Wisdom of God

“ If we long for this, let us, meantime, above everything, seek the holy secret of the knowledge of the nature of God, as He every moment works all in all; the secret, of which all nature and every creature, and above all, every child of God, is to be the witness,—that it is nothing but a vessel, a channel, through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness. The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it. ”

“ ONE of the reasons which most influence the soul to desire to enter into the "thicket" of the wisdom of God, and to have a more intimate knowledge of the beauty of the divine wisdom, is, as I have said, that it may unite the understanding with God in the knowledge of the mysteries of the Incarnation, as of all His works the highest and most full of sweetness, and the most delicious knowledge. ”

“ Wisdom will cry to thee at the head of every street; God will not deny Himself or break His promise: but thou wilt go past the place where wisdom is, and miss the lessons which God is strewing in thy path, because thou art not looking for them. Wisdom is here, my friends, and understanding is here, and the Spirit of God is here, if our eyes were but open to see them. ”

“ To know God is the beginning of all wisdom. To know and feel that God is here, everywhere, that we live in His spirit. His life, His wisdom, His power, His light and His love now, is to awaken the mind to real wisdom. Then we shall find the "hidden word;" then we shall enter the inner sanctuary of the soul and behold the Word of God manifested in the true being of man, eternally creating the true being of man in the likeness of the image divine. ”

“ He that teaches man knowledge, shall he not know? He not only, as the God of nature, has given the light of reason, but, as the God of grace, has given the light of revelation, has shown man what is true wisdom and understanding ”

“ Wisdom is here introduced as a magnificent and munificent queen, very great and very generous; that Word of God is this Wisdom in which God makes known his goodwill towards men; God the Word is this Wisdom, to whom the Father has committed all judgment. He who, in the chapter before, showed his grandeur and glory as the Creator of the world, here shows his grace and goodness as the Redeemer of it. The word is plural, Wisdoms; for in Christ are hid treasures of wisdom, and in his undertaking appears the manifold wisdom of God in a mystery. ”

“ And we have as strong reasons to believe God to be, in the highest degree, wise and good, without knowing on what, his wisdom and goodness is founded; as we have to believe him to be omniscient, and eternal, without knowing on what his omniscience is founded; or to what, his eternity is owing. And we have the same reason to hold it a vain enquiry, to ask what obliges God to be wise and good, as to ask what obliges him to be omniscient, or eternal. ”

“ But the Wisdom of God, which is His only-begotten Son, being in all respects incapable of change or alteration, and every good quality in Him being essential, and such as cannot be changed and converted, His glory is therefore declared to be pure and sincere. ”

“ I do not bother my head with speculations about the nature of God. I simply attach myself to the human Christ, and I find joy and peace, and the wisdom of God in Him. ”

“ Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind, or tell Him Perfection. anything He does not already comprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? Does spoken prayer bring us nearer the Source of all existence and blessedness?
Asking God to be God is a “vain repetition.” God is “the same yesterday and to-day and forever;” and He who is immutably right will do right, without being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not sufficient to warrant him in advising God. ”

“ Now we not only concede, but even very particularly proclaim, that there is a certain supreme wisdom of God, by participation in which every soul whatsoever that is constituted truly wise acquires its wisdom. ”

“ We must be convinced that the words of God are the fountain and standard of wisdom and understanding, and that we need not desire to be wiser than they will make us. We must incline our ear and apply our hearts to them, as to wisdom or understanding itself. Many wise things may be found in human compositions, but divine revelation, and true religion built upon it, are all wisdom. (2.) We must, accordingly, receive the word of God with all readiness of mind, and bid it welcome, even the commandments as well as the promises, without murmuring or disputing. Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. ”

“ Are there men that excel others in wisdom, philosophers and statesmen, that think above the common rate, contemplative penetrating men? It is God that gives wisdom to the wise, whether they be so wise as to acknowledge it or no; they have it not of themselves, but it is he that gives knowledge to those that know understanding, which is a good reason why we should not be proud of our knowledge, and why we should serve and honour God with it and make it our business to know him. ”

“ For although we find no time before it, for wisdom was created before all things; not that Wisdom which is altogether equal and coeternal unto Thee, our God, His Father, and by Whom all things were created, and in Whom, as the Beginning, Thou createdst heaven and earth; but that wisdom which is created, that is, the intellectual nature, which by contemplating the light, is light. ”

“ It asks for a wisdom above its own, to instruct us in the great truths of our being, our relations to God, our duties, and our destiny. It feels that divine wisdom alone is competent to declare what the divine will is. ”

“ Those even who claim God as their teacher, with difficulty attain to a conception of God, grace aiding them to the attainment of their modicum of knowledge; accustomed as they are to contemplate the will [of God] by the will, and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit. “For the Spirit searches the deep things of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit.” [1187]
The only wisdom, therefore, is the God-taught wisdom we possess; on which depend all the sources of wisdom, which make conjectures at the truth. ”

“ It is the Theology of Experience, that God teaches only to his children, who having abandoned their own wisdom, he has himself become their wisdom and their life. This is the law of wisdom, my friend, for us,—the way of the Lord in us. ”

“ Wisdom is a New Testament grace, but mere calculating prudence or worldly self-regard finds no place in the Christian scheme of life. We are enjoined, indeed, to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves in our relations with men; but what we are urged to cultivate is a mind for the right interpretation of the things of God, that spiritual insight which discerns the things of the Spirit; and, while recognising life as a divinely given trust, seeks to obtain a wise understanding of our duties toward God and man. ”

“ When we desire, with the whole heart, to be taught of God, we shall constantly receive wisdom from God, and it may come through a million channels, including the mind of man, but we must remember that the mind of man does not simply mean the minds of other men; our own minds are included in the mind of man, and as we grow in the spirit we shall receive most of our divine wisdom with our own mentalities as the principal channel. ”

“ The context to these words is closely connected with them, and declare him to be truly blessed who becomes by affliction a wiser and a better man. It is within the reach of intelligent faith in God thus to extract the honey of wisdom from the sorrow which to “the world worketh death” (2 Cor. vii. 10) . 2. Wisdom is to be found by study of the Divine Word. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God—they are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. iii. 15–16) . The record which God has given of His Son is a revelation of His highest wisdom. ”

“ I exhort the brethren to seek unto the Lord for wisdom. If you cannot provide for your natural lives, how can you expect to have wisdom to obtain eternal lives? God has given you your existence—your body and spirit, and has blest you with ability, and thereby laid the foundation of all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, and all glory and eternal lives. If you have not attained ability to provide for your natural wants, and for a wife and a few children, what have you to do with heavenly things? ”

“ There never was a skeptic in the world who had come to the rational and tenable position, that God is primarily, and fundamentally, and essentially thought. [347] We may properly speak of his being, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, his love; but these are different determinations of his thought. God’s being is the externality of his thought. His wisdom is his thought devising means to ends. His justice is his thought balancing and regulating. ”

“ Note, The wisdom of God is to be observed in the gradual advances of the church's interests. ”

“ There is a free gift of Divine power for all our needs, everything to foster the spiritual life and to guide into the way of holiness. Wisdom will be given that we may understand God's will and choose aright, strength to persevere in the midst of trial, boldness to make confession of the Lord before men, and watchfulness lest we, as did the teachers of error, wax overconfident. ”

“ Wisdom is mental light, and the understanding is the mind's eye. Thus have we endeavoured to demonstrate, from the wisdom visible in man, not only that God, who gives man all his wisdom, must be Himself wise, and most wise,—but, still farther, that the wisdom seen in any man and in all men, is not so properly the gift of God, as it is the presence of God, operating in and through man,—thus, in fact, that all wisdmn is God's alone. ”

“ Man's God is all the time listening to his prayers and setting all sorts of trouble. My God does not act at all, He has finished His work and leaves man to work out his happiness according to his own wisdom. I will give you the attributes of my God. The Wisdom or God is in this letter, and if you understand, you will hear His voice saying I understand this. So the understanding is God, for in that there is no matter, and to understand is Wisdom, not matter, and to know wisdom is to know God, for that is Wisdom. ”

“ It is not only reasonable that we should fear God, because his name is reverend and his nature is holy, but it is advantageous to us. It is wisdom; it will direct us to speak and act as becomes us, in a consistency with ourselves, and for our own benefit. It is the head of wisdom, that is (as we read it) , it is the beginning of wisdom. ”

“ Wisdom is found by communion with God. Those who talk much with men who are their superiors in goodness and intelligence, and live on friendly terms with them, must become wiser and better through the intercourse. The stronger soul will mould the weaker. The man who holds converse with the highest and best Intelligence, with the Fountain of Wisdom, must draw understanding out of this Living Spring. 5. Wisdom for special needs, the understanding how to act in emergencies, is drawn out from God by the confession of our ignorance and the pleading of God’s promises. ”

“ And is not the demonstration, which we possess, that alone which is true, as being supplied out of the divine Scriptures, the sacred writings, and out of the "God-taught wisdom," according to the apostle? Learning, then, is also obedience to the commandments, which is faith in God. And faith is a power of God, being the strength of the truth. ”

“ When we fully understand our relation to God, we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, Wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter, or error.
The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth ”

“ That it is an intelligent and divine person that here speaks seems very plain, and that it is not meant of a mere essential property of the divine nature, for Wisdom here has personal properties and actions; and that intelligent divine person can be no other than the Son of God himself, to whom the principal things here spoken of wisdom are attributed in other scriptures, and we must explain scripture by itself. ”

“ We have the privilege of learning the principles that pertain to God and godliness. We have the privilege of learning the weakness ignorance, blindness, and all the evils that sin has brought upon the children of men—of so understanding correct principles that we can discern the things that are of God and the things that are not of him and of learning the great wisdom displayed by the Almighty in causing intelligent beings to dwell in a sinful world. ”