When we inquire of God for wisdom, the Bible helps us find answers.

When you seek particular wisdom from God, Scripture should play an important role.

Psalm 119:24 says, “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.”

Therefore as you seek wisdom, God’s words can counsel you.

Likewise Psalm 119:98–99 says, “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. ⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.”

Therefore God’s commands not only tell us what God expects of us, but they also make us wise, which is again what we seek. To get that wisdom verse 99 says you should engage with Scripture in meditation. Repeat it over and over, break it down word by word and phrase by phrase, imagine what the words picture, draw implications from its assertions, trust its promises, think of ways to apply it.

Moreover, ask the Lord where to read Scripture to find the answer to your inquiry. That guidance can come in various ways. He might guide your heart in that very session of prayer, or he might do so a month or a year later. He might create an interest in reading a particular book of the Bible. Or as you follow your annual Bible-reading plan, he might providentially bring you to that place in Scripture where the needed wisdom lies. If you maintain your faith and your inquiry, your eyes will fall sooner or later on Bible verses that help answer your question, and you will recognize them as such.

How Scripture imparts the wisdom we seek

Therefore, when you ask God for wisdom on any matter, read the Bible with that question in mind, search Scripture for what it says on the subject, and meditate on relevant passages.

This is important for four reasons:

1. God might have spoken directly to the subject in his Word, and if not, he has given relevant principles.

For example, if a man asks for wisdom about how to improve his marriage, he can find specific help in Ephesians 5:22–33. On the other hand, if a woman asks for wisdom about how to protect her dog from catching ticks, she will not find anything in the Bible on that specific topic, but there might be relevant principles.

2. Setting your mind on Scripture brings the presence of God within.

Regardless of whether the Bible speaks to the question, whenever we read Scripture long enough with humility, faith, and reverence, our awareness of his presence increases. Our fellowship with God becomes more real, and the mind of Christ prevails in our mind. God’s presence and the wisdom we seek go well together.

3. Whatever Scripture says shapes you with wisdom in general and thus makes your mind a good environment for wisdom.

A heart filled with wisdom is a conducive place, a suitable environment, for the revealing of further wisdom on any specific subject. When you saturate your mind with Scripture, your mind develops an ecosystem of wisdom where further wisdom finds rich soil for growth.

4. Reading Scripture sanctifies you.

Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

Sanctification puts you in a right place with God and thus better able to receive from him.

The Bible tells several stories of people who sought information from God even though they had no intention of having a holy relationship with God. The results were negative.

For example, 1 Samuel 28 tells how King Saul inquired of God when he and his army faced an overwhelming enemy. But Saul had long been far from God and hardened in heart, so the Lord did not answer.

Still, Saul wanted information about the future, so he went to a fortune teller to see if she could contact the dead for the help he wanted. He had reached the ultimate, muddy bottom of his pathetic life, and he died in battle hours later.

(For other examples of people who inquired of God for information while rejecting God’s will for their lives, see Jeremiah 42; Ezekiel 20:1–32 [especially v. 31], and 1 Kings 22:1–40.)

Because we sin in many ways, we always need God’s counsel not only for our specific inquiry, but for the general sanctification of our lives. Holiness makes us better receivers of wisdom.

Takeaway

When we pray for wisdom, we should approach Scripture as our counselor and be open to all God wants to say to us, not just the answer to our question.

We should desire the full light of Jesus in his Word, both the street light and the focused laser beam. The way to have eyes that see and ears that hear God’s wisdom is to hunger for all he says, in all ways, about all things.

Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)

The book “The Practice of the Presence of God,” by Brother Lawrence, played an important role in helping me learn to pray and be aware of God throughout the day.

I have found that practicing God’s presence is one secret to having a deeply satisfying, personal relationship with him. In brief, it involves being aware of him all through the day.

I have not arrived, I still have much to learn, but normally that describes my life. I practice God’s presence, and I can say from experience it is the only way to live.

Here is the story of how I learned it and how you can too.

My story of learning to practice God’s presence

Two books have been crucial in teaching me how to practice God’s presence.

First and most important of course is the Bible. That is the basis for all true knowledge of God, an inexhaustible source of instruction about God and a means of fellowship with him. More on that later.

Brother Lawrence and The Practice of the Presence of God

Second is a book I read a few years ago that God used to teach an approach to practicing God’s presence through prayer.

There is a spirit to this book that affected my heart. Just its title, The Practice of the Presence of God, gave me a new way of looking at prayer.

If you have grave concerns about many tenets of Roman Catholic theology, as I do, you might reject the book before reading because the author was a French monk some 400 years ago.¹ But I believe the author, Brother Lawrence, who was not a church leader or theologian, had a genuine relationship with God through faith in Christ, despite some wrong beliefs.

Several people have translated the book, but I recommend the edition by Whitaker House, published in 1982. You can get it on Kindle or in paperback at Amazon, or from Whitaker House.

I also highly recommend Harold Myra’s 40-day devotional on the book published in 2017 by Discovery House, available in Kindle and paperback. It contains devotions written by Myra (former publisher and ceo at Christianity Today) and a modern paraphrase of The Practice of the Presence of God.

I’ve reread it numerous times because it affects my heart. I feel God’s love and am stirred to relate to him personally.

The best book

Throughout my life I have practiced God’s presence through a daily devotional time of Bible reading and prayer, which I still do.

I love this more than a good meal. It is my reference point for knowing God in my mind and spirit.

I know what it is like to feel his presence because in these times of devotion I hear his voice in Scripture. And that is a sure plumb line.

I know what the peace and the thoughts of God feel like in my soul because I have experienced them so often in these times alone with him. I typically invest 1–2 hours a day alone with God.

For much of my life, regrettably, I did not always carry God’s presence with me throughout the day, even though I was a pastor and an editor of Christian publications. I could have a great hour alone with God in the morning but then go all day without pausing to pray again.

I could fall into lingering fear, selfishness, resentment, or despair.

Learning to practice God’s presence has changed that.

Catching fire

In recent years there has been another strong influence on how I practice God’s presence. I’ve learned from several people much more about how to walk in God’s anointing.

Essentially this involves expressing ongoing verbal praise and thanksgiving throughout the day when possible, with a conscious effort to tune into God and maintain a sense of his presence.

Here is what that looks like. As I walk down the sidewalk, or wash dishes, or take a shower, or have some other unfocused time, you will hear me singing quietly, or saying phrases like “Hallelujah, thank you, Lord, hallelujah, praise you, Father, for your mercy, hallelujah, holy, holy, holy is the Lord” and so on, or praying in tongues.

And with this praying, there is urgency, intensity, fire, passion. Connection with God.

I learned this by praying with others and sensing their spirit. This too is God’s presence.

It is more than a thought about God, but a feeling for God that is expressed verbally. And it is more than human emotion, for God’s Spirit inhabits our praises.

The Spirit of God flows like a river and burns like a fire.