Leviticus 19:31 “Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.”
There is another important truth that we need to understand about the revelation gifts, which obviously includes the gift of the word of wisdom. In all of the examples that we have looked at in this section, there is not one instance where the disciples went to the person who had this gift to get a word from the Lord. But rather, in all instances, it was the Holy Spirit who initiated the word of wisdom given. In fact nowhere in the New Testament will you find any place that someone went to a prophet or to one who had the gift of the word of wisdom, in order to get guidance from the Lord. In all instances this gift is only manifested as the Holy Spirit wills. In other words God decides if and when He wants to use this gift to speak to His saints. And so we see that the one who has the gift is merely the Lord’s vessel to be used by Him as He wills, and not as the individual wills. It is therefore unscriptural under the new covenant, to seek guidance through prophets or those who operate in the revelation gifts, for that is an old covenant practice. So why do I say that? The saints under the old covenant had no access to the Holy Spirit, and so if they wanted to receive guidance from the Lord they had to go to the prophet who operated in the revelation gifts (1 Samuel 9:9). And so we see that it was entirely scriptural for the Old Testament saints to go to prophets for guidance, for that was their mandate given to them by the Lord. Under the new covenant things have changed however, for each saint has direct access to the Holy Spirit, for He dwells in each one of us, which is why the scripture teaches the saints under the new covenant to be led by His witness in their spirits (Romans 8:14-16). And so those who try to seek guidance through prophets today are operating outside of scripture, and have therefore opened themselves to deception. In the same manner, any “prophet” today who encourages the saints to come to them to receive a word from the Lord, is also operating outside of scripture and is in fact a medium that is operating by familiar spirits. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit warns believers to stay away from mediums and familiar spirits. These individuals are quite often able to give extremely accurate “words of knowledge” to people, because the spirits that they work with are familiar with nearly every aspect of the saints’ lives and share that information with the medium. The reason they do that is to clearly show the saint that they are operating in the realm of the supernatural. And so because the saint is exposed to the supernatural they mistakenly believe that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. The false prophets then give false words of wisdom to the saints, resulting in many saints landing up in a lot of trouble because they listened to these mediums. Obviously these false prophets also teach a distorted gospel, which results in the saints who listen to them becoming ensnared by their deception and ultimately falling away from the faith.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 “Do not despise prophecies. (21) Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
Although in the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul specifically mentions the gift of prophecy when he tells us to test all things, nevertheless this same instruction also applies to the gift of the word of wisdom. So why do we need to test words of wisdom when they are given? Think about the word that was given incorrectly to the apostle Paul at the church in Tyre for example. If you read the rest of the account in the book of Acts, you will see that the Lord used Paul’s journey to Jerusalem as the catalyst for him to witness to, King Agrippa and many other governors and senior officials in the Roman Empire, and even to Caesar himself. And so if Paul had listened to the word given in Tyre, he would have clearly been disobedient to the Lord’s counsel, and none of that which the Lord intended for Paul would have happened. And so a genuine manifestation of the gift of the word of wisdom will always pass the following tests. Firstly, it will always be supernatural and the one receiving the word will know that it is a supernatural word from God. Secondly, at no point will it ever contravene God’s written word (this is another reason for believers to have a good understanding of God’s word). Thirdly, it will always agree with the witness that the individual already has in their own spirits, for God always speaks to us first about His plans for our lives before He speaks to others to about His plans for us, which is why words of wisdom will always be given as confirmation.
John 16:25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.”
And then finally, it will be a word that is plain for the saint to understand, which means that they will not need to consult some book or seek the advice of others, to help them interpret the word they have received from the Lord. If you look back at all the biblical examples that we have looked at in this section, all of the words of wisdom were given in plain language and every recipient knew clearly what the Holy Spirit wanted them to do. There was nothing spoken that was figurative. Even in the dream that Paul had where the man spoke to him, he plainly asked Paul to come over to Macedonia to help them. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord Jesus told us that in this present age that He will not speak to us in figurative language but rather in plain language, easy for us to understand. And so if saints apply these simple tests to any word of wisdom that they may receive, they will not be misled.
I will close this section with a personal example of the operation of this gift. A number of years ago I worked as an auditor before I went into the full-time ministry. As a junior auditor at the time, I was part of an audit team that had been sent to a particular client to audit their financial year end. And so I was working at my desk one day, when one of the company directors walked past me and went into his office. The moment he walked past the Holy Spirit instructed me to go into his office and tell him about Jesus. In other words this was a word of wisdom given to me. Although I knew he was one of the company directors, I did not know this man as I was not an employee in his company. And so initially I was reluctant, because if he took offence in any way I could have landed up in a lot of trouble because I was only a junior auditor. But then the power of the Holy Spirit came on me, and so I knew that this was the Lord’s leading (remember that we said this gift could also be displayed with supernatural manifestations). And so I got up and went into his rather large office and closed the door behind me. He was seated behind his desk and he looked up at me and asked me if there was something I needed (he obviously recognised me as one of the audit team). All I said was, “do you know Jesus”? The moment I said that he burst into tears and asked me to pray for him, and he gave his heart to Jesus there and then. It certainly pays to be obedient to the word of wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives us.
Michael E.B. Maher
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