The Revelation Gifts
There are 3 revelation gifts
- 1. Discerning of spirits
- 2. The word of knowledge
- 3. The word of wisdom
- 1. Discerning of spirits
Read Matthew 24:24 to distinguish between the spirits, what is from God and what is not from God. This is the supernatural insight into the realm of the spirit world. Here you will know the type of spirit, behind the person or message, also the source, nature and activity.
a) If from God you will sense If not from God you will sense
i. The presence of God i. The nature of a human spirit
ii. The presence of the Holy Spirit ii. The presence of evil spirits
iii. Sometimes the presence of angels iii. The presence of Satan
b) The purpose of the gift
i. To detect false revelation
ii. To keep sin away
iii. To discern the plans of Satan
iv.To deliver a person from evil spirits by casting them out (Mark 16:17 and
Luke 10:19-20)
v.To recognise the spirits of deception (1 Timothy 4:1-2 and 2 Timothy 3:13)
vi.To test the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (Acts 16:16-18)
2. Word of Knowledge
This is a supernatural revelation of facts; past, present or future, about a person or situation not known to the natural mind. The Holy Spirit will interrupt our thoughts with another thought, a word, a feeling, an impression, a vision or simply an inner knowing.
For instance I often know which people the Lord will heal before He does it. I will then say to them the Lord is going to heal you, so that within two minutes you will be walking. This increases their faith and within two minutes they are actually walking. Other times a word of knowledge may only be part of the total situation.
a) The purpose of the word of knowledge
This supernatural knowing will aid in perfecting the purpose of God
i. In building faith to step out in faith and receive the promises of God
ii. To bring glory to God, by the accuracy and effectiveness of God at work in
our midst
iii. To warn against danger, disclose sin, to direct us, to encourage us
b) How to operate in the word of knowledge
c) i. John 5:19 “ Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever He does that the Son does likewise.” Know the father in prayer, walk in the presence of god and you will see what He is doing, hear what He is saying, feel what he is feeling for that person or situation. As you walk in that knowledge, the gift will operate.
ii. (Acts 14:9-10) Paul saw in the spirit that the crippled man at Lystra had faith to
be healed and said loudly “Stand up straight on your feet” and he leapt and
walked.
3. The Word of Wisdom
Here the Holy Spirit will give you God’s wisdom as to how to move forward in a course of action based on the supernatural and/or natural knowledge.
a) He may reveal God’s purpose and plans for our life and ministry
b) He may reveal how to lead a meeting, in order to release the anointing.
This may come as a vision or impression of how we see ourselves doing something in a certain way before we do it. For example I was teaching to come up to another level in prayer, suddenly I saw myself gather them into a circle. I called them forward and formed a circle. In the increased intimacy of the circle, the Holy Spirit suddenly came down and through a powerful tongue and interpretation gave us specific guidance, as to how to reach the remote villages. We all responded to the Lord wholeheartedly.
4. Sometimes the Word of knowledge and wisdom work together
In John 4:19-29 Jesus knew by the word of knowledge that the woman had had five husbands. Jesus received the word of wisdom, how to minister to her, that others
may be saved.
In John 11:14 Jesus knew through the word of knowledge that Lazarus was dead.
In John 11:11 Jesus received the word of wisdom to say “this sickness is not unto death”.
In John 11:23 Jesus then said to Martha “ Your brother will rise again”.
In Acts 10 19-20 other examples are shown.
The revelation gifts prepare us for effective ministry, for things to come and to save our lives
THINK
1. How do we deal with wrong speech?
2. How does the word of wisdom operate with the word of knowledge?