Spiritual Wisdom

UV 1013 /10,000 Spiritual Wisdom That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: Ephesians 1 v 17 God is the Father of glory, greatness and wisdom. He imparts His glory, greatness and wisdom to such as those who know Him and acknowledge Him and His Son Jesus. He does so by giving us the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Spiritual wisdom does not have a human or even a religious source. It has a spiritual source in God. The spirit of wisdom is pure, peaceful, easily approachable or accessible, full of mercy and good fruits of love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control and a sense of trust and security. The spirit of wisdom is without partiality and hypocrisy. In contrast, worldly wisdom is full of impurities, strife, competition, one upmanship, unforgiveness, love of money and the spirit of aggrandisement, greed and lust, restlessness, aggression, pride, unfaithfulness in dealings, insecurity, suspicion, partiality, insincerity and hypocrisy. Each of these aspects feed on the others and reinforce the vicious cycle. The spirit of revelation is expressed in visions, dreams, prophecies, word of knowledge and word of wisdom. The word of knowledge is a spiritual gift imparted by the Holy Spirit that enables us to know which portion of scripture applies in a specific situation while the spirit of wisdom is the spirit of counsel where we know what decision to take or what words to utter in a specific situation. The Holy Spirit will counsel us even on what words we need to speak. Jesus said, “The eyes are the windows of the body and if the eyes are full of darkness, then the body will be full of darkness.” He exhorts us to take care of the source of our vision. Leadership without a vision is blind leadership. A vision is only imparted by God. Hence, when we divorce leadership and management from the spiritual wisdom of God, we are consigning ourselves to be blind leaders following blind leaders since neither know where they came from, where they are heading and how to find the right way. A blind man does not lack in strength of his limbs or any other organ. He only lacks in a sense of direction and the ability to correctly perceive obstacles in his path. Such leadership and management will be full of bad fruit like rivalry, hatred, stress, gossip, depression, conflict, impatience, rudeness, corruption, arrogance, lust, pride, partiality and hypocrisy in subtle ways or in full bloom. I recently attended a global conference on “ Spiritual Wisdom for Management” at Yale University. It was felt by teachers of management and leadership from different nations that in the absence of spiritual wisdom, management was bound to be shorn of visionary, life- giving and life- enhancing values. The spirit of wisdom and revelation will supply the vision that we lack due to the personal knowledge we have of God through His Son Jesus. Prateep V Philip