Transcript of a published teaching by David K. Bernard, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Not a wise saying: a supernatural portion for a moment
- The question: the apostle includes the word of wisdom in his list of nine spiritual gifts — so what is it, and how does it operate in the church? The phrase sounds, to modern people, like a wise statement — 'actions speak louder than words', 'birds of a feather flock together'. Is offering wise advice what Paul had in mind, or something else? He's referring to a supernatural spiritual gift. Study the chapter carefully: we're all members of the same body, but we don't all have the same function or the same gifts; he lists nine spiritual gifts (not necessarily exhaustive — illustrative). These are gifts of the Spirit: supernatural, spiritual — they don't just come from our natural human abilities and experiences but as a gift directly from God; not continuous in a person's life, and not in everybody's life, but special endowments.
- And look at the phrasing: word of wisdom — not all divine wisdom, but a portion: a specific portion of divine wisdom, for a specific purpose, at a specific time, to a specific individual. Anyone filled with the Spirit could potentially exercise any spiritual gift, but it's as God decides: for the occasion, not continuously their whole life, and not necessarily all nine.
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Corinthians 12:8
Three dimensions of wisdom — and wisdom vs. knowledge
- It's helpful to think of the gifts in three dimensions: for each gift there seems to be a natural human counterpart. So there is human wisdom: even an atheist can study, have life experiences, and develop life wisdom — the quoted sayings represent that common human wisdom. Then there's spiritual wisdom: the Book of Proverbs and many other places teach it, and every child of God should develop wisdom in their spiritual life. Paul couldn't have been talking about either of those first two — he's specifically saying not everybody is going to have this, while potentially everyone can have natural wisdom, and we hope everyone will have spiritual wisdom for daily life. This has to be a third dimension, and the term 'word' indicates it: a specific portion of divine wisdom.
- He also mentions the word of knowledge, so contrast them. Knowledge is information — you can acquire it through study, learning, reading. Wisdom is the application of knowledge: guidance or insight, how to use knowledge. Someone can be very smart but not have wisdom; very knowledgeable, highly educated, but not have wisdom — we sometimes say they don't have common sense. So a word of knowledge would be God imparting specific information at a specific time that you would not know by human means, to help you in something; a word of wisdom is God imparting guidance or insight — knowing what to do, knowing what to say, at a specific time. That can be very valuable, particularly for those in leadership: at a moment when they don't know what to do, God can give immediate insight — more than human reasoning or experience, more than the wise choices of daily life with God: you're faced with an urgent situation, a crisis, a decision, with no human means of knowing what to do, and God speaks to you in some form, reveals to you, and suddenly you know: I need to do this. That's a word of wisdom.
Scriptures: Proverbs
The scripture example: Paul and the ship
- Asked for an example of the word of wisdom in operation: a very good one is the voyage to Rome, when Paul was a prisoner under arrest on a ship. He told the captain of the ship: don't travel; it would be a bad mistake to travel; we're going to have shipwreck. The weather was fine, there was no objective reason for Paul's statement, and he wasn't an expert — the captain was the expert — so the captain ignored him. As it turned out, they did shipwreck, and they would have lost their lives, except God spoke to Paul and said: if you tell them to all stay with the ship, they'll be saved. Paul said: don't abandon the ship or you'll die; stay with the ship and you'll be saved — and they were.
- To him that was the word of wisdom: Paul had no natural means of knowing the right thing to do, but God showed him what to do. They didn't follow his advice the first time — but he had a track record, so when they were in danger of all drowning, they did listen. The word of wisdom operated in Paul to save the whole ship: divine guidance or insight for a specific situation where you really have no natural means of making that decision.
Scriptures: Acts 27
A ministry example: his father in Korea
- Asked for an example from ministry, he gives what he thinks is a classic one from his father's: his parents were the pioneer missionaries of the movement to the country of Korea. In the late 70s there was turmoil: a minister who had been disciplined for misconduct left the church, gathered a small group, and they seemed to be trying to attack the church — they reported to the government that his father was trying to overthrow the government and assassinate the president, which was of course bogus; it appears their goal was to get the church dissolved and the assets perhaps distributed to them. His dad was under investigation; the church was under investigation, pretty severe.
- His dad was supposed to go to the first world conference of the fellowship, in Jerusalem, as one of the speakers — but he felt like God told him: don't go. A very prestigious invitation; why turn it down? He said he felt God said don't go, so he didn't go. Later he was called into the government office and told: we did a thorough investigation, and we learned you were going to Jerusalem — and we had decided that when you flew to Jerusalem and tried to come back, we would just deny re-entry; that way we would end this problem with no diplomatic incident (Korea is a close ally of the US, so they didn't want an international incident). But you didn't go, so we had to do a thorough investigation — and we found that your accusers are liars; we exonerate you, and you're free to continue your ministry. Had his dad gone, that would have ended their missionary experience there and been devastating to the church. Because, for no good reason humanly speaking, he felt God told him not to go, it saved the ministry and the church. 'So to me that's an example of the word of wisdom.'
Scripture index: 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Corinthians 12:8; Proverbs; Acts 27.
Transcript
he's referring to a supernatural spiritual gift so if you study 1 Corinthians 12 carefully Paul is saying uh we're all members of the same body but we don't all have the same function we don't all have the same gifts so then he lists nine spiritual gifts and I don't think these are necessarily exhausted but they're illustrative um and he says you know some people exercise this some people exercise that some people exercise that not everyone will exercise all of them and so from the total discussion these are gifts of the Spirit so from the total discussion you see that they're Supernatural they're spiritual um when I say Supernatural they're they don't just come from our natural human abilities and experiences they come by as a gift directly from God uh for example he uses he mentions Miracles uh he tongues so we're to understand these to be not continuous in a person's life and not in everybody's life but special endowments if you look at it carefully it says word of wisdom so it's not all Divine wisdom but a portion a specific portion of divine wisdom for a specific purpose at a specific time to a specific individual now I believe anyone who is filled with the spirit could potentially exercise any spiritual gift but it's as God decides so it's for the occasion it's not continuously their whole life and they're not going to have all nine gifts necessarily but as the occasion Rises go my God might give you or me a word of wisdom for a particular moment now I think it's helpful to think of the spiritual gifts uh as considering three dimensions so for each of these gifts it appears there is a natural human counterpart so there is human wisdom so even an atheist can study um can have life experiences and can develop life wisdom and so some of the statements you've quoted represent common human wisdom so there's that basis of natural human wisdom then there's spiritualism The Book of Proverbs and many other places teaches spiritual wisdm every child of God should develop wisdom in their spiritual life so if that's so Paul couldn't have been talking about those first two because he's specifically saying not everybody's going to have this but potentially everyone can have natural human wisdom and we hope and we Aspire that everyone will have spiritual wisdom for daily life so this has to be a third dimension which that term word indicates it's a specific portion of divine wisdom so now he also mentions word of knowledge so you can contrast this knowledge is information so you can acquire knowledge through study through learning through Reading Etc wisdom is the application of knowledge so it is guidance or Insight how to use knowledge so someone can be very smart but not like not have wisdom somebody can be very knowledgeable very highly educated but not have wisdom and we sometimes say they don't have common sense so wisdom is how to use your knowledge properly so if you're going to make it distinction then a word of knowledge would be God imparts specific information at a specific time that you would not know by human means to help you in something but wisdom would be God imparting guidance or Insight or uh knowing what to do knowing what to say in a specific time so you can see that that could be very valuable uh particularly for those in leadership that at particular time they don't know what to do but God can give them immediate Insight so it's more than human uh reasoning or experience it's even more than learning to live for God day by day and making wise choices but you're faced with an urgent situation a crisis a decision and you have no human means of knowing what to do but then God speaks to you in some form God reveals to you and suddenly you know I need to do this this absolutely that's a word of wisdom
I think a very good example is in Acts 27 when Paul was a prisoner and he was going to Rome in under arrest in a ship and he told the captain of the ship uh don't travel it's a wrong it would be a bad mistake to travel we're going to have shipwreck well the weather was fine there was no objective reason for Paul statement he wasn't an expert the captain was an expert so the captain ignored him but as it turned out they did Shipwreck and they would have lost their life except God spoke to Paul and said if you tell them to all stay with the ship they'll be saved so Paul said look you know don't abandon the ship or you'll die but if you stay with the ship you'll be saved and they were so to me that was the word of wisdom Paul had no natural means of knowing what was the right thing to do but God showed him what to do now as it turned out they didn't follow his advice the first time but I think he had a track record so then when it came that they were in danger of all drowning they did listen to him so the word of wisdom did operate in Paul to save the whole ship so to me that's an example of divine guidance or insight for a specific situation where you really have no natural means of making that decision
well I'll I'll give what I think is a classic example in my father's Ministry so my parents were the Pion Pioneer missionaries of the United Pentecostal Church to the country of Korea so this would have happened I think in the late 70s so there was some turmoil and and uh there's a minister who had been disciplined for misconduct so he left the church and he gathered a small group and it seems like they were trying to attack the church uh so they reported to the government that my father was trying to overthrow the government and assassinate the president which of course was bogus but it appears their goal was to get the church dissolved and then the assets uh maybe distributed to them so anyway uh so my dad was under investigation the church was under investigation pretty severe well my Dad was supposed to go to um the First World Conference of the upci in Jerusalem he was going to be one of the speakers but he felt like God told him don't go so that's a very prestigious invitation why would you turn that down but he said he felt like God said don't go so he didn't go well later he was called into the government office and they said we did a thorough investigation uh and we learned that you were going to Jerusalem so we were going to just uh course Korea is an close Ally of the US so they didn't want an international incident but they said we had decided that when you flew to Jerusalem and then when you try to come back we would just deny re-entry and that way we would end this problem with no diplomatic incident but you didn't go so we had to do a thorough investigation and we found that your accusers are liars uh we exonerate you and you're free to continue your ministry so Sign hadin my dad gone that would have ended our missionary experience there it would have been devastating to the church but because for no good reason so to speak humanly speaking he felt like God told him not to go then that save the ministry and the church so to me that's a example of the word of wisdom
Scripture references as spoken: 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Corinthians 12:8; Proverbs; Acts 27.