WISDOM FOR PERFECTION 2
(week 49/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Please as you study these articles, click on the hyperlinks (underlined in red) to get more details of what is underlined.
In our last article, we saw that God wants us to experience perfection in Christ: cleansing perfection and manifesting perfection by using the blood, the Word and the Spirit in the wisdom of God to clean out the sin-nature from our souls and bodies.
This week, we will look at this wisdom for perfection in more detail.
To experience firstly, cleansing and then later manifesting perfection, you must be a ‘wise virgin’: a Christian who is using the wisdom of God to put the life and power of God, not only in your spirit but also in your soul and body.
In the parable of the virgins in Mat. 25.1-13, the Lord Jesus teaches us that the Church at the end-time of the coming of the Lord, which time we are in now in this 3rd day, will have 2 types of Christians or ‘virgins’ which symbolizes the purity of the heart.
Matthew 25:1-13 KJV: Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. (2) And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. (3) They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: (4) But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (5) While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. (6) And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (7) Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. (8) And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. (9) But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. (10) And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. (11) Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. (12) But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. (13) Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Observe that all the virgins had oil in their lamps: symbolizing the nature of God in their spirits:
Proverbs 20:27 AMP: The spirit of man [that factor in human personality which proceeds immediately from God] is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. [I Cor. 2:11.]
However, it was only the ‘wise virgins’ that had extra ‘oil’ in their vessels: symbolizing the life of God in their souls and bodies:
2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2 Corinthians 4:10-11 NKJV: always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (11) For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
To be a wise virgin, you need to be operating the 7 pillars of wisdom: the 7 principles of the wisdom of God that the Lord Jesus also operated when He was here on earth.
Proverbs 9:1 NKJV: Wisdom has built her house; She has hewn out her seven pillars;
Solomon, by the Holy Spirit, speaks here prophetically and symbolically of the 7 pillars that the Lord Jesus, personifying the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24), would use to build the church, the house of God.
Proverbs 8:23 AMP: I [Wisdom] was inaugurated and ordained from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth existed. [John 1:1; I Cor. 1:24.].
1 Corinthians 1:24 MKJV: But to them, the called-out ones, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Matthew 16:18 KJV: And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
1 Timothy 3:15 KJV: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
These 7 pillars (please open hyperlinks (underlined in red) to get more details of these pillars) are:
1. The fear of the Lord (honesty and humility of heart) (Pr. 9:10).
2. Praying in the Spirit at 2 levels: (i) Battle prayer with all kinds of prayer to wrestle and overcome evil spirits (Eph. 6:12,18); (ii) Communion prayer: speaking in tongues just to commune with God (1 Cor. 14:2).
3. Binding the devil (Mt. 12:29, 11:12).
4. Confessing the Word: speaking God’s Word with your mouth in faith (Mk.11:22-23; 2 Cor. 4:13).
5. Meditating the Word: saying God’s Word in your heart (Dt. 30:14; Pr. 23:7; 2 Cor. 10:5).
6. Doing the Word: physical practice of God’s Word (Jam. 1:22)
7. Fasting and living a fasted life (Is. 58: 3-14; 2 Cor. 11:27; Is. 7:14).
These 7 pillars form a cycle because pillar 7 makes you more humble which is a part of the fear of the Lord in pillar 1:
Psalms 35:13 MKJV: But when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fastings; and my prayer returned into my own bosom.
So as we practice these 7 pillars diligently as a daily habit, the sin nature will be gradually cleaned out of our souls and bodies and after a while all of it will be out bringing us into the experience of firstly of cleansing perfection and later into manifesting perfection:
1Peter 5:10 KJV: But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
