1 Corinthians 12:8 - Part C

The only way Peter could have known that was God giving him a word of knowledge. That's why I say I don't think it's just insight into the Scripture or acquisition through normal means or the ability to logically systematize spiritual truth.

I think it's the ability to know something supernatural about a situation or about a person that you couldn't know by any other means. God not only chooses to work through imperfect people, but he also empowers them to carry out his purposes. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares with you the spiritual gifts God equips his church with and where you fit in. But before we begin, we want to share about a resource that will help you come alongside the hurting in our society even more. The United States fought the devastating civil war to overcome a deeply dividing issue. As followers of Jesus and people who represent his love, we can help one another deal with this topic today.

Here's Skip Heitzig and Tony Clark. Speak to white evangelical pastors about how in churches we can create spaces for black and brown voices to be heard in a loving atmosphere, in a concerned atmosphere. This is the church's finest moment because see, racism is a sin.

It's a sin in the heart. So now it's our job to begin to guide them and to have a biblical mindset and also having sympathy and empathy for those who are trying to live out this Christianity and their skin may be a little bit darker than yours. Cultivate the empathy that comes from gaining a biblical perspective on racism. Get your copy of this conversation between pastors Skip and Tony when you give $20 or more today. We'll also send you Pastor Skip's booklet, The Church and Racism.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's get into today's teaching. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 as we begin our study with Skip Heitzig. Elijah seemed to have the ability to know things that were happening that he couldn't know by study.

It was just given to him by God. So in 2 Kings chapter 6 when the Syrian king Ben-Hadad is attacking the Israelite armies, God revealed to Elisha where the enemy was posting their position and he would tell the king of Israel. So every time Ben-Hadad and the Syrians would mount an attack against Israel, the Israelites would be ready for the attack. Well this really bothered the king of Syria. Ben-Hadad, he goes, I got a rat on my staff. Somebody's feeding information to the enemy.

Who is it? Which one of you been ratting and telling the king of Israel where I am? And one of his advisors said, it's not any of us.

We're all loyal subjects. But there's a guy in Israel by the name of Elisha and Elisha the prophet in Israel tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom, O king. Nothing is kept a secret. He knows it all.

He's the guy. In 2 Kings chapter 5, we have another example of Elisha having that kind of knowledge. There was a Syrian by the name of Naaman who had leprosy and he comes down to Israel because he hears that Elisha the prophet can heal people of leprosy. And you know the story probably how he tells them to dip in the Jordan seven times. He comes out whole. And when he comes out whole, he's well.

He's healthy. Naaman says to Elisha, man, this is amazing. This is a miracle. Let me reward you and give you lots of gifts and money. And he goes, you keep your gifts. I don't want anything. This is a gift of God.

Don't give me anything. So he sends him away. But the servant of Elisha is named Gehazi. And Gehazi goes, man, my master just like didn't take even an honorarium, didn't take a check, didn't take a gift, took nothing. It's like we could have got a lot of money out of this guy.

We could have made bank. But he didn't ask him for anything. So he didn't tell Elisha, but Gehazi ran after Naaman the leper. And Naaman sees the servant of Elisha come and goes, yeah, how you doing?

What's up? And he comes down from his chariot and he goes, can I help you with something? He goes, well, yeah, you know, there's a couple of prophets that have come to my master's house from the mountains of Ephraim and it'd be really neat. My master asked if you wouldn't mind giving us a couple of talents of silver and some changes of clothes. And Naaman said, yeah, no problem.

I'd be happy to do it. So he gave him up a bunch of money and new clothes. And he was lying, of course. Gehazi was misrepresenting Elisha, didn't send him. But he gets back to Elisha's home. And Elisha, the prophet, sees his servant Gehazi come and he goes, Gehazi, where have you been? Nowhere. What have you been doing? Nothing. And he goes, wasn't my spirit with you when you asked Naaman for those gifts?

Is now the time to be taking clothes and gifts of silver? He knew everything that had gone on, even though he stayed home and his servant went out and was lying. In 2 Kings 4—and I'm sort of working my way backwards, sorry—2 Kings 4, there was a woman who had a son who Elisha had predicted that she would have a child. This child had died, and Elisha did not know that she had a son that died. She knew that she had a son. He knew that she had a son, but didn't know the son died. And this woman comes and rushes toward Elisha to say, my son died, my son died. And Gehazi sees this woman coming and tries to shoo her away from Elisha. And Elisha says, no, no, no, no, let her come and ask me whatever it is she has to ask me. Because look at her, she is in deep distress and sorrow of heart. Listen to what he said, and the Lord has not told me her problem.

He has not revealed it to me. And Elisha was in shock. Now just imagine being so tuned into God that you are actually shocked when God doesn't tell you that kind of knowledge that you could only know supernaturally.

And he was shocked. He goes, I can't believe that this has happened, and God didn't tell me. And of course, the Lord used him to provide healing, but that is a gift of the word of knowledge. Now we come to the New Testament. In the New Testament, once again, you would expect Jesus to exhibit knowledge, because again, he is filled with wisdom and knowledge, it says in Colossians. And of course, he did. Classic example, when Philip found Nathanael and said, I have seen the Messiah, the Son of God.

We know who he is. It's Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Remember that story in John chapter 2? And so later on, Nathanael meets Jesus. And Jesus sees Nathanael coming, and our Lord says, ah, behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. And Nathanael is sort of shaken by Jesus' words to him, because they had never met before. And Nathanael says, well, how do you know me? And Jesus said, before Philip talked to you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. It was a private experience he had at some fig tree. Jesus knew all about it, told him all about it. And Nathanael said, oh, you are the Messiah, you are the Christ, you are the Son of God. And he said, you said this because I saw you, I said I saw you under the fig tree?

Stick around, buddy, you're going to see a lot more amazing things than this. But just that kind of knowledge, now you would expect the Lord Jesus to have that. But this is the kind of gift, I believe, that the word of knowledge is, and how it is exercised. Back to Vincent and his word studies. Vincent, in his Greek word studies, calls this a wonder-working ability.

Now, let me give you a couple more examples. Peter, in Matthew 16, remember when Jesus said, who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? And Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Peter, you didn't study this in a book, you didn't learn this at seminary, my Father has revealed to you who I am. Now, I don't know that that was necessarily a spiritual gift of the word of knowledge, but I wanted you to see, here is Peter, usually we think about Peter as this bumbling disciple, and who puts his foot in his mouth and says dumb things, and he did quite often. But here's a guy at that moment who had the perception, spiritual perception, that none of the other disciples had, and Jesus said, the only way you could know that is for my Father to have somehow revealed that to you. And Peter knew it. It was revealed to Peter.

Later on in the book of Acts, I think you have an actual working example of the word of knowledge. It's in the early church when Ananias and Sapphira sold a portion of land and gave the money to the early church in Jerusalem. They sold it for a certain amount, but they kept back part of the proceeds.

No problem with that. The problem was they miscommunicated and misrepresented what they had done to the church. They said they sold it for this amount and that they gave the entire amount to the Lord's work, but they had kept back a portion of it. Now, if they said, look, we sold it, but we're going to keep some to live on, and we're going to give the rest to the church, not a problem, but they lied. And they said, yes, we sold it for this amount, and we were giving this to the Lord's work, all of it, all of it, all of it. So people thought, wow, what a spiritual couple.

So people thought, wow, what a spiritual couple. So they come before Peter, and Peter said, Ananias, did you sell the land for this amount? Yes. And you gave it all to the Lord's work.

Yes. And then Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You haven't lied to men.

You have lied to God. Peter knew what was going on behind the scenes. The only way Peter could have known that was God giving him a word of knowledge, and that's why I say I don't think it's just insight into the Scripture or acquisition through normal means or the ability to logically systematize spiritual truth.

I think it's the ability to know something supernatural about a situation or about a person that you couldn't know by any other means. Another example is Paul the Apostle. When Paul is traveling through the area of Asia Minor, and he comes to Lystra and Derby. So this is found in Acts chapter 14.

And again, I pre-marked it so I can read it to you. It says, And in Lystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking.

Now listen to this. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet. And he leaped and he walked. Now, how did Paul know that this man had faith to be healed? He just looked at him intently and said, that guy has faith to be healed. Was it a hunch? Was it some strong impression?

Don't know. But it was some manner whereby Paul knew he had the knowledge revealed to him by God, this man has faith to be healed. And he gave him a command, stand up, grabbed him by the handle, lifted him up, and the man was healed.

Now, here you have an example of several gifts working together. You have the gift of faith. That's what Paul has. That's what this man has, the gift of faith. He has faith to be healed. So you have the gift of faith given to this man that God is going to heal me today. You have the gift of the word of knowledge.

That's what Paul is exercising. He knows the man has the faith to be healed. You have the gift of miracles, and you have the gift of healing. All of these four gifts working in concert together to do something supernatural. So there are, I think, several examples of the gifts of the word of knowledge. How is it manifest today?

Well, I can't tell you all the ways, but let me tell you personally in my own life. I have seen in my preaching ministry, in my teaching ministry, the Lord used the gift of the word of knowledge, where I'll incorporate something into my message, and then somebody afterwards will say, can I talk to you? And then I've had on many occasions, people say, have you been following me?

Has my wife told you about me? Or questions like that, like somehow I had insight and I was preaching at them, using them as the example. And I felt like the Lord was speaking at that moment, but I didn't know exactly what it was. But it's as if the Lord said, you know, the person says, gosh, it's like the Lord was speaking directly to me. I think there are instances where the Lord is using the gift of the word of knowledge like that, by using that kind of a gift. I years ago had a friend named Steve Carr, who's now a pastor in Northern California. One day he was going about his business and he said, I felt the Lord speak to my heart.

I just had this impression. And it was like the Lord said, pray right now for your wife. She's in danger. So he stopped and he prayed for his wife.

Later on, he talked to his wife and she was on the 405 freeway, if you know Southern California, the Orange County area, getting off at Harbor Boulevard when a truck pulled out in front of her and she almost got in a deadly accident and she came very close to ending her life. And it was at that moment that the Lord spoke to her husband and said, pray for your wife, she's in danger. And as they coordinated stories, they realized, wow, that was the Lord giving a word of knowledge at that moment for the purpose of prayer. Now let me give you a personal example early in my Christian walk. When I was a young Christian, I smoked. I smoked cigarettes. I actually started smoking when I was 10 years old. And I got saved when I was 18.

And I did a lot of other substances in between that era, those years. But I'd smoked and then I quit. And after I had quit and I was doing really good, not having a cigarette, doing really good with it, I was dating a girl and we were getting to know each other. And she knew about my—I never told her that I used to smoke—but we were getting to know each other, going to Bible studies, growing in our relationship. And then she went on a vacation for two weeks.

And while she was gone, just that impulse came one night. It's like, man, I miss a cigarette. And so I picked one up and I smoked. And then I smoked another one.

And for the next few days, I smoked. And then she came back from vacation. She didn't see me, but she called me on the phone and she goes, you know, Skip, while I was on vacation, the Lord really laid you on my heart. I'll go, oh, good. And she goes, then I prayed for you during these two weeks. Oh, that's great. I'm glad you did.

Prayed for you too. You know, what else do you say? She goes, no, no, no, no, the Lord, I was praying for you. And then she goes, can I ask you a question?

I said, sure. She goes, do you smoke? And I went, how in the world? How could she have known? I quit when I met her. She didn't see me.

I never talked about it. I haven't seen her for two weeks. And she gets on the phone.

She goes, I don't know. I was just praying. And I just thought I needed to ask you, do you smoke? And I said, nope.

Because I just then decided I'm going to completely give it up and walk away from it. That has got to be the Lord who has my number. Now, having said that, yes, the Lord can give people those kinds of insights with wisdom, to say just the right thing, with knowledge, to know certain things they couldn't acquire by any other means, just a supernaturally empowering endowment of knowledge. But I will say, be careful with that. And don't fall for every supposed example of a word of knowledge. Hey, the Lord, give me a word about you.

I've had a lot of those that turn out just to be really flaky. Like, right now, the Lord is showing me it's raining somewhere. Yeah, okay, there's probably a good possibility. In fact, it is raining somewhere. Or, you know, the Lord has shown me that tonight somebody here has a cold.

Okay, I mean, that's just so general and goofy. I've had, over the years, people give me words of knowledge and words from the Lord, either through verbally or through mail or email. I've had somebody say, the Lord has shown me that we're in the last days. This is a letter that came, we're in the last days of human history. We're in the tribulation period of the Lord.

We're in the tribulation period of the book of Revelation, and Calvary Chapel is the great harlot written about in the book of Revelation. That was the word from the Lord. And so I didn't have an address. I would have said, I've got a word for you.

Take your medication. You have to balance out words that people have, supposed insights and revelatory things that with what you know God is doing in your life, what the Lord has shown you, and what you know of Scripture. Because, yes, with that girl, the Lord had my number with that smoking thing. And I believe the Lord gave her that insight, that supernatural knowledge. But the Lord has my number too. And if there's something amiss in my life and wrong in my life, though I am open to the Lord using other avenues and people to do it, I pray every day, and I ask the Lord for wisdom, and I ask the Lord to guide me. So why would the Lord not reveal it to me if I have that kind of an open heart and have to use somebody else?

He can, but again, just be balanced. I remember I did a Bible study years ago in Garden Grove, California, and it was growing and growing, and there was a lot of young people involved in that Bible study. And one guy came one week, and then he came the next week, and I could see that he had eyes for this one girl who was in the study, and so he kind of made his way over the following week and the following week to get to know her. And one evening after the study, he went over to her and said, the Lord has shown me that you're to be my wife. Well, it's convenient, right, to say, the Lord has told me you're to be my wife. You know, instead of saying, hey, let's go out on a date, that's what a man would do, you know, hide behind the Lord told me you're going to be my wife. Well, I knew the Lord didn't tell him that she was going to be his wife because I knew her husband. But the Lord told me you're going to be my wife, and so she held up her ring.

She goes, I'm married, buddy, back off. And he had the audacity to say, well, you've married the wrong person, obviously. I'm the Lord's choice. So I gave him the left foot of fellowship immediately. We got him out. Not the right hand of fellowship, the left foot of fellowship.

Booted him out of the Bible study, told him never to come back. So you can use discernment to find out a false prophet from somebody that has a legitimate word of knowledge and or word of wisdom. Anyway, there are two gifts. I've only made it through one verse. I wanted to go through more. We'll speed it up as the weeks go by, but next week we're going to look at chapter 12, verse 9, to another faith by the same Spirit and to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit. And I'm going to venture to say we'll even get into verse 10 with the working of miracles and maybe prophecy, but we'll speed it up because prophecy in tongues and interpretation are given the great detail in the 14th chapter. But word of wisdom and word of knowledge, we just have those titles, but we don't have any descriptive material added to it. So we have to find our way into other scriptures to see how they apply. But anyway, I think I have given you enough that I can feel satisfied that you are not ignorant of these things, brethren. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series Expound First Corinthians.

Now here's Skip with an important message for you. The Apostle Paul said that all scripture is God-breathed, meaning God inspired it and wants us to understand it even in today's day and age. That's why I teach line upon line through every book of the Bible. And that's why this radio program exists, to share biblical teachings with friends like you across the country and around the world. You can help further that mission by sharing your gift today.

Here's how to do that. You get as a result of natural birth, spiritual gifts come as a result of being born again, the spiritual birth, spiritual regeneration. So we're talking about spiritual capacities or enablements beyond the fruit of the spirit, beyond natural talent. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.