Bill Johnson - The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom
Crying out for wisdom is not a passive thing; it’s not just, «Well, if it comes, it comes. If it’s God’s will, He’ll give it to me.» It’s a deliberate pursuit of wisdom. In James, he says if you ask for wisdom, He will give it to you, and He’ll give it to you extravagantly and abundantly. Now, thanks for joining us once again. As I mentioned last week, I wanted you to take a look at Proverbs Chapter 2. If you have a Bible with you, open it to chapter 2. We’re going to read a few verses here. I’m impressed with the role of passion in wisdom. I’ve heard it said—I don’t know who first said it—but I grew up listening to people talk about wisdom as being kind of stoic and emotionless, just a cerebral approach to life. That just isn’t true. Wisdom is filled with emotion. In fact, we’ll look at it later in chapter 8 where the person of wisdom rejoices in the sons and daughters of men. There’s this celebratory element to wisdom. It’s not like Spock from Star Trek; it’s not a person without emotion. Oftentimes in the church, that’s what’s held up as the example of wisdom, but it’s just not. Wisdom has a celebratory nature.
So let’s take a look at this. We’re going to look at the first five verses. Verse one: «My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment, lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.» This is interesting: in the pursuit of wisdom, the pursuit itself affects our perception. It actually changes what we learn to see and recognize in life. You’ve probably had this happen where you buy a certain kind of car, and suddenly, you see that color or model everywhere. You become attuned to recognizing certain things in the Kingdom. That is even more true, where we set our hearts and minds on specific things, and in doing so, we pick up hints of God all through life where He’s speaking to us.
Here’s what stands out to me about this pursuit of wisdom: number one, we often see in Scripture—in Proverbs especially—that Solomon will say wisdom is better than gold and silver, and better than rubies. Now think about this: if I truly value wisdom above silver, gold, money, and things, then I will be able to point to places in my life where it cost me to choose wisdom. It has to be measurable; it’s not a philosophical thing. It’s not just a discussion of wisdom using flowery terms; it’s actually a statement of fact. I have chosen wisdom; I chose this direction, and it cost me. From the study of wisdom, we know that it always ends up being better and more prosperous. It’s a strange thing: choose wisdom instead of money, and yet wisdom brings an increase in resources. It’s very similar to seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Don’t seek the things; seek the Kingdom, and He’ll add these other elements to your life. It’s exactly the same with wisdom, and that’s why I think they run a parallel course.
Returning to the subject, if you cry out for discernment and seek her as silver, searching for her as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord. One of the most necessary elements—let me rephrase that—one of the most missing elements in this culture right now is the fear of God. Many attempt to make it palatable and to redefine the fear of God to be anything but what it is. Well, it just means a reverence. Well, actually, it’s a whole lot more than reverence. The fear of God is the fear of God; it’s a fear of God. However, the fear of God biblically draws us to Him and brings us into dependency upon Him. The fear that does not come from God drives people away from Him, and there is that distinction and difference. The pursuit of wisdom gives us a clarifying perception of the value of the fear of the Lord. In fact, in the Psalms, it says the fear of God is actually the beginning of wisdom. So it’s pretty tough to develop a lifestyle of wisdom without the fear of God; it’s actually the foundation upon which this subject is built. That’s why we see in Solomon, and that’s why we see in David, the prevailing themes of the fear of God: «God, I’m a child; I don’t know what to do. I’m going to have to hear from You; You’ll have to show me what to do. Give me the directions to take because I couldn’t do it on my own.» There is this absolute dependency, and that kind of trust is the offspring, if you will, of the fear of God because the fear of God brings me to Him; it doesn’t drive me from Him.
I love that it goes on to say here that if you seek for her as for silver and hidden treasures, you’ll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. I don’t know if that fascinates anyone else, but God is pretty smart. He knows a lot of stuff, and He’s actually invited us into this; it’s like a journey where He would share secrets with us. We see it in John chapter 3, where He says that He knows what has happened in life and wants to share that history and testimony with His own children. We see it in Scripture, in the Book of Daniel, where He has reserved mysteries for His own children. We also see it in the Gospel of Luke, where He says it is His delight to give us the mysteries of the Kingdom. So we live in a world where it’s so easy to become burdened down with the problems and cares of life that we forget the delight of discovering the actual knowledge of God—what He knows about life itself. Because every time He reveals knowledge, that knowledge empowers personal transformation and fosters a lifestyle of actual worship and surrender.
I want to pray that for you; in fact, I do. I pray that together we would learn the passion. First of all, crying out for wisdom is not a passive thing. It’s not simply «If it comes, it comes; if it’s God’s will, He’ll give it to me.» Instead, it’s a deliberate pursuit of wisdom. In James, he says if you ask for wisdom, He will give it to you, and He’ll give it to you extravagantly and abundantly. So let’s pray: God, give us wisdom and the knowledge of God. Open up to us the joy and delight of discovering hidden things. Let that be the pursuit of this generation, with true expression of emotion and passion to apprehend the very purpose for which we were created. I pray that in Jesus' name. Next week, we’re going to look at Chapter 3 of Proverbs, and we’re going to delve into one of my favorite portions of Scripture in the whole Bible—it’s absolutely true. In fact, the next two weeks, we’ll cover key passages in my life. Next week, we’re going to look at Proverbs 3:5 and 6: «Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding.» We’re going to take a good look at that one, and I pray that something opens up for every one of us to really expand our dependency on God. I bless you in Jesus' name.