Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 1 Corinthians 12:1.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Start things with Me, finish things with Me, and walk things through with Me. And that is walking in the Spirit.
And the way you walk through things with Me and your fellow believers, the body of Christ, to the finish in a fruitful and perfect way is by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are grace endowments that are for the profit of all.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (each one individually and all collectively). 1 Corinthians 12:4-7.
Today we will begin talking about the grace endowments, impartations of My thoughts and revelations into your spirit by My Holy Spirit for you as the body of Christ growing, maturing, and building yourselves up together as one in the Spirit of truth and holiness.
We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:15-16.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22.
I tell you to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. Do you ever think about them in your busy day? They would help you to walk through life successfully. They are for the benefit and profit of all—you and everyone else with whom you have contact or to whom I send you by the divine direction imparted with the gift.
Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1.
Pursue love and desire the gifts with an earnest desire, because they are all gifts of love for they are from Me and I am love. And you know all I do is done in love for your well-being, profit and prosperity in every area of your life. These gifts give joy and they are always for building up the believers and adding new ones to their ranks.
So pay careful attention to recognize them and cooperate with them, for they are the gifts you and others need at any given time in your lives to make your way prosperous and successful, healed and blessed, as members of His body, the church.
But to recognize and desire them, you must know what they are. If you are not aware of them, you will not desire them and that is why I tell you I want you aware of them.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware . . . to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healings by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.
These gifts are given to each member of the body of Christ individually when needed. They come at and for the time needed.
The gifts of the Spirit are for ministry and the effecting of My plans and purpose in the earth. 1 Corinthians 12:5-11. The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is for your own personal growth and enjoyment as the fruit blesses everyone who comes in contact and eats of the fruit of your lips and of your life. Galatians 5:22-23. The fruit is manifested in you all at the same time, but the gifts are administered by My Spirit as needed, to one this and to another that. They are not your own, they belong to the Spirit. The fruit is your own, produced by your spirit by My Spirit flowing divine life into you. Like the sap of the vine flowing into the branch of the tree to give the characteristics and power of the vine to the branch so that the branch can produce the fruit of the vine, but the fruit belongs to the branch. The ministry gifts flow from My Spirit into your spirit just as they are and return when the need is filled. These gifts are actually My power flowing out from you. You become a steward of information and power directly from My throne, the very Holy of Holies. These gifts cannot be trusted to unbelievers or those who will not cooperate with them. Like Samson, he had finally gone too far off his destiny and the Spirit that was on him left him. The power was withdrawn. It was not his own to flaunt in sin. He forgot that.
The first grace endowment given by the Spirit for the moment of need is a Word of Wisdom. Wisdom is the first and principal thing. Proverbs 4:7.
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Proverbs 3:13-16.
Wisdom is for now to shape the future. The Word of Wisdom is about something coming in the future that you need to address now before it manifests. It discerns the best path and a strategy to go forward and bring the best result of what is ahead for all concerned whether it be for profit or protection, victory or deliverance, avoidance of a danger or capture of an opportunity—plans and strategies are what the Word of Wisdom is about.
For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. Proverbs 2:6-7.
There is a Word of Wisdom that is a special gift to endow you with information you could not know on your own about a future event. This grace endowment, as with all the gifts, is actually a heightened level of the action of My Spirit that operates in every believer in the normal course. The nine grace endowments or gifts are supercharges or super boosts of the power in that gift.
But even when it is not a ministry grace endowment that is for the body of Christ you each get your own words of wisdom from the Spirit dwelling in you that are particular to your life.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. John 16:13.
This is information from My heart to yours that pertains to you personally and to My plans for your future. My Spirit alerts you to danger you need to avoid or to good things that you need to pursue.
For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you, to deliver you from the way of evil. Proverbs 2:10-12.
But there is a higher level that not only pertains to you personally but to other members of the body of Christ or ever those around you who are in not in the body but are key players in the lives of others, such as government officials and people in positions of authority.
“For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:8. It is not worldly wisdom. It is not being unusually intelligent. It is not even a whole paragraph, it is a Word, but it is enough. I give that Word by My Spirit to carry out My purpose and plan in the earth. Wisdom looks forward. Getting a Word of Wisdom is to direct, protect, comfort, or forewarn. Jonah gave a Word of Wisdom to the people of Nineveh that unless they repented and turned from the evil at hand they would be destroyed in 30 days. They took that warning to heart and repented, thus averting an otherwise certain future event. Jeremiah gave a Word of Wisdom when he told the captives of Babylon that in seventy years I would bring them back to Jerusalem and bless and prosper them again. This gave them comfort and hope. And Isaiah gave them a Word of Wisdom about how that would come about and the rebuilding of the temple by the Persian king Cyrus, who at that time was unknown and Persia was not the kingdom in charge of Babylon at that time, but he came to power later and all took place just as the Word the Spirit gave to Isaiah. You can hold fast to that Word and get through dark times. The Word of Wisdom was given by the Spirit to Joseph in a dream when he saw his brothers and father bowing to him.
An example of this is the warnings I gave to Paul of an oncoming storm and shipwreck that I directed him to give to the centurion in charge of taking the prisoners to Rome to stand trial before Caesar. Paul had a message from My Spirit that was a warning of danger if the set out.
“Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul. Acts 27:10-11.
The worldly minded did not heed Paul’s message to their detriment and they sailed right into the storm. But I saved everyone on the ship, though the ship was destroyed, because they had My servant Paul on board. The presence of one believer saved a boat load of unbelievers, many of whom, as they spent winter on the island of Malta where their boat shipwrecked broke up, became believers along with almost all those living on the island.
I make everything work together for good for those who love Me and are called according to My presence. And Malta is till loyal to the faith.
I told Moses I would declare to him the things pertaining to My people from above the mercy seat, things to come and wise choices to make.
By the Spirit, Elisha heard the battle plans of the enemy and would warn the king of Israel to avoid their ambushes.
Jesus told His disciples exactly the man carrying a water jar to follow to the place for the Passover Supper.
The Word of wisdom you receive can be less dramatic but nonetheless important in your life and the lives of those to whom you are to deliver it. It can be a perception like it was to Paul at first that you or another should not travel a certain way, go to a certain event, or that you or another should do those things. The Word can also be delivered by an angel, by a vision, by a dream, by a prophet, or by the Spirit Himself. Cornelius had an angel come and tell him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.” Acts 10:4-6. This is actually a Word of knowledge combined with a Word of wisdom. The Word of knowledge is about a present or past fact that you could not otherwise know. And we will discuss the gift of the Word of knowledge tomorrow. Cornelius did not question what the purpose was but sent two of his servants and a devout soldier in his personal attendance to go get Peter. Now at the same time, My Spirit gave Peter a vision and instruction. “While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” Acts 10:19-20. A Word of knowledge and a Word of wisdom. But do you see? It was a Word, not everything he was to do there and why he was going. Just to go. And the rest came to him as he walked it out. And the result? Salvation for a whole household, that had not been raised in the faith as they were not Jewish, and they all got filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues.
You do not need strategies for the past that’s why the future you cannot reduce yesterday we do yesterday once it is past but only the present
The gifts of the Spirit are for the profit of all.
There is so much more you can find in the treasure of the Bible, but now look for the gifts in the Old and New Testament and you will see My Spirit is at work all the time. You just have to get on the right channel to tune in. A SIGN. “Spirit is giving news.” Daily news.
I love you. Be a blessing in someone’s life next time you get a Word of wisdom for them. You will know for I will keep bringing it to your mind. Like Jonah, no matter how hard he ran from it, he finally went and delivered the Word of wisdom and saved a huge city. And what if Noah had not paid attention to the Word of wisdom My Spirit gave him? You would not be reading this. Selah.