How To Acquire Wisdom - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, March 15th. The Bible tells believers that if we want wisdom, ask for it. Could it really be that easy? The book of Proverbs guides you in learning how to acquire wisdom. It is amazing how much information we have, how much knowledge is floating around out there. But one thing I've noticed is this, we have a lot of information, a lot of knowledge, but not a whole lot of wisdom. And there's a difference between wisdom and knowledge and information. And it's also interesting that nowhere in the Bible does the Scriptures say that God is calling men to have information and knowledge, though He certainly wants us to be knowledgeable. But He's not pleading with us, please find more information. But He's constantly crying out for us to gain wisdom, to be men and women of godly wisdom.

Let's think about this. If God says that from His perspective, that wisdom is more valuable than anything else, any material thing, any human thing you and I can conceive of, surely you want to understand, as I want to understand, how do we acquire wisdom? So that's what we want to talk about. And what I want to do is I want to give you these steps. So now let's begin with step number one. Step number one is if you want to acquire wisdom, you seek wisdom. If you want to acquire wisdom, you seek wisdom.

If I really want to be wise, I'm going to ask myself the question, how do I become a wise person? Then I'm going to go about it in a way. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to study. I'm going to seek.

I'm going to look. I'm going to do what I know to do in order to find wisdom. And what these steps are, these steps all follow that first one. If I really and truly want to be a wise person, there's certain things I can do to become wise. So, step number one is to seek wisdom. Step number two, meditate upon God's Word. God's Book is full of wisdom. If you and I are going to be wise people, we have to get in the source book. This is why you can't walk wisely and keep this close from Sunday to the next Sunday.

Notice what he said? He said, keep it close to your heart. God's Word living in our heart. You want wisdom how to raise your children? Here's a good place to start. Wisdom in business?

Here's a place to start. Want God's wisdom about finances? Want God's wisdom about family? God's wisdom about relationships? God's wisdom in every aspect of life? God's wisdom about your talents, your abilities, your gifts, your future, your plans, your goals, your dreams?

Where do we get God's viewpoint right here? So, step number two is simply this. If I want to be a wise person, I'm going to pursue wisdom.

Where am I going to pursue it? The first place I want to start is to get in the mind of God. What did He think about thus and so?

How did those whom He led respond? Step number three, if we're going to be godly people who are wise, it's not enough to desire to be wise. It's not enough to read and meditate upon the Scriptures. But number three, if I'm going to be a wise person, acquire wisdom, I must be willing to obey God's Word.

Now, think about this for a moment. If God allowed you and me to simply read His Scriptures and we just say, well, I just want to thank you, God, I want to be wise, and we move on living in our sin, that would be God condoning something that He cannot by His very nature condone. And so, therefore, God's Word, His principles are His direction for us. And if I apply those directions, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to be able to understand how God operates. I'm going to see what God does when I do what God says. I will never know what God will do if I do what God says unless I do what God says. And so, if I'm going to be wise, it's going to be this cause and effect.

There's going to be this action, this reaction. I'm going to see what happens in my life when I do what God says do. So, a wise person discovers the principle in Scripture that concerns that particular circumstance, and then they obey that principle and watch the results. And so, it's very important that you and I put obedience as a major factor in learning to be wise. And so, when a person says, well, I'd like to be wise, then the question is, are you willing to submit yourself to the will of God? Are you willing to do what God tells you to do and let Him demonstrate that His way is the best way? Step number four.

Step number four is the one that most everybody says, well, you know, that's the one I want. And that is we acquire wisdom by praying for it. Now, look in chapter eleven and let's look, if you will, at verse two. He says, when pride comes, then comes dishonor. But with the humble is wisdom.

Now, what does he mean by that? With the humble is wisdom. When a person is genuinely humble, they acknowledge that they have a need.

They acknowledge they don't know it all. They acknowledge they need wisdom or need understanding or need direction in their life. And so, we are coming to God acknowledging our need of Him.

And so, when a person is coming to pray, most of the time, let's face it, most of our prayers are requests. God, here's what I need. Here's the need of my heart. We humble ourselves before Him and acknowledge our need of Him. Sometimes our desperate need of Him, our hunger for Him, our thirst for Him, our yearning for Him.

God, we need You. So, if I want wisdom, certainly, I must acknowledge the fact that I need Him, that I need wisdom. And so, I'm going to come to Him in the spirit of humility, making my request. Now, I want you to turn to the one Scripture I want us to look at in James. Look there for a moment and in that third chapter, of course, is his distinction between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom, the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below, as we talked about last time. But listen to what he says in James chapter one, verse five. And this is the verse that most people claim and they'll say, well, you know what? Here's what he said.

That's what I did and it didn't work out. Now, watch this. Verse five, but if any of you lacks wisdom, need wisdom, let him or her ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Now, two or three things here, watch this. This is one of those verses you can't take out of context. If you do, for example, the Bible says, ask God for wisdom and He'll give you wisdom.

Now, let's think about this. Well, He certainly will. But He says, now, if you ask with wavering faith, well, I hope He is, I'm certainly, you know, I'm betting on, I don't know.

If it's that He says, you're not going to get it. Let me ask you a question. What causes our faith to waver so often? What causes us to make requests of God and deep down inside our faith is not strong?

Now, I ask you that question then to say this. If you and I are living in sin, if we are disobeying God, is God going to hear my request for wisdom? Lord, I want to see things from your viewpoint. I want to respond according to your will.

I want to follow your principle. It's in all the time I'm over here, living in disobedience to God. When you and I know that we're deliberately living in sin and disobedience to God, our faith is going away.

You cannot have strong, godly faith and living in sin at the same time. So we do have the promise that if we ask for wisdom, that certainly God will give us wisdom. He says He stored it up for us. He says He stored up wisdom for us. He gives wisdom and He stores up wisdom for the upright, for the upright, that is, those who walk godly in Christ Jesus. And so we can pray and receive wisdom.

But that is based upon the kind of life we're living. A wise person examines their wrong decision, sees it from God's viewpoint and corrects it and gets in God's will. And so it's very important that you and I know what God says is His principles, obey His principles, and then we certainly have the privilege of praying for God to give us wisdom.

But remember, He says it's stored up for the upright, not just for people who ask for it. Step number five. This is a very, very important step in this whole search and seeking after wisdom, extremely important.

Listen now. Look, if you will, in chapter six of Proverbs, because I want to show you a little something here. Chapter six. The fifth step is observing God's work in the world around us. He wants us to look around the world in which we live, the people we live around, the people we work around, the people that we hear about on the television, the radio, the newspaper, the magazines. He wants us to observe, listen, their lifestyle, observe how they operate, hear what they say, see what they do, and observe what happens as a result of their lifestyle, their approach to life, their beliefs, their doubts, their unbelief, their agnosticism, their atheism.

We are to observe the world around us. And so a wise man and woman will observe what happens to those who live ungodly. A wise person will observe those who trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and backslid on Him. A wise person will acknowledge and view and observe what happens to a person when they stop reading God's Word, when they cease to pray, when they cease to go to church, when they cease tithing.

And you see, I've heard enough testimonies over these years. I know what the principle is scripturally about tithing. I also know what happens to people when they know the truth and they don't do it. And so the Bible is full of wisdom. And God wants us to know wisdom. And one of the ways we learn wisdom and become wise is not only searching the Scriptures but watching how people respond to life's circumstances and what happens to them sooner or later.

It's going to happen. You just look around the people you know. Look at the people you work with who, for example, they smoke, they drink, they're on drugs.

What's going to happen to them? Whatever we sow, we reap. What we sow more than we sow later than we sow, that is an irrevocable principle of God. And so wise men and women don't just read the newspaper and watch the TV and listen to all these things and say, well, that event, that event, this event.

They look, they ask questions, and they observe the consequences. All right, let's move on to the next one, number six, and that is heeding, listen, heeding godly counsel. It isn't enough oftentimes for us to just pray and say, Lord, show me what to do at this point. But sometimes we need godly counsel.

Sometimes we need to go to someone. Maybe we can't see something exactly the way God would have us to sit. So I want you to look at several verses here. Look in the twelfth chapter for a moment and let's look in verse fifteen, twelfth chapter and verse fifteen. He says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. That is godly counsel, not just any kind. A wise person is one who's willing to listen to godly counsel.

Now I want you to pay close attention to this because it's very important. Well, let's look, if you will, in the thirteenth chapter and look in verse ten. He says, through presumption comes nothing but strife, but with those who receive counsel is wisdom. That is, God uses other people to give direction for our life when He knows certainly that we need it.

Look, if you will, in the nineteenth chapter and the twentieth verse. He says, listen to counsel and accept discipline that you may be wise the rest of your days. Now, here's what that means. We want to be a wise person. Then there are times when we need to listen to someone who will say to us, don't do that.

And none of us like for someone to tell us, don't do that. Or you can't do that. Or you must not, or you should not. Or someone in their discipline and counsel would say, this is what you must do. This is the wise way to go.

In other words, we must be open to godly counsel. Sometimes it's reproved. This is what you did. This is not right. You need to ask them to forgive you. You need to make this decision.

You need to change this. Now, I've said this a million times and that is, you can't go to just counsel. You better find out who you're going to. Seeking godly counsel. Someone whose life is governed by the Word of God. Someone whose lifestyle is governed by the Word of God. Someone whose direction and counsel comes from the principles of Scripture. And when you go to counsel for someone who ignores God, leaves the principles of Scripture out, you are going to head down the wrong road, the wrong direction and there will be disaster ultimately somewhere along the way.

And so we're to seek godly counsel. Open for reproof when necessary. Open for conviction when necessary. Open to be disciplined when necessary.

And open for approval when necessary. Godly wisdom must be more important than our own personal pride, the point we are unwilling to go and ask for help or to say, you know, I think I can handle this without any help. If I want to be wise, I must be willing to seek godly counsel. Then number seven, to acquire wisdom.

This is very simple. I must be willing to associate with wise people. And the Scripture is very clear. Look at you on the thirteenth chapter. We want to be wise, we associate with wise people.

Thirteenth chapter, look at this. He says in verse twenty, he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. If we want to be wise, we find wise people. We walk with people who are wise.

Now think about this. Think about for a moment the people who influence you the most. It may, it could be your husband, it could be your wife, it could be your doctor, it could be your friend. It could be someone who influences you financially, influences you in your marriage, influences you how to raise your children, influences you in your vocation. Who in your life influences you the most?

All of us have somebody. Who influences you the most? Now, would you say that that person is a wise person? You think about this. The person who is influencing you the most in your life, are they wise or do they do foolish things?

Let me ask you this. Do you run with wise people or foolish people? The people who influence you the most, do they prompt something within you that causes you to want to know God better? Do they prompt something within you that makes you want to get in the Word of God and find out what He's all about and what He's up to?

Are they impacting your life to the point that, that you're asking the question, God, what's, what's best for my life? What is your will for my life? How do you want to use me? How do you want me to serve you? What do you want me to give you?

Where do you want me to go? To whom do you want me to share my faith? God, is this the kind of influence you're having? Is this the kind of influence that somebody's having on you?

The person who's influencing you the most or would you have to be honest to say they are very critical? They drag me down. They're not pure in their heart. When you talk to them about God answering prayer, do they laugh about it?

Do they just sort of scuff it off? Are they the kind of people whom you feel you're always having to defend yourself with and what you believe and what you think and how you operate? Ask yourself this very, very serious question. Who is influencing my life the most? And is that influence of the quality that it would lead me to become a wiser person? If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, let me ask you something. Is the person who is influencing you the most, are they talking to you about Jesus? Have they ever said to you, let me tell you how to trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Now let me turn all this around. All of us are influencing somebody.

Ask yourself this question. The person or person that I influence the most in my life, am I influencing them to walk godly, to walk holy, to be obedient to God, to follow His principles, to spend time in prayer, to spend time in His Word? Am I influencing them in such a way that they have a hunger for God's Word? Am I impacting them in such a fashion that they just want to know the same Christ?

Do they want the same kind of intimacy that you have? You see, wise men and women run with wise men and women. And the ungodly are uncomfortable around wise, godly men and women. But our influence, our impact as believers, as we try to walk holy before God and walk on the admonitions of God, the principles of Scripture, we want to be wise people. We want to live in such a fashion that those who are around us cannot help but be impacted. Listen, not by us, but by the Christ who indwells us, lives in us, lives through us, to all those about us. God wants us to be wise. We want to be wise. And if you'll apply these simple steps in your life, you'll begin to find something happening in your relationship to Him, to yourself, and to others.

God will begin to use you in a way you've not been used before. Thank you for listening to part two of How to Acquire Wisdom. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.