When you understand that you pray for wisdom from the Creator of your mind, your faith increases.
The large and exciting subject of this post is God’s power over the human mind. It will increase your faith and enlarge your boundaries as you pray for wisdom. Let’s begin with Solomon, of whom 1 Kings 4:29–34 says:
“God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.” (ESV)
Solomon became a human encyclopedia, a breathing Google search, a one-man TED Talk, with “breadth of mind” before there were encyclopedias, and he came into this vast wisdom through personal inquiry, as Ecclesiastes reveals. But fundamentally he came into this wisdom because God first gave him the ability to perceive and accumulate, to organize and understand, wisdom.
Verse 29 says it with delightful simplicity: “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding.” Similarly 1 Kings 10:24 says, “The whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.”
Pray for wisdom from the Creator of your mind
God can put wisdom into your mind any time he wants because he created and sustains your mind. He perfectly understands the mystery of human consciousness, for he created it. He understands the division of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12), the interplay of material and immaterial that occurs between the cells of the human brain and the human spirit, for he is sovereign over it. God understands the miracle of how one human soul integrates emotions, will, memory, imagination, motivation, insight, perception.
But as usual, the Bible describes this miracle in a simple way: “God put wisdom into his mind.”
The mind of every creature
God does not do that for every creature. The Bible says some startling things about God’s sovereignty over even the minds of animals and insects.
Consider the mind of an ostrich. Job 39:13–17 says, “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them. She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear, because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.”
Why do ostriches deal foolishly with their eggs and young? “Because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.” God rules over the mind of an ostrich. For whatever wise reason and for the display of his glory, God chose not to give this bird wisdom about taking care of her eggs.
On the other hand, the Bible says even a creature as small as an ant can have wisdom. “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:6).
Not only ants, but other small creatures have wisdom commended by God himself: “Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.” (Proverbs 30:24–28).
Where did these small creatures get their wisdom? From their Creator and Sustainer, of course, “from whom and through whom and to whom are all things” (Romans 11:36).
God controls the minds of trillions of bugs! God ultimately, not DNA or any material source, puts specific wisdom about storing food, choosing a home, and marching in ranks into trillions of ants, rock badgers, locusts, and lizards if for no other reason than because he wanted to use them as an example in his eternal written Word.
The mind of rulers
If he can control the minds of birds and bugs, he can do the same with humans.
For instance, God once turned a man’s human mind into the mind of an animal. God pronounced a temporary judgment on proud King Nebuchadnezzar of mighty Babylon:
“Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him.” (Daniel 4:15–16)
And so it happened. Yet at the end of God’s determined time of judgment, Nebuchadnezzar suddenly regained his wits. He himself described the experience this way: “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.” (Daniel 4:34)
As unexplainable as it was when his human reason left him, so was its return. God Almighty rules over human reason and wisdom.
The ground of your mind
This means that when you pray for God to give you wisdom, you are not asking him to do some extraordinary thing that rarely if ever happens. He has been doing this your whole life. That you have a sound mind at all, that you have the ability to reason, is an ongoing gift of God’s grace. You have the ability to read and understand this article because God is personally, deliberately, at this very moment, sustaining your mind.
When God declared his glory to Job, he asked the rhetorical question, “Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?” (Job 38:36)
Proverbs 2:6 says, “The LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
David wrote, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart” (Psalms 51:6).
The Bible teaches that wisdom is something God can release within, without external inputs if he chooses. God is able to shine the light of understanding within the human spirit. “Wisdom will enter your heart” (Proverbs 2:10, NIV).
The wisdom of craftsmen
Let’s look at one last inspiring example. When God formed the nation of Israel by delivering them from bondage in Egypt, he intended to live among them in a special tent called the Tabernacle. It would contain many articles of worship, such as a bronze altar of sacrifice, golden tables for burning incense and offering bread, basins for washing, a golden candlestick, the Ark of the Covenant. The priests who officiated in the Tabernacle were to wear elaborate, holy uniforms.
To craft this enormous number of religious articles, did God tell Moses to conduct a talent search to find the most skilled craftsmen in the camp? No, God specifically prepared two men to lead the project, along with a team of other craftsmen to assist them:
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you” (Exodus 31:1–6)
Exodus 36:1–2 says, “Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the LORD has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded.” And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.”
Pray for wisdom from the Creator of your mind for everything that matters to you
Therefore, whether it is wisdom to create a Tabernacle in the desert, to raise a family, to have a peaceful and satisfying relationship with your spouse, colleagues, or friends, to succeed in your career, to manage your finances, or whatever it is that matters to you, the God of all wisdom can give it to you. He is the Creator and Sustainer of your mind. He is able to fulfill the promise of James 1:5 in you: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
And most importantly, as he does this in you, you will come to know him and his ways better. For this is one of God’s ways: he gives wisdom to those who ask him.
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)