1 Corinthians 12:8 (NKJV) 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,
As we looked at the ministry of the Apostle Paul in Corinth, we found that the Lord revealed to him the way to reach a very difficult city. If we are going to reach our world, we are going to have to do so the same way. We will never talk people into a relationship with Jesus. There are just too many voices saying things that are often more attractive to the flesh than the message of the cross. Paul himself said that the message we preach is foolishness to the world. Even those we do convince in their mind will not be changed in their Spirit if they do not have an encounter with the true and living God. A demonstration of his Spirit and of his power will cut through all the other voices providing a channel for that kind of faith.
What demonstrations and what manifestations should we expect? In this same letter he lists 9 categories of manifestations. We commonly call them the gifts of the Spirit and Paul tells us they are available to the body of Christ. I must reiterate that they are not gifts to you. They are not to identify you as a great man or woman of God. They are demonstrations that can and will flow through you when you are motivated by the love of God. They are all supernatural. They all come from the heart of God. Their purpose is to do what Paul did in Corinth. They meet the needs of the people we witness and minister to in supernatural ways. They confirm the Word we share with signs that declare the goodness and reality of God (Mark 16:20.)
We started defining these manifestations with the first one in the list from verse 8. God can give us a word of his wisdom either to give us insight to help a person or to convey that wisdom to the person. Wisdom is insight into the true nature of things. The word of wisdom is a word of God’s insight into the true nature of a person’s problem or situation. It is not general wisdom; it is specific wisdom given to minister life to an individual. This manifestation does not make you wise. You are just the messenger. You may not even know that God’s wisdom is flowing through you. Many times, in the course of a conversation with someone I have heard myself say things that were beyond my understanding. Those were the things that brought freedom. In retrospect I realized I had been used by God as a channel for the word of Wisdom.
The second manifestation listed that reveals something is the word of knowledge. The same principle applies here that applied to the word of wisdom. It is not the gift of knowledge. You do not suddenly become smart. It is a specific word of what God knows that he conveys through your mind to help someone else; the unsaved in particular. The Greek Word is gnosis which means the act of knowing. In this case it is God’s knowing not yours. Often it is knowledge of something that happened to a person or about a particular need. It can be knowledge of what to do in a circumstance or about what is happening. This differs from the word of wisdom in that it is not insight but factual knowledge.
Most Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians are familiar with this gift in connection with healing ministries. The minister will say something like, “There is someone here with cancer of the liver. God wants to heal you.” Although there have been abuses of this kind of thing, I also know by experience that it does happen, and God uses it to build faith and hope in people. I have been used this way myself and seen wonderful healings. Why is this so important? When people hear something that only God could know spoken by his representative, it confirms that God really is involved and cares for them.
Many times, I have been ministering to people and God will show me something about the situation. Sometimes I do not realize what is happening. I just share what I feel to share. I have seen people’s eyes go wide as they say, “How did you know that?” It used to surprise me when it would happen, but I have come to understand that I have just been a channel for a word of God’s knowledge. This often happens when I am praying for someone. Sometimes people even ask me, “Who told you about me?” I answer, “Nobody but God. He knows all there is to know about you and your situation and he wants you to know he has it under control and they he loves you enough to take care of it.” When this happens a level of trust comes to people that is not based on my words but on a demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God.
What we need to believe for now is to take this out of the church building. Although these gifts will certainly manifest to meet the needs of God’s children, I believe Paul is sharing them in the context of what he begins with in this letter. How did he break through in Corinth? He was used by God in these manifestations of the Spirit and power of God outside of any church structure. What if these manifestations became a regular part of our witness?
Witnessing is difficult for most Christians. There are those gifted with a natural boldness that seem to be able to talk to anyone about Jesus. I am not one of them. Part of the problem is finding a way to bring up the subject that will not cause a person to close down. Using the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge as examples, what if we were not trying to find an opening. What if we were not trying to convince people that our way is better; that Christianity is the answer. What if we simply asked God to help us love those people and see them as Paul saw them. He chose to look past the ugliness that can be in the flesh and saw them as people Jesus had died for.
In this process of loving them, we may listen to them rather than try to convince them. We may offer physical assistance as we are able. We may give them the advice that comes from our own experience. Somewhere in there we need to speak about the hope available to them in Jesus. We need to make sure they know that God has made a way of forgiveness and a new beginning if they accept him as their savior and Lord. If we do not, we may make them feel better, but we will not change their eternity. Which is most important?
The last part is where things often break down. Few of us are so persuasive in our arguments that we are able to convince them that we know a better way. We often do not really know what to say even though all we are supposed to do is tell them the truth of what Jesus did for us. No doctrinal statements are needed. However, consider how different our witnessing would be if in the course of simply sharing the love of Jesus, words of wisdom came out of our mouths. What if undeniable wisdom came to them that was something beyond what they knew we had the capacity to give. What if it was so precise and so touched by the presence of God that answers came when none seemed possible.
What if instead of offering sympathy alone, God gave us a word of knowledge. What if he gave us some piece of information that we could not possibly know but that was absolutely true? How would that change our witness. I believe it would take it out of the realm of you and I trying to persuade people that do not want to hear into the realm of a demonstration of the Spirit and the power of God. That does not mean they will all listen. It does mean that the burden is no longer on you but on God. It also means that those who do respond will have a faith that begins in the reality of God and his power not your persuasive words.
There are nine ways the Holy Spirit wants to move through you so that He can touch the people in the world around you. It is not up to you or me to make them happen. We do not have to figure anything out. We simply need to believe that God can use us and let him. Our job is to be walking in active and current relationship with God so that when the time comes, he can communicate words of wisdom, words of knowledge and all the rest through us to help people see who he really is.
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