“To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 12:8)

I love the gifts of the Spirit and I love the ambiguity that exists within the scripture regarding how they operate.  We should not be uncomfortable with ambiguity, because within a relationship with Holy Spirit these gifts can manifest in many different ways.

I have heard people try to become dogmatic about my prophetic gifting and state exactly what gift was operating when I prophesied over them.  They will say, “That was a word of knowledge, and not a word of wisdom,” or they will say, “You weren’t operating with a spirit of knowledge but rather you were prophesying.”

I am glad that you have it all figured out (!) but I personally do not.

I do know that there are times when I ask God for direction in prayer that a word of wisdom will come to me.

The other day I was having trouble with my taxes.  I worked for 15 hours and did my taxes 3 or 4 times, but I was not satisfied with the results.  Because of my unique tax situation, my way of dealing with my taxes is not straightforward and so I had to learn how to do them correctly.

But after all those attempts, I was really frustrated with my results.  I went to the kitchen of my house and my wife was there.  I asked her to pray with me.

I sat on my chair and faced the wall and I said “Lord I am very heavy. I don’t know how to do these taxes. I want to be a man of integrity regarding them, but I also want to be able to maximize my return.”

Within two minutes the phone rang.  It was my mother, who with all due respect, does not know how to do her taxes.  She goes to H & R Block each year and gets them to do them for her.

On the phone she says to me “Why not use the other program?”

My mother had no idea that I had purchased two software programs to do my taxes.  She may not have even known that I had purchased one of them.

When I heard this, it was a word of wisdom to me. It gave me a direction to follow.  As I stepped into it and applied the word that came, my tax problems ended very quickly.  I went to my computer and completed my taxes within 30 minutes, using this other program.

It was a much better program and allowed me to claim expenses that the other program would not allow me to claim, even though I knew they were acceptable expenses according to the Canada Revenue Agency Manual that I was working with.

I ended up maximizing my tax return and felt a great measure of satisfaction in knowing that I had taken the ethical course and claimed all my earnings from the previous year.

To me that is how a Word of Wisdom works.

We have an area where we lack understanding, direction or knowledge.  When we pray and seek Holy Spirit, He often uses other people to speak that wisdom we are lacking.  They may or may not know that they are operating in wisdom.

To be honest, when a person speaks the answer to my dilemma without knowing all the details of my situation, I find that more satisfying. This gives me confidence that the answer is coming from God and not the person in front of me.

How have you experienced this spiritual gift in operation in your life? Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.