Walking with the Wise #395: The Power of the Wise

“A wise man scales the city of the mighty


and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.”
—Proverbs 21:22

The wisest of the wise will defeat the strongest of the strong. Solomon, who was the son of a king, when asked to make a request of God, did not ask for riches or for power, but for an 

“understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern your great people?”—1 Kings 3:9. 

And God gave it to him. It actually pleased Him greatly.

"It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, 'Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days'"—1 Kings 3:10-14.

Solomon does become wise. He becomes the wisest man to ever live. As it says in 1 Kings 4:29-34,

"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom”—1 Kings 4:29-34.

If anyone knew wisdom, it was Solomon. The power of wisdom doesn’t rest so much in natural talent, as much as in God-given discernment, and that means knowing how to live and operate in the realm of people. Knowing how to interact with people, knowing how to speak to them, how to encourage, exhort, or admonish gives one great advantage over the one who only knows brute force or the power of fear.

As Christians, our standard of living is different from that of the world. We must learn to put on the mind of Christ, which contains within it the attitude of servanthood. Servanthood is the deliberate surrender of fleshly power, not the accumulation of it. Power for the Christian comes by the Holy Spirit, not by the exertion of one’s will. If we are to be wise, we must begin at the cross, where our Lord was crucified. By faith, we appropriate His crucifixion as our own, so that we might appropriate His resurrection also as our own. But this cannot come from anywhere except by the Spirit of God, which then gives us the mind of Christ, which we enter into day by day as we surrender to Him. Surrendering to Him enables us to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh, and then take in the things of the Spirit. When we do this, we begin to operate in wisdom.

Are you in need of wisdom? Ask of God who

“gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways”—James 1:5-8.

Ask for it, believe that He will give it, and He will. He will give to you generously—and though you may not realize it, you may not feel it, but be confident in Him and who He is, and you will soon discover Him working in you and through you for His good purpose. And when He does, glorify Him because of it. Amen.