Pursue Wisdom - Part 7, Sermon Or Lesson .htm

Sermon or Lesson: Pursue Wisdom - Part 7: Other Experiential Benefits Produced By Spiritual Wisdom (NIV based)

INTRODUCTION NOTE: As should already be evident in the previous study sessions in this series on "Pursue Wisdom", the Scriptures contain descriptions of numerous experiential benefits produced by spiritual wisdom, of which more experiential benefits will be focused on in this study below.
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[Lesson Question: For each verse quote below, analyze, discuss, and describe experiential benefits that are produced by spiritual wisdom, and in the last quoted verse, also describe the cited contrast to 'simple' persons.]

SECTION POINT : Spiritual wisdom improves in true believers their state of mind and personality, their living in righteousness and peaceful safety, their personally knowing God better, and the lengthening of their life span.

- - Ephesians 1:17 "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you 'a spirit' of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." (with Strong's Greek #4151 - "a spirit")
- - From this verse, having "wisdom and revelation" from God can produce the effect of "knowing God better" - acquiring "full discernment and knowledge" "of Him". (Strong's Greek #1922, #0846)
- - By implication, it is necessary for true believers to possess and utilize spiritual 'wisdom and revelation', in order to experience this progressing towards 'knowing God better' and to experience it potentially in more fullness - 'full discernment and knowledge of Him'.
- - Undoubtedly, this possessing and experiencing 'knowing God better' towards a 'full discernment and knowledge of Him' will quickly prove to be very beneficial and thereby very valuable for those true believers.
- - And through spiritual 'wisdom and revelation', it is possible to attain this state of possessing and experiencing 'knowing God better' towards a 'full discernment and knowledge of Him' because here Apostle Paul is praying that the Ephesian believers be given that from God. (vv.1,13,15-17)

- - Proverbs 24:14 "Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off."
- - "Knowledge of" spiritual wisdom will be sweet to the soul for true believers, like "honey from the comb is sweet to [our] taste". (Strong's Hebrew #1847; v.13)
- - By implication, the acquiring and utilizing of 'knowledge of spiritual wisdom' will thereby work towards producing, in a sense, 'sweet' effects in and upon the nature and demeanor of their personality and countenance, such as perhaps becoming more peaceful, relaxed, positive, pleasant, light-hearted, and etcetera.
- - Experiencing beneficial results of this kind, and thereafter experiencing successfully continuing to live in that state of mind and personality, will be pleasurable, enjoyable, and much more desirable for those true believers than their previous state of probably being negative, depressed, frustrated, agitated, anxiety-filled, on edge all the time, and etcetera.
- - Therefore, acquiring and utilizing 'knowledge of spiritual wisdom' has substantial potential in beneficially affecting the future of these true believers and their "hope" of continuing to enjoy these benefits throughout their future, if they successfully maintain acquiring and utilizing spiritual wisdom.

- - Proverbs 8:35 {personification} "For whoever finds me [wisdom (vv.1-4) ] finds life and receives favor from the Lord."
- - The Lord has made His spiritual wisdom available to be found.
- - For those true believers who watch for, look for, identify, grab on to, and draw in the spiritual wisdom from the Lord that they find, correspondingly they "find life".
- - In the context of this verse, "finds life" indicates that they not only 'find' 'life' but that they furthermore automatically acquire 'life' as a package deal when they take in and implement spiritual wisdom in their life.
- - The context here also indicates that the 'life' they automatically acquire is good - in various ways there is intrinsic goodness in that life, for them to experience and benefit from, as a result of them utilizing spiritual wisdom in their life.
- - Logically, therefore, this 'find life', 'acquire life', and 'goodness in that life' all point to the meaning of the word 'life' in this verse is referring to 'a righteous life' - living in righteousness, before the Lord. (cf. Proverbs 11:19; 10:16)
- - As supporting evidence that there is intrinsic goodness and righteous living in that 'life', the verse further declares that "receiving favor from the Lord" is also included in this package of benefits that automatically accompany the use of spiritual wisdom.
- - The Lord will favorably regard, favorably treat, and bestow favorable benefits and blessings upon those true believers who utilize spiritual wisdom in their life, which naturally produces goodness and righteous living.
- - A proper conclusion, therefore, is that the Lord wants to pour out benefits and blessings upon His true believers, which He does by means of them implementing spiritual wisdom in their life. (v.8:34)

- - Proverbs 9:11 {personification} "For through me [wisdom (vv.1,3-4) ] your days will be many, and years will be added to your life."
- - Another aspect in the above definitions of 'finds life' and 'receives favor from the Lord' is that generally, the Lord will extend favor to those true believers, in the form of a longer life span.
- - They will experience and benefit from "[their] days will be many" - a long life, of which the Lord will not impose a disciplinary shortening of the length of their life.
- - And those true believers will experience and benefit from "years will be added to [their] life" - years of living that are added and exceed beyond what the Lord would normally grant them.
- - These benefits of lengthening their life are accomplished "through" spiritual wisdom - in other words, living by spiritual wisdom and corresponding choices they make during their life will by nature result in the extending of their life span, for example living longer than what would be normal because the person heeded wisdom and stopped smoking tobacco.
- - Another reason for this addition of extra years could possibly be that the Lord is pleased with how the true believers are implementing spiritual wisdom in their life, because it is producing a significant impact on advancing His kingdom in some manner.
- - At the center of this longer-life benefit is the reality that God evaluates these true believers as worthy of being granted an extension in their life span because they are implementing spiritual wisdom in a manner that is very pleasing to Him.

- - Proverbs 1:33 {personification} "but whoever listens to me [wisdom (v.20) ] will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
- - Another experiential benefit for true believers, who "listen to", "hear intelligently", and appropriately and extensively use spiritual wisdom in their life and in serving God, is that this use of spiritual wisdom will produce "safety" for them in the various conditions that they encounter, as they live for God and serve Him. (Strong's Hebrew #8085)
- - By implication from this description therefore, a major function of wisdom is to incite thinking of safety and taking actions to produce and/or ensure safety.
- - This safety-mindedness is indeed acquired from experiences, especially from experiences that resulted in substantial personal harm or injury.
- - Safety-mindedness can also be acquired from observing, having contact with, and/or receiving teaching from a parent or adult who is diligent in safeguarding against harm.
- - Logically, spiritual wisdom incites and includes not only physical safety-mindedness but also spiritual safety-mindedness when engaged in matters that have a spiritual component, which of course the Kingdom of Darkness and its human agents will naturally oppose, and/or attack, and/or try to inflict harm.
- - In many instances or circumstances, this wisdom in true believers incites them to take precautionary steps as warranted to lessen or preclude the occurrence of harm on themselves or other people.
- - Therefore, true believers can "be at ease" and at "peace", and maintain confidence and assurance when they use this wisdom, that they acquired from the Lord, for physical and/or spiritual safety as they become involved in various kinds of situations in life while they are obediently living for Him. (Strong's Hebrew #7599)
- - Thereby, they can experience living and proceeding "without fear" or "sudden alarm" "of harm" or "evil". (Strong's Hebrew #6343, #7451)

- - Proverbs 22:3 "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge,"
- - The spiritual wisdom of these true believers enables them and even motivates them to detect, analyze, discern, and recognize danger.
- - It keeps them alert to potential or likely danger, while simultaneously giving them an innate sense and ability to "see" or foresee the "danger" coming.
- - These true believers do not ignore, nor neglect, nor dismiss, nor minimize, nor under-estimate the potential danger.
- - Instead their "prudence" or spiritual wisdom motivates them to formulate a course of preventative or precautionary action or of "taking refuge" that will effectively avoid being harmed, which they resolutely implement in advance or on time.
- - In effect, the acquired spiritual wisdom of these true believers empowers them and moves them forward so that they take all of these steps and so that they do this successfully and effectively, in effect setting themselves up to experience benefits in the future.
- - Their acquired spiritual wisdom furthermore enables and empowers these true believers to keep in mind the long-term or distant future, looking that far ahead, considering what the Scriptures say is coming in the future, and evaluating all of it carefully - what positive and negative impacts that might or probably will come for those true believers personally in the near future.
- - They then formulate and execute a plan to prepare for that long-term or distant future, periodically revisiting the topic, and being flexible to make adjustments to their preparations as warranted. (e.g. Matthew 7:24-27; cf. Luke 6:47-49 )
- - Whereas in contrast, "but the simple keep going and suffer for it."
- - "Simple" or foolish persons are either totally oblivious to the impending danger, or they in some manner or degree incorrectly evaluate the potential for harm that the danger represents.
- - Their foolishness convinces them that they will be an exception to being inflicted with harm that would normally occur, that they can successfully pass through the danger without incurring significant harm.
- - In some situations, foolish persons may have invincibility-thinking - that they have superior skills or superior 'luck' that will carry them through the danger unharmed.
- - Or they may be under the influence of alcohol or drug that sufficiently impairs them from rational thinking.
- - Or perhaps the foolish persons have some past experience of having successfully passed through similar danger unscathed, and they assume that this time passing through the danger will result in about the same successful outcome for them.
- - For whatever reasons, they then in some manner fail to properly take and implement all of those steps to preclude the danger from manifesting harm upon them or other persons.
- - So consequently, they "suffer" harm from the impending "danger" because they foolishly kept going as normal in life, and did not take action to sufficiently preclude the impending harm or take "refuge".
- - In effect, their lack of spiritual wisdom sets up foolish persons to sooner or later inevitably experience and suffer harm, which would have been avoidable if they had instead acquired genuine spiritual wisdom from God.
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BIG IDEA: Spiritual wisdom is a means by which the Lord pours out substantial and various experiential benefits upon those true believers who find and implement spiritual wisdom in their life.

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APPLICATIONS:

- - For those of you who are true believers, do you 'know God' really well on a personal level? If not, do you genuinely want to 'know God' really well on a personal level?
- - Since becoming a true believer, has the nature and demeanor of your personality and countenance improved to the extent that now you are peaceful, relaxed, positive, pleasant, light-hearted, and etcetera? If not, perhaps you should consider that one significant thing you are lacking in this regard is the acquiring and utilizing of 'knowledge of spiritual wisdom'.
- - Have you found spiritual wisdom and are you utilizing it in your life, which is being evidenced by you experiencing goodness and righteous in your living? If not, are you going to do something to fix this condition in your life? And if so, what are you going to do?
- - Are you engaged in wise activities that should add years to your life? Are you engaged in foolish activities that probably will shorten your life? What are you going to do to improve any deficiencies that you have in either of these regards?
- - Do you maintain alertness in physical and spiritual safety-mindedness, taking precautionary steps as warranted to lessen or preclude the occurrence of harm on yourself and other people? If not, what are you going to do about that condition?
- - Do you look ahead to the long-term or distant future, carefully evaluating and periodically re-evaluating what probably will come in the future, according to the Scriptures? Or instead, do you take the position that you will deal with that when it comes, like the fool does?

- - For those of you who are not true believers, what do you think about these experiential benefits produced by spiritual wisdom, as cited from the Scriptures and described in this study? How do you regard them? As being advantageous? Or instead, as being of no substantial value to you?
- - Do you have any desire to obtain these benefits for yourself? If so, what are you going to do about that? Or instead if not, perhaps it would go well for you to reconsider and re-evaluate these experiential benefits that are produced by spiritual wisdom.
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Works Cited:
Bible. “The Holy Bible: New International Version.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.

“Strong's Greek Dictionary.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.

“Strong's Hebrew Dictionary.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.
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Copyrights:
Scriptures taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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