to what is real. If you think you know all, then you feel no need for instruction—no need to seek discernment and understanding. This turning away or resistance to truth, this spiritual obstinacy, produces folly and stupidity in several ways: Wisdom can also be destroyed by bribery: A bribe introduces another agenda into a situation: it's a vested interest in something other than—in respect to the case—justice. We've seen many examples even in the ministry, where the well-being of the flock has been replaced by other interests, usually selfish. Once we sell our soul, so to speak, we are rendered blind to what is wise. Notice Paul and Peter's positions on this: When people reject truth and reality there are a number of other effects that can result, including: God sees connections perfectly, from the interminable past to the infinite future: In our modern times, there seems to be an amnesia about wisdom and about how smart people can become stupid. In addition, today, like never before, tasks and careers are broken down into such small parcels. People are rendered incompetent if they step outside their field of expertise, because one's field of expertise can become so narrow so as to exclude other life knowledge. This is called segmentising, and means that people are becoming so specialised in their occupations and lives that their capacity to know or think about larger and deeper issues is disabled. One reason is that different bits of information and memory are stored in different parts of the brain, but people don't learn to integrate them so as to see the connections and the relationships.

We've come to see this as a 'particularistic' way of seeing the world: that people only relate to 'particularisms', or small parcels of 'low level' events that remain disconnected from each other. This again will disable people's ability to make connections and 'see' the larger picture. Even governments believe that wisdom resides around a sound economy; there is no other more important consideration. This is an example of 'decoupling'—that is, removing or ignoring connections between events and phenomena when they are evident.

Wisdom then is an outcome of one's approach to Godly instruction—if we are yielded to it!

THE WISE PERSON
What are some of the actions of a wise person?

It is in one sense absurd not to hear: This hearing, this capacity to be corrected and to learn is something they therefore go in pursuit of. Scripture has a way of cutting through all the garbage. Can we hear advice? If it is good advice, will we act on it? If we don't act, why not? If it's not good advice, can we point out why? If we go off and mutter, what does this indicate? Pride? The young sailor, Jessie Martin is about to complete his journey around the world. What a feat! How do you think his family have been 'waiting at the door' so to speak for his return? Such longing to see him home safe, such eagerness! Do we seek wisdom with the same longing and anticipation? Some ten years ago, my wife's brother and sister-in-law took our three sons to Sovereign Hill, the pioneer village. There is a dam of water there where you can pan for gold and use an old 'rocker' to prospect. A gentleman came up and told them that it was possible to find gold there. Well with that, the boys immediately clambered over each other, right through their uncle to get to the gold! Gold fever in an instant! Yet this Scripture is indicating that our desire for wisdom is to be greater than anything else upon which we might put value. WISDOM THROUGH OBEDIENCE
What changes people's behaviour?
It is often felt that attitudes produce behaviour, and therefore to change behaviour we have to change our attitudes. Hugh MacKay believes this to be a myth—and I think the Scriptures attest to that as well. You see, our attitudes were formed from our experiences. Our experiences are shaped by what we do. If we change what we do, the attitudes shift to accommodate the new actions. This is why the Scriptures point out that sinful actions corrupt our conscience unless repented of—otherwise our conscience begins to accommodate the actions.

I'm not here talking about an attitude to seeking wisdom, but the experience, the actions of seeking wisdom. If we don't do this, it won't happen, irrespective to our attitude about this. With wisdom comes the need to act—to listen, to heed, to strive, to pursue with all our being the wisdom of God. When the experience occurs, His wisdom in us will grow. This is why wisdom cannot come without obedience. Obedience is an action, not an attitude. So everything we are told, everything we learn, everything we do, say, what we read, how we think, how we relate to each other is propelled by this deep-seated desire in the fear of God to get wisdom and get understanding.

What do we expect from attending church? A place of delightful fellowship, to be sure, of uplifting discussion and words of encouragement. It will also be a place where "iron sharpens iron" (Pr 27:17), and hopefully, by the grace of God, wise counsel and words that edify can be received—if we choose to respond to them. It is an environment that encourages the diligent pursuit of our calling, the reformation of our being, from foolishness and baseness into humility and the wisdom of God.

So "Get wisdom, get understanding"!

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