The Wisdom of God in Christ Jesus!

‘We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.’ – 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 NIV

Most of us believe that God is just the God of spiritual world, so we care only about our physical lives until the end of them. This is because we think that having God within our lives is useless and pointless during our physical lives, due to the fact that today’s worldly culture cannot match with the Kingdom culture. Therefore, we tend to repent earnestly before God at the end of our physical lives if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, rather than entering hell. The main reason for this is that heaven is much nicer place to be in than hell. If we are in the kingdom of heaven, we have eternal life, but if we are in hell, we have eternal death.

It is true that physical lives matters while we are in this world until the end of them. However, spiritual lives do matter as well. In fact, spiritual lives is actually more important than our physical lives because they give us eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, which means that we are able to have our second lives at the end of our physical lives (John 11:25-26). This does not mean that we meant to care only our spiritual lives. It means that while we are living our physical lives in this world, we should grow spiritually as well—up to the point where we can fellowship with God all the time through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16-21) and entirely live for Him until the end of our physical lives (Colossians 1:16-23).

Although John 6:65 states that nobody is able to come to God if He is not drawing us in, the Spirit of God is for everybody if we are willingly acknowledge Jesus as our Savior and Lord (John 14:1-27). In addition to this, Jesus Christ is currently knocking on the door of our hearts to fully come in as the Spirit (Revelation 3:20). Therefore, we have to surrender our lives with repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9) and open our hearts completely to let Him in and let the Spirit to control our lives. We have to repent before God if we want Him within our lives until the end of the age and receive eternal life through Jesus Christ, of course, even though we have not committed any physical sins. The main reason for this is that we have come to realise the fact that we are created by God (Genesis 1:27) and the power of God is working within us (Ephesians 3:20-21). Furthermore, we have to realise that the Spirit of God does not explain to us why God wants us to do specific things for His glory and purposes, but gives us the power and the strength to do so (Philippians 4:13).

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:5-8)

Once we have the Spirit of God within us, we begin to have spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, and spiritual minds that are in different perspective than the world’s but all in different levels according to each person who have the Spirit. Wisdom of God comes with maturity in Jesus Christ, especially after when we have good understanding and have knowledge of God (Psalm 111:10). All we have to do is to make every effort to live according to the Gospel (Philippians 1:27-29) and come into Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:28-30). I do not like to admit that ‘I know it all’ but let me explain how spiritual eyes, spiritual ears and spiritual minds work.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-11)

To have or increase our spiritual eyes, we have to consistently look at Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, rather than the world (Colossians 3:1-4). It is okay to look at the world and what is going on but if we focus on the world too much, then our spiritual eyes goes dim and weaker, and we eventually will think that the world is our kingdom of God. Philippians 3:18-21 reminds us that we actually belong to the kingdom of heaven if we are followers of Jesus Christ and do not ignore the impact of  the cross of Christ (Matthew 16:24-27). Although I watch television sometimes when I am very hungry and when I am having a meal, I get back to work on what I need to do for the glory of God afterwards as the Spirit  leads. Furthermore, I do not like to buy materials and items as long as I have everything that I need for the glory of God. This is because I know that the worldly things go to garbage dumps soon, later or at the end of our physical lives, and I cannot take any of them into the kingdom of heaven (1 John 2:15-17).

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

To hear the voice of God within us correctly, we have to be perfectly in sync with the  word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is because they teach us how to stay righteously through faith in Jesus Christ until the end of the age (Romans 1:16-17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Therefore, I need to continue to read and listen to them and meditate on them to know which voice is the right voice of God within me (Psalm 1:1-3) “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12). Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15) declares that whoever lives according to His gospel and the word of God is only worthy of Him (Luke 6:46-49).

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. (Philippians 1:27-29)

To check whether our mind-set match with the mind-set of Jesus Christ, we first have to overcome the world (1 John 5:1-5) since the prince of this world is Satan, the enemy of God (1 John 5:19). Otherwise, we are practically stopping the Spirit of God to powerfully work within us (James 4:4-5). I remember that I was stopping the Spirit from working within me while I was watching television, such as Korean drama. Therefore, it is necessary to sacrifice our worldly nature and transform our worldly minds to the mind-set of the Spirit, to discern what the will of God is for our lives (Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 5:24-25; Ephesians 5:15-18) This does not mean that we should not watch television at all, but it means that we should be able to control our times and lives according to the Spirit. Furthermore, I love the word of God so much and want to get to core of the meaning of Bible verses to explain them to others by writing devotionals. Because of this, I, sometimes, do not how to connect and to make the bridge between the Bible and the culture world. Hence, I have to read a lot of online devotionals and Christian books to see how the bridge and the link works between these two worlds. I think I need to hear a lot of other sermons as well to find it out. These are because I believe that a true Christian Writer write their writings not only to encourage Christians, but write to encourage both Christians and non-Christians with the help of the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ, even, used culture’s stories to connect to the Kingdom world when He was speaking about the kingdom of God to others.