Jesus was a remarkably successful man – He fed 5000 people with a couple of loaves and fish, He regularly healed everyone who came to him, He ministered with life and joy, and He had fun – He laughed and children loved Him! The secret to this success was found in Luke 2.52: Jesus grew in wisdom and favour, and in favour with God and with man.
So Jesus grew in four things, and for the next few blog posts, we will examine these four things:
- WISDOM
- STATURE (maturity)
- FAVOUR WITH GOD
- FAVOUR WITH MAN
The sentence could be read: Jesus grew in FAVOUR WITH GOD and FAVOUR WITH MAN because he grew in WISDOM and STATURE. The key to unlock the favour and let it flow through your life is to grow in wisdom and stature.
We need to get wisdom. Right now I am on Revelation TV, and I tell you there is great favour with God and man on the TV, and miracles are happening and lives are changing. But we have paid for that through our giving and our faith – I know not many churches could have stepped up the way we did when we did, but it was our wisdom in knowing our faith and sowing work.
WISDOM is our ability to know how things work and WORK THEM. It is practical. It is the correct working of knowledge – it is not bookish, but it is what we do and how we act. The Greek word for wisdom is sophia, and it means to understand how knowledge relates to other knowledge, and the ability to form links between actions and the world around us.
Many people are foolish because they are unable to form links – the girl who goes out clubbing and is foolish with boys and can’t understand how she got pregnant was foolish because she didn’t link her behaviour to consequences. I have seen many people lose their jobs because of foolish behaviour because they didn’t link knowledge together! On the other hand, the people who receive great promotions and great fortunes can link ideas and knowledge together.
Wisdom is also the act of interpreting what is going on around you. It takes wisdom to interpret dreams and visions, but you also need to interpret life. I am wise when it comes to interpreting the flow of the Holy Spirit in a meeting – what is going to happen next, what is the Holy Spirit doing and why, where am I moving now? I can see those things, it is an area in which I have wisdom. You need wisdom in your areas of expertise, in your flow.
Wisdom is also the skilled management of resources – that could be money and time. Many people are late to church every week because they are foolish, they do not know how to manage their time with skill.
Proverbs 1.7 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so that is also a massive part of wisdom – learning how to live a God-fearing life. What that is – we will cover in our next post!
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