04/06/2018
Every day I begin my prayers with an expression of love for God, then a plea for my forgiveness of sin, followed by my thanks for His many blessings, and next I ask for three things I would like to talk about today... wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence. Do you ask the Lord for these things? Not that you should receive them in a worldly sense, but more-so in a spiritual sense... Do you desire supernatural enlightenment in understanding God’s will for you this day?
“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”
Ephesians 1:17-18 ESV
Paul prayed, as Jesus did, and as we should, for an understanding of God’s will for Him that day... that moment... in his continuous outpouring of prayer, he asks for this, and it is a difficult prayer for us to pray. It is not so hard because we struggle to ask the question, but because it means that we must hand over the reins of our life to Him in the process, and that we have reaffirmed again today the conscious human decision we may have initially made long ago; that this is a good thing to do. You see, our spiritual walk starts fresh each morning. Although our faith in Him continues, we must determine anew that His will has reign over us for that day, that hour, that minute, and that moment of continuous prayer.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."”
Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV
In making any earthly decision, the first thing we ask ourselves is a very simple question... “is this a good thing to do?” The question is simple, but reaching an answer requires those three things I spoke of earlier, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. You ask yourself if this is a wise thing to do, you ask yourself if this is something you know how to do, and then you ask if you understand it well enough to know all of its ramifications. This is how we approach our earthly decisions, but spiritually speaking, these three things are applied quite differently.
So we begin our day even before our very first prayer with an earthly decision... “Who will reign over my life right now?” Then, once we determine the answer to that question we will either reenter the physical world as its citizen and struggle in prayers of basic faith, or, we will assume our place as heavenly citizens, where we can move into our more mature spiritual prayers regarding God’s will for us. It does us no good to know the will of God for us if we have no intention of serving Him. When you begin your day do you begin it by making the human decision to give God reign over your life? If so, then let’s talk about what wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence look like to us as heavenly citizens.
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.”
Proverbs 3:13-14 ESV
As heavenly beings we ask God for wisdom, and knowledge, and He gives us Jesus Christ. He shows us the mysteries of our faith, and how to seek His will for us by revealing these things through Jesus. In Christ the will of God exists seamlessly with the human existence, and this is the path we too must take to possess the treasure of heaven, and become children of God.
“that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians 2:2-3 ESV
We don’t do this by our own earthly reasoning, but by allowing the wisdom and knowledge provided us by Jesus through the Holy Spirit to reveal the will of God, and then give us the intelligence (or enlightenment, and understanding) to do His will. Jesus prayed for these things, and when God’s will was revealed to Him, He submitted to it. We must do the same, and as we pray for wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence we need to realize that this is our true prayer. We are handing our decision making process over to God, and His Wisdom and Knowledge as it pertains to us will supplant our own, and then the intelligence to understand, and gifts that are needed to accomplish this, will be given us.
So we made one human decision, which was to give God control over us, and then allowed the wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence, which followed, to be those that we prayed God would provide. Did you make that prayer this morning? Are you ready to make that prayer today; all day?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for Your Son Jesus Christ, who brings to me spiritual wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence, through the Holy Spirit. I thank you for your will in my life, and I pray for these things which enable me to perceive, and carry out that will. Serving you is my heart’s greatest desire Lord, and though I have earthly decisions to make each day, there are none that are not subject to your overarching will. Each morning Holy Father I determine to renew my resolve in allowing you to reign over my life. I pray that every new day will find me resolute in my Service to you, and within your will for me always. You are without peer Father, and there is no wisdom nor knowledge that can challenge yours. Never let me presume to know better than you, or to take my hand from yours as you lead me. In your mighty goodness and wisdom I will praise you always, for you are great above all, and wise beyond compare. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God, and determiner is my desire to remain within your will forever.
“For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.”
Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV
Rich Forbes