Now lets read one more scripture, let’s see how we can begin immediately to do those things that have the power to shape our lives, I want us to go to the book of James andchapter number 4, book of James chapter no 4, I want us to read verse 17; it says therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin, this is practical wisdom, the practical wisdom of God doesn’t come to you by meditation, no it’s the wisdom that God puts there in your spirit but its not phonesis until it is put to work, because it is a way of life, it is a mentality,in the new testament, Its called the wisdom of the just,the wisdom of the righteous, the phonesis of the righteous and it is remarkable that is described as the phonesis of the righteous, its remarkable because we just read something in James chapter 4 verse 17 where it says therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin, which means that man is not walking in phonesis, which is the wisdom of the righteous, so phonesis means that you know what is right and you do what is right; now others are unlikely to know that thing that is right and therefore to do it, now some others would move further and know what is right but be unable to do it and therefore walk in unrighteousness which is sin, the bible says every unrighteousness is sin, now when he says therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin, it means that that thing is unrighteousness so you are not walking in righteousness when you know what to do which is right and then not to do it, for example when we were younger in school, they began to teach us things like picking up litters, alright we were taught in school, that as we walk along in the compound in the school compound and we saw litters it didn’t mean that you were the one that put them there, they said pick them up and as you passed by you noticed a little paper down there and you picked it up and there was somewhere for you to drop it so they were teaching us practical wisdom, the trouble was the folks who were in charge of the higher schools were not structured to take us on so many of us when we got into the university lost that sense because it didn’t go on, most people become more selfish when they get into the university than anywhere else because in the university most, I think their concern now about handout.
Now I understand, just the handouts want to make money, everybody wants to make money, but money is a tool and if you don’t make your mind it doesn’t matter how much money you make you’re going to fail, its just a matter of time, you know so the people who think that if they just had enough money everything would be fine, no, so begin today, begin today to condition your spirit into an excellent character, condition your spirit into an excellent character, you know you can have an excellent spirit that is not an excellent character, what they were describing for us there those men had an excellent character but just because your spirit is born again and you have the holy ghost in you who is an excellent spirit doesn’t mean that you have an excellent character because you have to develop, condition your spirit to become an excellent character, that’s why they said the spirit of the gods they thought the spirit of the gods was in Daniel, they didn’t see it as Daniels peculiar character but that it was the spirit of the gods that was in him but when you study the word of God you would find that it was Daniel’s peculiar character as granted him by God and so you also you have the holy spirit ok, who lives in you, not only that the bible says that Christ has been made unto you wisdom so what are you going to do, you are going to program, program your spirit to become an excellent character, you’re going to program your spirit are you hearing me, you train your spirit to become an excellent character, it’s a personal training nobody is going to do it for you and for that to even begin to happen in your life, you must covet it, you must crave it.
God didn’t say Solomon I want to make you wise; he didn’t say that, he said Solomon what do you want, Solomon said give me wisdom, he asked for wisdom, so it wasn’t God who was looking for someone to make wise, it was Solomon who wanted God to make him wise, and why did Solomon want God to make him wise because his father had taught him that wisdom was the principal thing, so Solomon said my father taught me, my father taught me, he said wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom so his father David let him know that money was not the principal thing, the kingdom was not the principal thing, friendship with your neighbors was not the principal thing, long life was not the principal thing, he said wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom that’s what David told Solomon and so when it came in the time for God to give him the opportunity to ask of something he said wisdom, the principal thing, then God said Solomon you didn’t ask for the lives of your enemy, you didn’t ask for wealth money, you didn’t ask for long life you asked for wisdom, therefore wisdom is granted to you, so much wisdom that’s beyond what this world has ever known and God gave it to him, you still there, so begin now, begin now to condition your spirit for the wisdom that God has put within you then it would dominate your character and you would become a man or woman of wisdom that means a man or woman of excellence. What is excellence, therefore? Can we take that… interestingly, in one of the synonyms of excellence is greatness. Did you know, greatness, it thus helps us to understand what kind of man Abraham was or David who was described as great.
