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Noel is heart-broken,
struggling not to be depressed because his life appeared to be surrounded by
failure and stagnation. The fight it seems has been beaten out of him, his zeal
and enthusiasm drained. He is unable to pay his children’s school fees when
they fall due. His health is not too good. His marriage is strained due to his constant
struggle to make ends meet with his low-level salary that is resistant to an
upgrade. He has gone on several long fasts to change the story of his life for
good, but the results he gets seems to be mocking his efforts. “Where have I
gone wrong? I am not even sure if I understand faith anymore. What sin have I
committed that is preventing me from promotion and laughter?” He asked. I listened to him attentively, and suddenly it
occurred to me that despite his zeal, Noel had a wisdom problem.
When your prayer
requests are neglected without
explanation, that’s a clear message that you have a wisdom problem. When your expectations are serially disappointed, despite investing your
best efforts in prayer and fasting, God is driving
you towards the arena of wisdom.
Yes, for those who think it strange that God is a Master Specialist at
disappointing believers, I come as a disrupter
to burst your bubble of illusions.
Now it takes affliction to provoke your desire for wisdom. As painful and
unwanted as it is, affliction, being the “leaven” of the earth, has only come
to expand your capability and
influence. To despise or neglect wisdom when you are afflicted –
mentally or physically- is to be oppressed. To embrace wisdom when you are
afflicted is to be exalted and empowered. So how do you comprehend and
grasp wisdom? Where can wisdom be found?
Left alone, without being prompted by affliction, it is easy for anyone
to neglect wisdom because there is no way it could be located, talk-less of
being recognized, based on whatever level of knowledge that you have.
Psalm chapter 119 verse
67 says: “Before I was afflicted, I went
astray...” When your rent is due,
and your capability to settle is zero, what do you do? When you are threatened with being drowned in
a sea of debts, is it money or wisdom you should ask for? Let me quickly say this, before we go further, that at the
onset of affliction, to be full of praise, instead of getting
depressed, makes wisdom available.
In his book, James
wrote that we should steadfastly rejoice when we fall into diverse temptations.
Temptation, another word for affliction, here means that whatever you have
learned is prevented from solution when you are challenged - health-wise, monetary-wise etc. That indeed
whatever level of knowledge you have acquired is stalemated, suffering the
paralysis of analysis, and a resolution is far from you, elusive. James counselled
that we should let rejoicing replace our offended mentality when we are
afflicted. By our jubilation instead of complaining, we welcome the
intervention of wisdom. TO HAVE
WISDOM IS TO WANT NOTHING ELSE! Solomon asked for wisdom, yet abundant wealth
and riches, long life, health, influence, and other good things he never asked
for came to him! For the point of emphasis, as if he was eager to destroy our
cluelessness, James pressed further to say: “If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God...” WISDOM COMES TO THOSE WHO REHEARSE THEIR PRAISE
INSTEAD OF ADVERTIZING THEIR PAIN. WISDOM COMES TO THOSE WHO WAIT!
It
takes wars, insurmountable challenges or conflicts for wisdom to stage a
counter-attack. Make no mistake. Christianity is not a
palliative, consolatory religion for the insecure, timid and cowardly heart.
And contrary to Karl Marx’s speculation that it is an “opium of the masses”
Christianity is a wake-up call, a marching order for its adherents to do battle
against malevolent forces who threaten to downgrade their capabilities and
minimize their impact. As simple as
it is designed to be, serving God has never been an enterprise for the timid,
unadventurous soul who is perpetually afraid of troubles and persecutions. If
you are afraid of troubles and persecutions, you will lack the ability to
register your impact. To be fearful of conflicts will neutralize your
potential, leaving it unexplored.
For those who take the
responsibility to serve God after heeding the divine call, it has always been
an uneasy, painful, and even perilous journey, an exercise in perplexity and
stress management.
For Adam and his woman,
the need not to violate the divine command forbidding them to eat the tree of
knowledge kept them fasting –
deprived temporarily of their sustenance in order to dress and keep the garden –
until the Serpent took the stage, pretending to resolve their perplexity and
end their pain. Abraham, the inheritor
of the earth, was told his seed would be afflicted in a foreign land for
400 years; later, as a test, he was instructed
to kill his long-awaited seed, Isaac, on the altar of sacrifice! Isaac, the
true heir, had the blessing with
nothing to show on the surface that he was wealthy
beyond measure. Rejecting his fear and under-cover life, it took his sowing
during famine in the land of Gerar for his wealth and greatness to manifest.
Jacob who had the Abraham’s blessing started
from zero in Syria, having fled there to escape the wrath of his brother, Esau. Holding
the sceptre of ruler-ship through his dreams, Joseph was enslaved and
imprisoned. Israel was commanded to conquer and take-over the rich land of Canaan
owned by seven greater and mightier nations. If you ask me, this is big
trouble!
It should be clear now
that God does not mind how many times you are disappointed, afflicted or
conflicted until you embrace wisdom. Why?
According to God’s original
purpose, it takes wisdom for you to
be productive and fruitful without being injurious to your environment. So
how do we locate and appropriate wisdom?
Job chapter 28; from
verse 12 says: But where shall wisdom be
found? And where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the
price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith,
It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for
gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be
valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The
gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for
jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the
price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
neither shall it be valued with pure
gold. Whence then cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of
the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our
ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
Man does not know the
value or price of wisdom because it cannot be found in the land of the living. The
value of wisdom cannot be exchanged with the pricey treasures of the entire
earth. Nobody but God knows the place where wisdom can be
found. It is not found in the sea. You cannot find it in the depth of the
earth. Destruction and death cannot handle wisdom. It is this kind of wisdom
that will make you to have wealth and success that cannot be explained. When
people close to you have given up on your ability to get married as a woman, it
takes wisdom to rescue you from shame. Truly, it takes wisdom, not even money,
to satisfy the desire of the human heart.
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| Felix N.Jarikre. |
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