Wisdom for Living: Adversity #3 | Mac Hammond
 
Recap
 
Pastor Mac taught the third installment in his series, “Wisdom for Living.” He reiterated that the Bible says, “Wisdom is the principle thing”: not faith, not grace, not love, or any of the other things we tend to prioritize in our lives. Wisdom is emphasized throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New. Overall, the definition of wisdom is “the capacity to discern the best ends.” Pastor Mac, again, restated that there are two principle types of wisdom: natural and spiritual. In this session, Pastor Mac talked about adversity with regard to walking in the wisdom of God.
 
Dive Deeper
 
First Corinthians 1:30 says Christ is made unto us wisdom. James 1:5 says that we’re to ask for wisdom.
 
We are told in Ephesians that wisdom abounds toward us in the person of Jesus Christ. Wisdom is part of our identity in Christ. You don’t know who you really are until you understand the level of wisdom that is available to you in Christ.
 
When Christians think of wisdom, they automatically think about spiritual wisdom. But it isn’t just a spiritual thing. It includes the ability in a natural sense to determine the best means to arrive at the desired end.
 
Spiritually, many of the ends that we should desire could also be called the promises of God or the will of God for our lives. There’s a natural component that makes the spiritual wisdom work. That’s why the Word says that faith without works is dead… or in other words, faith without corresponding action is dead.
 
If you truly believe something, it will change the way you act. For instance, the Bible says not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together. If you truly believe that, then you will act accordingly and go to church. That is acting on your faith. It is corresponding action. It is faith with works.
 
The biggest impact of works is putting the natural wisdom together with the spiritual.
 
When we see what the spiritual ends should be, that faith that you embrace that truth with will die unborn if you don’t put the appropriate natural wisdom, or things that you would do in the natural, with that.
 
If you fail to act on the natural considerations (what natural wisdom says you should do with that) then your faith won’t produce.
 
Ex: The Lord isn’t going to heal somebody with lung cancer so they can keep on smoking cigarettes.
 
Wisdom requires that you identify on a spiritual level the best ends and the means to achieve your goal, which normally would be the promise of God, of which you receive by faith. But there’s a natural side as well that are the works that will correspond to whatever that end is that you desire.
 
1st Corinthians 2:7 says, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” 1st Corinthians 14 says he who prays in tongues speaks mysteries unto God. We have the privilege of speaking in the spirit, or in tongues, the wisdom of God that might not be fruitful to the natural mind of man. Your tongues are also not fruitful to Satan’s understanding. He doesn’t understand what you’re praying about.
 
And that’s why 1st Corinthians 2:7 goes on to say, “even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
A lot of our prayer lives will be in tongues because the Lord needs to pray out some things through you that He doesn’t want the enemy of your soul knowing about. If Satan knew what you were praying about in tongues, he’d set up roadblocks and resistance to the unfolding of that plan.
Read About It
 
1st Corinthians 1:30, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
 
1st Corinthians 2:7, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.”
 
James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
 
Ephesians 1:8, “Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.”
 
Discussion Questions
 
What does it mean to have “corresponding action” with your faith?
 
What is the advantage of praying in the spirit?
 
Can you give an example where you failed to use both spiritual as well as natural wisdom together?
 
 
 
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Recent Sermon Notes

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