In childhood, I remember Bible teachers indicating how wisdom was the power of God using the knowledge we learned from our studies. As a child that answer seemed sufficient. However, can we build on that idea?

In my opinion, divine wisdom is the culmination of all that is in the mind of God. The Trinity may lead us to this point. God—Father and Creator—has created our world with a beautifully creative complexity. When I study science, I can see through a microscope the amazing complexity of life and how God’s creative wisdom ordered the world. Though science may explain how something was made, or what something consists of, science cannot explain the meaning contained within the object. When I consider human life, with its innumerable complexities, I see a divine wisdom of order, balance, a quest for wholeness, cooperation, and harmony. Even the rocks and hills testify to the marvelous power of God.

When I read the Gospels, and study the life of the Savior, I see a holy man overflowing with divine wisdom. Consider all that Jesus taught, all that he did, and all that he embodied. Recall the Sermon on the Mount, and the spiritual wisdom imparted there to those gathered (and recorded for us to learn.) Every part of the drama, that is Jesus the Son of God, demonstrates a powerful look into the mind of God. This man was the perfect demonstration of what life will look like when it is surrendered to the power of God, without the burden of sinful choices, and lived according to the divine wisdom of the Father. Jesus shows us a life lived with divine wisdom of order, balance, wholeness, cooperation, and harmony (in addition to the salvation of the whole world.)

The Holy Spirit is the abiding presence in our lives that keeps us in remembrance of the truth of Jesus Christ. Those words are somewhat of a paraphrase from the Articles of Faith of the OFWB tradition. As Christian believers, we listen to the Spirit within us that is teaching, nudging, and transforming us daily (as much as we are willing to be changed) by the same divine wisdom present at creation and that was Jesus himself. When we stop to pray, or when we feel the nudge of the Spirit to act on behalf of the will of God, we are listening to the divine wisdom taught by God through the Spirit. The Spirit of God is calling us to something more than we can create for ourselves. God’s wisdom is calling you (first to salvation in Christ) but also as disciples to find the spiritual wisdom of order, balance, wholeness, cooperation, and harmony.

Today, the inspired Word of God is another source of divine wisdom. Though we may find glimmers of God’s wisdom in creation, we look in the Holy Scriptures to learn the wisdom demonstrated by Jesus, and in the sheer act of reading God’s Word, we commune with the Spirit allowing ourselves to be open to the Spirit’s leadership and teaching for our transformation. When the Word of God is read, studied, preached, and proclaimed, we are testifying to the wisdom of salvation in Jesus and to a divine wisdom of order, balance, wholeness, cooperation, and harmony.