Intro
We are in a series concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Last week we examined the description of the gifts found in the first eleven verses of 1 Cor. 12. We came to understand the gifts of the Spirit as “supernatural impartations by the Holy Spirit that come in a moment for a specific situation.” They are not human endowments that God gives people as part of their character and make-up. These manifestations of the Spirit come “in a flash” so-to-speak.i They come by the Spirit to fulfill God’s purposes at the specific occasion.
Today, we want to examine a gift of revelation: the word of wisdom. For convenience, we categorize the nine gifts in three groups of three. (I) Revelation gifts: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits (II) Power gifts: faith, gifts of healings, working of miracles (III) Utterance gifts: prophecy, kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues.ii
WHAT IS A WORD OF WISDOM?
First Cor. 12:8 “for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit….”iii
The Greek word in our text translated wisdom is “sophia.” You may know someone with that name. It comes from this Greek word. I’m going to give you a definition of this word from three Greek scholars and explain why in a moment. Freberg Lexicon defines sophia as (1) “generally, the ability to use knowledge for correct behavior”iv I want you to see the emphasis on behavior in these definitions of wisdom. The Louw-Nida Lexicon definition is “the capacity to understand and, as a result, to act wisely.”v Wisdom has to do with taking the right course of action. A.T. Robertson says, “wisdom is intelligence, then practical action in accord with it.”vi Wisdom answers the question, “What should I do?” It is futuristic in that it tells you what to say next or what to do about an issue.
However, it is not a prediction of what will happen.vii That is prophecy. It is guidance on what to do. I take the time to make that distinction because many in Pentecostal circles misunderstand word of wisdom as a prediction. It is guidance. Kenneth Hagin taught it as a prediction, and everybody followed him. I think he was wrong on that minor point, because the words themselves in the text simply do not support that. I have a very high regard for Kenneth Hagin because on the whole he knew what he was talking about concerning the gifts of the Spirit. He was a man who operated in these gifts. But sometimes when a teacher is held in high esteem and makes a minor error, nobody questions it. History tells us that great men of God were often wrong about something. Luther’s revelation of justification by faith broke the church out of the chains of legalism into a vastly increased understanding of biblical salvation. But his teaching on the book of James is off base. He couldn’t reconcile what James was saying with what Paul said, so he cast James aside as worthless straw. I’m sure I’m not right about everything I say. That’s why I want you to always examine all teaching with Scripture.viii Regardless of who is teaching, receive that which is scriptural and discard that which does not line up with the Bible. If a teacher makes a mistake, we do not reject that leader. But we don’t accept everything just because we respect the instructor. The final authority is the Bible. Miscategorizing a gift of the Spirit is not a very serious error. These terms simply help us communicate with one another. The important thing is that the person is operating in these supernatural manifestations. And Brother Hagin certainly did that. If someone is operating in prophecy, but calls it word of wisdom—in one sense, who cares? The work God wanted to do got done. However, if we take the words in the text to mean what they mean, then wisdom is not prediction. It is “understanding that enables us to take the right course of action.”
The most common misunderstanding of word of wisdom is to mistake it for wisdom in general. The Bible has a lot to say about simply becoming a wise person. Solomon wrote in Prov. 4:11, “I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.” Wisdom is about taking the right path. God gets things done by His wisdom, not just by His power. It takes wisdom to get things done. Jer. 10:12 says, God “established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heaves at His discretion.” Prov. 3:19 “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens.” But we also accomplish objectives by wisdom. Prov. 24:3 says, “Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established.” Eccl. 9:15 tells us about a poor man who saved a whole city by his wisdom. So wisdom is extremely important. We are called to pursue wisdom. Prov. 4:7 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” We want to become wise people.
But those passages are not talking about a WORD of wisdom; they are talking about gaining a heart of wisdom—becoming a wise person who lives wisely.ix Scripture tells us how to do that? Look at the instruction God gave Joshua. Josh. 1:8 (Young’s Literal Translation): “The book of this law doth not depart out of thy mouth, and thou hast meditated in it by day and by night, so that thou dost observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then thou dost cause thy way to prosper, and then thou dost act wisely.” If we will live in the word of God and apply it to our choices in life, we will have wisdom. We will be known for wisdom. It will be a part of who we are. You are called to become a wise person over the course of your life.x But our text is referring, not to wisdom in general, but to a word of wisdom—a word, a fragment, a piece of God’s wisdom that is supernaturally imparted to give direction and counsel for a specific occasion. Anytime we study the Bible we should be looking to the Lord to open up our understanding to these truths by His Spirit. When I am preparing to teach, I’m not just relying on my intellectual ability alone to understand; I need God to bring the passage alive to me and show me what He wants said in the sermon. We never do that apart from the Spirit. However, a sermon prepared that way is not necessarily equated to a word of wisdom. A word of wisdom is not just enlightenment on scriptural truth. It is not the same as Bible teaching that shares wise principles from Scripture.
A word of wisdom is a supernatural impartation of God’s counsel and direction for a specific situation. God may give a supernatural word of wisdom during a sermon, but a sermon full of wise counsel may not have a “word of wisdom” in it. Our text is not talking about wisdom in general. It is not talking about a gift of wisdom; it is talking about a word of wisdom.xi
So what is a word of wisdom? It is a supernatural impartation of guidance from the Lord to tell us what to say or what to do for the specific situation we’re dealing with.xii Paul Hamar defines it as “Ability to see how to handle a particular situation as the Holy Spirit directs.”xiii
Now let’s look at a few EXAMPLES in the Bible to get a clearer picture of what we’re talking about.
When God told Noah to build an ark, that was a word of wisdom. He received a prophecy that a flood was coming. However, knowing that a flood is coming is not very helpful unless God tells you what to do about it. God gave Noah a word of wisdom telling him to build an ark and telling him how to build it. The word that God gave Noah was a combination of a prophecy and a word of wisdom. Gen 6:13-22, “And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” [That is a prophecy predicting what will happen]. “14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.” [That tells Noah what to do; it is a word of wisdom]. “17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you;” [that is not only predictive prophecy, but also prophecy bringing assurance and comfort to Noah]. “and you shall go into the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them."
Notice the futuristic orientation of this word of wisdom, not as a prediction of what will happen but as an action that Noah is to take. Very often, the gifts of the Spirit operate in conjunction with one another.xiv For Noah, God gave prophecy and word of wisdom concerning what to do about it. The key verse that made all the difference is Gen. 6:22 “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” He followed the word of wisdom that God gave him. A word of wisdom can be life-altering. Think about how the course of Noah’s life changed that day. For many years, Noah would be prophesying the coming judgment and building that ark.
One day I was driving down Grand Street. I looked over at Missouri State University, and God gave me a word of wisdom. He told me to go into the university and ask if they have a program for conflict resolution. I immediately parked my car and went to the registrar’s office. They gave me the name of a person in charge of that kind of program. I walked straight to her office, asked about the program, and signed up. Because of that word of wisdom I became a professional mediator. It wasn’t something I laboriously thought out.xv I knew I heard the Lord, and I just followed the word of wisdom. God gave Abraham a word of wisdom when he told him to leave Ur of Chaldees (Gen. 12:1).xvi
God gave Gideon a word of wisdom when he told him to tear down the altar of Baal and build an altar to the Lord (Judges 6:25-27). Gideon raised an army of 22,000 men. Then God told Gideon to tell his army that anyone who is afraid needs to go back (Judges 7:2-3). Over two-thirds of his army left him. But that was a word of wisdom from the Lord. It was given in conjunction with a word of knowledge in which the Lord told Gideon that there were too many in his army. Another word of wisdom came immediately after that. God told him to take the remaining 10,000 down to the water for a test. When Gideon did that, another word of wisdom came. God told him to keep the 300 men who used their hand to dip water and drink and send back all the others (Judges 7:4-8). Imagine how obeying those words of wisdom tested Gideon's faith.xvii The Midianites had 135,000 in their army (Judges 8:10). The word of wisdom is all about the Lord’s guidance. Elisha gave Naaman a word of wisdom when he told him to wash in the Jordan seven times (2 Kings 5:10).
I was counselling a Christian man who lived in California. He was about 30 years old and had fallen into adultery. I don’t think his wife knew about the affair, but he was afraid she was about to find out. In the counseling session, the man repented and promised to break off the affair. As we were concluding the session, the Holy Spirit gave me a word of wisdom. God said, “Tell this man to have no contact with that woman at all.” We had both just assumed he would tell the woman the affair was over. Normally, I would think that would be the honorable thing to do. But God had given me a supernatural word of wisdom. I gave him the word of the Lord. He replied, “Well I need to call her and tell her it is over.” I said, “No, the Lord told me no contact at all, in any form whatsoever. Just stop seeing her. Don’t tell her it over. Just stop and have no further contact with her.” The man said okay and went back to California.
However, when he got there he called the woman to tell her it was over. Somehow, she convinced him to see her again and talk about it. He fell back into the adultery. About a month later, he was with the woman in a drunken state. He got choked on a chicken bone and died on the spot. When God gives a word of wisdom, He has His reasons. It may not seem reasonable to us, but the best thing we can do is to obey.
In 1 Kings 13, God sent a young prophet from the Southern Kingdom (Judah) to confront Jeroboam, the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, about the unauthorized altar at Bethel. When this prophet arrived King Jeroboam was offering incense on the altar. When the prophet publicly prophesied against the altar, Jeroboam was furious. As Jeroboam stretched out his hand ordering the prophet to be arrested, the king’s arm immediately shriveled. Jeroboam immediately backtracked and asked the prophet to pray for him. The arm was restored. God had given this prophet a word of wisdom, telling him to do the assignment and go straight back home immediately. King Jeroboam invited him to stay with him for supper, but the young prophet refused the invitation, saying God had told him to return home immediately (a word of wisdom). Then, an old prophet gave a false prophecy and convinced the young prophet to go home with him for supper. During the meal, the old prophet gave a true prophecy, telling the young prophet he would be judged for his disobedience. From there, the story gets more interesting. The young prophet got on his donkey and headed back home. On his way, a lion jumped on him and killed the young prophet. When the old prophet was told about that, he simply said the young man should have obeyed the Lord. So strange; the old prophet is the one who misled him.
Here is the point. A word of wisdom is not a suggestion. It is not to be taken lightly. The word of wisdom is not for our entertainment; it is God’s direction and command. When God gives you a word of wisdom, walk in that humbly; don’t let anybody talk you out of it. And don’t talk yourself out of it. Naaman almost missed his healing because he didn’t think the word of wisdom that Elisha gave made much sense. Fortunately, he obeyed and was healed.
A word of wisdom gives guidance. It tells us what we need to say or do.
In Matt. 22:15, the Pharisees hatched a plot to trap Jesus. They asked him whether it was lawful for them to pay taxes to Caesar. The idea was that if He said “yes,” then people would not respect His subservience to this pagan government. If he said “no,” then they could accuse Him to Caesar and get Him arrested. It was designed to be a no-win situation. Jesus answered with a word of wisdom to them. In verse 19, He said, “Show me the money.” He held it up to them and asked, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They had to answer “Caesar’s”; that was obvious. Then Jesus answered, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Sometimes a word of wisdom is given to us so we know how to answer our adversaries.
Jesus promised that God would give us a word of wisdom when we need it. Luke 12:11-12, “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." He did that for Stephen when he was being challenged by synagogue leaders in Acts 6. The Bible says, (verse 10) “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.” A word of wisdom gives guidance as to what to say or do.
When I was pastoring a church in another city, a man started attending who immediately began giving significantly to the church. After being there for a while, he began to press me to recognize him for his ministry and leadership. But I discerned something wrong with his spirit. I could not tell you exactly what it was, but I knew not to put him in leadership. Over time, I could tell the man was getting frustrated with my lack of response. At that time, we were praying from 5:00 to 7:00 each morning at the church. Just as I got into prayer, about 5:15 a.m., the Lord gave me a word of wisdom. He told me to leave and go to that man’s house immediately, a very strange thing to do at 5:30 in the morning. I did not receive a word of knowledge that would tell me why I was to do that. But the word of wisdom was very strong—certainly not something I would have thought up on my own. I told my associate pastor what God had said and asked him if he would go with me. At about 5:30 in the morning (it was still dark), I pulled up to the man’s driveway. There in front of me was this man and his wife having a physical fight in their front yard. I got out of the car and took the hammer (weapon) away from them and got them to calm down and discuss their differences. After the counseling session, my associate and I went back to the church. The man never pressed me for the leadership position again! He made some improvements but never got his personal issues completely resolved. The directive didn’t make a lot of sense when God told me to go to his house at 5:30 am. It became clear when we obeyed and arrived at his house. The important thing is to do what God tells you to do. What if I had dismissed that word as unreasonable?
A word of wisdom SOLVES A PROBLEM.
Elijah had a problem when the brook dried up. God gave a word of wisdom: told him where to go for his provision (1 Kings 17:7-9). When he got there, he encountered a widow who had a problem. She was destitute, with only one meal left for her and her son. Through Elijah, God gave her a word of wisdom. 1 Kings 17:13, “And Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.” Her provisionxviii was tied to her obedience to that word of wisdom.xix
When Israel was in the wilderness, they ran out of water at Meribah. God gave Moses a word of wisdom, telling him to strike the rock (Ex. 17:5-6). When he obeyed, their provision of water came. Later, in Ex. 20:8, God told Moses to speak to the rock rather than strike it. Moses just did what he had done before, and it cost him dearly. We can’t live off yesterday’s word of wisdom. That was for that situation. Even though the circumstances may appear the same today, we need to be open and obedient to the “now” word of the Lord.
A word of wisdom often supplies the solution to a problem. Have you experienced that on the job? A word of wisdom is often the key that unlocks one of my mediation cases. I was mediating a conflict in a church in one of the northern states a few years ago. The denomination had tried to solve the problem, and it had only gotten worse. They hired me to meet with the leadership. The church board was completely divided over the direction the church should take. As I talked with them, there seemed to be no middle ground. Then, the Lord gave me a word of wisdom. He told me to ask them what their mission statement was.xx I don’t remember the exact words, but it was about loving God and loving people. As these leaders discussed the mission statement, the Holy Spirit brought conviction into the room. They realized that was the very thing they were failing to do. In all their church growth strategies, they had missed the basic point of their existence. One by one, they began asking one another’s forgiveness. The atmosphere of the whole room changed in a matter of a few hours. I was only sent there to mediate the leadership conflict, but the leaders asked me to stay and lead the whole congregation into what they had experienced. We did that together the following Sunday, and the whole church experienced a turnaround. Typically, it would take many sessions to resolve a conflict like that, and still, the mediation might not result in a resolution. God did supernaturally, through a word of wisdom, what we probably would have never been able to do. A word of wisdom often solves a problem.
When Joshua and Israel came to the Promised Land, they encountered a problem: a heavily fortified city stood blocking their way in. They would have lost many soldiers trying to get past the walls of that city if they had been able to do it at all. God gave Joshua a word of wisdom. March around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, march around it seven times. Then, have the priests blow their trumpets, and the people shout. It was a supernatural strategy for spiritual warfare, and it worked (Joshua 6:1-5). We cannot defeat our adversary with carnal weapons and human strategy. We need the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Go with me to the book of Acts, and let’s see this gift operating in the early church.
In Acts 6, there was a problem to solve. The widows were being neglected in their daily care. The Apostles could no longer get it all done because of the increase in the church. You remember the solution. They decided to find seven godly men to take care of that need so the Apostles could keep giving themselves to the word and prayer. That answer may have come as a word of wisdom. The Bible does not explicitly tell us that. It could have just been a decision that made sense. But I’m inclined to think they received that direction supernaturally.
In Acts 9, Paul encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus. When Saul of Tarsus asked Jesus what he should do, he received a simple word of wisdom. Jesus said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do" (Acts 9:6). Notice how limited the information is. This is a profound experience. Yet the Lord just tells Paul what he needs to know. More information will come after he obeys that directive. That is often the way it works. We want the whole story, but we don’t need the whole story to do what the Lord has just told us to do. We don’t need to evaluate whether God’s direction is a good plan; we need to simply obey.
Last week, I was praying for my sister, and God gave me a word of wisdom for her. I knew she was buying a house, but I did not know a lot about the transaction. As I prayed, a strong sense of caution came on my heart. The more I prayed the more I realized that God was telling me she was not to buy the house she already had a contract on. That’s a bit awkward because I don’t like to take that kind of responsibility in someone else’s life. Rather than calling her and saying, “Thus saith the Lord, do not buy that house,” I approached it this way. I called her and told her Jeanie and I had been praying for her and that I am feeling a strong caution about the house you are buying. There are occasions when God might want us to say it more strongly. That was the case with the man I was counseling, who had been in an adulterous relationship that I told you about earlier. But usually, we are wise to leave some room that we might not be correct. When we talk about prophecy, we’ll talk about that more. That got her to praying more about it, and God told her the same thing He told me. She was able to get out of the contract and turned around and bought a much better house.
There is a very practical value in a word of wisdom. It’s not just so we can feel spiritual. It can protect people from a big mistake. It can give them solutions that they never would have come up with themselves. As Paul is headed to Damascus, God was already speaking to a disciple there named Ananias. Most of the time, a word of wisdom will come as an intuitive revelation. God imparts the information to your spirit supernaturally. It comes like a gut feeling, but if you are seasoned in the Lord, you know it is His voice speaking to you. In this case, God gave Ananias a word of wisdom through a vision. The word of wisdom is recorded in Acts 9:11. “So the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus….” Then the Lord follows that up with a word of knowledge, “for behold, he is praying. 12 And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight." This is a beautiful example of how word of knowledge and word of wisdom often work together. And that was followed up with gifts of healing when Paul received his sight. You can see a similar combination of the gifts in Peter’s experience with Cornelius (Acts 10) and later in Paul’s shipwreck experience (Acts 27:31). We may look at those stories when we talk about word of knowledge. Word of wisdom tells us what we need to do.
When I came back from the Brownsville Revival, God gave me a word of wisdom concerning Springfield. He told me to go to the Assemblies of God Seminary and tell them that they were to let me use their chapel to start a pastor’s prayer meeting. I had never met the President of that seminary. I am not ordained with the Assemblies of God. Furthermore, people who have paid for a facility are usually not open to other people telling them how to use their building. However, when the Lord gives you a word of wisdom, there is a sense of authority that comes with it. I went to the seminary, and when I stepped into the foyer, I saw a professor I knew. He was in a hurry to go somewhere, but I stopped him and told him that God had spoken to me and I needed to talk with the President. He said, “Your timing is amazing. I’m headed to a prayer meeting with President Del Tarr.” I followed him as we walked into a room full of people. The professor introduced me to the group and told them that I had something to say. I told the group that God had spoken to me and told me to start a prayer meeting for the pastors of Springfield. They said well, that’s nice. I said, “The rest of the story is that I am supposed to start it in your chapel.” I was very pleased when nobody laughed. Then Dr. Tarr spoke up and said, “God has been dealing with us about the city. We will let you use the chapel, and we will help you in any way you need.” Dr. Earl Creps joined me in the effort, and the chapel was filled with pastors, mostly Pentecostal, during the first service. As that prayer meeting was gaining steam, a group of Baptist pastors, led by John Marshall and Craig Fields were doing about the same thing. Then Ben Birdsong at the WIND FM Christian Radio station invited us all to a meeting to talk about having a prayer meeting. In the meeting, I told them that if they really wanted to pray, I would be there. But I did not want to just get together and visit and end with a little perfunctory prayer. They agreed to that, and a prayer movement began in the city called Christian Network of Springfield. I don’t have time to tell you all the amazing things that came out of that. But you see how a word of wisdom works for fulfilling God’s plans and purposes. A word of knowledge gives facts (past or present). If it’s a future fact, it is predictive prophecy. A word of wisdom gives direction. It solves a problem. It tells you what needs to be done. It often functions in conjunction with other gifts of the Spirit. It is a major guidance gift. I could have planned and schemed for years trying to put together a pastors’ prayer meeting and still never seen it happen. But obeying one word of wisdom unlocked the door for it to happen supernaturally. We don’t have time to spin our wheels working in the flesh. The need is too urgent, the enemy is too strong, we are too stupid. We need the wisdom and direction of the Holy Spirit, and He is willing to give it to us if we will simply hear and obey!
ENDNOTES:
i This is not to say that there would never be any process involved; but it is to distinguish it from something that is simply the result of mental analysis and logic.
ii A study of the Greek words (allos and hetros) in the passage may indicate a different set of categories, or Paul may have just been using the two words as a matter of writing style without establishing categories of the nine gifts listed.
iii All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
iv Friberg Lexicon from Bible Soft 6 Software.
v Louw-Nida Lexicon from Bible Soft 6 Software
vi Robinson’s New Testament Word Pictures at 1 Cor. 12:8 from Bible Soft 6 Software
vii David Ireland makes this point in Activating the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1997) p. 101
viii Acts 17:10-11
ix Proverbs 2:1-5; Daniel 10:12
x 2 Timothy 3:14-15
xi The New International Version translates it as “message of wisdom,” which is fine as long as we don’t think message means sermon.
xii I have distinguished this supernatural manifestation from a sermon. However, in a sermon, God may give a divine utterance that constitutes a word of wisdom for someone who is hearing the message, giving that person direction for a particular situation in his or her life. I have had that happen on a number of occasions.
xiii Paul A. Hamar, The Book of First Corinthians (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1980) p. 107
xiv Jesus may have given the ten lepers a word of wisdom when He told them to go show themselves to the priests (Luke 1:14), or he may have simply counseled them to follow the law. In that case, the word of wisdom was operating in conjunction with the gifts of healing, as it was in Naaman’s case.
xv While functioning as a divisional superintendent in the Foursquare denomination, I saw the importance of conflict resolution for churches. I had passively thought about learning more about this. But the supernatural word of wisdom was the catalyst that turned my life in that direction.
xvi This is a good example of how a word of wisdom is tied to the plans and purposes of God for an individual and beyond.
xvii, We would be hard-pressed to find this kind of guidance in our popular church growth books. There is a level of human wisdom that can accomplish things, but God’s wisdom exceeds that and often runs contrary to it (1 Cor. 1:25).
xviii Protection and deliverance can also be tied to obeying a word of wisdom. When Israel was coming out of Egypt, God gave a word of wisdom in Ex. 12, telling them to slay a lamb and put the blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. In Ex. 14, deliverance from the Egyptian army came when Moses obeyed the word of wisdom to lift up his rod and stretch forth his hand over the Red Sea (Ex. 14:16).
xix In 2 Kings 4, we have Elisha giving a widow a word of wisdom instructing her to gather empty vessels.
xx In some of our mediations, we take the organization to its mission statement. But this guidance did not come out of my own thinking; it was quickened to me by the Spirit. A word of wisdom is not always contrary to what might come naturally, and it may be very simple. The key is the source: the human mind or the Spirit of God.
