I have a friend who is also an elder of a local church. We have some great discussions. Our talks contain comments, questions, and pushbacks. We share revelations, challenges, and viewpoints that push us to go deeper and improve. I need friends like that. Everyone does.
My friend once told me that the Lord showed him something about me. He said the Lord showed him that I was an agitator. I thought, “Oh, boy, that doesn’t sound good.” He shared that, as he continued to seek the Lord about it, he realized that I’m not the anarchist type of agitator but rather an old-school washing machine agitator. He came to believe that God uses me as the part that keeps the water moving so that the laundry around it can get clean. It was a timely and needed insight into some of my introspection and a real chance for my friend to grow in sharing the results of his listening prayers for me.
I want more of us to experience the benefits of wisdom from above when we and others pray and Father chooses to speak truth to us. Discussing viewpoints gained in intercession takes us from the realm of knowledge (what we think we know) and moves us into the nectar of God’s wisdom for our lives and situations.
One translation expresses I Corinthians 1.18-25 like this:
To preach the message of the cross seems like sheer nonsense to those who are on their way to destruction, but to us who are on our way to salvation, it is the mighty power of God released within us. For it is written:
I will dismantle the wisdom of the wise and I will invalidate the intelligence of the scholars.
So where is the wise philosopher who understands? Where is the expert scholar who comprehends? And where is the skilled debater of our time who could win a debate with God?
Hasn’t God demonstrated that the wisdom of this world system is utter foolishness? For in His wisdom, God designed that all the world’s wisdom would be insufficient to lead people to the discovery of Himself. He took great delight in baffling the wisdom of the world by using the simplicity of preaching the story of the cross in order to save those who believe it.
For the Jews constantly demand to see miraculous signs, while those who are not Jews constantly cling to the world’s wisdom, but we preach the crucified Messiah. The Jews stumble over him and the rest of the world sees Him as foolishness. But for those who have been chosen to follow Him, both Jews and Greeks, He is God’s mighty power, God’s true wisdom, and our Messiah. For the “foolish” things of God have proven to be wiser than human wisdom. And the “feeble” things of God have proven to be far more powerful than any human ability.
All this is to say: we can know the scriptures well and mostly have worldly wisdom active in our view of ourselves, our situations, and others. We need Holy Spirit-imbued insights, God’s wisdom if you will, to be added to our “knowledge.” Could allowing our brothers and sisters to share the insights or thoughts they glean from their prayer or the storehouse of what Father has already taught them be a better way to grow deeper in God? Would we benefit from prayerfully considering that heavenly wisdom might offend our sensibilities or challenge our comfort level of how God works? Might we allow God’s wisdom to offend us freely and cause us to search the Word even when we initially deem it foolish or suspect?
So, what if our “wisdom” needs to be “agitated” to lead us to a better discovery of ourselves and our beloved? I say, let’s build a community where we make it easier to let Father Himself agitate us, stir our faith, remove the stains of our human way of trying to live. Let’s let Him show us how to add wisdom to our knowledge of the Word and also enlarge the place where we allow one another to have in the narrative of our lives.
Just some thoughts along the way.
—George Davis
