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In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. . .and discovered a wealthy place in God. He discovered America. What got him on the pathway to that place of abundance in God? Wisdom. God’s wisdom. While school children can recite the courageous voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, there’s a part of the story that most adults have probably never heard.
It hasn’t been until the past 20 years that the memoirs of Christopher Columbus have been translated into English and openly made known. That’s because there were people who did not want the world to know all that he had to say.
It was Columbus who wrote: "People have claimed that I was a navigator. But I knew little about navigation. I knew much about my God."
In his memoirs, Columbus made it clear that it was God Who put it in his heart to set out in search of the New World. But while the desire was strong, Columbus simply did not know what to do. So he sought God’s wisdom.
During that time of seeking wisdom from God, the Holy Spirit led Columbus to Proverbs 8:27, "When he prepared the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth."
As Columbus read that verse, the Spirit of God said to him, It cannot be a compass unless it is round.
"The Lord Jesus Christ, in His wisdom," Columbus later wrote, "showed me in His Word that the world was round, and there was no way I could fail. I set sail based on that verse."
God’s wisdom had unlocked the door to the entire Western Hemisphere of the globe.
Insider Information
Wisdom is far more than just having a lot of information stuffed in your head. It is the divine ability of God to correctly use the knowledge that you have.
Christopher Columbus had plenty of knowledge. Yet, even he admitted that he didn’t know enough to find his way to the New World. He needed wisdom. He needed insight and understanding from God as to what to do with what he did know.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8:
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect [or mature]: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The wisdom of God is hidden. It is a mystery. But it’s not just a mystery to a lot of unsuspecting humans—including Christians.
No. God’s wisdom is also hidden from all angelic beings—good or bad.
As programmed spiritual beings, angels and demonic spirits (meaning, Satan and his bunch) do not have the equipment necessary to process wisdom.
That would be like a computer waking up one morning and saying, "I’m tired of keeping track of this company’s inventory. I don’t want to know about car parts, anymore. I want to know all there is to know about basketball."
That will never happen unless someone reprograms the computer with basketball data.
In the same way, God designed angels to serve Him and us (Psalm 103:20-21). Consequently, they can only lay hold of God’s wisdom after you and I manifest it in this natural realm. They either receive it directly from God, or indirectly from us.
So, while God’s wisdom remains a mystery to these angelic beings, it is available to us. In fact, God hid His wisdom for us before the foundation of the world, and He hid it for a very special purpose.
We just saw in 1 Corinthians 2:7 that God hid His wisdom "unto our glory."
Now, to many church people, glory means nothing more than, "Oh, yes, glory to God!" It has no real substance in their thinking.
Yet, it’s interesting that the first time the word glory was used in the Bible, it was used to describe the wealth that Jacob had accumulated because of the blessing of God on his life (Genesis 31:1). It’s interesting because, in biblical study, there is what’s called the law of first usage.
When a word is used for the first time in the Bible, its meaning in that first reference is carried over into every reference that follows. Even if the word is used in a different context, the original definition of the word remains with it to some degree.
In this case, the Hebrew word in Genesis 31 that we translate as glory literally means super heavy. Jacob’s wealth was described as super heavy.
Have you ever heard someone called a "heavyweight"? It usually refers to someone who has a lot of money—and all the power that goes with it. Well, God is the heavyweight. And in subsequent passages of Scripture, the word glory refers to the heavy, or weighty things of God.
Me...A Heavyweight?
The Apostle Paul made the connection for us between the heavy, weighty things of God and the wisdom of God when he wrote: "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
The glory of God, like the wisdom of God, has been a mystery. In fact, in this passage, Paul was actually quoting what Isaiah had prophesied centuries earlier (see Isaiah 64:1-4).
Isaiah had caught a glimpse of this heavy, weighty goodness of God. And while he did not fully understand all he had seen of God’s glory, he saw enough to know that nations would tremble in the presence of it.
Jeremiah expanded this revelation of God’s glory when he prophesied: "It shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them [the children of God]: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it" (Jeremiah 33:9).
Even before the foundation of the world, God made man wealthy beyond his wildest dreams and imaginations. God had established a place of abundance for His people in Him. A place abundant in love, joy, peace, health, wealth, and so on (Psalm 66:12).
That’s what Paul was talking about when he wrote:
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in [the Anointed] Jesus [and by His anointing], [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live] (Ephesians 2:10, The Amplified Bible).
All this "good life" was made ready for us before the foundation of the world. Yet, today, this wealthy place in God still remains a mystery to much of the Church. We have not known how to lay hold of the super-heavy goodness God set apart for us in this lifetime.
How do we get on that pathway to our abundant life in God?
Going back to 1 Corinthians 2, we find that Paul went on to say: "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received...the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (verses 11-12).
It is by the Spirit of God that we "know the things that are freely given to us of God." Colossians 2:2-3 says that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are hidden in Christ. They are hidden in the Anointed One, and in His Anointing. That means, those treasures are hidden inside us the moment we are born again.
The wisdom of the ages is only 18 inches below our head. It’s tucked deep within our inner man, in our born-again spirit. All we need to do is get it from our hearts to our heads.
Your Own Hidden Treasure
When Adam first sinned in the Garden of Eden, the glory of God left his spirit. The light and life of God were shut off from him. He was separated from God and took on the sin nature of the fallen angel Satan, the once anointed cherub, whose wisdom had also been corrupted (Ezekiel 28:17).
In the end, man lost contact with God’s wisdom.
As we saw earlier, however, God had already hidden His wisdom for our glory (1 Corinthians 2:7). He had hidden it in Jesus before the foundation of the world.
First Peter 1:20 says that God also ordained Jesus before the foundation of the world. What did He ordain Jesus to do? To make known "unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
We were reconnected to God’s wisdom the moment we were born again. Like most believers, however, we have just not known how to tap into it.
That reminds me of my grandfather who was a farmer in the Texas panhandle where farming was tough because it was so dry and windy.
One day my grandfather’s oldest son, who had graduated from college and was involved in agriculture and worked for the state government of New Mexico, came home and told his dad that there was a massive underground river beneath their farm.
Well, when my grandfather decided to drill—out it came, water like they had never seen before. He ended up having one of the first irrigation wells in that area, and he started having bumper crops all the time. One year, he was the only farmer in the whole county who had a crop.
The point is, all those farmers had sat on a river of wealth for years, but they never tapped into it. They didn’t know it was there.
God’s wisdom—that mighty Holy Spirit river of knowledge that goes beyond all natural understanding—lies deep within us, and it is the pathway to our wealthy place in God. For the most part, however, it lies there untapped.
Solving the Mystery
The key to drawing the wisdom of God out of our hearts and into our heads is found in 1 Corinthians 14, where the Apostle Paul describes yet another mystery: "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries" (verse 2).
It’s important to realize that this mystery Paul is talking about here—the mystery of speaking in tongues, or praying in the spirit—is directly tied to the mystery that we found in 1 Corinthians 2—the mystery of God’s wisdom. They are the same mystery.
Yet, it is equally important to realize that the wisdom of God and speaking in unknown tongues do not have to remain a mystery to us. In 1 Corinthians 14:13-14, Paul tells us why: "Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful."
When we pray in tongues, we are not relying on our mind to pray. We’re drawing those utterances out of our spirit, by the Holy Spirit. It’s our spirit that does the praying. And as we’ve already seen, our spirit is where God hid His wisdom. So our spirit is in contact with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All that is to say: when we need the wisdom of God for any given situation, we can do what James 1:5 says to do—ask for it. We can pray, "Father, You said wisdom is the principal thing (Proverbs 4:7), so I’m asking You for it in this matter I’m facing. Holy Spirit, as I begin to pray, I believe You to give me utterance to speak the mysteries concerning this."
How, based on what we just saw in 1 Corinthians 14:13-14, we’re still not finished. We also need to pray as Paul instructed: "Father, as I pray out the mysteries over this matter, as I speak out Your wisdom about this matter in other tongues, I’m asking You for the interpretation of it, as well."
"Well, Brother Copeland, how do I know if I’m saying the right thing? How do I know I’m not just making something up?"
To begin with, anything having to do with prayer, or God, is a matter of faith. We take God at His Word. If He says to pray that you may interpret, then pray—and believe—that you will interpret and be fruitful in your understanding.
It is helpful, however, to know that an interpretation of what we pray out in the spirit may come to us as an inner knowing.
A knowing is simply when our spirit picks up on something spoken by the Holy Spirit and relays it to our mind, which is primarily how God talks to us, anyway. Oftentimes, we just need to keep our spiritual ears tuned to what He’s saying.
An interpretation of what we pray in the spirit can also come as an inner conviction about the right thing to do in a situation. Or, it may be something that we just blurt out of our mouths, without even thinking about it. We didn’t think about it because it’s not coming from the mind. It’s by the Spirit to our spirit.
Also, I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a meeting where someone was preaching, reading the Word, or ministering in music, and suddenly the answer to a situation just seemed to explode inside me. Well, that was the wisdom of God that I had been praying out and believing Him to reveal.
The bottom line is, wisdom does not have to remain a mystery to us any longer. It was hidden for us, not from us. And wisdom—God’s wisdom—is the pathway to our place of abundance in Him.
So start building that bridge from your heart to your head, today. Begin translating heavenly revelation into earthly instructions.
As you do, you’ll discover your own New World in God. | 
