make me wise

don't wise people just fascinate you? not smart people, but wise human beings. people who possess wisdom. people who make wise decisions, give wise counsel, spend their money wisely, speak words that are just filled with wisdom. they fascinate me.

so how do i get what they have?

as i sat in church this morning i had about 15 minutes before service started all to myself. jonah was in kidsquest and dave was taking a class. so as i sat there enjoying this stolen moment i prayed/journaled "God, make me wise. teach me something today. Lord, speak to me."

within the hour i had an answer to my prayer. no, not instant wisdom zapped into my head from heaven, but a road map with specific instructions on how to find it. answered prayer.

the message this morning was given by wayne cordeiro from new hope christian fellowship in honolulu, hawaii via video. gateway is doing a video series in conjunction with oneprayer.com. pretty cool stuff.

i took notes. so if you want to know how to find wisdom yourself read on...

be still.

when you're still you learn how to repent. how to listen. how be obedient. i have a really really hard time with this.

wisdom is not built in a day. it is built upon daily.

we have the opportunity to harvest wisdom throughout our lives in two ways: through our own personal experience (and consequences) and through the personal experience of others (gain wisdom beyond my experience).

the Bible gives us the wisdom of the ages.

romans 15:4
for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

1 corinthians 10:11
these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

psalm 119
your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.

practice the basics.

great musicians practice the scales over and over and over again and again and again. among other things it builds dexterity and muscle memory. if you spent an hour a day with a great jazz musician teaching you everything he knows, after about a year people would start to ask where you learned to play. you'd sound like you were taught by a great master, not just taking a community college course once a week. if you were a musician and you had this opportunity, wouldn't you jump at it?

we should treat an hour a day with God the same way. i should jump at the opportunity to spend time the with master of the universe, the giver of wisdom.

break the famine.

the pastor told a story of a man who came to him and told him he was leaving their church "because he wasn't being fed." the pastor told him this story. he said, "i have a son your age. when he was a baby we used to put food in one end, it would come out the other end and we'd clean it up. we didn't know if it was doing any good. but then we started to notice that he was growing. then pretty soon he learned to feed himself."

what if we only ate once a week? we would be gaunt, sickly, emaciated, unhealthy.

if you only go to church once a week for one hour this is what your spiritual self looks like. we need to feast on God's word daily in order to grow and remain healthy spiritually. we need to learn to feed ourselves.


lastly, here are the four tools you'll need to gather wisdom...

1) the Bible

it's God-breathed, God-inspired. God will breathe wisdom into me, the same wisdom he gave to solomon and david and all of the other heroes of faith.

it's also really important to read the Bible for me. live it. don't just read it to give out to others. read it like that and it will make me a disciple.

2) a pen

underline Scripture. the Holy Spirit will highlight what he wants you to hear.

3) a reading program

it's like a GPS. something that will take you through the Bible systematically.

4) a journal

follow this acronym: S.O.A.P.

scripture - write out a key verse
observation - what did you notice?
application - what am i going to do about what i just read?
prayer - write out a prayer

great resource for a journal - lifejournal.cc

here's my journal, my Bible and my favorite mike arbizzani pen. hopefully now after this inspiring message they'll all be getting a much better work out than they have been used to.

so there it is in a nutshell. the key to gaining wisdom.

i don't know about you, but i'm feeling pretty hungry.