Acts 27:30-32 “And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretence of putting out anchors from the prow, (31) Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." (32) Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.”
In the next example quoted in the above passage of scripture we see the gift of the word of wisdom being displayed to assist even unbelievers. The context of this passage is that as a prisoner, Paul and his companions were onboard a ship that was sailing to Rome. The ship had recently set sail from the port of Fair Havens against Paul’s advice, for the Lord had impressed upon Paul that due to an impending storm, they would lose both their ship and their lives if they were to sail at that time. Following the advice of both the owner and captain of the ship however, the centurion and soldiers who were guarding the prisoners, decided to sail. Because they ignored Paul’s warning they had been caught up in a massive storm at sea, which by this time had been ongoing for almost two weeks and the ship was beginning to sink. Throughout all this time Paul had been praying and interceding to the Lord on behalf of the people on board, that the Lord would spare their lives. And so in response to Paul’s prayer the Lord had dispatched an angel to him, who had given him both a word of knowledge as to the outcome of their ordeal i.e. the ship would run aground on an island, and the word of wisdom quoted above (Acts 27:22-26). Because of the importance of the outcome of this ordeal, the Lord had confirmed the word of wisdom by delivering it through the revelation gift of the discerning of spirits i.e. Paul’s vision of the angel. And so we see that the word of wisdom given by the angel, was that the sailors had to remain onboard the ship if the lives of the soldiers were to be saved. Because they had seen the accuracy of his warning about the storm, the soldiers by this time were well prepared to act on Paul’s instruction and so they cut the ropes of the skiff thus ensuring that the sailors could not abandon ship. And so if you read the rest of the account you will see that the ship did eventually run aground on the island of Malta and everyone was saved.
Acts 13:1-3 “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (2) As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." (3) Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.”
In the example quoted above we have another account of the gift of the word of wisdom being manifested. What we do not know for sure on this occasion however, is the mechanism that the Holy Spirit used to deliver this word, for either the He spoke audibly so that everyone present could hear, or He spoke through prophetic utterance. And so we can interpret this incident either way, as the bible does not clearly specify which method the Holy Spirit used. If He spoke audibly, then we could clearly understand why Saul and Barnabas would be obedient to the word of wisdom given. If He spoke through prophecy however, then we need to dig a little deeper to understand just why Saul and Barnabas chose to obey the word of wisdom given on this occasion. So why do I say that? The reason is because although prophecy is a vehicle that the Lord commonly uses to convey words of wisdom, it is not one of the confirming gifts that He uses, such as the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits or the working of miracles. So let us examine this incident in the light of it being a prophetic utterance, to see if we can understand why Saul and Barnabas obeyed the word given. These five ministers of the Lord were fasting and ministering to the Lord through prayer. And so it was during this time of prayer that one of the prophets among them spoke out the following word of wisdom, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them", and yet scripture records this statement as been given by the Holy Spirit. In other words the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet. And so we see that Saul and Barnabas went out on their first missionary journey based on this word of wisdom given through prophecy. Unlike the other examples that we have looked at thus far however, there were no confirming gifts that were displayed along with this word so that they could clearly know that it was from the Lord. So how did Saul and Barnabas know that this particular word was from God? The answer is that they knew because it witnessed with what the Holy Spirit had already placed in their own spirits. If you study scripture you will see that prior to this incident, Saul and Barnabas had already gone up to Jerusalem by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to confirm with the apostles Peter, James and John, the gospel that they were being led of the Lord to preach to the gentiles (Galatians 2:1-10). And so we see that the Lord had been preparing them to go out to preach the gospel, but they just did not know His timing. And so when one of the prophets in the church at Antioch spoke out that word of wisdom, they knew that now it was God’s perfect timing for them to go out as apostles to plant churches, for until this time Saul and Barnabas had stood in the office of prophet. And so this is the first account that we have looked at, in which one member of the body of Christ delivered a word of wisdom to another member in the body. Most words of wisdom are delivered in this manner. In other words there are no confirming gifts displayed when the word of wisdom is given. And so before they act on words of wisdom delivered in this manner, it is very important for the recipient to have the witness of the Holy Spirit in their own spirits. For as we will see in another example, the person delivering the word may get it wrong, and so if the recipient were to act on that word without already having the witness in their spirit, they would get into all sorts of trouble.
Michael E.B. Maher
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