The Wisdom / Riches Connection

The Wisdom / Riches ConnectionPastor Andre Butler I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. -- Proverbs 8:17-21 In the Scripture above, the wisdom of God is speaking. In this context, the wisdom of God is very simply the Word of God--the Word that you find written in the Bible, and the Word that He may speak to your spirit. God is teaching you here that where you find wisdom you will find riches. There is a wisdom/riches connection.Wisdom and riches are like Batman and Robin--where you see one, you see the other. But the riches that come with this type of wisdom are not the types of riches that you see in the world today. The world is seeing that their riches are uncertain riches, but the Bible teaches that the wisdom of God will produce durable riches in your life. This means that even when the economy is down, you will still have your riches and when it is up, you will still have your riches. You can be an individual that does not have to participate in the world's economy because you operate on the Word economy. As members of the Body of Christ, we can see increase, even in times of economic recession.You see in verse 20 above that God's wisdom leads us in the way of righteousness. Notice that there is one way to righteousness. All of the other religions in the world are not just different ways up the mountain, as many would have you believe. No, there is only one way to righteousness, and the verse above says that God's wisdom leads you in that way so that you can inherit substance.Now, wisdom leads in the way for reasons other than just that, but here God is emphasizing the inheritance of substance. God is saying that He has given you His Word so that you, as His child, can inherit substance and have full treasures. Now, today you don't have "treasures" so to speak, but you do have a bank account. God has given you His wisdom so that He can fill up your bank accounts. He didn't just say put something in it--He said fill it! The point is, God wants to fill your treasures. You can see very clearly from Proverbs that God's will for you is that you operate in divine wealth. His will is that you don't just have enough, but that you have more than enough, so much so that you don't have room enough to receive it (see Malachi 3:10).You should have so much substance that it will cause the world to look at you and want to know how you received it, and want to know the God that gave it to you!