Mind of God
Notes
Transcript
Wisdom, knowledge, and discernment
Last week we had an introduction to the gifts. This week we are going to be looking at the first of 3 groups of the gifts. The first group we will look at is often referred to as the mind of God. Words of wisdom, words of knowledge, and discerning of spirits.
Word of Wisdom- Flash of inspiration for a specific time. Used to build up/strengthen the church (individuals or community)
All wisdom is from God. Period. Words of wisdom are a different thing. Anyone can obtain Godly wisdom for their lives by consistently being in God’s Word and in God’s presence. A word of wisdom is different. These are divinely given and timely insights God gives for specific situations. Horton says this about the gift of wisdom:
The Word of Wisdom is therefore the supernatural revelation, by the Spirit, of Divine Purpose; the supernatural unfolding of His plans and purposes concerning things, places, people, individuals, communities, nations.
Examples of this in Scripture are:
Some time later two prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled. “Please, my lord,” one of them began, “this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was with me in the house. Three days later this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there were only two of us in the house.
“But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it. Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep. She laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. And in the morning when I tried to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked more closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”
Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine.”
“No,” the first woman said, “the living child is mine, and the dead one is yours.” And so they argued back and forth before the king.
Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight. Both of you claim the living child is yours, and each says that the dead one belongs to the other. All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king.
Then he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other!”
Then the woman who was the real mother of the living child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, my lord! Give her the child—please do not kill him!”
But the other woman said, “All right, he will be neither yours nor mine; divide him between us!”
Then the king said, “Do not kill the child, but give him to the woman who wants him to live, for she is his mother!”
When all Israel heard the king’s decision, the people were in awe of the king, for they saw the wisdom God had given him for rendering justice.
They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
Word of knowledge- Supernatural awareness of facts without the aid of the senses. A sharing of a fraction of God’s omniscience so that God makes known to humans something He knows but we do not.
Carter explains the gift as “a supernatural revelation of the existence, or nature, of a person or thing, of the knowledge of some event, given to us by the Holy Spirit for a specific reason.”
Again, this is not to be confused with Biblical knowledge. That only comes through prayerful study of God’s Word.
Words of knowledge occasionally refer to future events, not always. In some cases, it’s exercise could go completely unnoticed. In others it would point to God’s divine intervention. In all cases it concerns divine knowledge communicated by direct impression and not by experience of the physical human senses.
Examples of this gift are found in:
At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,
“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet.
“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”
When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, “We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place.”
But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, “Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there.” So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he would be on the alert there.
The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called his officers together and demanded, “Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?”
“It’s not us, my lord the king,” one of the officers replied. “Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!”
Discerning of spirits- this is not criticalness, suspicion, or human discernment. Though all these things are helpful when used properly, discerning of spirits is not guessing or analyzing information. It is, with certainty, the ability to tell if it is the Spirit of God, an evil spirit, or human spirit.
This gift is a guard for the Church in the days of false prophets, teachers, and preachers. As this gift is relegated specifically to the prophecies and other spiritual expressions, it is very different from the other 2 in this category. The gift of discerning spirits is linked with 1 John 4:1
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
We also see this gift displayed, dramatically, in 2 Kings 6:17
Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
We also see this gift at work though Peter in Acts 5:1-11
But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”
“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”
And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.”
Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
This is a great example to show how this gifts is different that wisdom and knowledge, though they could work together.
Word of wisdom- These guys are holding back some of the money
Word of knowledge- The land was worth X amount of dollars. What they are giving us is substantially less.
Discerning of spirits- Satan has filled this couples hearts.
The difference is subtle. Wisdom and knowledge may explain how to do something or when to do it. Discerning of spirits often gives us the motivating factor. Again, this is very different from discernment. Discernment may say, “Something is off about this person. I am going to be cautious about trusting them. Hopefully I’m wrong.” Discerning of spirits may say, “That person is not being empower by the Spirit of God, but by the spirit of the Enemy. I am confident.”
God has given us these gifts. They are to be used with reverence and joy. We shouldn’t be scared or intimidated by these gifts. We serve a good God who loves us. His desire is that we use these to grow, strengthen, protect and love each other. They are called gifts of the Spirit because we do not earn them, so we can’t lose them. They are gifts the Holy Spirit gives to us, as needed, when we turn our life over to Jesus.
