Proverbs 4:5-8 instructs us, “Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.”
This passage tells us what wisdom will do: preserve, keep, (AMPC – defend, protect), promote you, and bring you to honor.
To walk in God’s wisdom is one way God protects and defends us. Sometimes people do things that aren’t wise, get into difficulty, then wonder why God didn’t warn them. Wisdom warns us!
God’s wisdom is God’s mind and thoughts.
When faced with a need or a test, find out God’s thinking and what He says pertaining to your situation. God’s wisdom will promote us. Having God’s wisdom will promote us into God’s best and into God’s plan for our life, but God’s wisdom will also promote us out of tests.
If you are doing all you know to do and nothing is changing, you need God’s wisdom – ask Him.
One minister tells of a time years ago when nearly everyone in the family was sick. They were standing in faith, but nothing was changing. This minister called their dad, who was a seasoned minister, and asked, “Why aren’t we receiving?”
He said, “I don’t know. But wisdom is the principal thing. Get God’s wisdom. Ask Him why you aren’t receiving.” They did, and God gave them the specific answer of what to do, and when they did what He said, everything changed.
James 1:2-6 instructs us, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering….”
This passage starts off talking about tests and temptations we’re facing. Then it tells us what to do if we lack wisdom in the face of tests – ask God! Wisdom isn’t given automatically – we must ask – ask in faith!
God’s Wisdom in a Test
Recently, there was a threat the enemy kept making. I didn’t know the specific answer to it, so I would answer it generally with the truths of the Word, and it would just stand off. But after a few weeks, that same opposition would return. I would again give a general answer and it would again back off, but it didn’t leave.
The last time it came, God said to me, “Ask Me about that opposition.” I hadn’t talked to God about it because I didn’t want to touch that threat in my thought life – I didn’t want to turn it over in my mind. But when God told me to ask Him about it, I did. He told me why it was coming. God gave me the specific answer to give to that threat, and when I answered that threat specifically, that devil left and didn’t come back. The enemy’s strategy failed because the wisdom of God came.
Colossians 1:9 reads, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (NIV).
When you resist an attack, but it keeps recurring, it’s because you aren’t yet giving the right specific answer. Specifics given by the Spirit of God are the wisdom of God for your need, and wisdom is the principal thing that gets results every time when we add our faith and obedience to it.
Wisdom Is Specific
Mark 5:6-9 tells us about how Jesus dealt with the madman of Gadera: “But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”
Notice, Jesus had commanded the devil to come out once, and he didn’t, so Jesus asked him his name. When Jesus called the demons out by name, the specific name (the specific thing to say), the demons came out – He got results.
(In one vision Kenneth E. Hagin had of Jesus, Jesus taught him about evil spirits, and stated that sometimes – not every time – you need to know the name of the demon to cast it out.)
This shows us that when faced with opposition, we sometimes need to answer opposition with more specific answers and not just general answers, in order to get results.
If you are having to deal with the same opposition repeatedly, you need God’s wisdom to know the specific answer to give.
We are to live “Days of Heaven on Earth.” We aren’t to live troubled and harassed by ongoing opposition. Troubling is not to last; it is not to be a way of life for the believer.
Ephesians 6:13-14 tells us, “…having done all, to stand. Stand therefore....” We haven’t “done all to stand” if we lack God’s wisdom regarding our situation. We are to ask God for His wisdom regarding a lingering test. To “stand” doesn't mean to just cope. To “stand” involves being fully suited in the armor of God, and it involves standing on the Word with the specific answer of God’s wisdom in our mouth.
Ask God for His wisdom, which is your specific answer to the test – then when you stand on that Word, you’ll get results!