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Wisdom From Above · Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith

• 1:13
  Audrey: Hello, friend.
• 1:14
  Audrey: Welcome back to Grace for My Home, Audrey McCracken, and I am so delighted to be with you again this week.
• 1:20
  Audrey: I hope that you and your family are doing well.
• 1:23
  Audrey: We are doing great.
• 1:25
  Audrey: This morning I went outside for my morning walk, and it was actually cool.
• 1:30
  Audrey: It was so nice.
• 1:31
  Audrey: Each morning I try to get out and walk before the sun gets too high because here at on coastal South Carolina, it is so muggy and hot most of the year, and we have that little reprieve during fall.
• 1:44
  Audrey: And our fall was usually a lot later than than than other places.
• 1:48
  Audrey: But that that beautiful time when you can walk outside and you think, Oh, should I go back in for a jacket?
• 1:54
  Audrey: It was so nice.
• 1:55
  Audrey: I did not come back in for a jacket because I just I thought in a few minutes I'll be hot.
• 1:59
  Audrey: So, but it was so nice to walk out this morning and feel the the cool breeze and just think it's time for fall.
• 2:07
  Audrey: Fall is here.
• 2:08
  Audrey: And I I do love the change of season.
• 2:11
  Audrey: I love it.
• 2:12
  Audrey: And it just reminds me that everything's gonna change.
• 2:15
  Audrey: You know, if you don't like where you are right now, if you wish things were different, don't worry, it's gonna change.
• 2:22
  Audrey: You know, if you do like where you are right now, if you're in a good place, don't worry, it's gonna change.
• 2:28
  Audrey: Life is a cycle, it's back and forth, there's ebb and flow.
• 2:32
  Audrey: And this morning I was reminded of that, and I thought, no matter, you know, if you just hold on, things will be different down the road.
• 2:41
  Audrey: Today, I want to talk with you about an important topic.
• 2:46
  Audrey: I want to talk with you about wisdom.
• 2:49
  Audrey: Wisdom is very important, it's very valuable in God's economy.
• 2:55
  Audrey: You know, God puts a high price on wisdom, and He keeps telling us in the Bible, New and Old Testament, just how important wisdom is.
• 3:06
  Audrey: So we need to give it some attention, we need to think about it, we need to explore this topic of wisdom, because God says in Proverbs that wisdom is more valuable than silver and gold and rubies, and nothing can be compared to wisdom.
• 3:26
  Audrey: So if he put such a high value on it, then there's something in it for us.
• 3:31
  Audrey: The whole Bible is a book of wisdom, but there are books in the Old Testament that are specifically called the books of wisdom.
• 3:40
  Audrey: It's the book of Job, the Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Solomon, all of those are the books of wisdom.
• 3:49
  Audrey: But there is wisdom throughout the entire story of the Bible.
• 3:53
  Audrey: And when we can dig in there, you know, it's like it is like gold.
• 3:57
  Audrey: You have to dig for it, right?
• 3:59
  Audrey: You have to dig, you have to seek, you have to want it, you have to believe it's there.
• 4:04
  Audrey: And when you dig for it, you have to seek it out, you have to apply some time, some patience, some work.
• 4:13
  Audrey: But once you find it, oh, once you find it, it's it nobody can take it from you.
• 4:18
  Audrey: Because it helps us to live our life.
• 4:21
  Audrey: It helps us to live our life more freely.
• 4:24
  Audrey: You know, we often, our problems, not always, but many times, our issues, the problems that we face in life are a result of our own foolishness.
• 4:36
  Audrey: And if we can learn, if we can learn from our mistakes, then that's wisdom.
• 4:42
  Audrey: And God teaches us so much in his word about wisdom.
• 4:47
  Audrey: When I was a young Christian, I had just gotten saved, and I was foolish, you know, like most 20, 22 years old, two-year-olds, that's how old I was when I became a Christian.
• 4:59
  Audrey: Well, the Lord placed me in a group of older women.
• 5:03
  Audrey: And when I say older, my grandmother and her friends, those were my friends.
• 5:08
  Audrey: My grandmother had prayed for me for our family for years.
• 5:13
  Audrey: And so when I finally became a Christian, she was ecstatic, and she brought me under her wing.
• 5:20
  Audrey: And I did not go to her church, but but I did visit a lot.
• 5:24
  Audrey: And in her church, there was a group of older ladies.
• 5:27
  Audrey: Oh, they have all passed away now.
• 5:29
  Audrey: But these ladies were my grandmother's age and older.
• 5:33
  Audrey: And they took me in under their wing, they taught me how to pray, and they taught me wisdom.
• 5:39
  Audrey: And I remember speaking to a young lady that went to my church, a lady my age.
• 5:45
  Audrey: I was talking to her one day, and I said, I want to be a woman of wisdom.
• 5:51
  Audrey: And guys, she busted out laughing at me.
• 5:55
  Audrey: I guess that was just an odd thing to say, but I I really meant it.
• 5:58
  Audrey: I really meant it.
• 5:59
  Audrey: And I was a little offended, but you know, I thought, okay, I guess that is odd, you know, coming from a person who's 20 in her 20s.
• 6:07
  Audrey: And but I I I still stand by that.
• 6:10
  Audrey: I do want to be a woman of wisdom.
• 6:12
  Audrey: I do want to grow.
• 6:14
  Audrey: Like so many people, I look back on my life, you know, I'm as as you go from one stage to the other, you always look back and say, you know, where have I come?
• 6:22
  Audrey: I've been serving the Lord this year, will make 31 years.
• 6:26
  Audrey: And I thought I'd be so much further along, you know.
• 6:29
  Audrey: Only I know the thoughts that go through this mind in a day.
• 6:32
  Audrey: And they're not always good.
• 6:34
  Audrey: You know, sometimes I want to say things and hopefully I say less of them that come to my mind.
• 6:39
  Audrey: And, you know, and and and sometimes I get frustrated, and sometimes I don't like things that that God does in my life and and the lives of those that I love.
• 6:48
  Audrey: And, you know, I want things to be different.
• 6:50
  Audrey: And so I thought that by now, you know, I mean God would just be, we would just be right in tune with each other.
• 6:56
  Audrey: I would, you know, just be flowing with him.
• 6:59
  Audrey: And there are a lot of areas in my life where I need to grow.
• 7:03
  Audrey: And I see where I have grown, but I also know that the key to growing with Jesus is wisdom.
• 7:12
  Audrey: You know, he formed the world through wisdom.
• 7:16
  Audrey: It talks in Proverbs about how in Proverbs 8, wisdom is personified as the master builder that walks with the Lord through creation and delights with him in everything that he makes when he creates the the very worlds and found and founds this earth that we live in today.
• 7:35
  Audrey: And you know, wisdom was right there with him, and he used wisdom to make everything.
• 7:41
  Audrey: So we're never going to be able to get away from that.
• 7:46
  Audrey: And the good thing is we can always grow, no matter where we are, whether we're a new Christian or we've been serving the Lord for 30 years or we've been serving the Lord for 50 years.
• 7:55
  Audrey: You know, we can always grow and we can grow in wisdom.
• 7:59
  Audrey: And growing in wisdom means growing closer to the Lord because he is all wisdom, he is the only wise God, and he loves to share wisdom with us, his children.
• 8:12
  Audrey: He wants us to walk in wisdom, he wants us to learn, he wants us to be more like him.
• 8:18
  Audrey: You know, it says in 1 Corinthians 1 24 that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
• 8:26
  Audrey: The famous Proverbs 31 woman, it says in verse 26 that she opens her mouth with wisdom.
• 8:35
  Audrey: And guys, I have opened my mouth before and something other than wisdom come out.
• 8:40
  Audrey: And you know, you it's like you see it happen and you wish you could take the words back, and you can't.
• 8:44
  Audrey: So my prayer is that more often than not, when I open my mouth, good words would come out, words of wisdom.
• 8:51
  Audrey: And as we grow in the Lord, He teaches us, He shows us the way.
• 8:58
  Audrey: You know, walking with the Lord is like being on the path of wisdom.
• 9:02
  Audrey: It's walking with him daily, trying to get closer to him, trying to keep up with him, trying to, you know, maneuver through the turns and the valleys and you know the the peaks.
• 9:16
  Audrey: It's like I'm I'm gonna stay with Jesus, I'm gonna walk with him.
• 9:19
  Audrey: And inevitably, we find ourselves on certain days, weeks, months, maybe even years, far from him.
• 9:26
  Audrey: And you know, we turn around finally when we admit to ourselves, he is nowhere to be found, he is somewhere I have lost the Lord, somewhere I have veered away from him.
• 9:36
  Audrey: He is so gracious to take us by the hand when we call out to him for help, he takes us by the hand and he leads us back on that path, and he does that with wisdom.
• 9:48
  Audrey: Because he loves us.
• 9:50
  Audrey: You know, when you love somebody, you want to give them good things, and this wisdom is his gift to us.
• 9:57
  Audrey: I've been doing the podcast here now for five years, I think it's five years, and my most popular episode by far is when I did my first year on the ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom, and what separated the five who were wise from the five who were foolish.
• 10:22
  Audrey: I'll put a link to that in the show notes in case you want to go listen to it.
• 10:26
  Audrey: But to sum it up in just a couple of sentences, the difference between the five that were foolish and the five that were wise, were that those who were wise did whatever they needed to do to be ready when the bridegroom came.
• 10:46
  Audrey: And that is the end game for wisdom.
• 10:49
  Audrey: You know, the what's the point?
• 10:51
  Audrey: The ultimate goal is that when the Lord comes back, and he's coming back because he said, As I have left, so I will return.
• 11:00
  Audrey: When the Lord Jesus comes back for his church, we want to be ready.
• 11:04
  Audrey: And the way we get ready and stay ready and prepare is through wisdom.
• 11:10
  Audrey: We follow the example of those five virgins who they kept their eyes on the prize, right?
• 11:17
  Audrey: They they didn't get distracted by the things that that would have easily been justified.
• 11:25
  Audrey: I think back about Eve in the Garden of Eden, you know, and and God has just created this beautiful nursery for them of Eden, and He's put them here perfect.
• 11:36
  Audrey: You know, everything they needed was supplied, and He gives them an assignment because guys, just having luxury, just having everything you want and all of your needs met, that there's really no blessing in that if you don't have a purpose, if you don't have an assignment.
• 11:53
  Audrey: And so God gives them an assignment, and his assignment is fill this whole earth and subdue it.
• 11:59
  Audrey: In other words, fill it up and take care of it, keep it in line, make it flourish and be a blessing.
• 12:08
  Audrey: And so that's their assignment.
• 12:11
  Audrey: But then this serpent comes in and Eve gives him her attention.
• 12:17
  Audrey: See, the enemy is always looking for our attention because if he can get our attention, then he can deceive us.
• 12:26
  Audrey: And we can't give him our attention.
• 12:29
  Audrey: So she should have been about her father's business.
• 12:33
  Audrey: But she gets distracted by this serpent who asks her questions.
• 12:38
  Audrey: And you notice he draws her attention to the one thing that God says that God says don't do.
• 12:47
  Audrey: That's the one thing he wants to talk about.
• 12:50
  Audrey: First, he lies to her.
• 12:52
  Audrey: And he tells her, You're not gonna die.
• 12:54
  Audrey: You're not gonna die.
• 12:55
  Audrey: You know, God has lied to you.
• 12:57
  Audrey: So first he tries to get her to doubt the goodness of God.
• 13:01
  Audrey: You know, it's like God is holding something good back from you.
• 13:04
  Audrey: If he was good, if he really loved you, then why is he holding this thing from you?
• 13:09
  Audrey: Why is he keeping back something good from for from you?
• 13:13
  Audrey: And then he lies and he says, You're not gonna die.
• 13:17
  Audrey: God has lied to you.
• 13:18
  Audrey: God, he's calling God a liar, and she doesn't defend God, she turns her attention to the thing that God has told her not to do.
• 13:29
  Audrey: And I want to read from Genesis 3, starting in verse 6, it says, And the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desired for gaining wisdom.
• 13:45
  Audrey: She was drawn to this fruit because she desired to gain wisdom.
• 13:52
  Audrey: There's nothing wrong with wanting wisdom and desiring wisdom.
• 13:56
  Audrey: We just have to be careful what source we're going to get our wisdom from because not every source can give us the wisdom of God.
• 14:06
  Audrey: Not every source is from above.
• 14:08
  Audrey: Notice this was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• 14:11
  Audrey: She got the knowledge of good and evil, but knowledge and wisdom are two completely different things.
• 14:21
  Audrey: I can know something, I can have a lot of knowledge.
• 14:26
  Audrey: It says in First Corinthians 8 1 that knowledge puffs up.
• 14:30
  Audrey: I can know a lot of stuff, but that doesn't make me wise.
• 14:36
  Audrey: Wisdom starts with obeying and believing God.
• 14:40
  Audrey: I cannot become a wise and godly person without God, and I certainly cannot become that without obeying God.
• 14:52
  Audrey: So sh her heart was to be wise, but she sought wisdom in the wrong source.
• 15:00
  Audrey: God wants to make us wise, but he wants us to get our wisdom from him, and he doesn't want us going to the wrong sources because the enemy wants to distract us, he wants to deceive us, and he wants to promise us things that he cannot fulfill to get us off the path, to get us to believe that God is not for us, that there is a better way, that you know, this is just taking way too long, Lord.
• 15:30
  Audrey: You know, the way that I've I've been walking with the Lord and I've been faithful, but it's just it's just not paying off fast enough.
• 15:37
  Audrey: Or maybe it's not, and maybe the enemy comes and says it's not going to pay off at all.
• 15:41
  Audrey: You know, you've been serving the Lord this long and and you're still struggling with that sin or you still have this issue, or God hasn't brought breakthrough in this area.
• 15:50
  Audrey: See, those are temptations.
• 15:52
  Audrey: I know them very well.
• 15:54
  Audrey: Those are temptations.
• 15:55
  Audrey: But the end game, what's the end game?
• 16:00
  Audrey: It's to be ready when he comes or calls.
• 16:03
  Audrey: It's to be ready when the bridegroom arrives.
• 16:06
  Audrey: I am ready.
• 16:07
  Audrey: I have prepared myself.
• 16:08
  Audrey: I am I'm seeking Jesus.
• 16:11
  Audrey: I'm not seeking my own advancement, I'm not seeking my own way, I'm not seeking the comforts of this world, I'm seeking Jesus first.
• 16:21
  Audrey: That, my friend, is wisdom.
• 16:26
  Audrey: And I think this reminds us that there are different kinds of wisdom.
• 16:30
  Audrey: You know, not all wisdom is from God.
• 16:33
  Audrey: The most famous or most common wisdom is the wisdom of experience.
• 16:38
  Audrey: If we live a long time, whether we love Jesus or not, if you live a long time, hopefully you gain some wisdom.
• 16:47
  Audrey: You know, there's things I try to tell my children because I have gone down that road and I have been burnt, and I want to tell them, don't do that.
• 16:56
  Audrey: And I often do, and sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't.
• 17:00
  Audrey: But that is the wisdom of experience and of age.
• 17:04
  Audrey: And that's a good wisdom.
• 17:05
  Audrey: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 17:06
  Audrey: It's really good.
• 17:07
  Audrey: And I think it's uh the gift of God that we can learn from our past mistakes.
• 17:13
  Audrey: And there's another kind of wisdom, I guess you could say head knowledge wisdom.
• 17:18
  Audrey: See, if I there's areas I don't have wisdom in, and so I can go talk to those who have walked those paths, I can read their books.
• 17:26
  Audrey: You know, I that's what I try to give my kids.
• 17:28
  Audrey: I want to give them my wisdom so they don't have to go through the pain that I went through.
• 17:35
  Audrey: And sometimes they'll take that advice and then it becomes their wisdom, and sometimes they won't take that advice, and then the mistake becomes their wisdom.
• 17:49
  Audrey: See, first I have to learn the wisdom, and then I have to apply the wisdom.
• 17:54
  Audrey: And then there is a wisdom that is just dropped down from heaven.
• 17:59
  Audrey: The Bible talks about the gift of wisdom.
• 18:01
  Audrey: It says in James that if anybody lacks wisdom, all they have to do is ask.
• 18:06
  Audrey: All they have to do is ask, and God who gives liberally and upbraideth not, in other words, he's not gonna fuss at you.
• 18:15
  Audrey: He will give it.
• 18:17
  Audrey: See, that's a wisdom I can't earn.
• 18:19
  Audrey: That's a wisdom I didn't learn.
• 18:21
  Audrey: That is a wisdom that God promises to those who seek him.
• 18:25
  Audrey: And sometimes, you know, I'll ask for wisdom, and it will come through a book, or it'll come through the Bible, it'll come through me having a conversation with somebody else.
• 18:34
  Audrey: You know, and I believe that's the gift of the Lord too.
• 18:37
  Audrey: But God will give us wisdom when we need it, if we seek him, if we ask for it, if we admit that we like it, he will drop it in at the right time.
• 18:49
  Audrey: Isn't that good?
• 18:50
  Audrey: But the Bible also talks about another wisdom, and it's also found in James, two chapters over, in chapter three, it says in James three, fifteen through seventeen, this wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
• 19:11
  Audrey: For where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work.
• 19:16
  Audrey: But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
• 19:29
  Audrey: So see, James is showing us that there is a wisdom that's from above, and then there's a wisdom that is not from above.
• 19:37
  Audrey: See, the enemy, the serpent, came to Eve and gave her wisdom that was not from above.
• 19:45
  Audrey: You will not die.
• 19:47
  Audrey: He knows that when you take that fruit that you'll be like him.
• 19:51
  Audrey: And it was not from God, it was a lie, and it was devilish, and it was sensual, and it was earthly wisdom.
• 20:00
  Audrey: See, we have to learn to distinguish one from the other.
• 20:05
  Audrey: And we have to understand that not everybody has our best interest and mine, not every source of wisdom loves Jesus and wants what's best for us.
• 20:16
  Audrey: We have to learn to test the Spirit, we have to learn discernment, we have to learn to spot the counterfeit.
• 20:25
  Audrey: Today, I want to leave you with that.
• 20:28
  Audrey: There is a wisdom that comes from above.
• 20:30
  Audrey: It is a gift from God.
• 20:33
  Audrey: He wants us to seek Him, He wants us to ask for wisdom.
• 20:37
  Audrey: He's promised to give it.
• 20:38
  Audrey: You know, I can be in a mess.
• 20:39
  Audrey: Like I can be in a really bad situation, and maybe my own foolishness got me in that situation, right?
• 20:45
  Audrey: Maybe I'm here and I know and the Lord knows this is my fault.
• 20:49
  Audrey: I can still ask for wisdom.
• 20:52
  Audrey: He will give it.
• 20:53
  Audrey: He says, here's the wisdom that you've asked for.
• 20:56
  Audrey: Now I have to obey it, I have to do it.
• 20:58
  Audrey: It may not be what I want to do, but I have to trust that if I ask him for wisdom, he will give it, and that if I apply that wisdom into my life, then I will become a woman of wisdom.
• 21:11
  Audrey: And if I walk in wisdom and walking with Jesus, becoming more like him, learning what he is like and what he likes, and becoming more and more like him, then I am preparing myself for the day when he comes or calls.
• 21:28
  Audrey: I am preparing myself for the bridegroom.
• 21:30
  Audrey: And guys, that's what it's all about.
• 21:32
  Audrey: That's what our walk is about.
• 21:34
  Audrey: Our entire Christian walk is preparing to see the one who saved us, to see Jesus.
• 21:41
  Audrey: I'm gonna see my Lord and I want to be ready.
• 21:43
  Audrey: Don't you?
• 21:44
  Audrey: I know you do.
• 21:45
  Audrey: I know you do.
• 21:45
  Audrey: Let's pray.
• 21:46
  Audrey: Before you go, I want to pray for you.
• 21:48
  Audrey: And I also want to say, if you have any questions for me or anything I can pray with you about, or you know, just let me know you're out there.
• 21:58
  Audrey: I love hearing from listeners.
• 22:00
  Audrey: This past week I got an email.
• 22:02
  Audrey: Somebody else sent me some fan mail.
• 22:05
  Audrey: If you look in the show notes, there's a place where you can send me a text.
• 22:08
  Audrey: I love that.
• 22:09
  Audrey: It just helps me to know that people are listening.
• 22:12
  Audrey: And you know, just give me a shout.
• 22:14
  Audrey: Give me a shout and let me know, you know, what you like about the podcast, maybe some topics you'd love me to cover, or just some questions, or just say, hey, we're out here and listening.
• 22:24
  Audrey: I would love that.
• 22:26
  Audrey: But before you go, let's pray.
• 22:28
  Audrey: Father, I just thank you today that you are with us, and I pray, Lord, today that you would teach us wisdom, that Lord, you would help us to become men and women of wisdom who love you, who are changing from glory to glory, who are growing, Lord, who are not just becoming more like you, but are teaching other people also how to become more like you.
• 22:54
  Audrey: God, we ask you to drop wisdom in our hearts when we need it.
• 22:57
  Audrey: We ask you, Lord God, to show us the way.
• 22:59
  Audrey: If we veered off the path, God, please take us by the hand and lead us back.
• 23:04
  Audrey: Lord, we get us ready for that day, Lord.
• 23:07
  Audrey: Let our hearts burn with that truth, Lord God, that one day we will stand before your presence and will be so worth it, Lord.
• 23:15
  Audrey: And we give you praise and we give you glory in Jesus' name.
• 23:19
  Audrey: Amen.
• 23:20
  Audrey: God bless.
• 23:21
  Audrey: Have a great week.