Hi all,
I was teaching a class at what was then called The World Prayer Center, in Colorado Springs. A couple from Texas came after the class asking for prayer about whether to sell their business or not, and the timing. As we prayed I saw a calendar year go by, stopping on a particular month, and then I heard the Father say something along the lines of “Someone will approach them in about a year to buy their business, and it will give them a nice profit. Take the offer, it will go smoothly, then I will show them the next chapter for their lives.” I told them everything I saw and what the Father said, and that was that.
A little over a year later I received an email saying it had happened exactly as I had said, and their profit was over $250,000, and they were very thankful. I’ve not heard from them since. They are not on any mailing list, have never given an offering, have never asked for prayer. The manifestation of the Spirit was for their benefit (not mine). God the Father is SO good.
In Luke 19:29-35 Jesus tells 2 of the disciples to go to a certain place where they’d find a young colt tied up, and to bring it to Him. He included that if anyone asked what they were doing, they were to tell the person the Lord had need of Him. It happened exactly as Jesus had told them.
“…you have well said, I have no husband, for you have had 5, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. This you have said truly.” John 4:17-19, the woman at the well meeting.
Words of wisdom and knowledge – the other two revelation gifts (discerning of spirits being the other)
The couple with the business sale and Jesus telling of the circumstance around getting the colt are examples of words of wisdom. Jesus telling the woman her past and present marital status is a word of knowledge.
Words of knowledge are tiny bits of information the Father gives someone by His Spirit about someone else’s past or present. Words of wisdom are similar bits of information about the future, and specifically what will happen or how to conduct oneself in a future event. I will share the difference between prophecy and words of wisdom next week.
Remember that I Corinthians 12: 7 says the manifestation of the Spirit is given that we all may be bettered, meaning it isn’t about the person given that information, it doesn’t make them a prophet, it just means the Father wants to meet needs.
In II Kings 6:8-13 the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and would camp his army at various places during the campaign, but his location was always known by Elisha who then told the king of Israel where the enemy was located. The king of Syria was frustrated by this and wondered who was spying on them, but one of his servants said, “None my king, but Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel what you say, even what you speak privately in your own bedroom!”
That again, because it is about the present, is an example of a word of knowledge given Elisha, for Israel’s benefit.
That doesn’t make you a prophet
Anyone may have the Father by His Spirit reveal some of what He knows about a person’s past, present, or provide wisdom for the future, which is completely normal for a Christian. The manifestation of the Spirit is given that we may benefit. Anyone may be used in this way from children to the eldest among us, it’s just the normal Christian life.
Two women were sitting at a coffee shop, and one of them expressed fear over their teenager’s future because they were wavering between going to college, or a trade school, or working, or just taking a year off to do nothing. Suddenly her friend had a revelation, a knowing on the inside of herself, and she said, “I just have a sense they will decide at the last second to go to college as planned, and you don’t need to be worried for them, the Father has it under control and has made provision for school.” That is a word of wisdom. The Father doesn’t announce with trumpets blaring “I am about to give you a word of wisdom…” It just happens as a matter of normal, everyday, hum drum, boring, go about your business, life. No big deal.
I heard a metal on metal sound coming from the middle of the rear axle of our car – that can’t be good! I asked someone about it and they said it sounded like the differential, the gears in the rear axle that allow the wheels to turn independently of one another, needed some 90 weight oil. I drove slowly home, parked, and crawled under the car. In the screw-off plug of the differential was a square hole, and it was clear a tool was needed to set into that square hole to twist off the plug.
I tried using a flat bladed screw driver set cat-a-corner, but it didn’t work. I said “Father, what am I going to do, it’s our only car.” Suddenly I heard the Father say by the Spirit, very clearly.” “Go, get your socket wrench.” I replied, “No Father, you don’t understand, it’s not a socket, it’s a square hole.” “Go, get your socket wrench.” I was so intensely focused on the frustrating problem before me I hadn’t even considered that I had just told the Father that He didn’t understand the situation.
Not finding a tool suitable in my tool box I went next door to my neighbor, and there in his garage, laying on his tool box right on top, was a socket wrench turned on its side, with the square part of the wrench that a socket fits on sitting in plain view. Immediately I realized what the Father had been saying, walked to my own socket set, grabbed the wrench, and it fit perfectly into the square hole in the differential. That is a word of wisdom.
I was but a teenager, yet a friend of my mom’s asked me to pray for her about a recurring nightmare she had been having, and nothing seemed able to stop them. She had spoken the word, cast out the devil, asked for angels, but still these demonic dreams of battles with demons kept coming.
As we prayed I saw a mini-vision or ‘closed vision’, meaning when my eyes were closed I saw the vision, but when I opened my eyes all was normal. Shutting my eyes again and the vision began. I saw this forty something year old woman as a 7 year old girl, trapped in a toilet stall like in a store bathroom, unable to get the latch open to open the door and escape. But that stall was not literal, it just illustrated the trapped feeling she had. Suddenly I knew she had been sexually molested at that age, and the demons and hurt involved still affected her and her marriage to that day. The Father was allowing this to be brought up that He might reveal the root cause, and she would receive healing and a touch of His Spirit for peace.
Me being just about 17, and this being a married friend of my mother’s, in the natural made me uncomfortable, but there was such peace in the Spirit I shared ‘lightly’, just referring to something that happened to her about age 7 that affected her to this day…I didn’t need to go into any more detail than that for discretion’s sake, and she immediately knew, tears welled up in her eyes, I laid hands on her for healing, for a fresh filling of the Spirit, and great peace came. She later reported to my mother the dreams had ended and she was greatly blessed, her life changed. That was a word of knowledge. Visual or by words, it doesn’t matter; however the Father by His Spirit wants to share a sliver of information that someone may be bettered, He will.
Words of wisdom, words of knowledge, the discerning of spirits, often mix with prophecy, but that doesn’t make a person a prophet, it just means they are a Christian – next week, prophecy and personal prophecy..until then, blessings,
John Fenn
