PRAYING FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD -- Tomorrow:
"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." (Colossians 1:9-11, KJV)
Devotion 14 of 32
" . . . filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom . . . "
The wisdom of our text is related to holy prudence and godly discretion. Elsewhere this is called "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (Eph 1:17). It involves knowing how to bring the truth of God to bear upon living – living that is directed toward the Lord. Those who teach the Word of God are to do so "in all wisdom" (Col 1:28). We are admonished to let the Word of Christ dwell in us "richly, in all wisdom" (Col 3:16).
This is a wisdom that enables its possessor to safely navigate through this world without being condemned. It has to do with spiritual expertise – a proficiency in which the Word of God is integrated with the various facets of life, rendering a person capable of pleasing God and bringing eternal advantage to men.
A WORD FROM A DEPARTED BROTHER
I want to share a word from a departed brother that touches on this matter. This was written during the late 1800's.
"Our educational system is radically defective at this point. As a rule, our colleges, under the auspices of the different religious denominations, are minus the school of the Holy Ghost. They educate the mind, but not the heart, sending out semi-infidels to occupy the pulpits. We have a few holiness colleges, and need a thousand more. These schools, like holiness revivals, recognize the Bible as the only authority, and the great Textbook to which all others are subordinated. We cannot depend on the dualistic system of theology to educate our young people, if we do not want them to graduate like Samson, shorn of his locks, to go out and grind in the mills of Dagon all of their lives. We must have teachers filled with the Holy Ghost. The holiness movement must take our schools into hand, if we would supply the world with able ministers of the New Testament. Instead of spending four years studying heathen authors as I did, and many others are now doing, we should make out our Latin course in the Latin Bible, and our Greek course in the Greek Bible, and likewise with the Hebrew. It is a shame on the escutcheon of Christianity to educate our young people in the heathen classics. I would rather than a million of dollars today I had spent my four years in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Bible, instead of the pagan authors. It is high time we would throw off this semi-paganism which we carried out of the Dark Ages. If we are going to save the world, we must have Spirit-filled teachers as well as preachers. We must wake to the fact that the Bible is the only Book, and let all others be merely subsidiary. The secret of the awful apostasy now so fearfully prevailing in the Churches is, that the pulpits are filled with intellectual giants and spiritual babies (in the same person). W.B. GODBEY on Colossians 1:9
One can only imagine what men of this caliber would say of our generation – one in which the wisdom of men has been invited into the church and supposedly sanctified as helpful to the saints of God.
"ALL WISDOM"
"All wisdom" involves knowing how to "walk and to please God" (1 Thess 4:1). It is founded upon the Word of God, and operates within the framework of the revealed will of God. It relates immediately with eternal things – things that will remain after everything that "can be shaken" has been shaken out of existence (Heb 12:27). This is a wisdom that has more to do with man's "spirit" than his "soul" or his "body" (1 Thess 5:23). It is a wisdom that enables those possessing it to bring all things into subordination to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This wisdom makes sin unreasonable and righteousness reasonable. It moves one to prefer eternal things to temporal things. The person possessing such wisdom not only knows the truth, but is able to use it like a wise spiritual craftsman. It sensitizes the ear to hear Him who is speaking from heaven (Heb 12:25, and the heart to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:16).
There is coming a time when the heavens and earth that now are will pass away (2 Pet 3:10-12). There is a day of judgment on the horizon, and all will stand before the Lord to give an account of themselves (2 Cor 5:10). There is an appointed time when the devil and all of his colleagues will be cast into the lake of fire, together with "death and hades" (Rev 20:10,14,15). The real issue is this: what will happen to you AFTER those things have occurred? Real wisdom – the "all wisdom" of our text – will prepare you to be classed as "blessed" AFTER all of those appointments have occurred.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for granting wisdom in Christ that will prepare me to confront You and receive Your "Well done."