17 Results of Wisdom In Your Life, Part 5

Welcome back to our series about the 17 results of wisdom in your life! Today, we are discussing Results 11, 12, and 13: honor, righteousness, and fruit. In other words, when you ask God for wisdom, His wisdom produces honor, righteousness, and FRUIT in your life! Hallelujah! Let’s dive in.

To recap, in this series, we are studying the 17 results of wisdom which are listed in Proverbs chapter 8.

So far, we have already discussed the following benefits of wisdom:

1. Prudence; 
2. Knowledge; 
3. Discretion; 
4. The fear of the Lord (read about results 1-4 in Part 1 of this series here);
5. Counsel;
6. Understanding;
7. Strength;
8. Authority to reign (read about results 5-8 in Part 2 of this series here);
9. Justice; and
10. Riches and wealth.

The eleventh result of wisdom in your life is that of honor.

Read what Proverbs 8:12-21 says:

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness.

My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver.

I traverse the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, that I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, that I may fill their treasuries” (Proverbs 8:12-21 NKJV).

When you pursue having God’s wisdom in your life, He gives you honor.

Yes, God loves to elevate you and honor you in front of other people … if you’re humble, that is.

God won’t promote and honor proud people. The Bible says in James 4:6 that He actually resists the proud instead:

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble'” (James 4:6 NKJV).

So we always want to be humble–primarily because humility pleases God, but also because He gives grace to the humble. And when you humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, in due time He will lift you up:

And when God lifts you up, He tends to honor you.

When you embrace His wisdom, that wisdom makes you quick to obey Him. The wisdom from above is willing to yield, which means first and foremost yielding to God. As it says in James 3:17:

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17 NKJV).

And when you are quick to obey Him, you become innately blessable. God will reward you for your obedience. And since your obedience causes you to meet the conditions attached to His promises, you become qualified to receive the rewards of His promises.

This includes the reward of honor. Consider Psalm 91:14-15:

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him” (Psalm 91:14-15 NKJV).

Yes, God will honor you publicly when you obey Him and walk in His wisdom.

His honor may look like various things, including:

• Public promotion;
• Making your level of blessing visible to all;
• Opportunity being given to you when everyone else wanted that opportunity;
• Showcasing your work in places that you could never have reached by yourself;
• Having someone speak about you publicly, saying good things about you; and any number of other things!

When you ask God for His wisdom and you choose to walk in it every day, you qualify to receive all His blessings. And one of those amazing blessings He gives is that of honor. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and ask God again right now for His wisdom! And while you’re at it, ask Him to deliver you and honor you!

Related: When God Honors You, Don’t Throw It Away!

The twelfth result of wisdom in your life is that of righteousness.

As you yield to God the Holy Spirit and the wisdom He provides, you will be drawn to make Jesus Christ the Lord, Boss, and Master of your life. And when you make Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior–Lord, Boss, and Master of your life–in that moment you will experience an identity change.

It’s true:

The first moment that you confess your sins, ask Jesus to forgive you, and make Jesus your Lord and Savior, God wipes away your past, forgives your sins, and makes you a new person. In one moment, you receive a new identity. And your identity as this new person is righteous.

In other words, God suddenly sees you as a righteous person. “Righteous” becomes who you are. It’s not because of your own fleshly merit, but it is all because Jesus died for you. 🙂 You become hidden in Him at the moment of your salvation–that moment in which you confessed Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior (which is the moment of your new, spiritual birth).

So have you made Jesus the Lord, Savior, Boss, and Master of your life?

If so, you operated in the wisdom of the Lord to do that. He helped you give your life over to Himself. And because you made that wise choice, God accepted you in that moment and made you His child. Jesus actually took your sins upon Himself so you could be righteous in Him:

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).

So when we read this in Proverbs 8:18:

“Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness” (Proverbs 8:18 NKJV).

Remember that is Wisdom talking, and Wisdom is God the Holy Spirit Personified. Riches and honor ARE with Him, as we already discussed.

But, enduring riches and righteousness–the state of being right with God and receiving eternal life in Him–are also with Him. And it’s all because God drew you to Himself and helped you give your life to Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Isn’t that beautiful?

The thirteenth result of wisdom in your life is that of FRUIT.

Proverbs 8:19 says this:

“My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver” (Proverbs 8:19 NKJV).

Remember, this is Wisdom talking in this passage. And Holy Spirit (a.k.a. “Wisdom Personified” is telling us that, when He fills your life, He is going to produce fruit.

The fruit that Holy Spirit produces inside of us is clearly described in Galatians 5. This passage contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. Read this and notice how different the two things are, and how beautiful the fruit of the Spirit are:

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:19-23 NKJV).

Beloved, does your heart cry out for a fruitful life?

Do you want to make an eternal difference in this world? Do you want to impact the lives of the people around you for the better? Do you want to exhibit a powerful Christian witness, showing the world and even your family how lovely Jesus is?

And do you want your heart, emotions, and spirit to be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, and so on, so you can enjoy every day of your life?

If so, you need fruit. Christians are called to bear fruit. And God is very particular about the fact that we should bear fruit, as Jesus taught us in John 15:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you“ (John 15:1-3, emphasis mine).

The good news is that the fruit of the Spirit are Holy Spirit’s responsibility to bear in you.

Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, et cetera are called the fruit of the Spirit, not “the fruit of you.” Yes, you ARE called to bear fruit for God. The Father will prune you if you do not, so that you will begin bearing fruit.

But the external fruit of YOUR life begins with Holy Spirit producing His fruit inside of you. Then, HIS fruit that He is bearing in your heart starts to ooze to the outside and make a difference in your visible life. This is called “working out your own salvation with fear and trembling”:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV).

So Holy Spirit’s fruit that He produces inside you then goes on and produces external fruit in your life–the kind that the Father is after.

And all of this work starts when you make Jesus your Lord and Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you.

When you do that, He begins to give you the desire for wisdom. I daresay He even begins giving you wisdom before you ask, for His conviction and leading are all wisdom! 🙂 And the more you submit to Him, and the more you even begin asking outright for wisdom, the more fruit He will form in your life. Praise the Lord!

Friend, God will give you wisdom if you ask.

James chapter 1 tells us so:

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2-8 NKJV).

So why not ask God for wisdom today and every day? It’s the most important thing we could ever ask for, as we read in Proverbs 4:

“Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding” (Proverbs 4:5-7 NKJV).

When you ask God for wisdom, He gives it to you on the spot. The more you keep on asking Him for wisdom, the more wisdom He will give you. And that wisdom will produce so many good things in your life–including honor, righteousness, and godly fruit that is better than gold and silver.

Do you need these results of wisdom in your life? What is your heart crying out for today? Leave a comment below!