“For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Prov. 2:6)
Scripture tells us that if we want wisdom, we need only ask God for it in faith (Jas. 1:5,6). This verse in Proverbs tells us how God will answer our prayer. It comes from His mouth, that is His Word. We may like to think that God will just drop it in us instantly, but that is not what Solomon shared after receiving this gift. He told us to treasure God’s words in our hearts and to cry out for understanding and discernment. We are to search for wisdom as for hidden treasures. (Prov. 2:1-5).
In the parable of the sower, the Lord gave us insights on how the seed of the Word can grow and bear fruit in us. When we hear the words of the Lord, we receive them in our minds, but to get them into our hearts, we must mix them with faith (Heb. 4:2). If we harden our hearts through disobedience, the seed will not be planted deep enough to grow. “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Heb. 3:18,19). Those who desire to obey the Lord will receive His words by faith. Then, for the seed to bear much fruit, we must add one more step. We must meditate on the spoken word until we obtain spiritual understanding. “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who bears fruit and produces: some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matt. 13:23).
Spiritual understanding will help us keep the word until it bears fruit. I may have shared with you before how the Lord brought this revelation to me. In my prayers for guidance, I was seeking to hear a word from the Lord. There had been a few occasions in my walk, especially when my struggles were the most difficult, that I had been delivered by a “rhema” (spoken) word from the Lord. We all need those experiences at times, but I was placing too much importance on them. I was too hesitant to act unless I had a direct word from God. On that occasion, the Lord did not respond by answering my questions, but rather by bringing correction. A familiar passage in Scripture was opened to my understanding in a new way. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with brit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” (Ps. 32:8,9). Without spiritual understanding, I could be too easily distracted from obeying Him. “Discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things.” (Prov. 2:11,12). In these last days, many deceivers have gone out into the world (2Jn. 7), but we will be kept on the path of righteousness by the wisdom that is found in Christ (1Cor. 1:30). We must have the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2:16).
The process of transformation into the image of Christ depends on the working of the Holy Spirit (2Cor. 3:18). The presence of the Spirit is the moisture that causes the seed to germinate. When we receive spiritual understanding, we are “seeing” the Lord because He is the Word of God. Change will not occur in us unless we obey His words, but we must “see” Him before we can follow Him. The enemy will use the cares of this world to keep us from spending time in the Lord’s presence. There is a time to be busy, and there is a time to be quiet. The example of Mary and Martha illustrates this point. Martha was “worried and troubled about many things” but Mary “sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word” (Lu. 10:38-42). When Jesus is speaking, we should be listening. If we spend time at the feet of Jesus before we do the works, then we will rest in peace as we do them. We will not be anxious as Martha was. Having “beheld” Jesus in the Spirit, we will then be enabled to follow him with grace (Phil. 2:13). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Heb.10:29).
To receive this spiritual understanding from the Lord, we must be careful how we hear. When Jesus sent messages to the churches He said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev. 2:29). First, we must listen with meekness (Jas. 1:21). A proud person is not open to receive instruction. Second, we must discern through our spirit. “And he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor discern by the hearing of his ears” (Isa. 11:3). The Spirit teaches us through the anointing we have received (1Jn. 2:27). Third, we must be careful not to limit revelation by our own understanding (Prov. 3:5). We must trust in the Lord to confirm what is true in what we have previously understood. We have all been influenced by what we have heard, and we may even have received as doctrine the teachings of man (Matt. 15:9).
We need to read Scripture, but God can also speak through Christian books. Anointed teaching is a gift to the Church. We must read these with the same care given to prophetic words: “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” (1Thess. 5:21). It is important also to confirm these teachings through Scripture (Acts 17:11). Christian teaching should direct us to Jesus in the same manner that Scripture points us to Him (Jn. 5:39,40).
At the time of this writing, we are approaching a new year. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the Two-Year Bible Reading Plan available on this website. Reading the Bible in a systematic manner helps us to read portions of Scripture that we would not normally do. There are hidden treasures in all the books of the Bible. You can view this plan in the article posted on December 26, 2020, or you can download a copy of it with the following link.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TQs0_oejNJO8HInVlN1JmSClMhWcEbiG?usp=sharing
Highway in the Wilderness 