The wisdom fountain nuggets are devotions mostly from the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Songs of Solomon. King David wrote most of the Psalms while King Solomon, blessed with abundant wisdom by God, wrote the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Songs of Solomon. Added to bible study plan, we encourage you to challenge yourself to study one chapter of proverbs and five chapters of psalms and in one month you would have read the 31 chapters of Proverbs and 150 chapters in the book of Psalms. The increase in spiritual wisdom and understanding you receive as you diligently do this over and over again will be outstanding. Imagine how much wisdom and revelation knowledge you would be walking in when you have done it 12 times! The Holy Spirit will fill your heart more and more with wisdom as you do this in Jesus Name. Our nuggets from these books will be limited to few verses to facilitate your spiritual growth and enrich your spirit man with the word of God.
Definition of a Proverb
A proverb is a concise statement, condensed to make meaning and applicable to human life experiences. The way you respond to a proverb determines whether the proverb is beneficial to you or not. If you respond positively, it means the proverb has stimulated your mind to reason above your present life experiences. The converse is true. If you respond negatively, it means you’re are going downhill in your wisdom and understanding. A proverb can make the wise, wiser and the fool could become more foolish if he responds negatively. The Hebrew word for proverb is “Mawshawl”. Job 27:1; Psalm 19:4; Ezekiel 17:2, etc
A proverb can be useful to all persons both to the king, the noble and the poor of mind and wealth in the society. To be proverbial is to exercise dominion and reign or rulership and power. Proverbs are truths obscurely expressed. A proverb could be an adage, poem or discourse. For example as discourse, Jesus spoke in parables but his disciples could not understand them because their mind were dull of hearing, having not yet received the Holy Spirit and at that time Jesus was not yet glorified. A proverb is more than a parable. It is an unraveled parable. Proverbs are accepted truths. Therefore the book of Proverbs is the statement of Truth, the Word of God which is beneficial to our soul. The more of it is stored in your mind, the richer your mind becomes spiritually. Your mind becomes filled with a goldmine of truth.
In Spurgeon’s opinion, three things constitute a proverb: shortness, sense and salt. In the English version “wisdom” appears over fifty times, so that Proverbs is preeminently a book of Divine wisdom, and in some places “Wisdom” is personified and can be no other than a reference to Christ, God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1 :30).
PROVERBS CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of Proverbs
These are three-fold: knowing, receiving and giving [Prov. 1:2-4]
Prov 1:2 2To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
To fully grasp a proverb in your spirit man, there is the knowing part, the receiving part and the giving path. All three are important. The knowing part is the easiest of the three, the receiving part is the next and the giving part is the hardest. If you master all three, it is spiritually very rewarding.
To “know” something means you are “thoroughly acquainted with” something. It means you can “discern”. Knowing something is in the mind realm. It doesn’t mean it is a part of you yet. You may not be practicing what you know yet but this stage is important because you need to store the knowledge in your mind. The mind is the treasure house of knowledge so you need to know or store good things in it.
The act of receiving Wisdom
Prov. 1:3 3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
To “receive” means to receive or “get” something. It also means to “accept” something. It is the Lord that gives us or we receive something from that is meaningful to our spirit man. When the word of God transcends the soul man into your spirit man, then you are operating in the realm of receiving. For example, we receive grace for our salvation from God. The grace is there as it is already given by God but except you accept it you cannot receive it and even if you have accepted it there are different measures that a man can walk in of the grace of God. God gave Solomon wisdom that was exceedingly much. It was beyond what the capacity of the human mind can hold, yet it was all locked up in the mind of Solomon. His mind was sharp.
The act of giving Wisdom
Prov. 1:44To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
The “giving” part is the operating aspect of knowing a proverb or proverbs. At this third stage, not only have you known it but it begins to direct you. You become guided by what you know. The word of God becomes your compass and directs your spirit man on what to do even when you are boxed in a tight corner which no other person thought you could get out from. You can ask God in prayer to expand the capacity of your mind to receive His word and let His word transcend into your spirit man in the name of Jesus.
Benefit of Proverbs to the wise
From Prov 1:2-4, we see that not only do you need to know wisdom, but you should be able to receive its instructions to benefit from it. You can perceive instructions but except you begin to obey the instruction, you are still scratching the surface in the learning process. Receiving wisdom helps you in your walk with God. You start seeing him as a God of justice and you want to please Him by walking in His righteousness. You become a man of integrity. Honesty becomes your watch word in your dealing with others. You become that brother or sister others say is fair in business dealings. God becomes the judge of others in your life. You do not seat on the judgement seat and judge others, nor do you take the law into your own hands and demand a pound of flesh. You become broken, thoroughly broken. Pride disappears from the radar around you and people can approach you while you radiate the glory of God in your thoughts, word and action. You become discrete in your dealing with others and even with yourself. You make God first and foremost in your life and character.
How to Increase in Wisdom
Prov. 1:55A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
How does wisdom increase us? Wisdom makes us understand the instructions that ordinary minds cannot comprehend. It separates a wise man apart from the foolish. It helps us to deal wisely with others and disciplines our mind to wise thoughtfulness. Wisdom is for someone who is willing to learn. It gives insight to the naïve or simple and the youth has knowledge and direction to follow to attain a goal in life. Wisdom is not for fools.
The example of Jesus
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man [Luke 2:52].
Jesus increased in wisdom as He grew from childhood. He increased in wisdom and gained favour with God and man. It was God’s wisdom that fashioned the second person of the Trinity to become incarnate. So He has always been wise from the beginning since He is a member of the Godhead. He only became man and began to increase in wisdom. Adam and Eve allowed foolish to enter into their heart before they sinned as they conversed with the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. Jesus did not allow the devil to gain the upper hand in any conversation. When Satan came to tempt Christ, Jesus drew out the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and thrice used it on the devil and he fled. When you use the word of God skillfully as Jesus did you increase in wisdom!
God Bless you abundantly.
Bishop Dr Joseph and Pastor Dr Esther Agbi
Prelate and Founders of Christ Our Wisdom Ministries.