CHRIST IS YOUR WISDOM

Wednesday 30 July

The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of WISDOM and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. Isaiah 11:2 (NKJV)

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us WISDOM, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: Corinthians 1:30 (KJV)

The more we understand the finished work of Christ, the more we see patterns in the Word of God that are consistent truths. This is how it should be, particularly in the epistles. In the scriptures, Genesis to Malachi, is what is termed as ‘progressive revelation’. The revelation was not yet complete because the Holy Spirit had not been given.

Isaiah speaking of Jesus said the Spirit with its distinct characteristics would be evident in ‘the Christ’ in the gospels. This was the first time a man operated in the seven spirits of God.

In the Old Testament the Spirit would come upon someone in a measure to perform a certain task. In Jesus case, the Holy Spirit came upon Him to live in Him without measure. It’s the same for those in Christ.

John 3:34 tells us,

‘For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.’ Some translations add ‘to Him’ but this is not correct.

What is the criteria? You must be sent from God. That’s not just Jesus. It’s us also.

1 John 4:4a says of the child of God, ‘for you are of God’ which means you are from God therefore you were born from above. This is the true meaning of the phrase ‘born again’.

So the Old Testament is progressive revelation. The gospels are Jesus corrective statements on certain scriptures and the New Testament is the final or complete revelation of the scriptures. It has been written plainly and requires no interpretation. That being said, every so often we find a mistranslation or a syntax error in the translation from Greek to English.

One such verse is found in Ephesians 1:17.

‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him:’

Are you seeing what I’m seeing here? At first glance it appears that Apostle Paul is going against what Isaiah said and even teaching the Ephesian church something different to what he taught the Corinthian church. What is happening?

This verse says God may give you the Spirit of wisdom. Stop. I thought He already gave us wisdom when He gave us the Holy Spirit? Even Isaiah by the Spirit of prophecy said that wisdom had been given to Jesus by the Spirit. As we already saw, the same thing happened with us. We were given the Spirit of wisdom at salvation.

The way to solve the dilemma is to look at the proper rendering of this verse. Are you ready for it?

Instead of Apostle Paul asking God to give us the Spirit of wisdom, he says,

‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the wisdom and revelation of the Spirit in the knowledge of Him’

Can you see the difference between them? One thinks they are lacking the Spirit of wisdom and the other is receiving more wisdom by the Spirit of wisdom in them.

‘If any man lacks wisdom, let Him ask of God’ from within.

We don’t get anymore wisdom. We get more revelation of the wisdom that is in us in Christ.

It goes on to say in Ephesians 1:18 ‘the eyes of your understanding being enlightened’…

Why? Because your eyes have to be opened to know what is in you. If you don’t know it how can you operate in it? It’s impossible.

Verse 18-19a ‘That you may know the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,’

There are certain things you can never know about Christ and about yourself without having the Spirit of God in you.

A lot of the time it comes down to our mentality as believers as to whether or not we can identify biblical inconsistencies.

If we think we are always lacking something then we will constantly be asking for something that we already have.

You don’t have to ask for more of the Spirit. You have all of Him in Christ. We don’t need more anointing. Christ which means the anointed One and His anointing is in us. God’s people are perishing in certain areas for the lack of knowledge.

Christ has been made unto you wisdom. You’re not trying to get it. You’ve got it. It’s in you. Time to start putting it to work.

APPLICATION

Let the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledging of every good thing in you in Christ Jesus