Today I continue a series where I share from my own story about passages in Isaiah. This week we are taking a look at Isaiah 11. Here we see another prophetic passage about Jesus. It says,
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.” It goes on in verse 2 to say the Spirit that rests on Him is the “Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Vs. 3 His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His own eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His own ears. Vs. 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. . .”
The exciting thing is that the Spirit of the Lord that rested on Jesus now resides in us as believers. And therefore this is one of my favorite passages to pray for myself and others – that the Holy Spirit would be manifested through me in wisdom. We see in the book of James that it says, “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, and let him ask believing, and he will receive.” God delights in giving us wisdom! In Proverbs 8 and 9 wisdom is personified as a lady who cries out to men to listen and receive her instruction. She is contrasted to folly, and the harlot, who also cry out for men to follow their path.
I don’t know about you, but I need wisdom every day. Wisdom is not just knowledge, but how to apply it. Wisdom is seeing life from God’s perspective. It is how to apply the truths of God’s written word and the rhema words He speaks directly to us.
If Jesus couldn’t judge by the sight of His own eyes, why do I? If Jesus couldn’t decide by the hearing of his own ears, why do I? May we not go by what we see in the natural, but may we discern what God is doing in the spirit. May we not decide by listening to all the voices that compete for our attention, but may we lock in to His frequency – to His voice, and make our decisions based on that.
Ephesians 1:17-20 is another prayer that lines up with this as well. It says, “May (God) give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened. . .that you may know. . .that you are seated with Him in the heavenly places.” And what better way to see from God’s perspective than to sit with Him and look at things from His vantage point.
Wisdom sees God from God’s perspective, it sees ourselves from His perspective, and it sees others from His perspective. So this week pray this passage from Isaiah 11 and ask the Lord for wisdom!
