Wisdom is Given by Keith Miller
We need a move of wisdom from God, not just individually, but also in our community and our nation. We are entering some especially important times for which we need great discernment for the decisions we make, for what is taking place in our lives, and for our nation. We are called to be people who know our times and know how to discern what the Holy Spirit is doing and how He is leading. Our closeness in relationship with Him enables us to recognize His wisdom and make the right decisions.
Ecclesiastes 9:14 says, “There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, and besieged it, and built great snares around it” (NKJV). A great army besieged a small city that did not have enough people to defend it. Very few people lived in the city, but we can assume the great king came with a massive number of troops to take the city. Then, in verse 15, it says, “Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man” (NKJV). This is fascinating. In this dire situation, this one person—a poor wise man—saves everyone. We can gather from the description that the poor wise man was not a person of influence, not someone who was known and respected in the city. Yet the Lord gave him the wisdom to know how to overcome the enemy army, and he used that wisdom to save himself and his city. From this we can glean that wisdom is better than weapons of war.
Everything in the Bible has a purpose—to reveal something to us about the nature, heart, and will of God in our lives. These verses in Ecclesiastes point us to God’s will related to the working of His wisdom in our lives. In Luke 2:52, speaking of Jesus, it says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (NKJV). I believe this is God’s will for all of us—that His wisdom would increase in our lives. I believe the Lord is going to ignite in us a hunger for increased wisdom so that we can build our lives in the flow of God’s wisdom. The need for wisdom in our lives individually and also corporately in the body of Christ cannot be overstated. I cannot emphasize enough the importance, in the day we live in, of possessing the wisdom of God! And the Lord wants to give it to us. He wants to give us solutions for the challenging situations we find ourselves in personally and corporately in our churches, communities, regions, and nation.
We need a shift to take place in our current society—and it will happen by wisdom. This is what Ecclesiastes 9:14–15 shows us: One person with the wisdom of God can change the course of history. We see this all through church history. The Lord worked mightily through individuals like the poor wise man, individuals like William Seymour, Kathryn Kuhlman, Charles Finney, Jonathan Edwards, and many others. From the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence to the various revival awakenings that took place, we see God’s wisdom on display to bring tremendous breakthroughs on earth and change in the heavenlies. This is the kind of wisdom that God wants to give to us.
Many times, in pursuit of wisdom we seek more knowledge—and there’s nothing wrong with knowledge—but what we need most is God’s wisdom. The Bible teaches us the importance of wisdom. In Proverbs 9:10, it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (NKJV). Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. The Bible tells us Jesus increased in wisdom (see Luke 2:52), and Jesus clearly demonstrated the fear of the Lord through His fellowship with the Father and His desire to live honorably, to make His Father known, and to fulfill His purpose. In fact, in Isaiah 11:3, it says of Jesus, “His delight is in the fear of the Lord…” (NKJV). This fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God; it’s living in the awe (or wonder) of God.
We need the awe of God in the personal and revelatory aspect of our deep love relationship with God as individuals (just as Jesus had), but we also need the awe of God, or the deep reverential love of the Lord, to be released in the body of Christ as a whole. This fear of the Lord is the difference between religion and relationship. One is a form (religion), but one is ever flowing (relationship). Like Jesus, we are called to grow in our reverential communion with the Lord and the flow of the Holy Spirit. This is what caused Jesus to increase in wisdom—increasing in the awe of God. The same will be true for us. The more that we build our relationship with the Lord, the more we will increase in His wisdom. As the psalmist wrote, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Ps. 25:14 NKJV).
Jesus is the pattern for Kingdom living, and just as God released increased wisdom into Jesus’ life, He desires to do the same for us. About Jesus, Mark 6:2 says:
And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!” (NKJV).
The key phrase here is: “What wisdom is this which is given to Him?” These people were astonished because they knew Jesus. They knew His family: “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3 NKJV). They had known Jesus since He was a kid, and they could not understand how someone from such a humble family could exhibit such wisdom and power. But Jesus didn’t have wisdom because of His natural circumstances, but because His heavenly Father gave it to Him. James echoes this idea when he writes: “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 NKJV). Just as Jesus received wisdom, James says that if we ask God for wisdom, we too will receive it.
The church—each one of us—is called to reveal the manifold wisdom of God to the earth. The Lord’s plan is to give us His wisdom. Let’s look more closely at the definition of the Greek word translated as “given” in Mark 6:2. It can mean several things:
1. To be granted or to grant one’s asking
2. To supply or furnish necessary things
3. To give into one’s care something to be administrated
In other words, because we ask for wisdom, God wants to give and entrust wisdom to us that will supply and furnish what’s necessary for us. What an incredible idea—to be entrusted with God’s wisdom, to be called as a steward of His wisdom on the earth. I’ve seen God’s wisdom profoundly at work in my life, and I long for more. I believe it is the time for more, that the Lord is inviting us to ask for increased wisdom for the choices and days ahead. This gift is not just for the leaders or the most gifted individuals. It is for everyone—for every poor wise man or woman that the Lord can find. The one poor man in the city, the man no one knew or remembered, touched the spiritual realm of God and changed his city because of the wisdom of God. Like him, with God’s wisdom, we can literally take authority and have impact in the spirit realm.
The flow of wisdom will enable us to touch not only the natural, but also the spiritual. It will manifest the mighty works of God in the natural, and it will also impact spiritual realities. This is the increase the Lord is inviting the church into. It doesn’t matter that we haven’t exhibited this level of wisdom in the past; He is giving a new level of wisdom—a wisdom for strategies, patterns, and words for the times we live in. Sometimes we think, Well, I can’t have that kind of impact in our culture, community, city, or region. Yes, you can. It’s not about being someone important in the world’s eyes. It’s about being someone who goes deep in the awe of God and who asks for the greater wisdom. God will answer your prayers. He will give you wisdom for what to pray and prophetically declare, and He will begin to establish those things according to His purposes.
In Mark 6:2, when the people were astonished by Jesus’ wisdom, they link that wisdom to the mighty works He performed. “And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!” (NKJV).In this verse, the word translated as “mighty works” (dunamis in Greek) means “miracles.” When Jesus tapped into the wisdom of God, the result was mighty supernatural miracles. The wisdom of God is unto mighty Kingdom works, and the good news is, it wasn’t just for Jesus. It isn’t just for the person on the stage. It’s for all of us. James promised, if we ask for wisdom, God will give it (see James 1:5). God wants to give us wisdom with dunamis. He gives us dunamis because we’re being entrusted with wisdom. He’s given us something to administrate—His wisdom. Do administrate His wisdom correctly, we need His dunamis to exercise mighty works for His glory.
I believe the Lord wants to release profound wisdom in this season that will begin to have a cultural impact. About God’s wisdom, Ephesians 3:10, says, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (NKJV). The word manifold refers to many colors, like the many facets and hues of a diamond. The Lord is the light (wisdom), and the church is a diamond that reflects the many variations of God’s light (wisdom). This is what Paul means by “the manifold wisdom of God.” God’s wisdom is not static; it is designed to be reflected, like a diamond or prism, by the church. This is our calling on earth—to reflect the wisdom of God into the spiritual realms of darkness. These principalities and powers are also referred to in Ephesians 6:10–12, where Paul reminds us that our battle isn’t against humans, but against spiritual forces of darkness.
This is amazing! God wants to take our individual lives and give us a constant, ever-increasing supply of His wisdom to be administrated with His supernatural dunamis empowerment. We are like that poor man who may not be remembered, but who saved the city by the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God is not about fame or volume, but about impact in the spiritual places. So much happens in the unseen realm to bring alignment for God’s purposes. We don’t always see it, but we get to be part of it when we walk in His wisdom. He makes every crooked place straight. He makes the rough places smooth. He brings every mountain of opposition low so that the glory of the Lord will be revealed.
In all of this, wisdom is the key. God’s wisdom releases something administrative to us—an assignment, a strategy, a word. God has favored us to have influence in our sphere, in our family, in our marketplace positions. He is giving us wisdom for the groups of people we influence. This wisdom is for right now, for the time we are in and the purpose of the Lord, which will be manifested through His wisdom. All we need to do is ask (see James 1:5). The Lord longs to give His wisdom to those who know Him deeply and who simply ask. It is available, and it is for all of us. This, I believe, is God’s heart for His church in this season—that we would increase in His wisdom so that we can release divine strategies and dunamis works within our spheres of influence.
It is my prayer that you would see an increase in the wisdom of God and that His dunamis will flow in a mighty way in your life. I pray He puts your life on display through His manifold wisdom. You are not insignificant. You are not left out. You have a call, and you have influence. As you daily live in His flow of wisdom, you will have great impact through His power. Embrace your day by faith and acquire God’s wisdom. He will enable you to abide and build by wisdom. He will enable you, like the poor wise man, to release heaven’s solutions into your world.
Abundant Glory Blessings,
Keith
