2 Kings 4:25-27 “And so she departed, and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, the Shunammite woman! (26) Please run now to meet her, and say to her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?' “And she answered, "It is well." (27) Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, "Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
The first example we will look at is the prophet Elisha. If you read the context of the above passage of scripture you will see that in this account, this woman that Elisha the prophet knew quite well had come to him for help because her son had just died. As a prophet, Elisha operated in the gift of the word of knowledge. Prophets under the old covenant, were used of the Lord, to give words of knowledge and words of wisdom to the children of Israel, when they came to inquire of God through the prophet, for that was the prophet’s mandate (1 Samuel 9:9). And so, if Elisha operated the gift, then he would have known what the woman wanted before she spoke, because obviously he was looking to the Lord for the gift to be made manifest. But the Lord revealed nothing to Elisha. And so, we see in this instance that the Holy Spirit was not obliged to give Elisha any word of knowledge. From this example we see clearly that the Holy Spirit was operating the gift, and not the prophet.
Michael E.B. Maher
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