Choose God's Wisdom over Life Experience

The Father’s wisdom will rock your boat! Supernatural wisdom of God often rocks our boat of beliefs; a boat filled with personal life experiences and knowledge from which we make decision in leadership. Most Christian leaders hold more tightly to life’s experiences than to God’s wisdom.

Scripture says ‘Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’(Rom. 11:33). It does not say the riches of your experiences or your knowledge!!!!! Our life experiences create a wealth of information that can help us be effective leaders in business and ministry. However, those life experiences also create belief systems, or paradigms, which may cause doubt and wavering when we seek wisdom from the Lord. However, if we let our Father rock our beliefs He leads us to rock solid stability. We choose believe God’s wisdom in spite of our belief system.

We see in James 1:6 that when we ask the Lord for wisdom we are to ‘believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.’ If you’ve ever been in a boat on stormy water, you’ll understand that scripture. Being blown around feels very unstable and very uncomfortable! That’s how we initially feel when God downloads wisdom that does not line up with our inner beliefs on leadership.

Any supernatural wisdom coming from the deep well of God’s Spirit may shatter some old belief system in your life. For example, many years ago I was in a leadership position in government and responsible for hiring a person for a critical management position. As I considered possible candidates, the Lord brought to my attention a person who was a vocal, articulate opponent of some of the policies and work we were doing. I asked for the Father’s wisdom, and He showed me that this person could become a vocal, articulate advocate once inside our organization. My experiences said ‘never hire the opposition’. My Father pulled back the veil of the future to revealing how this person could become a great advocate and leader in the organization.

I chose to put aside my experiential beliefs, embrace the Father’s riches of wisdom, and believe that hiring this person would bring the fruit I saw beyond the veil. I did just exactly that. For the first year or so, I questioned whether or not it was really God’s wisdom!! It did not go smoothly at first, but I continued to believe and not doubt and His wisdom was proved right. Jesus said in Matt. 11:19 ‘wisdom is proved right by her actions’. God’s wisdom was proved right, not in the first year, but as I continued to believe and act upon that wisdom.

Within a couple years this person became not only the voice of advocacy, but a voice of leadership that exceeded my expectations. He helped lead our organization to excellence. The Father’s wisdom initially rocked my boat, but ultimately stabilized and expanded my success. It can do the same for you. Ask for His wisdom for something in your life today. Let is rock your boat! But continue to believe and not doubt and you will be stabilized as you see His wisdom proved right.

You Don't Earn Wisdom

Wisdom is not about drips and drabs, but about generous portions.

Wisdom is free for those who ask, receive, and believe! Yes, you can have wisdom because of Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross.

In the recent posts I defined supernatural Godly wisdom. I also revealed how your heart attitude positions you to receive that wisdom. Now we must discover how to acquire wisdom. It’s really quite easy—just ask, receive, and believe!!!

James told the church in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” Wow! Just ask. The believer in Jesus Christ has continual access to the Father’s wisdom by asking!!

Note that the scripture says God will give generously. He does not withhold any good thing from those who love Him and live in Him. Wisdom is not about drips and drabs, but about generous portions.

More importantly, God does not find fault in the one who asks!! Your sin of yesterday or today does not restrict the flow of wisdom. Yes, you heard that correctly—that’s what I said!

In the same way we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, so also we have access to wisdom by grace through faith in Jesus. Grace means ‘undeserved favor and blessing’. In the same way we ask and receive Jesus and the gift of salvation, so do we ask and receive the gift of wisdom.

Jesus took away your sin of yesterday, today, and tomorrow—opening the door to supernatural wisdom without the Father finding fault with you. This sounds radical, but it’s simply the ‘good news’ that Jesus proclaimed. Acquiring wisdom from the Father is not conditioned upon merit, upon good works, or upon your current behavior. It’s based upon what I posted over the last couple weeks: your humility of heart, i.e. your personal realization that you don’t have it, you need it, and the Father gives it…..freely…..if you ask.

The reason your heart is involved is that if you think you’re so smart you already have all the wisdom you need, you won’t even ask Him. Every leader must come to the place of knowing how much Jesus really did for us. Leading with wisdom can never be a reality in your life until you understand your free access to it. Jesus gave you the gift of the open door to the storeroom of wisdom.

You don’t earn wisdom! You receive it as a gift from the Father.

Wisdom is Like Protein for the Soul

Most believers are spiritual consumers of sugar and carbs.
They want something now for the moment.

God’s wisdom is more than simply hearing the Holy Spirit say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In my last post I revealed how the Lord had given me direction, strategy, and foresight as I worked in the world of legislative politics. I needed more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from Him. I needed to understand beyond what I understood in the natural in the political atmosphere in which I worked. Part of your positioning for gaining wisdom is to understand the dimension of wisdom.

Many Christians who pray for wisdom are usually expecting a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They are not seeking or expecting strategy, expanded vision, and foresight beyond the veil of the temporal realm. As they pray they often become frustrated when the Lord does not give them that simple answer. They are waiting for a prophetic word or the small quiet voice of the Spirit to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ for their question.

If you want as ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from the Lord you are not seeking wisdom, you are seeking a decision. Wisdom is much deeper than yea or nay, right or left. Wisdom carries with it a deeper understanding. It is embedded with spiritual longevity and depth that nourishes your thoughts, your decisions, your strategies, and your influence in leadership. It carries value beyond a day, a week, a month because it is given by the Lord to undergird your decisions, your prayers, and your leadership beyond the day, the week, or the next month.

Paul told the church in Corinth when he was speaking of Godly wisdom that ‘the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God’ (1 Cor. 2:10). The ‘deep things of God’ are long lasting. The deep well of the Spirit never runs dry. When understood and embraced the wisdom of God stabilizes and sustains us over time.

The Father’s wisdom for your soul is like protein for your body. It takes more time to digest protein but it sustains the body for a longer time.

Most believers are spiritual consumers of sugar and carbs. They want something now for the moment. They want a word from the Lord today so they can make it today. They want encouragement today so they can survive today. The Lord will provide a word of encouragement for a day, but because they have a short term request, they get short term supply. They get the immediate satisfaction of getting a ‘word from the Lord’, but they didn’t get wisdom --they simply got a word that, like sugar and carbs will sustain for a short time, because their perspective was for a short time need.

In God’s goodness and grace He gives them what they ask for. He supplies the immediate need. If only they had asked for wisdom! If only they had asked for spiritual protein to digest and nourish for a longer time. If only they had searched for the deep things of God!! He would have given it!!!

Now, don’t get me wrong. We all occasionally need a ‘word from the Lord’ today to get us through the day, but that should not be our primary perspective as leaders in the body of Christ. Ministry leaders often complain about people in their church or ministry who are constantly needy, constantly looking for a word from the Lord, or constantly limited to a short term perspective.

Leaders; it starts with you. You must value spiritual protein over spiritual carbs. You must value and search the deep things of God. You must desire a long term, deeper understanding and strategy that go beyond your current ministry crisis. As you model valuing, seeking, and searching wisdom that sustains for the long haul you will see those who follow seek and obtain that same wisdom.

Position Your Heart to Receive the Lord's Wisdom

Your heart attitude determines wisdom access. Solomon greatly valued wisdom and understanding for the purpose of governing people. His heart attitude was ‘I can’t do this in my own power, knowledge and understanding’. He saw the job as too big, the people as too challenging, and the outcome as too important to embark on being king without wisdom from the Father.

He desired to live beyond the 5 senses in a dimension that only His heavenly Father could provide. His number one request of the Lord upon becoming a leader was ‘help me lead by giving me wisdom and understanding. His heart attitude paved the way for access to the Father’s wisdom.

I experienced huge needs for wisdom in my leadership roles in government. I often saw my job and too big and the outcome too important to lead from my own ability and understanding. Many years ago I had the assignment to gain state legislative approval of a land conservation project. That project was adamantly opposed by many and initially defeated in that state’s legislative body.

Upon the defeat, I asked the Lord for wisdom as to how to bring this project to a fruitful outcome in His eyes. He started by giving me specific scripture that helped me address the spiritual opposition. He then gave me a strategy to reduce the size and scope of the project while retaining the overall benefits. I offered this strategy to local people, to the state legislature, and to my superiors. My superiors told me they really didn’t see any chance at success but agreed to let me pursue the strategy. They thought it could only end in another failed attempt.

As we embarked on a second attempt to gain legislative approval, key people began to support the project. Key legislators began to agree with the revised scope. While some opposition was still very strong, the legislature voted approval of the project. While 24 amendments were offered during committee and floor debate, many of which would have created defacto failure of the project, the only 2 amendments to gain approval were those that I signaled as acceptable. Wow!! What a change in only 1 year.

‘Wisdom is supreme, do gain wisdom!’ The words of Solomon became reality in a big way, not only to me but to my superiors who were shocked at the outcome. It all started with my heart attitude that I could not do it with my own wisdom and understanding.

Your challenge in leadership may not be legislation or anything related to government, but the challenge may be much greater. Position your heart to receive the Lord’s wisdom by acknowledging your own wisdom is not enough. Ask and see the hand of the Lord then work a mighty outcome on behalf of His kingdom.

Wisdom Begins With Humility

This series of nuggets on Wisdom in Leadership will take you from definition, to position, to acquisition, to retention of the Father’s wisdom for leadership. Solomon’s wisdom began with his character. The secret to his wisdom started with positioning in his heart before he had wisdom. It started with the heart of humility.

Humility includes the reverential fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7), knowing how awesome He is for everything we face as leaders. However, Jesus best defined this form of humility when He said to the devil, ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’(Matt. 4:10). Jesus was quoting Deut. 6:13 which uses the word ‘fear’, but Jesus used the word ‘worship’ when he quoted that scripture. His understanding of true humility and fear of God is in our worshiping Him as creator, savior, deliverer, provider, healer, and Father. Jesus was not scared of His Father, but He worshiped Him.

No one on earth is positioned for heavenly wisdom to lead without being in awe of and worshiping the Father. We must fathom the all-knowing and all-powerful attributes of the Father to understand the relative insignificance of our own wisdom to lead people. When we worship Him we open our heart to gain His perspective to lead. We open our minds to His intellect and strategy for organizing. We embrace His long term view of today’s decisions bringing His plan and success into being. Position yourself for wisdom to lead. Embrace that place of humility as you worship the Father.

Wisdom Gives You the "Behind the Curtain" View

To have wisdom for a particular situation we must have a view of what’s ‘behind the curtain’

or what God sees from his higher vantage point.

‘Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom.’ These were the words of Solomon, a great leader and man of wisdom (Prov. 4). His leadership was undergirded with an ability to see beyond the vale, bringing forth decisions that yielded Godly results for his people.

Wisdom is insightful for a purpose--to make your decisions leading to the Father’s planned results. Wisdom brings with it the ability to understand what is behind the façade of a circumstance.

As leaders, we primarily see and experience life with our five senses. We tend to evaluate and make leadership decisions with those five senses. Oh yes, as Christian leaders we pray, but even our prayer is often focused on what we have seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted in a life situation. So our praying becomes laden with those 5 senses.

To have wisdom for a particular situation we must have a view of what’s ‘behind the curtain’ or what God sees from his higher vantage point. Wisdom then gives you insight beyond the 5 senses and discerns the action that will bring forth God’s results.