GIFTS AND MINISTRIES (Part V)

By Odon Bulamba (Friday 29th September 2000)


12. THE GIFT OF WISDOM

1 Corinthians 12:8
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

Verse 8 tells us about the Spirit giving the word of wisdom. What is wisdom according to men?
- Just knowledge of things according to the dictionary
This is what men call wisdom ‘just knowledge of things’. But for God things are miles apart from that: God says that wisdom is the fear of the Lord. When you start to fear the Lord, wisdom starts to grow in you, but if you don’t fear the Lord, you are not wise, despite your huge knowledge.

Wisdom is a gift of the Spirit. Wisdom is a hugely valuable treasure. When someone is wise, nobody might say it, but it will be obvious in their behaviour and lifestyle.

I remember that priests would pretend to be wise after studying a few years at the seminary: and wisdom was for them to speak in a deep voice, with innocence on their face, great politeness when speaking to others, and being well groomed. But when we were scouts we would go camping somewhere in the country and steal fruit in the priest’s garden. If the priest saw you and caught you, woe to you: at that very moment the priesthood will be put aside and you will get a serious hiding. The child might cry for forgiveness but there will be no forgiveness. The same voice that was saying in a deep voice, ‘May the Lord be with you,’ will turn into a shout, ‘You, you must know who I am’. At church, their voice sounds soft but in real life, things are opposite. Go to night clubs and bars, and you will see priests drinking beer like everybody else. They prostitute their bodies and they pretend to be wise. This is human wisdom.

God’s wisdom is the fear of the Lord, whether you are handsome or ugly, God’s only command is to fear Him. The fear of the Lord is to do what is written in the Bible. If there are people among us with that gift, they must know how to control it: it is not to show off and pretend to be someone you are not but it is about accepting the leading of the Spirit of God and to humiliate yourselves in everything. This is God’s wisdom.

FIRST REQUIREMENT: GET VERY CLOSE TO GOD THROUGH THE BIBLE

When God gives you this gift, know that the first requirement is to read the Bible at every minute. Read the Bible to know that in order to fear the Lord you must have this and that, but without reading the Bible, you will never know where the fear of God is. The fear of the Lord is in your Bible. Those who have the gift of wisdom must make it grow by praying and sharing what they have with others since God gave this gift to serve others. It is not for the world to see how great we are.

HUMILITY AND SUBMISSION ARE ESSENTIAL

We know (for example) that Peter is wise, so when there is a problem, let’s call Peter. And Peter thinks in himself, ‘If they don’t come to see me, I will not go to see them. They need me, I don’t need them.’ When you lack submission, this gift will never work in you.

This is what Adam our father missed. If Adam had feared God the world would not be what it is today but because he didn’t have the fear of the Lord, he sinned with Eve and forgot his responsibility. God had created him in His image and Adam had wisdom in him because God is wise, but he totally forgot his work, gave up his responsibilities, and sinned.

If you or I have the gift of wisdom, never think that will stop you from sinning: sin will never fear you and will always be around you, it will attack you more to prove whether you are really wise or not, to confirm that what you have is really from God.

Is there a wise person who, after being abused, will turn around and have a fight with the other person? Is there a wise person who, after being told a problem, will turn around and broadcast it everywhere? Do you think that if someone talked to you today and you spread the news everywhere that person will come back tomorrow and tell you another problem if you can’t control your work/ your gift?

13. CONCLUSION

Let us stop today, that was the first step. Actually I’d rather say it was the first tenth of the first step to know how to walk in the Spirit and know our responsibilities. If you don’t respect your neighbour, never say you respect God, if you can’t live with people around you, you will never know how to live with God. So ask God to help you so that what is in you can produce good fruit on this earth, and this good fruit will produce something in people all around the world.

When I started talking about the ministries, I said, ‘No tree planted today can give fruit on the same day’, it takes time. Our works must be seen everywhere. If I plant a tree by this house today, in 3 years the tree will be taller than the person who planted it and its fruit will be seen from far. The tree will never walk around but people’s eyes will see the fruit and they will come to eat it. As people always say, ‘Children can’t help but throwing stones at the tree to get its fruit’. But why would people throw stones at a tree that doesn’t bear fruit? So, if you bear fruit, temptations will come in your life and if you are not tempted, ask yourselves, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ This is the normal Christian life. If you are not tempted, find out what’s wrong with you. Try to first know what your gifts of the Spirit are, this will tell you what is wrong so that you can fix it.

Let’s stop there. Thank you for your patience. I know it’s hard but we will talk more about it to understand better.