A man’s wisdom gives him patience… Prov 19:11 NIV
The Spirit of Wisdom – The Shack is a fictional book that I really enjoyed, in which the main character meets God. It’s a book that warms your heart and scares your mind. One of the things I enjoyed most was the elevation of “wisdom” as one of God’s characteristics or personalities extended to us via the Holy Spirit. The Lord is emphasizing wisdom to Kings in this season. Proverbs is the book of wisdom, but the first nine chapters seem to point to the “spirit of wisdom.”
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord — Isa 11:2 NIV
For whoever finds me (wisdom) finds life and receives favor from the Lord. Prov 8:35 NIV
The spirit of wisdom has several characteristics that are playing out in our lives as Kings right now: patience, faith, hope, and love.
“Patience” Letting the game come to you – In sports, this saying reflects the ability to play within your skill level and not try to do too much or too little. It’s an object lesson for the rest of our spiritual and practical life. Our true purpose and heart’s desires fit us well. If we learn to be content with who we are, and play within our metron (measure of faith), we’ll be amazed at the great things God can do through us and that we can do in His power. By the same token, if we are impatient and try to measure up to expectations that are not for us, life feels like we’re always swimming upstream. His burden is light and His yoke is easy. Life works when we get in sync with the Father… even when it doesn’t work.
Impatience is the temptation to see our future and try too hard to make it happen. Getting the revelation of what will happen comes before the wisdom of how to make it happen. “Haste” is the fruit of immaturity. God does give breakthroughs, but the character, or wisdom, of success is diligence, patience and work. That’s the stuff of Kings. Patience is not passive; it’s seeing the dream, having a plan, making the midcourse corrections, and enjoying the process of working on it over the long haul – minus the “home run” mentality.
The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Prov 21:5 NIV
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Rom 8:25 NIV
Faith and hope – Patience comes from somewhere; it’s not magic. Our ability to wade through challenges has roots in being able to see our future. We have “hope” in the character of God… that He is for us and will carry us through. We have “faith” in the word of God… that which has been made real to our hearts in terms of promises that are specific to us. Faith and hope form a tandem that keeps our hearts focused on the desires that God placed within us. We don’t throw away our confidence in the face of trials. We stick with our vision and work until we give birth to the promised land within our hearts.
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Heb 6:12 NIV
And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Heb 6:15NIV
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. Heb 10:35-36 NIV
In a very real way, our greatest “work” is to stand in faith and believe Him. That level of faith gives rise to the diligence, persistence, tenacity and work that goes with seeing and entering the Kingdom.
Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:28-29 NIV
Love – When we first realize that God wants to work through the desires of our heart, the revelation is so sweet, so touching, that it feels like stepping into another dimension of our salvation, another aspect of the cross. It’s so moving to feel God’s love in such a tangible way, that Jesus actually cares about our heart’s desires and wants to make our dreams come true. Tears become logical!
The trade mark of this move is that we get in touch with our own hearts. We become aligned with who we were created to be, and we become ourselves. For the very first time we are able to love ourselves the way God always has. This “evangelism of the heart” causes us to see, love and release the dream in the hearts of other brothers and sisters. We value and respect and love people much more because we can see the dream in their hearts. Our prophetic skills get sharper and more compassionate at the same time. There is a precious delight in learning to do this, because the privilege of releasing the heart of another believer causes them to love you back. We’ve never been this way before. It feels like a jail break to servants! Someone cares! It’s an adventure, a thrill, and the sweetest place of loving people we can ever know… releasing the hearts of Kings. It’s something the Spirit of Wisdom is doing right now and we get to share in this labor of love.
The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath. One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Prov 11:23-25 NIV
