About Us
Fort Wayne NOAA Weather Toledo NOAA Weather Lima NOAA Weather
Taylor Fort Wayne
Taylor Upland
HomeAbout UsContact UsProgramsMid-Morning Main PageEventsContests
Listen Now to WBCL's live broadcast.Make a Gift Online
Search our Site

Taylor University Fresh Perspectives page
     

 

Wisdom Worksheet – January 22, 2008

 

The Key to Unlocking Wisdom: Humbling All Four Chambers of the Heart

 

Next show: FEBRUARY 19, 2008

How will you unlock wisdom’s gate in 2008? Wisdom is chokmah in Hebrew. It is God’s heart of righteousness combined with street smarts. Wisdom makes our relationship with God sticky to our tasks and earthly relationships. Thus, it is the sweet spot where the vertical intersects with the horizontal. The vertical (up and down) is our relationship with God. The horizontal (side to side) is our relationship with others as we accomplish our daily tasks. Whenever a vertical line intersects with a horizontal line, four quadrants appear. This is the case with the human heart (leb or lebab in Hebrew, meaning one’s entire inner being). Just as the physical heart is comprised of four chambers, so the spiritual heart is comprised of four chambers. We can remember them with the acronym, WISE. They include the:

  • Will
  • Intellect
  • Spirit
  • Emotions

In order to experience wisdom in our lives, we must humble all four chambers of our spiritual heart to God (Prov. 1:7; 9:10; 11:2; 22:4). Humility, anavah in Hebrew, means to make lower than, or to bend the knees of the heart. Humility surrenders all to God. Humility is the key that unlocks the gate to wisdom.    

Jesus Christ said that He was humble in heart (Matt. 11:29). He surrendered all to the Father. His life is evidence in its extreme clarity that humility toward the Father precedes wisdom. Selecting the Jews’ ultimate word to describe God, Paul referred to Christ as the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). Even Proverbs describes the pre-incarnate Christ as Wisdom (Prov. 8:22-36).      

Pride is the lock on the human heart that creates our foolishness, the antithesis of wisdom. It breaks apart the vertical from the horizontal. This problem manifests itself in two different forms: (1) the vertical at the expense of the horizontal or (2) the horizontal at the expense of the vertical. When we find ourselves focusing on the vertical at the expense of the horizontal, we have fallen into religion rather than relationship—legalism rather than love. Someone might refer to us with the old adage, “He is so heavenly minded that he is of no earthly good.” When we find ourselves focusing on the horizontal at the expense of the vertical, we have fallen into license. Someone might look at us and say, “He is so earthly minded that he is of no heavenly good.” The solution is wisdom—the sweet spot where the vertical intersects with the horizontal—God’s heart combined with street smarts. Wisdom’s gate is opened with humility. When we humble all four chambers of our spiritual heart to God, we begin to act humbly and wisely in our relationships with others.  

 

CHAMBER #1 – Will

The will is the chamber of our choices. Nearly every action is preceded by a choice. In order to experience wisdom in our lives, we must surrender the will, or our choices to God. Humbling our will to God in order to experience wisdom is a choice (Prov. 8:10).  In essence, it is the flip of a switch. Humility says to God, “I can’t. You can.” “I can’t pay for the penalty of pride and foolishness in my life.  In Christ You can. I can’t free myself from the power of pride and foolishness in my life. In Christ You can.” When it comes to the will, humility says to God, “I won’t.  You will.” 

Jesus Christ surrendered His will to the Father. Just before his arrest and subsequent crucifixion Jesus said, “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not by will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). Surrendering His will to the Father gave Jesus the wisdom to interact with Judas, the chief priests, Pilate, Herod, Peter, John, Mary, and the Roman soldiers among others in order to accomplish the will of the Father. This led to the glory of Christ.

 

PAUSE and Let Wisdom Work. . .

 

Will you make a choice to humble your heart to God in order to experience wisdom? Will you humbly flip the switch of your heart and choose wisdom today?       

 

CHAMBER #2 – Intellect

 

The intellect is the chamber of our thoughts. It is the mind, including information, images, and ideas in both our conscious and subconscious.  We tend to think about every aspect of our lives. In order to unlock the gate to wisdom, we must humble our mind to God. The humbled intellect is a light that illuminates our hearts. King Solomon said, “The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor” (Prov. 15:33). “The fear of the LORD” is humility toward God. When we humble our intellect to God, we learn wisdom. Solomon said that if we would accept it, store it up, listen to it, apply our hearts to it, call out for it, even cry aloud for it, look for it, and search for it, then we would understand “the fear of the LORD” because it is the Lord Who gives us wisdom (Prov. 2:1-6). These aforementioned efforts comprise the study of wisdom that comes from a humbled mind. 

Jesus is the Word, or the expression, of the mind of God (John 1:1). When walking this earth, Jesus surrendered His mind to the Father (Matt. 22:37). Paul said that we should take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). When we humble our mind to God, we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).         

 

PAUSE and Let Wisdom Work. . .

 

Humble your mind to God and study wisdom. Here are four options for you to consider as you apply your mind to the study of wisdom this year. 

(1) Study Wisdom 101: read a chapter in Proverbs each day that corresponds with the date of the month. Proverbs has 31 chapters, so you will read through the book once each month during the course of the year. 

(2) Study Wisdom 201: accomplish Study Wisdom 101 plus read a chapter from the New Testament each day. This will allow you to read the entire New Testament in less than a calendar year.

(3) Study Wisdom 301: accomplish Study Wisdom 201 plus read three chapters each day in the Old Testament in order to read through the entire Bible in a year. 

(4) Study Wisdom 401: accomplish Study Wisdom 301 plus memorize one verse each week that you will apply to your life, recalling it several times throughout the week. WARNING: this will radically change your life!    

CHAMBER #3 -- Spirit

 

The spirit is the chamber of our prayers. The Bible refers to the spirit as the lamp of God (Prov. 20:27). He uses it to search our innermost being. Prayer is the connection of our heart with God’s heart. In essence, it is being online with the Creator. Paul said that he prayed with his mind and with his spirit, indicating that prayer is not limited to just one quadrant of the heart (1 Cor. 14:15).  However, the spirit is the lead chamber of prayer. In order to humbly surrender our spirit to the Father, we must pray for wisdom.  James, the half-brother of Jesus, is believed to have had calloused knees from the amount of time he spent humbling his body as well as his heart in prayer. He penned, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Solomon said, “The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayers of the righteous” (Prov. 15:29).   

Jesus surrendered His spirit to the Father. Each of the Gospel writers recorded Jesus praying alone daily with the Father and living online 24/7 with Him. Luke captured Jesus’ last words complete with the inflection that only eyewitnesses would have known, “Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”” (Lk. 23:46).

PAUSE and Let Wisdom Work. . .

 

Humble your spirit, and pray for wisdom. Ask God to lead you to the intersection of His heart with street smarts. Pray this request to God before, during, and after your Scripture reading as well as when you are making a significant decision or encountering another person during a divine appointment.     

 

CHAMBER #4 – EMOTIONS  

 

Emotions represent the chamber of our feelings. These are the multiple reflectors of the light in us. Although the exhaustive list of emotions is a difficult one to complete, a simple way to categorize them is: mad, sad, glad, or afraid. In order to fully surrender our heart to the Father, we must feel like it. We must want to bend the knees of our heart. This is a desire that includes an emotive reflection. Solomon not only challenged young leaders to choose wisdom (Prov. 8:10), but he also went on to say, “For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (Prov. 8:11). Many of us need to make a shift in what we desire. Too often, we enter a conflict emotionally seeking victory measured in time, talent, or treasures wishing for falsely promised significance, contentment, security, or control. Consequently, we become mad, sad, glad, or afraid over whether or not we win the alluring, yet deceitful, pursuit of the satisfaction of our desires apart from God. The irony is that we find ourselves dissatisfied because only He can truly satisfy our desires (Ps. 145:16, 19). He does this through wisdom—the sweet spot where the vertical intersects with the horizontal.    

Jesus surrendered His emotions to the Father. When being crucified with criminals as Roman soldiers divided up His clothes by casting lots, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34). Peter, who witnessed this said, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).    

 

Pause and Let Wisdom Work. . .

 

Humble your emotions and desire wisdom. Shift the target of your life from your measurement of choice to wisdom—God’s heart intersecting with street smarts. In every encounter, desire wisdom. Feel it. Want it. Joyfully embrace it. Just as changing your diet will create a desire for different tastes, so desiring wisdom will lead to a different appetite for life.

 

Conclusion

When we humble all four chambers of our heart to God, we receive Christ the wisdom of God dwelling in us (1 Cor. 1:24). Jesus Christ is the intersection of the vertical with the horizontal. He is fully God and fully man. He is God’s heart combined with street smarts. He has reconciled man with God and man with man. Paul referred to Christ in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Hope is confident assurance, not wishful thinking as we tend to use it in our English language. Glory is the revelation of the character and presence. When we humbly surrender all four chambers of our heart to God, we can be confident and assured of the revelation of the character and presence of Christ the wisdom of God in us. Pride is the lock on the human heart. Humility is the key. Humility unlocks the gate to wisdom, and that wisdom is a person, the person of God in Jesus Christ.