James 3:17-18 states “But the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity). And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace in themselves and in others, that peace which means a united feeling in mind and emotions of agreement, and harmony between individuals which gives one a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions un-disturbedness, and moral conflicts].”

We will use these two verses as the basis of teaching how we are to think with the mind of Christ we received the day we were born again from above. The strife spirit that is at work with in the born again body of Christ is running rampant and we must be able to define the difference between us trying to deal with our behavior in our own strength verses solving our problems God’s way or us continuing to live in our ignorance in trying to deliver ourselves from the type of thinking that causes us to lean to our own understanding. This is an extreme mental battle and only the anointing of the Holy Ghost working in our thought life is what sets us free to live in the peace and joy of His presence. We start out being naive and unlearned which allows the Devil to imprison us in some area of our lives like bad relationships, addictions as to drugs, food and perversions of all types etc. We then become willing participants in this bondage and we become a prisoner and spend our whole lives as born again believers living as second rate citizens in God‘s kingdom with no freedom to chart our own course or direction as God intended.

This imprisonment can give us extreme emotional pain as we live in this condition and even worse when God in His mercy tries to deliver us from these bondages if we are really ever going to be delivered. Let’s remember three and one half million Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years and never entered the promise land. I am afraid because of what scripture tells me and the encounters that I am having with born again believers that there will be millions of Christians that are born again and will make heaven their home after death but, they will never enter the promised land of kingdom living on the earth as Jesus wanted them to. As for me, I am going to get the whole package and not fall short of the glory of God in my life and settle for second best. Let’s now define these two verses.

As we begin I want you to realize in case you don’t know that, the spiritual world that you were born into when you received Jesus as your Savior is a very real place that you can get in touch with and a wonderful place to live in but, you must be taught the kingdom rules and how to apply them in your life. It is us using God’s wisdom that accomplishes this task. If you have not been born again, you can never have the reality of sensing and exploring this wonderful new world of the spirit. I don’t know who I am talking to but I know this is hitting home to you who are reading this. I have said this before in other writings, God’s children are to be eagles flying higher and higher not turkeys walking around eating acorns.

The word for Wisdom in the Greek is sophia: meaning either a wisdom that is worldly or from heaven. Scripture tells us that we have the capability to walk in heavenly places with Christ Jesus now while we are still in our earthly bodies. There is a wisdom of the world and a born again believer who does not know how to walk in the spirit of God will automatically think in this worldly wisdom. Worldly wisdom is conceited to the point that self is the main thing being focused on in their thinking and actions. To tell the truth it is idolatry and a worship of self. This is an extreme warfare that goes on in our inner nature and we can even in our attempts to walk in the admonition of the Lord have ungodly wisdom along with Godly wisdom coming out of our mouths at the same time. This is the battle going on in our lives as Paul the Apostle tells us to “fight the good fight of faith.” When a born again believer walks in the admonition of the Lord, this represents an inner discernment of the Holy Ghost which is actually the life of Christ making Himself known in our thought life and creating a change in our natural circumstances.

Godly wisdom is one of the seven characteristics that rested on Jesus as stated in Isaiah 11:2. “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord^. And this made Him of quick understanding, and His delight shall be in the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord. And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, neither decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness and justice shall He judge the poor and decide with fairness for the meek, the poor, and the downtrodden of the earth; and He shall smite the earth and the oppressor with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist and faithfulness the girdle of His loins.” We see here that wisdom is the first characteristic that needs to be in operation in our lives if we are going to walk as Jesus walked in all these other characteristics underlined. A Christian that does not walk in the wisdom of the Lord will have no power in their life to judge as God judges.

King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 8:1-2 says “Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his countenance is changed. In Ecclesiastes 9:16-18 he says “But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heeded. The words of wise men heard in quiet are better than the shouts of him who rules among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.”

Our main text states that wisdom from above (God’s wisdom) is pure and undefiled. When something is defiled it means to profane a name or reputation and claim something to be unclean. As we accepted Jesus sacrifice at the cross and believed with our heart and confessed this out of our mouth we were ushered into the kingdom of God permanently and became born again. Only this foundation being laid and witnessed by the Holy Ghost makes us a child of God. Now having all of God’s characteristics with His wisdom, we must lay the next foundation in our learning about God which is stated in Matt. 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added to you.” God’s righteousness is the actual covering as a white robe over our minds and is described as a garment that we are to slip into as a born again believer. Scripture tells us that when we became born again we became Saints unto our God. Jesus is known in scripture as the King of Saints.

When the body of Christ sits under teachings that proclaim that they are still sinners they defile themselves and consider themselves to be unclean and God’s righteous spirit with His wisdom can not function in their minds and hearts. This spirit at work in the born again believer puts a robe of self incrimination on them. In turn, it can not be peace-loving, courteous considerate, gentle willing to yield to reason, full of compassion good fruits; be wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity. The different behaviors such as lying, stealing, sexual perversion, strife etc that this sin conscious mind produces in our lives is not the main problem in the born again believer but the consequences. We need to be delivered from this living entity of having a sin conscious mind that causes this behavior.

As long as the teachings focus on getting our behavior cleaned up, God’s wisdom can not operate in our lives. The good fight of faith that scripture tells us to fight is not us working hard to get sinful behavior out of our lives. If we stay in this sin consciencesness after being saved, we will fall into the category of being forever learning and never coming to the truth of our righteous position in Jesus Christ. Simply put sin conscious believers can not ever think with the mind of Christ which they received after becoming born again and they have no power to allow God’s grace to set them free to explore their arena of life with out feeling condemned and guilty.

Ephesians 5:8-9 states “For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light]. For the fruit (the effect or product) of walking in the Light or the Spirit brings with it in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.” The born again believer must once and for all come to understand that when he became born again, God took him from the kingdom of darkness with no spiritual reality and planted him into His kingdom of light. This is the good news gospel that must be preached if God’s children are to walk in the wisdom of God their Father. A simple way to define this is like a butterfly which starts out living in an enclosed cocoon as a caterpillar and it grows and comes out of the cocoon a butterfly that can explore its world and fly where ever learning its domain. It can never go back to being a caterpillar again.

Many years ago I found three verses in the bible that has set a foundation in my life that Paul stated in Ephesians 1:17-20. “ [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places].” This is the prayer that the born again believer must live in and be reminded of daily by the Holy Ghost.

When one is living in the wisdom of the Holy Ghost there is a passion and hunger to devour the word of God daily. A person who has God as their first love attempts to live in their thought life as being in heavenly places where the Lord Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God to make intersession and intercedes for us to God the Father. It is only us having this kind of disciplined life style that can keep us delivered from the worldly entanglements that entice us to bend to its biding. Scripture tells us that when we leave this planet and see the Lord face to face we will know Him. Their will many born again believers who will see Him face to face and not recognize Him because; they have never been discipled to walk in heavenly places with Him while here on the earth. If you know Jesus as your Savior and do not have an intense passion to walk in the shadow of His protection and grace, something is seriously wrong and you have been deceived.

In the verses that we are using for this article it states “And the harvest of righteousness which is the (conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace in themselves and in others. If there is going to be any harvesting; it must be through righteousness which brings with it peace. With out righteousness at work, there can be no conforming in our thought life with actions to complete God’s will in our lives. We have stated that righteousness in the Greek means, God looks at us as blameless, innocent and free from evil and set apart unto Him to do the works of Jesus in the earth.

Now here is the center and pivotal controversy within the body of Christ. I have been attacked and verbally abused by many saying that this statement is false doctrine and they can not believe that God sees them in this perfect light. The whole point of Jesus dying on the cross was for Him to bring inner peace to those who were sinners so they could be set free from concentrating on the fact that they were breaking God’s commandments because they had no will power to keep the commandments. Once a person becomes born again, he has the peace maker living inside Him. God’s true seed of His wisdom can only be sown in our hearts where there is total peace with out confusion and strife. God’s Righteous Spirit which is Himself peace is one of His characteristics along with all of His others. So the born again believer now has the wisdom of God in him because he has the wisdom maker. This is just one part of God’s inheritance which is the key to operating and walking through His kingdom with power.

Solomon the King said in proverbs 4:6-9 “ Forsake not [Wisdom], and she will keep, defend, and protect you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of Wisdom is: get (skillful and godly Wisdom)! [For skillful and godly Wisdom is the principal thing.] And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation). Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her, and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honor when you embrace her. She shall give to your head a wreath of gracefulness; a crown of beauty and glory will she deliver to you.” Reading this it sounds like Solomon was having a love relationship with a lady.

Scripture tells us that we having the knowledge of knowing God’s word must be mixed with Godly wisdom if we ever intend to comprehend with understanding which in turn, changes our behavior to be like Jesus. This must be through a spiritual relationship with the Holy Spirit where we are changed from the inside out. This is a supernatural miracle and us trying in our own strength to live by laws or rules of Godly behavior is absolutely ungodly and futile.

Scripture tells us that God wants His wisdom to be proclaimed from the highest towers in the market places of life. This will only take place if the body of Christ really believes that God the Father sees them the same way He sees Jesus. Our righteous position after salvation must be preached in every pulpit that there are born again believers attending if they are going to be persuaded of their Sainthood after becoming born again. Since Jesus act of dying for us and us receiving Him as Savior brought us into the kingdom; we must then be taught that He also sanctifies us so we can operate in His wisdom.

Unless we are going through this sanctification process there is no Godly wisdom operating in our lives. When one is sanctified it means that they are holy, pure, blameless, and consecrated and a saint in God’s eyes. As long as the body of Christ where ever is teaching that the born again believer is a sinner this puts them with a demonic covering over their spiritual understanding and God’s discerning wisdom can not explain to them His kingdom principles that they were ushered into the day they became born again.

In the book of Job it tells us that the Devil came and inflicted Job with boils, he killed his children and his animals and because of his wife’s anguish she even told him to curse God and die. Job immediately became sin conscious and believed that God had inflicted him with all of these afflictions and then three of his church friends who said they loved him came over to help him with his trial and they put more condemnation on him then he was putting on himself.

In Job 7:1-2 He states to God. “Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a constant vigil over me? When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint, then You scare me with dreams and terrify me through visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than these my bones (Bodily infirmities.) I loathe my life; and wish that I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath (my life is useless.) What is man that you should magnify him and think him important? And that you should set your mind upon him? And that you should visit him every morning and put him to a test every moment? How long will you continue to harass me with your glance nor look away from me, nor let me alone till I can swallow my saliva? If I have sinned, what [harm] have I done to You, O You Watcher and Keeper of men? Why have you marked me, so that I have become a burden for myself [and you]? And why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust; and [even if] you will seek me diligently, [it will be too late, for] I shall have already died.”

We have a man here who loved God but not according to the true knowledge of Him. He had a small taste experience that the Lord was good because he knew he was important to God. He had visitations with the Lord morning until night and he thought God was his friend and now he thought God had forsaken him and their he was sitting on a pile of dirt with sores and the only consolation he had was his dog licking his wounds to make him feel better. He had experienced that God was a watcher and keeper of men. He had become so sin conscience that he stated he had become a burden to himself and God.

Have you ever been there or are you there now?

This is the sin conscious mentality that we must guard against daily that the Holy Ghost grieves over us as we oppose ourselves by not believing that we are righteous in God’s sight always and forever. When we have this type of opinion of ourselves; there is no Godly wisdom in it and when we confess this type of stuff we actually curse ourselves and the straight jacket of self condemnation tightens and despair sets in with torment. I have heard and watched hundreds of Christian programming over these many years and heard leaders in all areas confessing that the body of Christ is inadequate and needs a new revival or some new truth or some new doctrine. Some ministries will spend the people’s money to condemn and criticizes another denomination or ministries and proclaim that they know the truth and the others do not. There is a great hunger within God’s family to know the truth however; I am also convinced that unless God raises up more people who really walk in the Spirit of His righteousness with His wisdom, the body of Christ will end up as a rag tag army carry unnecessary burdens and stay as cripples in their lives.

As we bask in Christ’s sanctification Spirit of friendship, it becomes a continual relationship as we breathe air every day and this is what keeps us alive and able to stay active in the spirit world of His kingdom. Only with Godly wisdom will we be able to discern the subtle deceptions of the Devil that comes to steal, kill and destroy and abuse people that God knows will cross our paths daily that we are to minister to give them a word of wisdom where ever we travel. Kingdom living must take place in the streets and affairs of the world. Church is only meant to teach and encourage the young to mature and go about their Father’s business in their particular arenas of life. We who are born again are the walking body of Jesus and must become equipped by those who are called by God to mature His saints. I believe the only thing most Christian believe in is, warming a seat in a church building Sunday after Sunday. I know this doesn’t make me popular but it is the truth. The last part of our main text tells us that if we are living and experiencing this relationship with the Lord it will give us a “peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions un-disturbedness, and moral conflicts.

Romans 14:17 tells us, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink (Man judging his own behavior); but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” We will either function in fear, agitating passions and moral conflicts or righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. There is no middle road. In closing and as I have said many times in different articles a difficult thing to do because as you mature in the Lord you will find that there is a spirit that rises up in you where you are constantly seeking a wisdom higher than your own. In turn, this becomes a consuming relationship with the Holy Ghost that fulfills and satisfies your life and what is the power in us to fight the good fight of faith. At times you never get enough and at times you have to back off to assimilate the new revelation that you are receiving daily. I would greatly encourage you to abandon yourself by surrendering to God’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost‘s holding power today. It is time for God’s children to shake themselves from their spiritual apathy and really taste and see that the Lord is good!