Do we have these gifts? If not, our Christian life is as dead as stones.  Without wisdom and revelation, we pray without praying; we sing without singing; we worship without worshipping.  We are spiritually deprived, like a fish without water, an eagle without sky, or a farmer without land. Our hearts will be dull, and our souls famished.  Paul said in the next verse that the purpose of these gifts is “the eyes of your understanding [heart] being enlightened: that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18).  Without divine wisdom and revelation there is no enlightenment of heart, no true soul knowledge nor understanding of our calling in Christ.  Without them, we will not know the riches of His glory and power, and we will not sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Does this take your breath a little? Are you living in and by divine wisdom and revelation? You should!  If you are not, then you’re in ICU (Intensive Care), spiritually speaking, artificially kept alive by religious habits, rituals, sacraments, and admonitions to “cheer up!”

Christianity is supernatural.  It only operates by supernatural means.  Every Christian is to live by divine wisdom and by revelation.  Only by revelation could Peter know that Jesus was the Christ (Matt. 16:17).  We can only know God and worship Him through wisdom and revelation in the spirit (John 4:23). We cannot know God’s will any other way.  And we cannot follow God except by divine wisdom and revelation. Jesus said, ‘my sheep hear my voice and…. they follow me (John 10:27).

We need wisdom and revelation for our fellowship with Jesus and for the practical issues of our daily lives. God gave Paul wisdom and revelation for church doctrine but also to direct his daily affairs.  In Galatians 2:2 Paul went to Jerusalem by revelation.  He went to Macedonia and Rome by revelation. Peter went to Lydda by revelation, and divine wisdom told him what to do when he got there.  Revelation told him to pray for Dorcas to be raised from the dead, but the spirit of wisdom led him to ask her grieving friends to leave the room (Acts 9:40).  Peter remembered that when Jesus said He was going to raise a girl from the dead, the bystanders laughed at Him (Mark 5:40). Through divine wisdom and revelation we can continually be at the right place, at the right time, in the right spirit, saying the right words.  This is part of what Paul calls “the inheritance of the saints.” This is not just for when we die, but also for today, tomorrow and forever.

Again, the spirit of wisdom and revelation is part of our inheritance so that we might walk with God, fulfilling His pre-ordained plans for us (Ephesians 2:10). Human wisdom may tell us to get our firewood from the north side of town where it is cheaper, but revelation may tell us to get it from the south side of town where it’s more expensive because there is a man there who is ready to meet God.  Are you hearing me? Are you going by human wisdom or by divine revelation? Where you buy the firewood is part of your inheritance. Jesus went to Jerusalem through Samaria , the more difficult way, by revelation.  Because he went by revelation he found a woman at a well who needed him.

Do not rely on the wisdom of the earth.  James said that it is earthly, sensual, devilish (demoniacal) (James 3:15).  Man, by his wisdom, crucified Jesus, and human wisdom will crucify everything God has for you.  I mean everything.  Human wisdom may look good for a while, but eventually this wisdom is revealed to be foolish, earthly, sensual, and devilish.

Consider the parable of the rich man who built bigger and bigger barns (Luke 12:16-21). Oh, how wise he appeared to be about finances!  Oh, how he knew the market! He could beat the competition, he could relate to people! How he was admired - perhaps he was honored by the ‘Better Business Bureau’, or asked to teach a class at the local university.  Young people flocked to him and sought his advice on getting to the top.  Yet he was a fool! He did not realize that God held his destiny in His hands and would determine the hour of his death and call him to Judgment.  Jesus called him a fool.  Many in the Halls of Fame for sports, business, and entertainment are fools.  Like the fool in the parable they have built their lives around themselves and not around God.  Their wisdom was earthly, sensual, and demoniacal.

We need divine wisdom and revelation - we need both equally.  Revelation tells us what to do or where to go, but wisdom tells us how to get the full harvest from the revelation.  When I was a sophomore at the university, the Lord told me not to date.  He showed me that dating was sensual, selfish, inconsiderate and dangerous. He told me that I should have my wife by revelation.  He said He would tell me when I found the one meant for me.  He told me to stay out of this decision.  I said, “Yes, Lord, You make the choice!”  If I made the choice, I would have the wrong wife all of my life, and the woman God wanted for me would have the wrong husband or be deprived of marriage all of her life. There would have been repercussions on both of us and on our children from generation to generation.  When I was 24, I attended a Bible conference, and I saw a young lady from Chicago .  Jesus spoke to my heart by an inner voice, “This is your wife.” I was so in awe and wonder at the mercy of God that I didn’t even get excited for a while. I saw that my wife was part of my divine inheritance.  She came through a revelation of God.

But just as I needed a revelation to find my wife, once we were married I needed the spirit of wisdom to preserve what the revelation had given me.  My wife was born in peaceful Indiana among fields of six-foot high stalks of corn.  I was born in a firestorm trying to survive 1,000 bombing raids in Hamburg , Germany .  We were culturally incompatible.  Then of course, there was the other difference: she was of the opposite sex: opposite in her thinking and her way of looking at things.  I needed the spirit of divine wisdom so what God had given me by revelation would not fly apart because of my earthly wisdom. I have heard it said, ‘so-and-so got married by revelation, but they are now divorced.’  Often the problem was not a wrong revelation but that the couple did not live by divine wisdom.  Wisdom is the only way to have a spirit-filled marriage.

The way to get this wisdom from God is to go to the cross.  That is the only way the natural man can become a supernatural man: to die to himself.  Divine wisdom always leads to the cross, to self-denial. If we don’t take up the cross and remain on it we bring every revelation of God to naught.  Over 600,000 Israelite men received the revelation of Canaan land, but only three embraced divine wisdom.  Caleb and Joshua made it in forty years; Moses made it 2000 years later when he stood with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Did God know that Israel would destroy His revelation? Of course He did! God’s extravagant love gave the revelation to all of them anyway, because He thought it was worthwhile even if only three men succeeded, and the world has been blessed because of them.

Paul went to Jerusalem by revelation and God wants us to live by revelation.  Every church service should be run by revelation, not by what everyone wants in music, worship or ritual.  It must be by revelation and wisdom, not by man’s devised programs.

Paul prayed for us to have the spirit of divine revelation and wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5) Brother, sister, get your heart right and pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and receive the inheritance He has for you.