HIDDEN WISDOM
© Morris E. Ruddick
“Wisdom is better than might, although a poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words not heeded. The words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard, rather than the shout of those who rule among fools.” Eccl 9:16-17
The Word of God is a treasure trove of the wisdom for life, together with the principles needed for the community of God’s people to live out their destinies, according to His ways. 
Solomon was anointed with extraordinary wisdom. Yet, in all his observations (Eccl 3:11), he was quick to note that the extents and depths of God were beyond the best of our human capacities.
Among his reflections in Ecclesiastes is the story of a small community that was attacked by a numerically superior force (Eccl 9:14-16). Within that city was a poor man who possessed the wisdom that saved the city. Yet, once the status quo was restored, no one remembered him.
Repeatedly Solomon points to truths reflecting the need for the practical, often hidden wisdom to reorient our distorted, short-sighted view and value of things. He notes that a living dog is better than a dead lion and that a dead fly can cause the perfumers ointment to putrefy and smell vile.
Solomon also discerns (Eccl 9:18) that while wisdom can prove mightier than weapons of war, one sinner can destroy the inherent good. So it was with the story of the poor, wise man, who saved the city. The wisdom of the poor man who saved the city did not conform to the prevailing popular perception of things.
God’s available wisdom too often can be constrained and overshadowed by distorted prisms and be sought from the wrong places.
The Right Thing the Wrong Way
Jacob went through many years of hardship by reaching for the right thing the wrong way.
While his clever deceits pushed the envelope, he faced setbacks because there was always someone a little more clever than he was. Despite his dramatic, life-changing encounter with the Angel of the Lord, as he finally acknowledged that he was in over his head, when faced with reuniting with Esau, his ways influenced and were passed on to his sons.
The sons of Jacob defiled what God intended for their generational blessing and destiny, when deceitfully they took things into their own hands over the matter of their sister Dinah and Schechem.
The story of Joseph is one of God’s anticipatory redemption of the calling that flowed from their great-grandfather Abraham. It was marked by hidden wisdom, the prophetic wisdom that God invested in Joseph. However, at its start, within his own household, this wisdom was despised and resented by all, but Jacob.
In reading the history of God’s people, from generation to generation, it has followed the same sequence. God demonstrates His power and blessing with a generation that finally “gets it” and establishes something eternal, only to have it marginalized, with the “God-essence” squeezed out with a misguided, but prevailing “conventional,” often contemporary wisdom.
What seems to result is short-sighted, as the real significance of what God has done succumbs to defilements and myopic diminishments. When deliverance comes through “hidden” wisdom, the reality is that it had already had been evidenced in the prior generations. The cycle of recovery comes through a generation getting “beyond themselves,” in repentant humility, in their quest for that “something more” dimension in God.
The Cultural Threshold
There is a threshold that has been sought by cultures and generations. It is the threshold that taps the resources of God’s glory. It is the chasm that is bridged when the limitations of the natural are superseded by the supernatural.
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of intelligence and understanding, nor favor to men of skill.” Eccl 9:11
When released, dramatic change results. No power on earth can stand against it. Yet, not unlike the time of the tower of Babel, cultures and generations possess a power, blinded against God, that transcends the sum of it parts.
This power ties into the dynamic of the tree of knowledge that was perverted in the garden. Counterfeits have abounded. It is why God told Abraham to leave his family and the country of Ur, the land of the Chaldeans where sorcery had its roots.
God’s glory and the release of His hidden wisdom will not abide or compromise with either the occult or pop wisdom. It operates on a spiritual level far beyond the counterfeits and illusions of a watered-down status quo. This threshold must be overcome in God to see the true reality of God operating. When this takes place, it releases what we call revival or the ongoing manifest Presence of God among a people.
In his interactions with the rulers of the lands where sorcery dominated, Abraham began being recognized as the man with a quietness of wisdom that commanded the respect of having as its source, the one true God. When a culture, religion or the occult faces the purity of God, Light will always dispel darkness.
Throughout the history of God’s people, it has always been a choice of the real or the counterfeit.
The Source of Blindness
To understand the gap to be bridged, we need to understand the biblical concept of iniquities. While some simply count iniquities as sin, which they are, they are more than that. Some also view iniquities as generational sins, which indeed they are.
However, again and again, the context of iniquities is cultural. Iniquities are something deeper and ingrained in the traditions of men, taken on and passed on not only by a generation, but by a culture of people.
Iniquities are the hidden, often deemed acceptable sins of a people. The story of the sons of Jacob and their response to Schechem and their sister Dinah is a story of sons embracing the conniving, deceitful iniquities of their father.
Yet in Micah 7:19 the word of God tells us that God will “subdue” our iniquities. It will come from our pure, humble response and grasp of His presence.
The fine line is in closing the door to iniquities, while sinking deep roots of our cultural identities — in God.
“You shall teach these things diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Deut 6:7
Iniquities are in essence hidden masks. They replace the gaps of our understanding of the ways of God with distorted human understanding. They become snares and hurdles to the pure presence of God. Examples of iniquities impeding the wisdom that only God can provide are the cleverness, conniving, pretense and limitations of human reasoning. Their subtle roots are removed only by the diligent mix of seeking God as first priority and repentance.
The roots of iniquities are found in the subtleties of pride. It is why the word of God places so much importance on humility. Humility is the cloak needed for a generation to overcome the transgressions that have become the established way around them.
Throughout Proverbs we are warned about pride. Prideful enlargement is equated with death by Habakkuk (Hab 2:5). While the Lord is the God of increase, the right thing done the wrong way is wrong. Likewise, Samuel rebuked Saul with the observation that stubbornness is as the sin of witchcraft. In like fashion, Jesus again and again told his followers to “fear not.” Each of these factors are subtle, generally condoned behaviors that mask the operation of the pure, “hidden” wisdom reflected by the poor man, which is readily available, but too often remains dormant in the word of truth.
The Wellspring
There are factors that accelerate the process by which a generation of God’s people peel back and grasp the wisdom required for times of change. It begins with recognizing the need. The process both begins and advances by tapping and becoming immersed in the Wellspring.
When God’s people come together in unity and humility, seeking the Lord, then revelation is imparted. With Solomon’s insight of there being nothing new under the sun, what is fresh and new for the needs of a generation is in reality ancient wisdom, hidden in God’s word.
“Teachers who have been instructed in the Kingdom are like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Matt 13:52
Paul wrote the Colossians (2:9) that in Jesus is the embodiment, the fullness of the Godhead. In Him are the depths of the wisdom that Solomon, despite all his own extensive anointing in wisdom, recognized as the wellspring of wisdom that is beyond any human capacity. Jesus is the Source.
Tapping the Source
Jesus made it very clear that a key role of the Holy Spirit is to impart truth. Jesus told His followers that when the Holy Spirit came, He would guide us into Truth (John 16:13).
The acceleration of this process of tapping the hidden wisdom that releases God’s supernatural into otherwise impossible situations will combine an unequivocal cultural identity in God, a clear grasp of God’s heart and the cause, a mobilized following, embracing the Holy Spirit as teacher, and a bedrock priority to our faith.
Cultural Identity. From the beginning, God’s people have served as a distinct culture within the surrounding cultures. Their identity has been as a people of God. This is the observation that Jesus made in John 17 when He said we would be in the world, but not of the world. We are citizens of God’s Kingdom and God’s ambassadors demonstrating His reality and life to a world without hope.
Grasp of the Cause. God has always intended those who are known by His Name to be a people of influence, bearing the mantle of Abraham, to be blessed to be a blessing. God’s priorities and focus will result when our hearts become truly aligned with His heart. That means time spent with Him and spiritual maintenance.
We are people of Truth, bearing witness to the standard of Truth established by the One who is the source of Truth. We are catalysts changing the spiritual climate in our sphere, penetrating the darkness with His light. This is the driving purpose for both individuals and the community of His people.
Mobilized Following. The role of leadership is mobilizing God’s people in their life-purpose to make a difference in the surrounding society. One of the most subtle spiritual immobilizers has been the dichotomy between the sacred and the secular whereby the success of spiritual leaders is judged by the ability to raise money. Fund-raising and increase may be involved, but the goal is not money, it’s the by-product. Nor is the primary goal congregational membership or attendance at services, but rather the mobilization and equipping of every true believer into God’s specific calling on their lives.
The Holy Spirit as Teacher. The only way every believer can be activated and guided into the fullness of their purpose is by introducing them to a proactive prayer life and the role of the Holy Spirit as their Teacher Who guides them into the truths bearing on their life-purpose.
The Priority of Faith. For the most part, the way of the Kingdom is a paradox to the way the world normally operates. Bedrock to our faith is the fine line between recognizing that it is not what we can do for God, but rather what we allow Him to do through us. That truth, together with accessing God’s hidden wisdom, rests on a humility, which is required to be truly led by Spirit, rather than becoming ambitious zealots whose efforts are the result of human confidence and achievement.
The alignment of these factors, both individually and as a community, will open the gates into the secret place of His presence. They become the catalyst for the release of God’s manifest presence. From that will flow the hidden wisdom from above, against which no other power can stand.
The Secret Place
I’ve long recognized this type of resolute identity with those who have found that “secret place” of regularly abiding in God’s presence. Leaders I’ve worked with in persecuted nations who have spent time in prison for their faith have found that secret place. It is clearly not a matter of “what you know,” but rather “Who you regularly abide with.”
Joseph found that secret place in God as a slave and then, due to no fault of his own, experienced spiritual backlash and became a prisoner. Having lost his family and his freedom when enslaved in Egypt, Joseph never had an issue with his identity. It was recognized by all those around him. Everyone saw that God was with him and that he extended the blessing of God to those he served (Gen 39:2-4), making all that he did to prosper. His identity was firmly established in God. He operated as a culture within a culture.
Despite Joseph’s lowly position, an authority and influence flowed from his identity, his faith and his purpose in God. It flowed from the hidden wisdom that came from the secret place of God’s presence, a place that Joseph learned to abide in and use as the navigator through the challenging corridors in his journey to God’s place of opportunity and destiny. Pure faith and humility will always close the gap and open the gates into God-opportunities.
“He who speaks from his own self seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of Him who sent him is true and no unrighteousness dwells in him.” John 7:18
