There are four main purposes for which God has made these spiritual gifts available to us.
First, to make room for God’s sovereignty.
Second, to lift us above the realm of our natural ability.
Third, to confirm our testimony of Christ.
Fourth, to enable all believers to contribute for the common good.
These nine gifts can be divided into three groups, each containing 3 gifts. The gifts of revelation, The gifts of power, The vocal gifts.
The first of the three gifts of Revelation is the word of wisdom.
1 Corinthians 12: 8, 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.
The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge are very closely related, yet they’re very different. The word of wisdom is directive, and the word of knowledge is informative. The purpose of wisdom is to give us right direction.
Ecclesiastes 10: 10 If the iron be dull, and he do not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
That’s the key statement. Wisdom is profitable to direct.
The picture is of a man trying to cut down a tree with an axe, and the axe is dull, and he’s not hitting the tree in the right place, and he’s just wasting a lot of time and effort.
But wisdom says, sharpen the axe, and then wisdom shows where to cut the tree, and the result is success.
So, the key word that I want you to keep in mind is that wisdom is profitable to direct.
Wisdom and knowledge are often interdependent. They frequently go together.
Proverbs 15: 2 The tongue of the wise use’s knowledge rightly.
It’s one thing to have knowledge. It’s another thing to have the wisdom to use it rightly. I’m sure you’ve met people who have a lot of knowledge but don’t know how to use it. And sometimes they even use knowledge to their own destruction. But with wisdom we make the right use of knowledge.
Now each of these gifts is a word, a part of God’s total wisdom or God’s total knowledge. God has all wisdom and all knowledge, but He doesn’t reveal everything. He imparts to us supernaturally by the Holy Spirit a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, it is a word that we need in each situation.
In Acts chapter 15, there was a council of all the leaders of the church held in Jerusalem to determine a very controversial problem.
What requirements were to be made of Gentile converts to the Christian faith?
All the great leaders were there, Paul and his followers, John and his followers, James and his followers, and also the Jewish Christians who were firmly convinced that Gentile converts had to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses.
There was a great deal of discussion and no doubt people’s tempers were getting aroused and there was a hardness in them.
And then God gave James a word of wisdom. And he said, brothers, listen to me. And he quoted a passage from the prophet Amos about the restoration of the tabernacle of David and about Gentiles seeking the Lord, those Gentiles who received Jesus as Lord. And he applied this passage from Amos to their present situation.
Acts 15: 19 Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, 20 but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.
There was a very clear, simple definition. All that should be required of these Gentile converts is that they abstain from 4 things, idols, fornication, food strangled, and food with blood in it.
Now that had a vital impact on the history of the church. What were the results that were achieved through this word of wisdom.
First, the mind of God was revealed to God’s people. They had been examining, mishandling, arguing, debating.
But through this word of wisdom given through James, they came to a clear understanding of what God required at that vital turning point in church history.
Secondly, the word of wisdom produced complete harmony amongst God’s people.
Acts 15: 22, then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church. This was a unanimous decision of the entire church.
Acts 15: 25, they wrote a letter to the Gentile believers and they said, it seemed good to us having become of one mind.
The word of wisdom had brought them together in one mind, the mind of Christ.
And then in Acts 15, 28, they said again, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. They knew now that they were no longer examining or mishandling or just arguing on the human level, but they had received the mind of God imparted to them by the Holy Spirit. And that gave them clear direction and complete unity, which was essential for the progress of God’s work.
This is an example of the word of wisdom from a meeting of the leaders and the entire church in Jerusalem.
But the word of wisdom can also operate on a very intimate and personal level. The word of wisdom can work in your family and solve problems in you and your loved one’s lives. But you need to be close to the Lord and so open to the Holy Spirit that God can speak through you.
Don’t imagine that these gifts of the Spirit are not real or something that has passed away, but they’re near and they’re available if we will just open our hearts to God and walk close to Him.