Receiving Godly Wisdom Into Your Life // Wisdom to Transform Your Life, Part 2

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Sure, everybody wants wisdom. Do you want to be wise? Yep, me too. But receiving wisdom and living it out – well it’s not always that easy. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it costs. Hmm. Do you still want to be wise?

Dealing with Hardness of Heart

Heart disease is rather a big deal these days. A diet high in refined carbohydrates, combined with a lack of exercise is taking its toll.

The problem seems to be hardening of the arteries. But it’s not a condition that affects many young people, because it takes time for arteries to harden. Decades in fact, of dietary abuse. And the reason that arteries harden is as a defence against the effects of the stuff that we’re putting in our mouths. Eventually, they rupture and there you have it – a heart attack or a stroke.

The Bible talks about the hardening of our hearts, heart disease if you will, too. Several times.

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. (Jeremiah 17:9)

I mean when that’s what’s going on in your heart, when that's the way you’re abusing yourself, your heart is going to get diseased. It’s going to harden. Here’s how it goes. Here’s the vicious circle.

Pride and hardness of heart go hand in hand. Pride is the enemy of humility. And pride … pride stops us from laying hold of God’s wisdom, which causes us pain and in turn, hardens our hearts, like scar tissue. It’s a vicious, vicious circle.

And when that’s what’s going on inside us, we’re not prepared to take advice from anyone. We’re hunkered down, defending ourselves, just trying to survive … and the wisdom of God is something that we just don’t want to accept.

Have you ever found yourself in that sort of a situation? That place where you’re so damaged, that you can’t receive the good advice of others or the wisdom of God that’s actually going to make things better?

It’s often the way things go. In protection mode, our heart hardens and we become unteachable. Unaccepting of the wisdom that will set us free.

Is your heart desperately sick? Be honest. How teachable is your spirit? How open are you, right at this moment, to accept the powerful wisdom of God that will set you free from the maladies that are plaguing your life?

Has sin so wracked you with pain and suffering that your heart feels as hard as stone? If you’re in that desperate situation, then I have a Word from the Lord for you today. It’s a prayer that can set you free from this dark and difficult place.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10)

I remember a time in my life when I was completely unteachable. A time when I was so proud, and yet so damaged, that my heart was as hard as stone.

There’s nothing worse than a hard, unteachable heart. It stops you from receiving the healing wisdom that God has for you. That’s why God wants to give us a clean heart. That’s why God wants to put His Holy Spirit in us.

To heal us from the inside out. To do some radical heart surgery, to remove the diseased tissue, and replace it with healthy tissue.

I remember the very first heart transplant, by a surgeon Dr Christian Barnard on the 3rd of December, 1967. The heart recipient only survived for 18 days, such was the state of the technology and medical knowledge back then.

These days, whilst not quite a routine operation, heart transplants almost always succeed, adding years of healthy life.

And that’s the key. It’s not just life, but healthy life, vibrant life, abundant life that we’re looking for here. And that’s the sort of life that God wants you to lead. But you can’t have it with a diseased heart. And just as King David, after committing murder and adultery, prayed for a clean heart, a right spirit, an infilling of the Holy Spirit – what we discover elsewhere in God’s Word is that that’s exactly what God wants to do for us.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

In other words God wants to give you a new heart – taking the heart of stone, the diseased heart out, and replacing it with a healthy heart of flesh. And not just a new heart. When we have a new heart, when our heart is soft and healthy again, it will be open to receive a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit – so that we can receive the wisdom of God. So that we can receive the wisdom of God.

How’s your heart? Hardened by years of abuse? Hardened by pain and unforgiveness? Scarred by the hurts that you’ve suffered in the past? Damaged to the point that it’s difficult, almost impossible, to receive the healing wisdom of God?

Well, today I have some good news for you. God wants to give you a new heart and a new Spirit. All you need to do is to believe His Word and ask Him for it.

He is ready, willing and able to heal your life, to replace your heart, to fill you with His Spirit and to open you up to receive His wisdom into your heart.

When you think about it, the heart is where we live. It’s the seat, the centre, of our emotions.

Of course, the heart is a physical organ vital to life. That’s why we use it as a metaphor for the centre of who we are. Everything flows out of our metaphorical heart. If the heart is diseased, our lives are diseased. If the heart is healthy, our lives are healthy.

If our heart is filled with evil intentions, then our lives will live out that evil. That’s why Jesus said that murder begins in the heart. Out of the overflow the heart speaks. What happens in our hearts first, is later acted out in our lives. Our hearts, and our hands are connected.

As I look back on my life there have been times when my heart has been completely closed to the things of God; the wisdom of God. And the only way that I’ve discovered to deal with that is to draw near to God.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)

You and I can work and work and work at improving ourselves, but have you noticed, it just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you work at it.

So, when you feel as though God is a million miles away (He isn’t of course, it just feels that way) then it’s time to tackle a step towards Him. It’s time to set a bit of time aside each day to pray. It’s time to open His Word and read it, reflect on it, receive it.

It’s not easy at first. It’s like a young infant taking her first faltering steps towards her dad. But, just think of what that does in the Father’s heart. When we take a few, faltering, unsteady steps towards Him, He takes some mighty, God-sized steps towards us.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

That’s His promise to you today, in case you’re feeling as though He’s a million miles away. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. And in that place, He will purify your heart, He will cleanse your hands, He will remove the double-mindedness and doubt from you in a way that you could never do for yourself.

What’s the matter with us that we think we have to clean up our act before we go to God? Sure our hearts might be filthy dirty, diseased, hard as stone. Sure our hands might be covered in filth as well.

It’s for sinners like you and me that Jesus died.

What you and I need is wisdom that penetrates the heart. And that’s exactly what Jesus has ready and waiting for you.

Wisdom from Above

Most of my life, I’ve believed that wisdom comes with age. And to some extent that’s true.

Normally someone who’s been around the block a few times, will have made enough mistakes, and seen enough things to be able to impart some real wisdom.

But just because you’re a bit older, doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily any wiser. Sometimes a person’s blind spots, you know their weaknesses, their failures, stop them from, I guess laying hold of real wisdom.

And sometimes, something that holds itself out to be real wisdom, is tainted by self-interest or other motives that may not be in your best interests.

Let me ask you, is it wise for a woman to have an abortion or not? Well, that depends – at least out there in the marketplace of ideas – on where you’re coming from; on your perspective; on your interests.

So how do you know what real wisdom looks like? How can you tell real wisdom from false wisdom, when you see it? Being able to discern that, being able to tell the difference between these two types of wisdom, as things turn out, is incredibly important.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. (James 3:13)

So it seems that, according to God at least – probably not such a bad place to go for wisdom when you think about it – the first marque of wisdom is a good life full of works born out of gentleness.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not naturally a gentle person. I’m more your get things done kind of person. So a huge part of my journey has been to learn gentleness. Now, gentleness doesn’t mean weakness. It doesn’t mean being airy-fairy and indecisive. It doesn’t mean being ill-disciplined.

But what it does mean is getting things done in love. What it does mean is that as much as getting things done is important, people, these people who annoy us and who frustrate us … who, to be honest drive us crazy sometimes … these people who are made in God’s image and loved by Him every bit as much as you are loved by Him … yes, those, people matter more than getting things done.

So when someone holds themselves out to be wise, ask yourself What does their life tell me? Is it a life full of good works done with gentleness? Because that will tell you the nature of their wisdom – real, or fake.

And, come on, let’s look in the mirror too. Let’s take a look at our own lives. What’s the rest of the world seeing in how we live out our lives? Good works born out of gentleness … or, not.

Because let me tell you, false wisdom is ugly. Really, really ugly.

Some people pretend to be wise, but then, when you scratch below the surface, you find that they’re anything but. What makes this so dangerous is that often those same people are … so confident; often they’re incredibly successful and so we fall for that.

Those sorts of people lead many astray into ways of thinking, into ways of behaving, into ways of living, that end up ruining your life. That’s why you and I need to be so incredibly discerning when it comes to deciding who we are going to allow, to influence our lives.

It won’t come as a surprise that some people are wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. You’ll find them at work, sadly sometimes at home and yes, you’ll find them in your church too. And here’s what their brand of wisdom looks like:

But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. (James 3:14-16)

Envy and selfish ambition – those two things go hand in hand. Some people are only in it for what they can get out of it for themselves. And sometimes, they’re in the most unexpected of places. I remember having something to do with the head of a large, well-known, global ministry who was far more interested in his reputation and self-promotion than he was in seeing people’s lives changed by the love of Jesus.

When others in his organisation succeeded, instead of celebrating and praising God, he became envious. It poisoned his heart, it damaged the ministry and it ended his career.

Sure there are people out there who are flashy, successful, articulate, capable of leading a crowd. But the questions to ask ourselves is: Why are they doing it? What is the motivation of their heart?

Because let me tell you, their words, their actions, their facial expressions and body language, their decisions will ultimately betray what’s going on in their hearts. They can’t help it. So be wise yourself. Take the time to watch and listen, before being seduced by what is, ultimately, worldly, self-interest that holds itself out to be 'wisdom'.

You will know a tree by its fruit, right? And while we’re at it, what does your fruit say about your heart? What motivates you? If it’s selfish ambition, if you find yourself becoming envious of other people who succeed, then it’s time to look for a different sort of wisdom.

In our world. We’re taught that success is the most important thing. But envy and selfish ambition have nothing whatsoever to do with wisdom.

So, let me ask you, what does real wisdom look like? If you ran into some powerful, godly wisdom, how would you recognise it.

People who roll over the top of others, who succeed at the expense of those around them, well, no, that’s not wisdom is it?

People who are in it for themselves, full of selfish ambition, people who get jealous whenever anyone around them succeeds … no that’s not wisdom either, no matter how successful those people might be.

I want to share with you today, the best, the most powerful, the most reliable definition of wisdom that I have ever come across:

… the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3:17-18)

Real wisdom comes from above; from God. It’s pure, completely untainted by partiality, self-interest or envy. Purity is fantastic isn’t it. It king of rings out – simple, beautiful, unmistakable. It’s just the sort of wisdom you know is from God because it’s peaceable.

You and I are called to be peacemakers. To navigate in love through conflict and strife. The most powerful and influential leaders I know are peaceable and gentle. Gentleness is such an underrated quality these days.

I wonder what opportunities lie ahead for you, today, to be gentle with people? Hmm? Great wisdom is willing to yield. When someone else has a better idea, when someone else is heading in a direction that you know in your heart of hearts to be right – real wisdom, godly wisdom, is willing to yield.

Full of mercy for others – because all those annoying people out there are going to make mistakes. They’re going to rub you the wrong way. And when they’re behaving badly, mercy forgives. After all, mercy is only mercy, if it’s undeserved.

Godly wisdom is full of good fruit, without a single trace of partiality and hypocrisy. Real wisdom yields a harvest of peace.

Wow! Just stop and take those two verses – James 3:17-18 – and imagine how your world would change, if you lived your life like that. Because that’s the very sort of wisdom that God wants for you. That’s the very sort of wisdom that He has ready and waiting for you.

Why is it that we think that selfishness and partiality is the way to get ahead? Why is it that we imagine that we always have to put our best foot forward, so that everyone will think well of us?

Let me ask you, do you think well of those sorts of people?

There is a different sort of wisdom waiting for you. Live that wisdom and may your life yield a harvest of righteousness and peace.

God’s Wisdom Never Fails

You know it never ceases to amaze me, how when I open the Bible, God has right there, in the next chapter, ready and waiting, exactly the wisdom I need for today.

Just yesterday, I opened God’s Word at Psalm 91. I’ve had a pretty rough travel schedule over the past few weeks. I’ve had a pinched nerve in my neck. I was tired and sore and you know it as well as I do, when you’re physically down. You can be emotionally down too.

You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)

Just the wisdom, the encouragement, the comfort, the heavenly perspective that I needed.

Do you yearn for the wisdom of God? There are so many things that He sets before us, that are way beyond our ability to figure out. Problems that come along, challenges, things that you wish you could figure but you just can’t.

So when you pray, when you read God’s Word for yourself, day after day God will give you His wisdom. Because He knows you’re seeking it. He can see you longing to see His kingdom come, His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven.

The Bible says that we walk by faith, not by sight. You know, when we yearn for God’s wisdom, when we long to hear Him speak, when we go to Him as Solomon did and ask for wisdom and discernment, it brings joy to His heart and He pours it out on us, just like we asked. It’s who He is. It’s how it works.

God’s Wisdom is ready and waiting for you.

Are you sick to death of being tossed to and fro by the winds and the waves of my circumstances? It’s a terrible thing when you’re going through a tough time and you don’t have something rock-solid to stand on.

Well, let me tell you, God’s Word, God’s wisdom, God’s promises – never fail. If God says that He’s going to do something, He does it. Full stop. End of story.

You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. (Psalm 91:5-6)

You need never be afraid of our circumstances. You never have to worry about how you’re going to handle something complex, something difficult, something that you really don’t want to deal with, something that’s so complex that it’s beyond your ability to cope with.

Because His promise is that, if in a time of testing and trial, if in a time of suffering or persecution, you ask Him for His wisdom, He’ll just give it to you.

I really want to encourage you today to take the promises of God seriously. I know it’s hard. And the more difficult life gets, the harder it is to believe. But the only solution I’ve ever discovered to fear, to pain, to that sense of lostness, to loneliness – and I’ve been in all of those places over the last 20 years – is to draw close to Jesus. To take Him at His Word.

The Word of God, the Bible, isn’t just another book. It's not just a bunch of words on a page or a screen. It’s the living Word of the living God. And when you read something like

You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)

You are entitled to take God at His Word. To believe what He says, to trust in Him, to rest in Him and to receive from him what He promises. That my friend is why they call this the Good News. That’s the Wisdom of God. The powerful wisdom of God for you today. May you receive it in your heart and experience it in your life.