Mensa Otabil - Designing and Building (10/03/2025)
I’m continuing my teaching on wisdom, and I’m talking about designing and building, Exodus chapter 31, verses 4 and 5: to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work all manner of workmanship. This is the continuation of the instruction God gave to Moses concerning Bezalel, the man who is being called by God to execute the assignment that God has given to Moses. God gave Bezalel technical skill, capacity to think, and mastery in the field he’s been called to.
As we read this passage, God talks about workmanship. All that God has blessed him with is for the purpose of workmanship. Workmanship has to do with trade or occupation, or something that you are working in. For a person like Bezalel, the workmanship will be in carving, and so on, but if you’re a lawyer, your workmanship is different. If you’re a pastor, your workmanship is different. If you’re a footballer, your workmanship is different. It is your trade; it is your ability to do the work that you are supposed to be doing.
God gave wisdom to Bezalel so that he will be able to do something. Each one of us has been given wisdom by God. Each one of us, whether you believe it or not, has been given wisdom. That wisdom is related to workmanship. I have wisdom related to my work as a pastor. If you’re called to do something else, God has given you wisdom in that area. If God truly called you to what you’re doing, He has given you the wisdom for it and the ability to run what you’re doing effectively with the wisdom that He has given you.
The problem is that sometimes God gives us wisdom in one area, and then we are doing something else, and you may not have wisdom in that area. So the wisdom of Bezalel was manifested in two ways: to design and to work. To design means to draw out a plan. Whenever God gives us wisdom in a particular area, He gives us the ability to work out a plan in that area so you can think about and conceptualize ideas. If you’re an author, you sit down and all of a sudden you’re able to put a plot together and write your story. If you are a lawyer, you’re able to envisage your case and put your case together.
People who don’t have that wonder how you do it; it is the wisdom that comes with the grace that God has given to you for the work He has called you to. You are able to design things; you are able to plan out or draw out a plan. Not only does He plan, but God says that Bezalel will be able to work or to cause things to be, to make things.
God’s wisdom is not just theoretical. It’s like what happens when there is a football match; everybody is trying to coach the Black Stars or a team, and we are talking about it from our point of view. But when you are put on the job, you probably will be a total failure. Talking about something is one thing; being able to do it is another. The wisdom God gives us is not just talking wisdom or thinking wisdom; it’s also doing wisdom. We’re able to get there and do what we say we have the competence to do. For Bezalel, it was God who gave him these gifts. Now for most of us, in addition to the grace God has given us and the anointing, we also go to school, we learn, we study, and we master our field, developing technical competence and capacity to think so that we can be good in our workmanship. When you’re good in your workmanship, you can design and execute; you can cost work.
So Bezalel is a builder of solutions, and wisdom makes us builders of solutions. When we have wisdom, we don’t create a problem; we solve the problem. Wisdom always has a plan. Wisdom designs solutions, and wisdom produces results. This is the God kind of wisdom; it always has a plan, it always designs solutions, and it always produces results. I pray that that anointing will rest upon you, that God will grace you with wisdom to think, to design, and to work out the plan and produce the results.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, help me to design solutions for problems and help me to produce results with my ideas in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.» May the Lord cause you to be a problem solver. I am Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.