Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: PaulD
Company: GDC

The Church of the Living God

		09-05-06.FBC08-116 /

Development of Wisdom; Prov 8: The Praise of Wisdom: Knowing, Understanding, Applying Is Based on Hunger & Thirst for the Word, Matt 5:6
44.	With a functional inventory of biblical wisdom and the inner resource of true happiness, this believer is more than prepared to deal with the challenges of momentum testing: (1) people, (2) thought, (3) system, (4) disaster, and (5) prosperity testing.
45.	From the experience of seeing the power of doctrine overwhelm and eliminate these tests or, in some cases, provide the enablement to endure and adjust to their inevitability, the believer becomes a battle-tested promachos: a front ranker in the Invisible War.
46.	The resultant advance puts the believer in spiritual maturity where his level of sophisticated thought is invincible to any situation the devil’s world can offer.
47.	Occupation with Christ gives him the wisdom necessary to serve as a witness for the Prosecution should he be called to testify in the appeal trial of Satan.
48.	When wisdom moves the believer through evidence testing, it results in escrow blessings in time and guarantees their conveyance in the eternal state.
49.	Therefore, the development of wisdom is the sine qua non of the Christian way of life.  Instruction on the subject from wisdom literature will provide further insight on the subject.
50.	Solomon wrote the wisdom literature recorded in Proverbs and several of his poems stress the importance of knowing the thinking of God and in several His wisdom is personified.  We will note one of these.
VIII.	Proverbs 8: The Praise of Wisdom
1.	In this proverb, wisdom is personified.  She expresses her direct association with God in eternity past and at the creation, and the importance of coming to know her.
2.	The concept of personification is noted in the NET Bible’s introduction to the chapter:
Wisdom in Proverbs 8 … is simply presented as if it were a self-conscious divine being distinct but subordinate to God, but in reality it is the personification of the attribute of wisdom displayed by God.

The NET Bible, First Beta ed. (Dallas: Biblical Studies Press, 2001), 1079, sn 24.

3.	The force of the proverb has to do with knowing, learning, and applying the Word of God.  Application is what is stressed in this proverb and is personified by the feminine singular noun hm*k=j* chochmah and translated “wisdom.”
4.	You can only apply what you have learned and therefore understand, the feminine verb /yB! vin which we will also see throughout the chapter.
5.	You cannot understand what you do not know through perception; in context, knowledge is the feminine noun tu^D^ da‘ath.
6.	The content of this wisdom, understanding, and knowledge is truth, the feminine noun tm#a$ ’emeth, the word for the absolute standards to which the human soul must submit in order to advance toward the sophisticated spiritual life.
7.	Note that these four words which are related to perception and application of the Word of God are in the feminine gender.  The woman is a responder, therefore, to what do wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and truth respond in the soul of the advancing believer?
8.	Divine righteousness: the masculine noun qd#x# setheq which refers to the integrity of God with emphasis on His righteousness, the source of divine standards to which the human race is held accountable.
9.	These words relate to the hearing, perception, inculcation, retention, recall, and application of divine viewpoint to life in the soul of the positive volition believer.
10.	Here are seven principles that relate to this process which we refer to as the grace apparatus for perception:
1)	You must understand what you know.  What you understand you are able to recall in order to think.  You cannot apply what you do not first think.  To understand doctrine and to think doctrine results in application of doctrine.
2)	When you learn doctrine you understand it; when you think doctrine you are applying it.  It is thought that enables the volition to pull the trigger of application.
3)	You have to learn and understand doctrine before you can think it.  You have to think doctrine before you can apply it.
4)	You cannot apply doctrine unless you have inculcated it into the kardia of your soul which means academic knowledge in the nous must be converted into epignōsis.
5)	There are three stages to the application of doctrine to life and circumstances:
(1)	Knowing (da‘ath): perception of what is taught.
(2)	Understanding (vin): inculcation of what you have learned.
(3)	Wisdom (chochmah): application of what you understand.
6)	The application of doctrine has three objects to which it is directed: (1) toward God through personal love, (2) toward people through unconditional love, and (3) toward self through spiritual self-esteem.
7)	The reference point for these principles is the divine standards revealed to us from the righteousness of God.
11.	The ingredient that allows this process to culminate in the life of the believer is expressed by our Lord in:
Matthew 5:6 -	Inner happiness to those who hunger and thirst after the doctrines of divine righteousness, for they shall be totally filled.
12.	The secret to spiritual growth is found in one’s desire to become a front ranker in the army of the Lord; the volitional motive to pursue truth in order to become a professional Christian warrior so as to represent Jesus Christ on this earth in His absence.

© 2009 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org