For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:8.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Seek wisdom, it is the principal thing. And one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in fact, the first one mentioned, is the Word of Wisdom. This is a word of things to come.
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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 16:12-13.
David sang that by My Words he was warned and there was great reward in keeping them. Psalm 19:11. I am the LORD who sees ahead and provides and the best way you can walk in My provision is to walk in wisdom. And the Holy Spirit, My gift and guide to you, is the Spirit of wisdom. He instructs you in all things and wisdom is the principal thing.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7.
How do you get wisdom?
For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6.
All wisdom comes from Me. It comes to you in My Word for truth is wisdom. When you believed in the gospel of your salvation in Christ Jesus, I sealed you in Him, and made Him wisdom to you, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” In Jesus, My Word made flesh, are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
You will see in the Old Testament that even pagan kings recognized wisdom in those who knew Me, you see this with Pharaoh and Joseph, and Nebuchadnezzar with Daniel and they both attributed the great wisdom and understanding (discernment) of them to My Spirit being in them and for that reason trusted to put great authority in their hands.
Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the divine spirit?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”” Genesis 41:38-41.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel 2:46-48
Wisdom is to know the right thing to do at the right time and to do it. And wisdom, understanding, and knowledge go together.
By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:3-4.
To have wisdom you must know who you are in Me and what I have freely given you in Christ or you will never use it and you will lose it. Joseph, David, Daniel all knew Me and had tremendous wisdom. The same is true of all those who stay close to Me and love My Word. They are not like the rest of their generation. They understand the signs of the times and how to tap into the right thing to do. They live in the world but above the world. And that is where you are seated, with Christ at My right hand. Wisdom has a perspective above and thus can survey the times. When Joseph and Daniel interpreted the dreams of the rulers of the nations to which they had been taken in captivity they walked above the other men. Things that would harm everyone else did not even phase My prophets, such as Jeremiah. There were in the midst of the trouble but the trouble did not enter them. Why? Wisdom.
In My Spirit you will find wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And you will delight in drawing close to Me to hear My wisdom which I give you freely and generously in reverence and awe as you learn new things about Me each day, new facets of wisdom.
David sang that one thing he sought and that was to dwell in My house all the days of his life so that he could gaze upon My delightfulness and inquire of Me in My temple. And the secret is to stay close and inquire as you ponder and read My Word. When you call on Me, I answer you and tell you great and mighty things you could not know.
When Nebuchadnezzar was going to have his soothsayers and wisemen put to death if they could not recount and interpret his dream, Daniel did not get anxious or fear. He simply asked Me to show him the dream and give him its interpretation. He had his three faith friends join with him in the prayer of agreement. And I answered their trust and entrusted the dream and the meaning to Daniel during the night while he rested and slept. No need to fear and pace the floor, no reason to panic, just inquire of Me and I will let you know. I even give to My beloved in their sleep and counsel them in the night. And that is open to you all. If you ask Me for wisdom in faith, I give it to you generously without reproach. But you must ask in confident faith, not the double mindedness of doubt and unbelief. If you draw back from confidence you will never get through to the answer. Why? Because when you are worried you stop listening to Me and only listen to your mind, which the devil is bombarding with his fiery darts. If you do not put up your shield of faith and use the sword of the Spirit, which is My Word, to answer you will not make it to the finish line.
Daniel was always inquiring of Me. If you read the book of Daniel, you will see that the revelations I gave him were all in answer to his questions that he brought to Me with so much confidence, awe, love, respect, and interest. He had within him an excellent spirit.
Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom. Daniel 6:3.
Daniel received many words of wisdom, for his prophecies were primarily of future events in the life of Christ and of the endtimes. When Jesus told you about things yet to come, such as the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, it always came to pass but those who were forewarned were wise to act upon it. The gift of the Word of Wisdom is to direct the Body of Christ always to the best place to be at that time for each person for these are perilous times.
There is a heavenly wisdom and there is an earthly wisdom. Heavenly wisdom comes down from Me to you in My Word in the Spirit. My Words are Spirit and life. Heavenly wisdom enlightens, edifies, exhorts and encourages for excellence and fruitfulness. The fruit it produces in you is the fruit of the Spirit and you draw it into your life as a branch on the vine and it manifests through you.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23.
Earthly wisdom on the other hand is a competitive and selfish spirit that tends towards jealousy in guarding its position of superiority. You see this in Saul trying to murder David out of jealousy when David was his best and most devoted follower.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:14-18.
Let us begin then with the first gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12: the Word of wisdom. “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:8. What is that? 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.
The Word of wisdom was given to Paul by My Spirit when he was headed for Rome as a prisoner that if they sailed on there would be great loss, notice how he said the warning, “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.” Acts 27:10. It was only a Word: damage and great loss. It was not particularly about exactly how that would happen. He had just perceived danger ahead in his spirit from My Spirit. He knew the voice of the Spirit. But the worldly minded centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul so they set sail and found it was just as Paul had warned them. Acts 27:11. But My Spirit gave another message to Paul, this time by an angel, in the midst of the storm that Paul had perceived as danger coming. And it was a Word of wisdom that brought comfort. “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’ Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on a certain island.” Acts 27:21-25. And this was not the end, when some of the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let down the ship’s boat into the sea, on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.” Acts 27:31. This time they listened to Paul and the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it fall away. After that Paul gave them another Word of wisdom for their comfort, for the storm kept on another 14 days, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating, having taken nothing. Therefore I encourage you to take some food, for this is for your preservation, for not a hair from the head of any of you will perish.” Acts 27:33-34. Not a hair from the head of any of you will perish. That was amazing in such a violent storm and shipwreck, but that is exactly what took place. And I have every hair on your head counted also.
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.
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.