If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. – James 1:5 KJV
I remember entering Bible School on the first day of class and wondering what I was going to do. The instructors were using these $40 and $50 dollar words that I just didn’t understand. I hadn’t even completed the 11th grade and didn’t know what some of these things meant.
I felt over my head and was quickly getting depressed. I started thinking, “I’ll never make it; I’m not educated enough to go to this school.” In that moment of despair, the Lord stepped in and spoke the above scripture to me.
At that time, the Lord clarified that this verse didn’t just apply to spiritual insight. Wisdom meant wisdom. It applied to anything that we need, including me sitting at Bible School. He specifically told me, “I’m going to give you supernatural wisdom.”
That was evident immediately. It also occurred to me that if this was the case, and it was, then I needed to get my words in line with what the Lord said to me. So I decided to step out and act on what the Lord said. I made the bold declaration: “I’m going to graduate with a 4.0 straight-A average in the name of Jesus.”
Despite what everyone around me was doing and saying, I maintained that confession for the entire time I was in school. The “whiz kids” around me, though, were saying they would be happy to just pass with a C or B. That’s fine if you’ll be satisfied with that, but the Lord said you can have what you say.
That confession was the rudder of my life, just like the Word said. I continually was saying that, “in this course, for this quarter, I am going to make a straight A.” That was my faith. That was my confession.
Two years later, at the end of the last quarter, my faith was put to the test. I got a test back and found out that in this one class, I received a B. Something was wrong because I knew what the Lord said, I knew what I believed, and I knew what I said. This threatened my GPA. Many people would have settled for that. I went from a guy who didn’t graduate high school to graduating Bible School with almost straight A’s. But I was not satisfied because that’s not what I believed.
So I happened to get to look at this test after the fact, and it was one of those that you had to fill in the bubble. I went down the list and found the one that I got “wrong.” But something wasn’t adding up because the one I got “wrong” was right. What had happened is that the person that put the master answer sheet in the computer (or whatever it was at the time) had marked that one wrong on the master list. So everyone who got it right got it wrong. But I was the only one who said something.
Long story short, I talked to the ones you have to talk to and got my grade corrected. I ended up walking across the stage, graduating from Bible School with straight A’s.
Those other people around me, though—the “whiz kids”—they ended up graduating with B’s and C’s. They were amazed that someone like me could get better grades than them. But I had to stop them and remind them of what I had said and what they had said. I got what I believed and what I confessed, and they got what they believed and what they confessed.
But it all started with a foundation of believing God for the wisdom I needed to know what was being said in the first place. Whatever you’re doing, if it seems spiritual or not, the Bible says God will give you wisdom if you ask, believe, and keep believing (and that comes in part through your confession). God is with us!
