Sep. 13, 2026

More Wiseness

Introduction -  Last week I introduced a topic which is a bit foreign to our normal Christian lives.  We are accustomed to living by faith, because we are aware that the Christian life is a supernatural one, so we are always eager to hear about all that God is doing, which amounts to supernatural activity.  We are not so ready to hear about things which He expects us to be doing, which may or may not be spiritual, according to our reckoning. Too much teaching in that direction ends up subtly persuading us to us rely on human effort or works-righteousness.

We have to remember that when Adam and Eve sinned, we were cut off from the simple fellowship we had with God in which He was all we needed.  They both suddenly became aware of all the boundaries of bad things they could get away with, and the potential punishments associated with them.  Lies and misinformation were probably a large part of what they learned, because the knowledge of evil only could have come from Satan.  The Knowledge of Evil carries with it the deception of the successfulness of sin.  In reality God knows every sinful thing we ever even think of, so no one ever succeeds at it.  

As a result, much of our teaching, preaching, and study is focused on faith and not enough on wisdom. I am attempting to change that imbalance by emphasizing wiseness a bit more.  We do not need to move the needle too far in that direction, but find a balance point between faith-living and wisdom-living, which in itself is wisdom. 

Exodus 35:30-31 Then Moses said to the sons of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 31And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all craftsmanship;

Let’s talk about how how wiseness, knowledge and understanding work together.  

Knowledge is the initial thing we must possess to to be able to do God’s will.  Knowledge is simply the body of facts which the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit make known to us.   The latest weather forecast, for example, is a group of facts about the natural forces we call “weather” and what it will be doing in the next 24 hours. If we just keep living our lives exactly that same from day to day, we’ll collide with some of these unruly facts sooner or later.  It’s important to get your facts from God, which means a truthful, reliable source.   Wiseness, or wisdom, shows us how to employ the facts we learn to our benefit.  Concerning weather, we wouldn’t set up an outdoor picnic if torrential rains are forecast. We wouldn’t plant water-hungry crops in the midst of prolonged drought conditions.  Wiseness shows us how to employ the facts we know.  In the spiritual life, this is probably the biggest need a Christian has.  We are bombarded with facts in most preaching:  You are saved, justified, sanctified, full of authority, a joint heir with Christ, a royal priesthood.  We are not really told much about how to use or to be all those things.  This is where wiseness comes in.  More profound than wiseness is understanding.  We use the expression “I get it” today to signify that we understand something.  Understanding involves knowing the reasons why God has dealt with man in the manner in which he has and being changed by the knowledge: for example, knowing the depth of our depraved nature, and the breadth of the re-creation which was needed to make us serviceable to him again, the bend-over-backwards love He had toward us when we were yet blind and undeserving, how intricately he has left signs in the universe for us to discover such as: numerical data large and small—the radius of the observable universe, the charge of an electron, the strength of gravity, etc. Athiests have no realistic explanations for the life we experience on this planet.  

Proverbs 4:5-9. Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!  Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.6 Do not abandon her, and she will guard you.  Love her, and she will watch over you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your possessions, acquire understanding. 8 Prize her, and she will exalt you;  She will honor you if you embrace her. 9  She will place on your head a garland of grace;She will present you with a crown of beauty.”  NASB

So, in summary, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.  Knowledge is in the background, wisdom helps us to know what to do with knowledge, understanding is the “why” behind the reasons it works and what it produces, where it came from, how God is involved in it.  

Proverbs 24:13-14 My son, eat honey, for it is good; Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste; 14 Know that wisdom is the same for your soul;  If you find it, then there will be a future,  And your hope will not be cut off.  NASB

Last week I shared with you the benefits of dietary fiber.  I also told you about the motherlode of information in a wonderful publication called the Epoch Times newspaper.  Today, let me give you a another bit of wisdom which I have experienced:  the power of dried apricot kernels.  I became acquainted with these little creations of God through an unfortunate illness which my brother -in-law,  Teacher Gene Werre succumbed to years ago.  Gene was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.  He took one initial dose of chemotherapy and refused to go back for more.  In the meantime, pastor Henry Frain gave me a book written by G. Edward Griffin, World Without Cancer.  It described the chemical contained within the little kernels and how they safely kill cancer cells in the human body.  The chemical is carried anywhere blood flows in the body.  Gene read the book, ordered and took the seeds and experienced an 80% reduction in tumor size, almost complete reduction of his CEA, and complete absence of symptoms within just a few weeks.  His doctor thought that the chemo had done this and recommended that Gene see him in several months, as he was in apparent remission.  Unfortunately, Gene discontinued the use of the seeds and, some number of months later, suffered a regrowth of the tumors, eventually succumbing to organ collapse. His valiant experiment, however, couldn’t hide the fact that the seeds worked when taken.  I consume them every day, eating about as many as I would eat of whole apricots (3-5). 97% of the user reviews on webMD were positive concerning these seeds, even though official medical authorities have no evidence to recommend them.   

Genesis 1:29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; NASB

We were designed to live on plants, punctuated by meats, which were introduced later in the Bible (Genesis 9).

Conclusion - We all know spiritual facts: We’re saved, forgiven, we have authority, we are new creatures, We have been destined to live out of poverty, we are not living in shame, we are not living in sickness, the nature of God is in us, but we don’t know how to apply them.  Each of our situations are slightly different.  We live in different cities, had different parents, get taxed slightly differently, etc.  We are each amongst a different circle of people.  We must share these bits of personal wiseness with each other to save our bodies so we live out our full destinies on the earth.  Wisdom, therefore, is the principal thing we seek, now in this age.  It is most effectively shared in small, personal settings where you can explain details of what worked for you.  If your church experience involves being only a large group, you’ll miss the benefits of wisdom-gathering.  Modern churches departed long ago from the simple biblical model of Acts 2, in which a church of 3,000 people had no divisions, met in homes and had a simple regimen of prayer, sharing of food, reviewing the apostles teachings, and fellowship.  I really urge you to find a small group meeting which provides freedom for interaction between the members.