What Is the Word of Knowledge?

Let's put this in the context as you've indicated in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul lists nine gifts of the spirit. In the context, these are not natural human abilities, but they're supernatural impartations. They come straight from God. They're miraculous in nature. Now, I think these are illustrative, not exhaustive. And I think we can try to define them, but I don't think we should seek rigid categories or definitions. There could be overlap. There could be some works of God that don't easily fit under any one or may fit fit two or more.

So, the point is not to get some kind of a technical scheme uh and try to pick your gift or give someone your gift or demand a gift. It's really trying to show the diversity of God's workings. Um and I I really do believe that every spiritfilled believer could manifest any of these gifts as the need arises. So it's not primarily for the uh for the individual but it's for the benefit of the body. Now in that context three of the gifts are what we might refer to as the mind of Christ because they seem to uh deal with the human mind being influenced by God's mind.

That's the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, discerning of spirits. So the word of knowledge and notice the word of knowledge. So it's not all the knowledge of God, but it's a specific portion of knowledge. So I would define the word of knowledge is as a specific impartation of information from God in a supernatural way. Uh so in other words, uh it's knowledge from God. Other people might have that same knowledge, but the recipient doesn't have that knowledge and doesn't acquire it by natural means of study or someone telling him. but acquires it by revelation from God. Uh and there could be an overlap with the word of wisdom, but the distinction I would make, wisdom is divine guidance.

So when God gives you supernatural guidance of what to do in a situation or how to act, how to respond, to me that's the word of wisdom. When God supernaturally imparts some fact to you that again would help you in your decision or help you dealing with somebody, then that's a word of knowledge. Discerning of spirits would be more specifically when God gives you supernatural insight as to the motivation of something. Whether it's the spirit of God motivating something or a demonic spirit motivating something or maybe the human spirit because a statement might be you it could could be of God. It could be of the devil.

It could be the human mind. It just the statement itself you're not sure but the discerning of spirits would give you the insight. So the word of knowledge is right there in the middle. I think a classic example would be in Acts chapter 5. The early church was raising money and many people would sell their house or some land and donate it to the church for the b for supporting needy people, supporting the ministry of the church. And of course not everybody sold everything. you still at later time they had houses to sell and uh you find that the church met in Mark's mother's house so she must have still had a house they still had they had house churches so they still had houses but many people sold at least some of their possessions and houses lands and that was seen as a great commendable thing so a couple man and wife Ananas and Safire they sold some property and they took the money and they brought it to give to the apostle Peter and as this is the total price of the property but secretly they decided to keep part of it back for themselves which was okay it was their property but the problem was they lied for the sake of I guess glory and and a claim and they presented we're making this great sacrifice when actually they were keeping a lot of it for themselves only giving a portion so maybe maybe they sold it a profit maybe they got their own investment back and they were just giving the extra to the church.

So whatever it was when they came and said, "Here's our offering. We sold this land and we're giving all of it to the church." Well, the apostle Peter said, "Are you sure? Is that everything that you sold it for?" And they said, "Yes, it was separately." So Ananas first, then Safar, but the same thing happened. And he said, "You've lied. And you didn't lie to men. You've lied to the Holy Spirit because part of that you kept back and you had the right to. That was yours. It would be fine. You didn't have to give it all to the church, but you lied about it.

And the judgment of God came. Both of them died. And that was a strict warning for the early church. Uh now, how did Peter know of this? There's no evidence that somebody passed him a word saying, you know, we were there when Ann and I sold the property. So God directly revealed it to him. So that's what we would call a world word of knowledge. Uh in my book I wrote a book called spiritual gifts. I discuss these nine gifts of the spirit. I give definitions. I give biblical examples and then I give contemporary stories of my ministry or my parents' ministry where I think these gifts were in operation.

So one story that my mom told me many years ago in Korea, she was traveling with some ministers. They were in a remote uh rural area near the sea coast and then they were walking through the rice patties to go to a church and uh they got into a terrible snowstorm. They got completely disoriented and they wandered around like 2 hours and couldn't find where they were supposed to go. uh it was near the sea, so they were concerned if they went the wrong direction, they could actually get into not only the danger from being lost and frozen in the snowstorm, but wandering off into the sea.

And so after 2 hours of being totally lost in a blinding snow, they stopped and decided where are we going to go? So my mother went aside and prayed and she felt like God told her, "Here's the direction." Uh so she told the other ministers said no that's wrong and they said we calcul it's the opposite direction but she kept insisting and so they went the direction she said and it took another hour but they found the the village and the church where that they were looking for. So she felt like God gave her that knowledge. This is the right path. um you you could say a word of wisdom, but it seemed to be more not just um guidance for handling a situation, but specific information that she needed uh in a time of trouble.

So that would be a contemporary example, word of knowledge. I think often leaders, pastors uh are using this gift maybe to deal with problems in a church and sometimes opposition comes and you're puzzled. You can't understand what's going on. Uh, and then God shows you a person is a certain sin. And even though you may not you you probably don't want to reveal that to everybody and maybe just keep it to yourself, it helps you to know how to deal with a situation or maybe even to confront the person like Ananas and Safara. Uh also I think a word of wisdom could be I've had this experience a number of times in praying personally with people uh that I would be led to pray about specific things that just came to my mind and later the person would say how did you know I was going through that your prayer was exactly what I needed I felt like even though I didn't realize it God had given me a word of wisdom you that could also since it's spoken out to the verse and that could be an overlap with prophecy.

But I felt like God gave me knowledge even though I was I didn't know how it applied but uh it was very directly relevant. I even had an example one time I was preaching and this this happened more than once probably but one sticks out my mind. So I was preaching in the middle of my message I started saying some things which were not my notes and were not even directly related to my text but it was very pointed and one time I didn't know who it was directed toward but I knew it had to be some individual and of course I would never deliberately single out a person you know through my personal knowledge but another time I started speaking very strongly and I felt God told me the person it was directed to but it was not based on my counseling them or knowing about them but I felt like God was very specifically giving that word to that person in the middle of my message which nobody else would have known.

I didn't try to identify the person or describe the person. And sure enough, after the service, the person came up to me and said, "What you said was right to me. I'm struggling with that situation and what you said is directly for me." And so they confirmed it. I think that could also be a word of wisdom. I was given an example of how it could be embedded in a a message or how it could be um in a personal conversation or personal prayer or maybe even given to us personally for direction or decision or sometimes it may be to act. Sometimes it may be just to be aware so you can be on guard or be prepared or be ready for for when this information becomes public or or when you must act in response to it.

But it's definitely part of the work of God, gifts of the spirit. So I I tend to think all of the gifts of the spirit, there's a natural counterpart. So we have human knowledge that we can acquire through learning and study. And then there's a a counterpart in our spiritual life. So we all need knowledge in our daily spiritual life. The the book of Proverbs talks about the importance of acquiring both wisdom and knowledge. And so we study God's word. We might study management or personality. So there's there's strictly secular human knowledge that a sinner can know. There is spiritual and biblical knowledge that a Christian should know.

But this third category is a specific supernaturally imparted word of knowledge uh in a time of need to help God's people.