What Does the Bible Say About Wise Counsel? (+ 6 Ways to Seek It)
- Jolene Underwood Contributing Writer
- Updated Apr 05, 2024
Scripture doesn't always clarify labels and descriptions for every specific method of help and healing, but this doesn't mean we can't use the services of trained and qualified people today. God works through people. He gives each of us different skill sets, giftings, and unique ways of helping one another, then asks us to use these for the benefit of one another (1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; Romans 12:3-8).
One gift, the skillset of counsel, comes in different forms. Sometimes wise counsel looks like advice, opinions, or someone telling us what we need to know, which a lot of us think of. However, counsel often comes through asking good questions, challenging us to think and do new things, and offering comfort to help us heal and grow. Quality life coaches, counselors, and legal counsel use questions to bring about change and draw out the truth. The Holy Spirit as counselor teaches, guides, corrects, and provides courage and comfort so we can take steps of change (John 14:16-17, 26, 16:13; Romans 8:16, 26; Acts 9:31).
Bible Verses About Wise Counsel
The Bible offers numerous verses that emphasize the importance and value of seeking wise counsel and the blessings that come from heeding sound advice. These verses span both the Old and New Testaments, providing guidance on the role of wisdom and counsel in making decisions and living a righteous life. Here are several verses about wise counsel:
Proverbs 11:14 - "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety."
Proverbs 12:15 - "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice."
Proverbs 15:22 - "Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed."
Proverbs 19:20 - "Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future."
Proverbs 24:6 - "For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory."
Proverbs 27:9 - "Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel."
Proverbs 13:10 - "By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom."
Exodus 18:19-21 - Here, Jethro advises Moses to appoint capable men to help him judge the people, suggesting a structure for wise counsel and delegation of authority to ease Moses’s burden.
Acts 15:28 - "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements..."
This verse from Acts reflects the early church’s reliance on collective wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s guidance in making decisions.
These verses highlight the biblical principle that seeking wise counsel is not only a mark of humility but also a strategic approach to navigating life’s challenges and making decisions aligned with God’s will.
What Exactly Is Wise Counsel According to the Bible?
Even if you aren't experiencing something significantly heavy in your life like I was, we all need wise counsel frequently. Wise counsel helps us navigate options, make decisions, take actions, and respond well in situations and relationships. Thankfully, God offers wise counsel through multiple means. It begins with wisdom that is readily available if we are willing to receive it (James 1:5).
Not only is wisdom available, but God wants us to have wisdom. Proverbs 4:5-7 tells us to get wisdom.
"Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get Wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."
Proverbs 2:5 tells us God gives wisdom. "For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding."
Throughout the first few chapters of Proverbs, we read about the value of wisdom and how wisdom helps us navigate life. In short, wisdom comes when people seek God, respond to His work in and through them, and skillfully apply God's principles in life. Wisdom is from God for God's good purposes.
Wise counsel happens when spirit-led wisdom is shared so others can experience more of God and the fruit of God's design (James 3:13-17; I Corinthians 2:10-13, 12:7-8).
What Wise Counsel Is Not
Wise counsel offers insight, discernment, instruction, and knowledge. Wise counsel is not arrogant, self-pleasing, or absent the fruit of godly character (Philippians 1:11; 5:22). We are not given wisdom to choose right and wrong for ourselves and determine it for everyone else. Wise counsel does not seek to puff up man but honors God and God's people.
Throughout this article, you'll see references to the difference between wisdom that comes from God and the knowledge of good and evil, as referenced in Genesis 3. I cannot fully articulate the distinction here. Still, it is important to know there is a significant difference between the two, as one leads to life and the other leads to death and destruction.
Wisdom from God is different from man's thirst for the knowledge of good and evil, which is a source of pride. Wise counsel is not about saying anything and everything that comes to mind. It is not something we do in place of the Holy Spirit's work. Instead, it comes from the Spirit's work in us and offers opportunities (not demands) for the Spirit to work in another person.
The fruit of wise counsel lived out includes more of what comes from God, including freedom, joy, peace, and connection. The fruit of man's counsel, absent God, includes less freedom, anger, strife, dissension, disconnection, and isolation.
Not sure how to seek out wise counsel? Consider the following.
6 Biblical Ways to Seek Wise Counsel in Your Life
1. Pray for Wisdom and Discernment
Like Solomon (1 Kings 3:1-15), we can pray and ask God for wisdom that comes from him. We can ask God to lead us and help us receive his wisdom in our lives, not once but as often as needed. We also receive wisdom outside ourselves, through the wisdom God gives to others.
Pray for wisdom, for yourself, and for others who interact with you. Pray also for discernment to know how to apply wisdom. Pray for courage as you respond to wise counsel.
2. Seek Counsel Outside Yourself
Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, saw him judging those who came to him all day long—alone. Moses was overwhelmed with the needs of others. Jethro provided counsel by suggesting he assign God-honoring individuals as judges to help carry the load (Exodus 18:13-17). Wise counsel helped Moses use the gifts of others for the service of many rather than manage everything on his own.
God's plans include using people to help people and that all people would seek and honor him in all they do. Here's the thing; we do not see things accurately and can never fully understand all there is to understand. We need the perspectives, experiences, and wisdom that comes through other people. Others provide what we cannot provide for ourselves.
3. Seek Counsel from the Holy Spirit
As mentioned above, wisdom comes from God. The Holy Spirit supplies wise counsel for anyone who believes in God. This offering is freely available to all believers. John chapters 14-16 refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit as a helper and a testimony of the truth that comes from God.
John 16:13-15, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you."
As believers of God and followers of Jesus, we receive God's guidance through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
One way to practice hearing from God and engaging with the Spirit is through a tool I created, called Unleash: Heart & Soul Care Sheets.
4. Seek Counsel from Many
When we face what's challenging or confusing, we want answers. We look for quick fixes to resolve our feelings of uncertainty. We need help, but sometimes we seek solutions that aren't good for us. Our desire for rapid relief keeps us prone to figuring things out on our own or seeking out the one knowledgeable person who will tell us what to do. I'm reminded of God's conversation with Samuel in I Samuel 8. The people of Israel wanted a human king to tell them what to do, and that wasn't God's plan.
When I suffered the effects of trauma, I got help through professional counseling, friends, and ministries that supported a healing journey. I didn't limit myself to one source of counsel or one way in which God could show up to reveal more of what he wanted for me. What I found was different layers of healing (emotional, spiritual, relational, physiological) through different sources that worked together to help me experience more life and freedom.
We need the varied gifts of others (I Corinthians 12:12-31). God designed each of us in his image, but not one of us can wholly reflect the attributes of God. We need the insight, experiences, viewpoints, and understandings that are different from our own. Gather multiple sources for counsel, then bring it all to the Holy Spirit counselor, and respond.
5. Recognize Blocks to Receiving Wisdom and Counsel
A Christian's desire to honor God and do all the right things sometimes becomes a stumbling block to receiving good things from God. Why? Our tendency to focus on the knowledge of good and evil, or doing what's right and not wrong, causes us to dismiss or reject wise counsel from others when it doesn't fit within our narrowly self-defined view. We also struggle with fear, self-doubt, pride, and people-pleasing. Ask God to help you deal with any blocks you have in receiving and responding to wise counsel.
6. Respond Even When Feeling Unsure and Afraid
As tempting as it is, we are not on a point A to point B path perfectly laid out for us without any twists, turns, or changes in direction. As much as we want to know the singular right answer for every challenge or decision, it often doesn't work that way. No list, including this one, can give us exactly what we need to have perfect experiences and outcomes.
Even though we sometimes feel peace as the result of counsel we've received, other times counsel leads us to new ways of acting, feeling, thinking, and being that don't feel calm in the moment. Changing what we're used to doing, even when it means something better, often includes feelings of uncertainty or anxiousness. Taking new steps of faith will spark feelings that aren't comfortable initially, and it's OK.
Faith grows as we respond to our best understanding of God's will, even when we feel unsure and afraid.
Seeking wise counsel includes the willingness to respond and try something different. Sometimes, we will feel unsure about and afraid for reasons that have nothing to do with whether we made the right decision. Once we move forward, things become clearer.
Imagine the realm of ALL God knows. It's impossible even to fathom how much God knows about everything someone could get trained in, every experience of every created living thing, every star (Isaiah 40:26; Psalms 147:4), every grain of sand (Psalm 139:18, every story (John 21:25), every hair on our heads (Luke 12:7). And that's just some of the facts he knows. What about wisdom to navigate life? Not one of us, created in his image and designed to reflect him to the world around us, could contain even a fair-sized fraction of all God knows.
We each reflect different attributes, strengths, experiences, and understandings that collectively help us experience more of all God is, does, and is doing. When the body of believers function well together (1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 4:16, Romans 12:3-8), we get a wider experience of God.
And you know what? I'm so glad we have what other people offer. I'm grateful for the wise counsel I receive from God, people helpers, friends, and others.
Wise counsel doesn’t give us a specific plan of action with guaranteed success, but it will lead us to the heart of God and his design for each of us.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Prostock-Studio
Note: Counseling services are available via telehealth for adult residents of Texas only. No advice given here should be a substitute for mental health services.
This article is part of our larger resource library of Christian practices and disciplines important to the Christian faith. From speaking in tongues to tithing & baptism, we want to provide easy to read and understand articles that answer your questions about Christian living.
10 Things to Know about Speaking in Tongues
The Fruit of the Spirit - What Are They?
What Is the Tithe?
What Is the Sabbath and Is it Still Important?
Baptism - What Does it Mean and Why Is it Important?
Communion - 10 Important Things to Remember
Armor of God - What Is it and How to Use It
What Does it Mean to Be Righteous?
What Is Christening?
What Is Submission?
