So then, what is the gift of the word of wisdom? The following analogy will help you to better understand what this gift is. Think of one word in a very large library of books that are filled with trillions of words, and you will get a clearer understanding of the fragment of God’s wisdom that the Holy Spirit imparts to the believer who has this gift. For it is only that one word, that is imparted to the individual who has this gift. And so the word that they are given is very specific, and not general in nature. The words of wisdom that are imparted are also supernatural, in that man in his natural state cannot know what God requires to be done in the situation. As we will also see in this section, when the gift of the word of wisdom is manifested it is required of the one to whom the Spirit is speaking, to be obedient to act on that word. And so unlike the word of knowledge for example, where the individual then decides for themselves what to do, the word of wisdom is a specific instruction given by the Lord as to what He wants the individual to do. This is why, when the Holy Spirit speaks to an individual through the word of wisdom, there will always be some form of confirmation that God will give that individual along with the instruction given. God does that so that the individual will clearly know that the instruction given is from Him. And so as we will see in this section, there are two methods of confirmation that the Lord uses. The first method is that the word of wisdom is manifested together with either another of the revelation gifts (i.e. the word of knowledge and/or the discerning of spirits) or a demonstration of God’s power, i.e. the working of miracles. The Lord normally uses this method when the required action should not be delayed, or if the Lord deems the required action important enough to warrant such confirmation. The second and main method that God uses however is the inward witness. So why is that? The reason is because under the new covenant God leads all of His children using the mechanism of the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit (Romans 8:14-16). And so when the Holy Spirit speaks to the individual using the gift of the word of wisdom, the person will recognise that God is giving them this instruction because God would have already been dealing with them in their spirit about the issue being addressed. And so we see that an individual who receives the gift of the word of wisdom from the Holy Spirit, then becomes used of Him to impart words of wisdom to others, as the Spirit wills.
Acts 22:17-18 “Now it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance (18) and saw Him saying to me, 'Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.”
In order for us to get a clearer understanding of this gift and how it operates, we will examine some examples in scripture. The first example we will look at is recorded for us in the above quoted passage of scripture. In this account our Lord Jesus appeared to Paul while he was in a trance. And so because Paul was allowed to see into the spirit realm on this occasion, we see that the word of wisdom given was confirmed by the manifestation of the gift of discerning of spirits, for that is what the gift of discerning of spirits is, i.e. the ability to see into the spirit realm. One of the reasons why the Lord used this method of confirmation in this instance is because it was required of Paul to act quickly on the Lord’s instruction. In this passage Jesus told Paul through the word of wisdom that he had to leave Jerusalem quickly, because those living in that city would not accept his testimony. In other words Jesus instructed Paul what to do i.e. leave Jerusalem, when to do it i.e. quickly, and why it had to be done i.e. the Jews would not accept his testimony. If you read this account in scripture you will see that Paul actually argued with the Lord on this occasion, because in the natural it seemed to Paul that his testimony would be a powerful witness for the Lord, because he had been such a staunch adversary against the church and everyone in Jerusalem knew that. And so he wanted to stay in Jerusalem and preach the gospel. But Jesus knew the hearts of the people of that city, and He knew that they would not accept Paul’s testimony and that their plan was to have him killed. And so from this example we can see one of the reasons why the gift of the word of wisdom is so important to the church, because what we see in the natural is very often completely opposite to what our Lord knows the real situation to be. Had Paul stayed in Jerusalem he would have been killed, and the gentile church would have lost the apostle appointed to us by the Lord before his ministry had even begun (Acts 9:28-30).
Michael E.B. Maher
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