Tuesday, 6 May 2025

On the Road to Pentecost: the Spirit of Wisdom

“The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him, the Spirit that brings wisdom…” – Isaiah 11:2 (MSG)

“I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you wisdom to see clearly and really understand who Christ is and all that he has done for you. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share. I want you to realize that God has been made rich because we who are Christ’s have been given to him! I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is that same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in heaven” – Ephesians 1:16-19 (TLB)

Certain things can only be learnt via the teachings of the Holy Spirit. He introduces us to a divine perspective of reality. A perspective that is completely different from the world’s point of view.

“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.” – Romans 12:2 (TLB)

This gift of wisdom opens you up to a whole new way of thinking and being. It communicates the very mysteries of God on a personal level, affirming the Divine Presence within you.

This first-listed gift of Isaiah 11:2, provides you with a different perspective of things; it causes you to perceive the divine at work in all situations. It enhances your understanding of Romans 8:28…

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV)

Understand that this is no superficial experience but a deeply profound realization of the Presence of God in everything and everywhere.

As a contemplative gift of the Spirit, Wisdom is active within you and enables you to communicate with others God’s way, by impressing upon their hearts.

The gift of wisdom is the source and foundation from and upon which the other gifts emanate and are built. Without this anchor, this renewing of your mind (see Romans 12:2), no other gift can be properly established.

Some have tried to bring about god-like wisdom but the wisdom of which the prophet and apostle spoke cannot be learned, bought, received from listening to an on-fire preacher or earned, we can merely prepare ourselves to receive it from the only One who gives it, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Wisdom is a supernatural gift from God.

It is the Holy Spirit, the interior Presence of God, who stirs up these waves of Wisdom deep within you. You can feel these waves of change as they well up, manifesting in delightfully unexpected ways.

Beloved, as you keep step on the road to Pentecost, allow yourself to lose your footing so that Spirit may carry you along into the divine perspective, to see life from God’s point of view where, as St. Thomas Aquinas says about this gift in his Summa Theologica,

“The gift of wisdom makes the bitter, sweet, and labour, a rest.”

Amen †

 






Shelley Johnson “On the Road to Pentecost: the Spirit of Wisdom” © May 5, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

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