Gifts: 2 The Gift of a Word of Wisdom - 1 Corinthians 2:6-13

My search for wisdom

I wonder when you last felt home sick? That was me, 2 weeks into University. Burton-on-Trent is nothing to write home about, but I missed it. I particularly missed being with family and some of my friends. I’d quickly found a church to settle into, but I was also feeling the sense of opportunity. In my first 19 years of life, God had done so much, but now I was out here in the world on my own, able to delve into new things, to discover who God was making me to be and I started a quest.

This was a quest many have been on. It’s the great quest we see King Solomon on when he asked God for this gift.

I was in search of wisdom. I had been blessed by growing up around a number of wise people. People who didn’t just have a lot of knowledge, but really knew how to apply the knowledge they’d learned. People who you could turn to in a crisis and they seemed to know just the best way to go ahead.

I was a follower of Jesus, and yet I still thought this was an ability someone could gain. That people would turn to someone and say “O you are so wise”. I wanted to be one of those people.

My Mum’s a treasure, and she’d sent me off with a devotional book to turn to. One of those gifts that was given with love, but which I didn’t intend on picking up. I was happy reading the Bible my way thanks Mum, and I wasn’t expecting this book to help me in the quest for wisdom. I didn’t have a road map, or a plan, but every day I was asking God to help me get wisdom.

I knew the proverbs were supposed to be packed with wisdom, and I read them. They sounded sensible, some were directly applicable to my life in the Uni digs, but many washed over my head.

I eventually looked at the contents of this book my Mum had given me and was amazed by what I found. Selecting the first devotional about wisdom it led to Solomon’s request for wisdom. Let’s take a look shall we.

1 Kings 3:3–15 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. 4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’ 6 Solomon answered, ‘You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 7 ‘Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’ 10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honour—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.’ 15 Then Solomon awoke—and he realised it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he gave a feast for all his court.

So I could see that faithfulness to God, living life as He asks me to, was the foundation for gaining wisdom. Solomon’s request also comes out of humility, aware he can’t rule Israel without God at his side.

My quest continued, and I started to read the proverbs in a new light. At this point I still believed wisdom was one thing which could be gained.

In Proverbs 8, Solomon personifies Wisdom. If you’ve read ‘the shack’ which is a few years old now, you might remember meeting this person. I was mesmerised, trying to work out how I could attain this wisdom.

And just after meeting this word picture, this personification of wisdom, we have this famous passage which many of you will know well.

Proverbs 9:10–12 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11 For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. 12 If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.

The fear, or respect for, the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

So there’s a differentiation then between knowledge and wisdom.

There’s that helpful example that “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is wisely not putting it in a fruit salad”

Knowledge is about specific facts, wisdom is knowing how to apply those facts.

My search for wisdom in my first year of University led me to a Truth of scripture. I can know all the knowledge I like about God, but wisdom comes through knowing and respecting him. And in this sense, it’s knowledge in the relational sense. The entire gospel speaks of God making himself relationaly known, and True godly wisdom isn’t attained as an attribute, it’s given through a relationship, a connection with the God who loves us.

Delving in

So let’s delve into our passage with Paul this morning.

1 Corinthians 2:6–13 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

What a passage. Paul distinguishes between “human wisdom” with “wisdom of this age” which he also calls human wisdom.

Human wisdom is the place we look when we’re not looking at God.

Can I see a show of hands for any Disney lovers in the room?

2 of the new cannon of Disney films are the frozen stories. The first film is a great story of understanding how to use power, a story of trust, betrayal and love.

The second film, Frozen 2, is a deeper film about journey, discovery, grief, suffering, friendship and destiny.

Claire and I watched a thrilling 6 part series detailing the production of the film, and I had no idea that Disney films evolve based on the best ideas, and there was still about 60% of the animation of the film to be done in the last few months before it was released.

One of the best musical songs of the show is called “Show yourself”. Elsa, the snow queen, has heard a voice calling her and she believes the voice will lead her to discover the Truth of who she is. To help her understand her destiny.

Here’s 1 minute of the song to give you a little insight

Watch video 1:45-2:48 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrZxwPwmgrw

There was a delay in the production of the film because they couldn’t work out who Elsa was searching for. They had this great song, but they couldn’t work out who Elsa should find, who should give her wisdom on her who she is.

Sadly, in my opinion, they sort in the wisdom of our world and Elsa finds out that the spirit guiding her all this time, the one she wants to reveal who she is, is of course herself. The one with the answers was herself and to find her true self, all she had to do was look within.

This song has been the source of much deep conversation with our boys about the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.

In the garden of Eden, we see first Eve then Adam fall to the temptation to be like God. Rather than trusting in the wisdom of God, they sort the knowledge for themselves. They listened to the voice of the enemy who whispered “is that what God really said?”

Paul is not asking us to look within to our own divine nature (because that’s not a christian nor biblical understanding of our natures. Our natures are deeply flawed because of our sin.)

It’s not about self-actualisation and discovering “Your truth”. No Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the world with the wisdom from God.

He even wrote in the passage in the chapter before:

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

This wisdom of God sees God himself coming down from heaven to earth in Jesus Christ, walking among his broken children, showing us the best way to live. The way of God’s wisdom, which shows deep radical love, and ends with him dying a criminals death, sacrificing himself to rid, all who turn to Him, from sin.

This is the wisdom of God.

John 3:16–17 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We understand more from our passage today, that this wisdom was hidden and is now revealed by the Spirit, to the world, through His believers.

When I reached my final year of university I realised that wisdom, in it’s truest sense, wasn’t about something for me to gain and keep. Of course, the more we walk with Jesus, the more we follow in His footsteps, the more our actions and words become like His word.

But I realised that wisdom of course is God Himself. If you want wisdom, whatever you do, don’t look inwardly at your broken self. Ask Him, walk with Him. The wisest people I know are wise with godly wisdom because they spend time with God everyday. They are in constant relationship with Him and it is God working through them that makes them wise.

This is the step I wanted to reach to explore the supernatural gift of words of wisdom. In my experience as a follower of Jesus, this is a gift God gives use for the moments it’s needed. It’s all about listening to God and faithfully sharing what we feel He has said. Offering it through invitation.

Remember Paul wrote

1 Corinthians 12:1 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

1 Corinthians 12:7–8 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,

Example: Man on the steps of the bombed church

Let me give you an example of a word of wisdom.

On Thursday I had a working lunch in Liverpool with one of the leaders of Tearfund. We’d agreed to meet at a particular restaurant, but I was early. I spent an hour in a coffee shop opposite and was studying for this sermon when I felt God say “be ready to receive a word of wisdom.” I looked around the coffee shop and I didn’t feel God draw me to anyone in particular and got a sense to just wait on the Lord. I spent a couple of minutes in quiet prayer before getting on with the sermon.

20 minutes before my lunch I left the coffee shop and found the restaurant wouldn’t open their doors until 12. I had 20 minutes to kill so I wandered up toward the bombed church. I walked to the top of the steps next to the shell of a church and felt the Holy Spirit pause me. I turned round and sat down on the steps just taking in the scene. Lot’s of people walking and driving past. I closed my eyes and asked God to give me whatever he wanted and had a lovely moment with the Lord. Then as I opened my eyes I saw a man in a blue denim jacket sat much further down on the steps to my left and I felt God say “Tell him I promise to be with Him in what he’s going through.” Now I always test whether I believe it’s from God firstly by asking Him if I’ve made it up or whether it’s from Him. I’ve discovered the more I’ve received words of wisdom, the more I’ve shared something which seems odd, the more I’ve learned to discern whether it’s me making it up or whether it’s God.

The top tip is to always offer. So after sensing that this word wasn’t disappearing and God wanted me to share it with this stranger, I climbed down the steps and headed for the guy.

I smiled, and introduced myself “Hi, I’m Dan, I’m a Christian, I’ve been praying just up there and I think God wants me to share something with you. May I sit down.”

The guy looked surprised, he could have said no and I’d have thanked him for his time and walked off. But he agreed.

“I’ve just been praying and really sensed God saying He promises to be with you whatever you’re going through. I don’t know if that means anything to you or not?”

And the man shared that he wasn’t exactly a Christian but he’d been exploring faith for years, and He’d just started reading the Bible again. I was able to hear a bit of his story and recommended a local church near to where he lived and pointed him to the alpha course, before we parted ways.

What I realised after that encounter was that I don’t get words of wisdom like that when I’m in a rush, when I’m in a hurry. But I often get words of wisdom from the Spirit when I am unhurried and invite Him to work.

Words of wisdom are a real gift from God. Straight from the Spirit of God who is the only one who knows our hearts and minds other than ourselves, and he actually knows them much better than us.

With the gifts of the Spirit all you need to do is ask, and as this is a spiritual gift within prophecy, I believe it is one which God gives to most of his believers. God only gives us what we’re ready for.

Remember, we never declare it as a Truth from God (because we might have heard wrong or be speaking from worldly wisdom rather than the wisdom of God), but we offer gently, and as an invitation, the words we believe God has laid on our hearts. Words of wisdom are normally about direction, and it’s vitally important we weigh what we believe we’ve heard as people trust us and these words have a lot of weight. So offer it and if it doesn’t make sense to the individual, that’s fine. Let it fall away. We always pray that the things of us and this world would fall away in prophesy and the Truth of God would go deep and guide us.

Can I ask you to stand, and hold your hands out in a posture of receiving.

We’re going to ask God for a word of wisdom. If you don’t hear anything that’s completely fine, if you’re new hearing from God just ask and see if you sense Him give you something. And as we move into a time of worship, don’t forget our prayer ministry team will be over in the corner to pray with anyone who wants prayer.

If this morning you would like to receive one of the spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of a word of wisdom, then just pause. Take a deep breath in, and breath out.

Holy Spirit, I love you and I want to faithfully follow you. I ask for a word of wisdom now for someone. Would you bring them to my mind. Lord what are you saying?