The CORNERSTONE upon that which is the fullness of "wisdom" accumulates from the specific birthing point that is "the fear of the Lord".

      "That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” - 1 CHRONICLES 1:7. When the LORD gave Solomon the privilege of asking Him for absolutely anything, whereas others may have asked for any one of the obvious and tangible, Solomon instead asked for this one intangible: WISDOM. Because Solomon asked for the principle thing that would determine his quality of heart, and therefore his decisions and discernment as a king, the LORD voluntarily blessed him not only with a measure of wisdom beyond which anyone had previously ever attained to, but with all the obvious tangible things foo. Our Father in heaven regards wisdom "as the principle thing" - PROVERBS 4:7. So it is safe to say that wisdom in life is clearly a very good thing.

      The dictionary defines WISDOM as "the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting". Wisdom is that "unseen intangible" that only presents itself when one is confronted with the requirement for apprehending the best course of action, or for arriving at right judgment on a matter, and then exercising it. A king, in God's eyes, is a master servant. It is not a title or a position of "lording" over others, but a role reserved for those who will best live and walk (demonstrate) the second greatest commandment - namely, "to love one's neighbour as oneself". As a servant king, serving the people in love and in truth with distinction requires, most unquestionably, the gift and office of sound wisdom.

      Another way to reference wisdom, then, is through the prevailing application of a "good and clear conscience". Without the moral compass of pursuing love, of DOING what is right and wrong, or what is true, and AVOIDING what isn't of sound judgement or isn't true, or what isn't love, wisdom remains academic and without any merit. And of this faculty, God describes our conscience in this specific way. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 1 TIMOTHY 1:7. Our conscience is what makes us not timid when it comes to doing the right thing. And "doing the right thing" is the combined confluence of not having a spirit of fear (not being timid to do the right thing), but having a sprit of power, and love and a sound mind.

      By contrast then, the opposite of wisdom then, is the absence of discernment, or rather yet, a sense of right and wrong, or faculty of judgment and truth, that is expressed and demonstrated through a polluted, stifled or "seared conscience". In other words, the lack of wisdom is living and walking, not in the spirit of love and a sound mind, but with a contaminated and seared conscience. A seared conscience is a conscience that has become disconnected from, or cauterised to, the conscience of God. It has lost its True North. And this cauterisation process began for all men initially with the Fall, and continues further unto apostasy with unrepented sin. This is why repentance is such a joyful occasion, and of the miracle and type of Ezekiel spirit that brings a field of dead bones back to full and wholesome life. It reverses the dulling of the conscience.

      The first sign of an unsound or abdicated mind, and a forfeited wisdom, is when man's conscience is neglected. On the other hand, a sound mind is one that has a healthy and clean conscience, one deliberately and lovingly honed to the sharpness of a double-edged sword. Which is also what God means when He refers to "the renewing of our mind". He is talking about the restoration and resurrection of man's conscience in line with the Spirit and conscience of the Father. "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." EPHESIANS 4:23-24. "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." - ROMANS 12:2.

      Having said that, the LORD describes the BEGINNING OF WISDOM specifically as "the fear of the LORD" - PROVERBS 9:10. In other words, the CORNERSTONE upon that which is the fullness of wisdom accumulates from the specific birthing point that is "the fear of the Lord". This "root of wisdom" is the sapling that subsequently subsumes and matures into a righteous tree of life that produces fruit that remains that is wisdom. And of that birthing point, this is why Jesus speaks to the named and specific requirement for "water baptism", not just for the representative death and burial of the old man, and the resurrection of the new man or new nature, but because of the actual "coming alive" of the seared conscience of man, dulled through years of sin and by walking in man's own estimation of what is right and wrong, to the living conscience of the Father who loves every man. "The like figure whereunto EVEN baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a GOOD CONSCIENCE toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." - 1 PETER 3:21.

      Many confuse "the fear of the Lord" with something inconsistent or unbecoming of a God who stands for love. The fear of the LORD is one of the seven spirits of Christ that make up "the mind of Christ". (ISAIAH 11). There is no question that Jesus not only had a perfectly sound mind, but He also did not have a spirit of timidity when it came to doing the right thing, but rather a spirit of power and love. There is, and never will be, anyone wiser. If "the fear of the LORD" is the beginning of wisdom, and it is also part of those seven components that make up the soundness of the mind that is "the mind of Christ", this tells us that "the fear of the LORD" is not only a GOOD THING, but it is more specifically none other than the blessing and the gift of a conscience alive to the living conscience and Spirit of the Father. And as such, the fear of the Lord IS the beginning of wisdom, and it IS consistent with a God of love, for it is by a sound conscience that man is able to both live and walk in the PERFECT LOVE that is to "love one's neighbour as oneself."

      And as that root that is "the fear of the LORD" matures into the tree of righteousness, which is a conscience restored and renewed by the living conscience of the Father, not only will we become as those that "might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” - ISAIAH 61:3, but of our wisdom, we will be of the kind of fruitful tree spoken of in Proverbs 11:30: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that wins souls is wise." By loving our neighbour as ourselves, we will not only be wise, but we will be of the God glorifying and measure of wisdom of "he that wins souls". Which is helping our neighbour's conscience come alive to the Spirit of the Father, and to the knowledge of the great love that is the love of the Father for all men.

      LORD God Almighty, may we all have our consciences renewed and restored to the power, and the love, and the soundness of mind that is the LORD's. But may it also be so that we all may be "as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." - JEREMIAH 17:8.

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible,the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen" - 1 TIMOTHY 1:17

God bless, Wayne Biehn