Proverbs 4:7 – “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom…”
Today I’d like to elaborate a little on what was discussed last week concerning wisdom being the principle thing. Remember that we said before faith can come there must be a rhema word from God, and that rhema you receive is the wisdom of God. We also discussed the importance of taking time to receive the wisdom of God concerning a situation before praying about it. The question we want to elaborate on today is why this is so vitally important?
Every problem is not what it seems, and the root issue that needs to be addressed in order for the situation to change is not always what it appears to be in the natural.
The reason it is so important to receive the wisdom of God first is because without it we are judging our circumstance from a natural position. Every problem is not what it seems, and the root issue that needs to be addressed in order for the situation to change is not always what it appears to be in the natural.
A great example of this is a situation that Brother Copeland experienced in his ministry some years ago. Brother Copeland tells about a time when his ministry was not doing well financially. It seemed every bit of money that came in was getting drained and they found themselves in a deficit. He had been seeking the Lord where this deficit was concerned and believing for the finances to come in to pay it off. In a time of prayer and seeking the wisdom of God, God revealed to Brother Copeland the problem. God told him that getting the deficit paid was not the root issue because there was another situation that was causing the problem. God showed him that if he paid off the deficit without fixing this problem he would just find himself in the same situation down the road. It was this root issue that had to be dealt with in order for the problem concerning finances to be resolved. So even though Brother Copeland was releasing faith, he wasn’t releasing faith towards the root issue of the problem and therefore nothing was changing. It was only by first receiving the wisdom of God that he had the faith necessary to change the issue causing the problem.
God is not subjective in His dealings with man.
The big question then is why has God set up faith to function this way? Why can’t we just believe that God will change our bad circumstance to good? Why do we have to have wisdom and release our faith concerning the “root issue” of our problems before we see changes take place? Why are there “laws of faith” that we must operate in before we see manifestation? The answer to all these is that the laws that govern faith are required because of the justness of God. God is not subjective in His dealings with man. His very nature is to be just, but you cannot be just without guidelines that show what can and cannot be done. These guidelines are not only for our sake, but for the devil’s as well.
Romans 4:15 tells us, “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Concerning faith, if there were no laws that governed faith then God would not have a legal or just right to stop the devil from causing destruction in our life. You see, when we are functioning in the laws of faith then it becomes a transgression for the devil to have any involvement in that situation. The devil has no choice but to back off of a situation and let God work on our behalf when we are functioning in the laws of faith. However, if there were no laws governing faith, God would have no just right to stop the devil in those situations because he would not have transgressed any eternal law.
Let me give you an example to try and explain this. Let’s say there was a country that had no laws against murder. Where there is no law there cannot be a transgression because there is no law to break. So if someone killed another in cold blood they still would not have broken any law. Now if the police would arrest the man and put him in jail that would be unjust, because he hasn’t broken any laws. In the same way, if there were not laws that governed faith, then God would be unjust in binding the devil from working in a situation. It is an eternal law that if a person is in faith God has the ability to work in their situation and the devil does not, but it is only by making it an eternal law is God just in making sure the devil cannot work.
If we go back to the situation that Brother Copeland experienced we can see the importance of knowing the root issue and releasing your faith toward that. Brother Copeland was continually releasing faith for finances therefore the devil could not interfere with finances coming in. However, because Brother Copeland wasn’t releasing faith where this other situation was concerned God had no legal right to stop the devil from working in that area and draining all the finances from the ministry that Brother Copeland had believed for. Where faith is not released the devil has the right to operate because you are then operating in the natural where he has a realm of authority. However, once Brother Copeland received wisdom on the root issue that the devil was involved in, he then had the faith to believe for that to change and the devil no longer had the right to function in that situation.
Once you can release faith for that root issue then the devil no longer has any right to work in that situation.
This then is why the wisdom of God is so vital. It is God’s wisdom that not only causes faith through a rhema word, but faith for that area where the devil has been working. Once you can release faith for that root issue then the devil no longer has any right to work in that situation. Without this wisdom from God you would not know where to release your faith, and even if you did you would not have the faith to release. It is only through receiving the wisdom of God and functioning in the faith that it produces that gives God the legal right to bind the devil from his work. It is for this reason that even under the New Covenant wisdom is still the principle thing.