Operate in Visions, Dreams & Spoken Word
Several years ago, I was asked to speak to some business people in our local town.
The meeting took place in a banquet room at a local bank. They asked me to come and speak what was on my heart. The things of God are always on my heart.
Although I was in the ministry at the time, I was also the president of the Lake of the Ozarks Marine Dealers Association and chairman of the State Marine Board. They probably thought I was going to talk about high performance power boats, but I didn’t. I talked about the things of God and after I spoke, I had an altar call. The business people were very receptive. I laid hands on many people and prayed with them.
Near the end of the meeting, one of the local business women came forward. I had never seen the lady before that night. I asked her what she would like to receive from the Lord and she said she wanted God to help her quit smoking. I agreed with her in prayer that she would receive the strength to quit. But as she turned away and started walking toward the back of the meeting room, the Spirit of God came upon me and imparted to me the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom.
I called to the lady. She turned and said, “Yes?” I heard myself saying, “The Spirit of God would say to you this night, if you would take the cigarettes you have hidden inside the vase by the couch, the cigarettes you’ve hidden in the cannister in the cabinet above the sink in your kitchen, and the cigarettes you’ve hidden in the drawer...”
My mind was thinking, “What am I saying?” For all I knew this lady didn’t even have a vase beside her couch, or a couch for that matter, but the Holy Spirit had given me three specific places where she had hidden cigarettes. This information was being imparted to me as supernatural knowledge or the word of knowledge. They were facts about her life I had no way of knowing. No education in any institution of higher learning in the world could have taught me what I was speaking boldly as fact.
Then I continued as the word of wisdom came out: “If you will take those cigarettes that you’ve hidden in those three places, crumble them up, but don’t burn them, and throw them away, you will be delivered of smoking permanently.” I could see her face turn white as she turned toward me and acknowledged that what I said was true. But then she made a startling statement. She said, “I can’t do that because cigarettes are expensive and when I start smoking again, I’ll just have to go and buy new ones.” She was already planning to get back into what she was asking God to deliver her from!
God loved this lady so much that He imparted the word of knowledge to me to reveal a truth in her life. By revealing this supernatural knowledge of things I could not have known, she would know that she was hearing from God. And then He imparted the word of wisdom to me on how to solve the problem. She rejected the wisdom of God. Through her rejection of the word of wisdom, it exposed what was in her heart. She was asking God to deliver her from smoking, but she had no intention of getting delivered.
The wisdom that comes from God through the impartation of the word of wisdom by the Holy Spirit is supernatural wisdom beyond the wisdom of men and wisdom that cannot be attained by intellect or experience.
So the bottom line is this. As a Christian, we should be asking God for wisdom daily and be ready and willing to receive the word of wisdom as He imparts it to us by His Holy Spirit.
Visions, Dreams, and the Spoken Word
According to Scripture, the word of wisdom can come through a vision, a dream, or the spoken word. The word of wisdom can also come through the gift of prophecy or through the gift of tongues and interpretation. However we must remember that the wisdom of future events is the word of wisdom and not the gift of prophecy itself. First Corinthians 14:3 tells us the gift of prophecy is spoken to men for a specific purpose and that purpose is edification, exhortation, and comfort. There is no revelation in the gift of prophecy, but if a revelation comes through the prophecy, it is actually the gift of the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom.
In the New Testament church there was a prophet named Agabus. After traveling from Jerusalem to Antioch, he stood up and by the Spirit said there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which happened while Claudius Caesar was Emperor of Rome. The disciples believed the words spoken by him and each, according to their own ability, determined they would send relief to the brethren that were dwelling in Judea. After gathering the relief items together, they sent the items to the elders by way of Barnabas and Saul. Obviously, Agabus was a man of character and integrity who had proven himself. (Acts 11:27-30.)
Another time Agabus, after having traveled from Judea, took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles’” (v. 11). When the disciples heard this, they pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem, but Paul said, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (v.13). After they realized they could not change the mind of Paul, they simply said, “The will of the Lord be done” (v.14). And within a few days they packed their belongings and went up to Jerusalem. (Acts 21:10-15.)
Although Agabus was a prophet, he was not speaking edification, exhortation, and comfort to men as prophecy, but was speaking the word of wisdom concerning future events. In one case, the future event was related to weather conditions and in another case, the future event was related to the actions of men. Only through the revealed wisdom of God could he know of these events, and only by yielding to the gift of the word of wisdom would he be able to speak them. In the case of the drought to come and in the case of the actions of men, the revelation was so they could prepare for it.
Also read: Access the Spiritual Gift of Miracle-Working
Rejecting the Word of Wisdom Can be Costly
When Paul was traveling by ship to Rome to meet with Caesar, he advised the centurion during the voyage by saying, “Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives” (v.10). When the centurion heard this, he was more persuaded by the owner and helmsman of the ship than by what Paul had spoken. Because the harbor was not a suitable place to stay in winter, the majority convinced the helmsman to leave and winter in Phoenix, a harbor of Crete.
While the wind blew softly and it appeared that they had obtained their purpose, they sailed close to Crete. But suddenly a great head wind arose so that the ship was caught and could not head into the wind. Fearing that they would run aground and because the waves of the sea were so great, the next day they lightened the load. On the third day of this storm, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard. Eventually the crew lost all hope and gave up.
After a long time of going without food while in great despair, Paul stood up in the middle of those on board and said, “Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ Therefore, take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island” (vv. 21-26).
Later, when it looked like the ship was going to run aground, some of the sailors tried to let down the skiff and escape the ship, but Paul told the centurion and the soldiers that unless they stayed on the ship with him, they could not be saved. The soldiers cut the ropes to the skiff and everyone stayed on the ship. The ship later ran aground and was broken up by the violence of the waves. Some swam to the land and others floated to shore on boards and broken pieces of the ship, but the end result was that all 276 people (v. 37) on the ship escaped safely to land and survived. (Acts 27:10-44.)
When Paul spoke by the Spirit and told the centurion not to set sail, the centurion did not follow the instructions of the Holy Spirit given by Paul and they encountered a great storm. The second time that Paul spoke by the Spirit of the Lord and said that if they would stay on the ship, they would all be saved, the centurion listened to the word of the Lord through Paul and not one of the 276 persons on board lost their lives. This reveals a very important detail about the word of wisdom. Since it is looking forward toward future events that have not taken place, choices must be made on whether or not to heed the word of the Lord. The word of wisdom, like the other eight gifts of the Holy Spirit, is for the benefit and profit of everyone involved. But this is only the case when the word of God that has been spoken is obeyed.
The Word of Wisdom Imparted to the Church
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come (John 16:13).
When Jesus gave His disciples the information that He would be leaving and instructed them in great detail concerning the promise of the Holy Spirit, He told them that when the Holy Spirit was imparted by the Father, that He, the Holy Spirit, would reveal things to come. In this verse, Jesus prophesied the manifestation of the word of wisdom would be imparted to the church by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit knows your need and has the wisdom for that need to be met. He desires fulfillment of every promise in our lives. As we yield to His Spirit, He will impart the word of wisdom that, when followed, will bring deliverance.
