Service: Sunday Service (First Service)
Sermon Title: What Wisdom is This 2
Preacher: Pastor Ayo Ajani
Date: 14.01.2024
Prayer
Let’s lift our hands, bless the name of the Lord, and thank Him. Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, we ask that the Spirit of the Lord will breathe upon our hearts. We ask that You will speak to us clearly in the name of the Lord Jesus. Thank You for every time in Your presence is not wasted. Thank You for encounters that come by Your word and Your spirit. Lord, we are fully ready to receive from You all that you have for us. By reason of this, world changers shall be raised, giants shall be raised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! To You and You alone be all the glory, the honor, and all the praise. And all of God’s people said a big Amen!
Sermon
Our core text is Mark Chapter 6:1-2 “And he went out from thence, and came into his own country, and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, from whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?”
So, two phrases there: What wisdom is this? and which is given unto Him?
First, they acknowledged that this wisdom is not the generic wisdom that they’re acquainted with or used to. Then it says “which is given unto Him” – so it is not something He read or studied. It was an impartation of the Spirit. That is in keeping with James 3:13-15. It says that there is a wisdom which cometh from above. We went as far as defining what wisdom is and the five deeds of wisdom.
It says in Luke 7:35 that wisdom is justified by her children – wisdom is justified by her results and her deeds. You don’t claim to be wise; you show to be wise. It’s not a claim that you make, you don’t even have to say “I’m wise.”
Brother Hagin said something; many people call themselves titles that they don’t have proof for. So, you find somebody bearing the name Apostle yet scripture shows us the exact signs that ought to follow the office of an Apostle. It’s a new trend, everybody wants to be an Apostle! You start a church today and then you’re an Apostle, no you’re not! The scripture shows us the definitions and the signs of an Apostle. So, you find people just trying to push themselves into offices and things that they don’t have the equipment for. By, the way, it doesn’t mean that God has not called some into those offices. But there’s maturity, there’s growth, there’s process. You don’t start a church today and then become a Prophet today. No, there is growth and process.
You don’t claim to be wise. You don’t say “I’m a wise person.” It’s not a claim or a confession, it is something you SHOW. Wisdom shows in the works and the results that you produce in your life. Wisdom is going to make you go beyond your mind and your imagination because it’s an impartation of divine ideas into your spirit. Now let’s go a bit further today, and we’re getting into the juicier matters.
It will do you well possibly throughout this month if you can read Proverbs 4 and Proverbs 8 so you can keep refreshing your mind on how powerful wisdom is. The excellency of wisdom; how the world as we know it today was established by wisdom. How that any and everything that you’re desirous of and believing for, wisdom will deliver cheaply into your hands – length of days. It says ‘by me, kings rule and princes decree, an ornament will it put on your neck, how that the price of wisdom is far above rubies…’ The excellency of wisdom!
You will not be hungry for something you don’t have an appreciation for. Hunger follows appreciation. Pursuit follows appreciation. The moment you attach some extra value to a thing and appreciate it a bit more, what happens is that your hunger, pursuit, and desire for it increases. In the same way, you can feed your hunger, desire, and appreciation of anything. The more you read about what wisdom can bring into your life, the more desire, the more hunger, the more you appreciate it. It’s important because a lot of people think that wisdom is just a passing thought, wisdom is just a great thing, let’s get some wisdom. No! Say with me: Wisdom is The Principal Thing! So feed your hunger, feed your desire, feed your appreciation of the subject.
2 Timothy 1:7. Let’s read from verses 6-7: “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Now let’s read it this way ‘…but the SPIRIT of power, and the SPIRIT of love and the SPIRIT of a sound mind.’ How many of us agree that there’s a spirit of power? This means there’s a measure in which the Holy Ghost can rest on the life of a person and you begin to see the supernatural power of God at work. Then it talks about the spirit of love. We know that Romans 5:5 talks about the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts and because of that we know that hope maketh not ashamed.
So, we know the Holy Spirit is the spirit of love. Love is not something you work up. No human person can function in the unconditional agape love of God save that the Holy Spirit dwells on the inside of himself. So, He is called the Spirit of Love. But here’s where we miss it; He’s as well called the Spirit of a Sound Mind. It’s easy for us to appreciate that He’s the Spirit of Power, very easy. It’s very easy for us to appreciate that He is the Spirit of Love. If you’re trained a bit more in the scriptures, you’ll appreciate that better. But I think one of the key areas that we may have missed out on is the fact that the Holy Spirit that you have received is the Spirit of a Sound Mind. The Greek word for sound mind is the word Sophronismos. We give the Greek words because you cannot fully understand the depth of some of the things that are communicated without looking at the etymology of the word – that is, how it was used and the context in which it was used.
What Sophronismos means in general concordance is the discipline of the mind. But as you study further, the word means a mind that has been saved and equipped. Old rabbis when writing about this subject (a sound mind) would call it an equipped or complete mind. This teaching will deliver to you the things you need for the next phase of your life! So, when we say an equipped or complete mind, it must mean that there are certain things that we’re expecting to find. For example, I have 200 pastors and we have a Pastors’ Meeting. In the auditorium, they count and say I have 200 pastors so it is complete. In essence, even if I had 198 there, although it’s a large number, that large number is still not complete. So, when they said a complete or equipped mind, there were certain things they were looking out for that enable them to look at one and be able to say ‘That is a complete man, that’s a complete mind and there is absolutely no place where he’d find himself in life that he will not succeed.’ And so, they began to study the subject and extensively look into it, and that’s what we’re going to look into today – what does it mean when we say an equipped or complete mind and that being the foundation for success in life?
If you look at Mark 5, you see the story there of The madman of Gadara and, interestingly, this story precedes Mark 6 that we’re talking about. Mark 5, the madman of Gadara had lost his mind. In verse 15, a statement was made after Jesus delivered him; ‘… and they come to Jesus and they seeing him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind…’ The word right mind there is the same word that’s translated as sound mind in 2 Timothy that we read earlier. It’s the same root word, one is an adjectival form, and one is a noun form. And so, it says ‘…in his right mind: and they were afraid.’ What did they mean by this? Does this mean he didn’t have a mind before? He had a mind but certain things had happened to his mind; he had lost the ability to control his mind, judgment was lost, rational thinking was lost, critical thinking was lost. What happened there was that he began to behave irrationally. And one of the rabbis said something so powerful; anyone who is without a sound mind, even though he has power and love behaves irrationally in the sight of God. In essence, you’re not hitting the target for your life, nor God’s expectations for your life.
So, what is a complete mind, what is an equipped mind, and what is a sound mind? This means that the spirit of God is functioning in you in a measure to produce a sound mind within you. They said this; a sound mind is a mind that has captured the 3 faces (aspects) of the wisdom of God. Remember I told you that there are 4 kinds of wisdom: the earthly, the sensual, devilish, and the wisdom from above. We’re trying to investigate the wisdom from above and you’ll see the wisdom from above if you study Colossians 2:1-3. It says ‘…in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ So, it is a composite of a couple of things – a complete mind is a mind that has captured the 3 major expressions of the wisdom of God.
If you don’t know the 3 expressions of this wisdom of God, you can have one aspect of it and still lose out on the things that God has for you. Because of the sound teachings in Nigeria, many of us have heard some of these things without really understanding exactly what they mean. There are 3 faces (components) of the wisdom of God – which means, when we say a man is wise in the sight of God, these 3 things must be functioning in his life.
The 3 Faces of Wisdom
- The first face of wisdom is Sophia. Sophia refers to theoretical wisdom and insight into divine mysteries, the divine plan, and divine purposes. This is one-third of the wisdom of God. You can have insight but not have it manifesting in your life yet. That’s why you can have a Bible teacher that teaches things from the Word of God but those things are not reflected in his life! Sophia is wisdom of the Spirit – when God sheds light into His mysteries; whether generic or personal. Remember what Solomon said in Ecclesiastics 10:15 that says ‘…the labor of the foolish wearieth them all for he knoweth not how to go into the city.’ Knowing the city is sophia, which is the beginning of divine wisdom. But sophia alone is incomplete if it ends at it. Seeing and knowing a lot about a thing doesn’t equate to the workings of it. Something we miss out on in Proverbs 4:7 which says ‘…wisdom is the principal thing, but with all your getting, get understanding.’ Understanding is another facet of wisdom. Archbishop Benson Idahosa once said; anything you hear on Sunday that you cannot use on Monday, throw it away! We live in a generation that prides itself on the depth of theory and the shallowness of the practical. Yet the Bible says that wisdom is justified of her children, not her speakings. Sophia is important because with it we’re able to regulate our lives within God’s divine will, plans, and purposes. It is a product of speaking in tongues and much prayer.Wisdom is found in what we call the inner man. Man is made up of two components; the inner man and the outer man. The former is also known as the hidden man of the Spirit. This is a composite of two things; the spirit and the soul. Wisdom generically is found in the inner man. The 3 faces of wisdom sit in different compartments of the inner man. If you do not develop these compartments of the inner man, you cannot function in the wisdom that they carry. Therefore, a man can be heavy on one wisdom compartment and very low on another. A rabbi once said; a man who is very heavy on sophia will be wise in things of eternity, but a man who is heavy on the other two aspects of wisdom will be efficient in the things of time – that is, one can be very heavenly relevant but earthly irrelevant. Knowledge prepares your mind to be a channel through which divine wisdom can flow.
- The second face of wisdom is Sunesis. Sunesis is simply understanding – which means coming to know how a thing works and its relationship with everything else. It always follows sophia. Sunesis is the know-how that brings about awareness concerning the intricate parts of things. An instance is the many inventions of George Washington Carver from a peanut. Understanding is what God gives you when you’re in a fix! Creative strategies and witty inventions comfortably fall under this category. In a measure, what consultants are paid for is their understanding. Every man’s struggle is a lack of sunesis. God can give you a thing, and if your mind is not devoted to research and study, you may not be able to birth it.Sunesis deals with ideas, comprehension, and understanding. The “grandmas on steroids story” shows cues on how sunesis comes – in a worship session, God showed her the process of making sugar-free candies even down to the packaging. This candy idea and implementation was what rescued their families from poverty. This kind of open heavens is what Oral Roberts calls insights, concepts, and ideas – God injecting ideas and thoughts that were non-existent before into your mind. I was in prayer and the Lord said something to me ‘…give and it shall be given unto you, good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over, so shall men give into your bosom.’ – your bosom here refers to the place of ideas and thoughts. Eureka or lightbulb moments show that God can use anything to speak to you! It is said that anyone we celebrate on earth is functioning in sunesis and phronesis. A genius is someone who sees what we don’t see and hears what we don’t hear.
- The face of wisdom is Phronesis. Phronesis is practical wisdom. If we look at the life of Joseph; the dream interpretation is sophia, sunesis is how he prepared for what was revealed. Phronesis is what makes you prepare practically for what is ahead. Many opportunities may pass you by if you lack the phronesis to take advantage of it! Psalm 119:98-99 shows how David contacted phronesis by reading and meditating on the Word. Now, what did God say to Joshua; ‘This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’ Remember I taught you that the phrase ‘good success’ is the same word translated in 1 Samuel 18 as ‘… David behaved himself wisely.’ So when someone has good success, it is because he is behaving himself in a certain way regulated by the wisdom of God.The greatest benefit of reading and meditating on the Word is not just to share, but to get phronesis. There is an overemphasis on sharing to the detriment of doing. What we call the Bible is the intelligence of God – His mindset and how He reasons. In essence, when I interact with the Word, the first blessing is the renewal of my mind to see things and relate with life from God’s perspective. The difference between men is the way they see things. The second aspect of phronesis is giving. The real essence of giving is that the heavens are open over you and ideas, insights, and concepts are released into your life.R.G. Letourneau (author of Mover of Men and Mountains) said that he noticed at one point his visions stopped and he began to question God and the Lord said to check his giving. In Luke 16, we see Jesus explaining practical wisdom but in a negative light. The word wise in verse 8 is phronesis; ‘And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.’ That’s not a good thing to say, but Jesus said it nonetheless. This means that gentiles and unbelievers because they don’t have the hope that we have, develop subtility and cunniness to survive. Hope is a powerful thing, but it can destroy something in you if you don’t use it well. Another word for phronesis used in Luke 16:8 is subtility, and that is why Jesus says we (believers) should be as wise as the serpent. Always be bigger than what the eyes see at every point in time!
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