Evidence of the Gift of Holy Spirit: A Way of Life, Part 2
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Walk Into Ready-to-Obey
We’ll be talking about the Information Manifestations: Word of Wisdom and Word of Knowledge.
The image of a tree planted by streams of water in Psalm 1:3 is that the garden is in the hand of the gardener (God). If we’re a tree planted in the garden, the garden of God is giving us that life-giving water—revelation or knowledge (depending on what we need)—at exactly the right time so that we can flourish and produce fruit. Did we have to produce the fruit? No, we only had to stay planted and let God be the gardener.
It’s Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). The fullness of all that Christ is is in us. This is explained in many different ways in God’s Word so that we can understand it.
Romans 7:22 APNT:
For I rejoice in the law of God in the inward man.
There’s an inward man as well as an outward man. Every part of our outer man has a corresponding part in our inner man. We have Christ behind every part of us. The analogies of seeing, hearing, and so on are easy to understand. God designed the inner man, the spirit man, to work the same way so it will be easy for everyone. A child can receive word of wisdom and word of knowledge just as easily as an adult. It’s not difficult.
Think about how we perceive and understand things. Our two predominant senses are seeing and hearing; we focus a lot of our attention on what we see and hear. When we speak of the Information Manifestations, seeing and hearing are the most common ways mentioned in Scripture. But we can also perceive information from our inner-man nose and so on. Ask God to teach you and show you examples of perceiving your inner man senses.
When listening for God, we must listen with a willingness to obey.
I always used to say, “word of knowledge and word of wisdom.” But in Scripture, wisdom comes first. Word of wisdom is listed before word of knowledge.
1 Corinthians 12:8 APNT:
There is a word of wisdom that is given to him by the Spirit, now for another [of the same kind], a word of knowledge by the same Spirit,
The Aramaic word picture for wisdom has to do with separating out the source of the water. Water is used in Scripture to symbolize revelation or spiritual life, and water gives life. A fence divides or separates. Wisdom is like a fence that separates the good from the bad.
All good comes from God, all evil comes from the Evil One, and man is in the middle. Wisdom helps us separate the good from the evil.
There’s a record in Exodus when they were gathering all the materials and people to build the Tabernacle.
Exodus 31:2– KJV:
2 See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: 3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
When God filled Bezaleel with the Spirit, the first specific thing it lists is wisdom.
Anytime you enter into a profiting situation, the first thing you need to know is the source, whether it is from God or from the enemy. God will give that wisdom first and then give knowledge of what to do and how to do it.
The word picture for knowledge is like “how to go in the door.” Wisdom lets you see the door; knowledge shows you how to enter. Knowledge is a very intimate word having to do with relationship, our relationship with God. Our desire to want to learn from God comes from relationship.
The word of knowledge is not so much a factual understanding but an outcome of close relationship showing you the way. Like showing a young child that going down the slide is fun. The child’s understanding comes from the loving relationship rather than from cold facts.
Word of wisdom: The word of wisdom is the overall picture of separating good from bad and recognizing the source.
Word of knowledge: The word of knowledge is a very specific knowledge of how to go in the door.
We see an example of that in the record in Mark of the man with the palsy. You can look at any record of healing or wisdom being given, and you can see wisdom first and then knowledge.
Mark 2:1–2 APNT:
1 And Jesus again entered into Capernaum after [some] days. And when they heard that he was in the house,
2 many gathered, so that [the house] was not able to contain them, not even in front of the door. And he was speaking the word with them.
Here we have the seeing, the profiting time, the benefiting situation.
Mark 2:3–4 APNT:
3 And they came to him and brought him a paralytic, bearing him between four [men].
4 And because they were not able to draw near to him because of the crowd, they climbed up to the roof and lifted the covering of the place where Jesus was and they lowered the bed on which the paralytic was laid.
When they see this person being lowered through the hole in the roof, the first question is, “What’s the source of this?” Father, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is it from the enemy, from man, what’s happening?
God must have shown Jesus that this is a good thing, a profiting situation and that Jesus would be able to help.
Mark 2:5 APNT:
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to that paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Part of what the wisdom was, and the beginning of what God told him what he was to do, was that he “saw” faith. He perceived it. Not with his physical eyes, but on the inside, with spiritual eyes, he saw faith. Jesus saw that all of them, the man and his friends, had faith.
The first thing he said to the paralytic man was, “My son, your sins are forgiven you.” That statement came from the knowledge—word of knowledge—that the man needed to know that his sins were forgiven. It’s so personal and relational, and it’s exactly what that man needed.
Mark 2:6–8 APNT:
6 Now there were there some scribes and Pharisees, who were sitting and reasoning in their heart[s],
7 “Why does this [man] speak blasphemy? Who is able to forgive sins, except one, God?”
8 But Jesus knew in his spirit that they were reasoning these [things] in themselves and he said to them, “Why do you reason these [things] in your heart[s]?
Here’s the word of knowledge again. By way of the Spirit, he knew what they were thinking. They were thinking it in their hearts; they didn’t say it aloud. But God showed Jesus what they were thinking.
Mark 2:9–12 APNT:
9 Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk?’
10 But that you might know that it is lawful [for] the Son of Man to forgive sins on earth,” he said to the paralytic,
11 “I say to you, Rise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
12 And he got up immediately and took his bed and went away in the sight of all, so that all of them were amazed and praised God, saying that they had never seen such.
The man wasn’t healed when Jesus told him his sins had been forgiven. He was healed when Jesus told him to rise, take up his bed, and go home. That man was seeing Jesus and the Pharisees, but he chose to believe Jesus.
Wisdom and knowledge work together; knowledge follows wisdom. First is the overall picture, what’s going on (wisdom), followed by the knowledge: say this, do that. This is what people are thinking; this is how to handle it.
Walking with God this way, walking by the Spirit, can become a way of life. We don’t have to reason situations out; we just need to listen with a willingness to obey. That’s how God designed it; He put the inner man in you. And walking by the inner man is how God wants us to walk every day. We see the overall picture first, then what to do about it.
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