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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor July 21,
2002 We're
continuing to look at the
spiritual gifts, or enablements,
that God has given into the
church, with a particular focus
on those gifts that are often
manifested -- or that we desire
to see manifested -- in corporate
worship. 1-Introduction
to
Spiritual
Gifts 2-The
Enabling
Gifts
of the
Holy
Spirit 4-The
Gifts
of
Tongues
and
Interpretation
of
Tongues 8-The
Gifts
of
Knowledge,
Wisdom,
and
Faith As
Martin Luther said, "The Spirit
and the gifts are ours." God has
given them to us, so that we
might function as a supernatural
body, doing the things God calls
us to do to advance His kingdom
on the Earth. Today
I want to talk about three gifts
God has given us: the gift of
knowledge, the gift of wisdom,
and the gift of faith. All
three of these things exist in
the natural, as well as the
supernatural. There is "secular"
knowledge, "secular" wisdom, and
"secular" faith. so that you
don't confuse these with the
spiritual
gifts
of knowledge, wisdom, and faith,
I'm going to contrast -- for each
of these areas -- the secular
quality with the supernatural
gift. First,
let's talk the secular
definitions of knowledge. Here
they are on the video
screens: The
spiritual gift of knowledge isn't
about knowing something because
of experience or education. It is
knowing something by divine
revelation. This
revelation often manifests itself
as a God-given insight or
understanding into truth, such as
what happens when you study the
Bible and God opens your mind to
grasp its meaning. But this gift
also may include the gaining of
factual information about a
person or a situation that one
has no way of knowing except that
God chooses to reveal
it. Let's
look at examples from the Bible
that illustrate the two ways that
the gift of wisdom can operate.
First in Matthew 16. Here God
reveals to Peter an insight into
spiritual truth. Starting at
verse 13: "But
what about you?" he asked.
"Who do you say I am?" Simon
Peter answered, "You are the
Christ, the Son of the living
God." Jesus
replied, "Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah, for this
was not revealed to you by
man, but by my Father in
heaven. God
gave Peter an insight into who
Jesus really is. Next,
look at John 4. Here, it is Jesus
Himself who demonstrates the gift
of knowledge. Remember that as He
began His public ministry, Jesus
was anointed by the Holy Spirit.
Throughout His ministry, we see
Him manifest many of the
spiritual enablements described
for us later in the New
Testament. He had the full range
of spiritual gifts. In
John 4, Jesus encounters a woman
at a well. The disciples have
gone into town to buy food and
Jesus begins a conversation with
a woman who comes draw water.
They begin to talk about various
things, including God. I'll
start at verse 16. Jesus is
speaking: "I
have no husband," she replied.
Jesus
said to her, "You are right
when you say you have no
husband. The fact is, you have
had five husbands, and the man
you now have is not your
husband. What you have just
said is quite
true." Now,
how did He know that? The Father
revealed it to Him, so that he
could minister to that woman. In
fact, it is this manifestation of
the gift of knowledge that opened
the way for Jesus to declare to
her that He is the Messiah, as
this passage goes on to
explain. This
type of thing isn't confined to
the pages of the Bible, nor is it
confined to Jesus, although He
certainly exercised this gift at
a higher level. Let me give you a
couple of modern-day examples of
the gift of knowledge. After
wrestling with God about the
matter, Wimber finally leaned
over and asked if the man: "Does
the name Sarah mean anything to
you?" This man grabbed Wimber's
hand and dragged to the lounge in
the plane. And, yes, the man was
having an adulterous relationship
with a woman by that name. God
had told John Wimber something he
could not have known, and the
manifestation of that gift gave
him a platform for talking to
that man about Jesus
Christ. A
second example: Several years
ago, a woman who heard me preach
at at revival asked me counsel
her granddaughter who was going
through some sort of struggle.
Well, I met with the young woman
and we talked for a while, but no
problem surfaced. Everything
seemed fine. There was no
indication that she was having
any sort of struggle
whatever. Then
suddenly I heard come out of my
mouth these words. "Tell me about
your father." When I said that,
this girl broke down and starting
crying. It was God who had me say
that. He gave me a word of
knowledge that broke through this
young woman's veneer, so that we
could begin to deal with a
serious issue in her
life. Now
listen carefully. I feel like I
need to issue a warning and a
clarification at this point: Do
not confuse the biblical gift of
knowledge with New Age spiritism,
fortune telling, Ouija boards,
reading palms, stars, signs of
the zodiac or tea leaves, or any
other form of magic or
witchcraft. Let
me be clear about this: Seeking
information in the spiritual
realm apart from the Bible,
prayer, and/or the exercise of
spiritual gifts is strictly
forbidden by God. And
let me back that up with
Scripture. Look at Deuteronomy
18, verses 10 and 11: To
give you an idea of just how
seriously God views occult
practices, Leviticus 20:27
describes the penalty to be meted
out to any mediums found in
Israel: Throughout
this series of sermons, I have
tried to make sure that I tell
you something that will help you
understand those who manifest
that gift. Sometimes we can get
offended if we don't know where a
person is coming from. Also,
as I said a
couple of weeks
ago,
it is essential that the person
who is manifesting a particular
gift understand the kind of
characteristics that often
accompany that gift so that he or
she can take steps to avoid
offending someone or creating
misunderstanding. So
here are some common
characteristics of those persons
who manifest the gift of
knowledge. First, they may seem
"mystical" or distant to others.
Sometimes you can be talking to a
person who has this gift its
almost like they're listening to
someone else. And,
frankly, they can seem a little
weird to the rest of us because
they often know things that they
don't have any natural way of
knowing. That can make other
people nervous! People
who have this gift tend to be
more meditative than talkative --
which is good, because they don't
need to be blabbing everything
they know. Sometimes God may
reveal something to a person
that's not for general
consumption. People
who manifest the gift of
knowledge often exude confidence.
They can even come across as
dogmatic and opinionated because
they are so sure of what they
know. So those of you manifest
this gift of knowledge need to be
careful about how you express
yourself so that you don't appear
to be high-handed or
arrogant. Here
are some secular definitions of
wisdom, and some of these apply
to the spiritual gift of wisdom
as well: This
gift can enable one to see
through surface conditions and
pinpoint the real problem or
issue. Often when this gift is
operative there is no question
that the truth has been
spoken. Jesus
repeatedly confounded those who
tried to "trip him up," or
discredit him in the public eye.
They came up against the gift of
wisdom. Look
with me at John 8, starting at
verse 2: They
were using this question as a
trap, in order to have a basis
for accusing him. But
Jesus bent down and started to
write on the ground with his
finger. When they kept on
questioning him, he
straightened up and said to
them, "If any one of you is
without sin, let him be the
first to throw a stone at
her." What
did they do? They dropped their
stones and walked away, shamed by
the wisdom of God. In
Matthew 22, there is a rather
long discourse between Jesus and
the Sadducees who were trying to
trap into saying something wrong.
They failed. Then the Pharisees
got into the act, posing a
question that Jesus
answers. Then,
starting at verse 42, Jesus turns
the tables and asks a question of
his own: "The
son of David," they replied.
He
said to them, "How is it then
that David, speaking by the
Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For
he says, If
then David calls him 'Lord,'
how can he be his
son?" No
one could say a word in reply,
and from that day on no one
dared to ask him any more
questions. These
men began to argue with
Stephen, but they could not
stand up against his wisdom or
the Spirit by whom he
spoke. This
is the spiritual gift of
wisdom. Now,
don't think this gift is going to
always bring the accolades of
men. Sometimes words of wisdom
challenge human institutions and
traditions. In extreme cases, the
person who exercises this gift
might ended up being hated.
Indeed, both Jesus and Stephen
were killed by people who
resorted to violence when
confronted with God's
wisdom. The
person gifted with wisdom will
most likely be a practical person
who sees God as being involved
not just with "religious" issues,
but in the the most ordinary and
mundane human activities.
The
person with the gift of wisdom
understands that God is alive and
active in day-to-day life. We
all
understand that at a certain
level -- at least I hope we do --
but for the person with the gift
of wisdom is particularly
conscious of it. It is his or her
frame of reference for everything
that's going on. The
gift of wisdom may be manifested
in the decision-making process of
family, church, or even a
business. It may also be
manifested through writing,
teaching, or
preaching. The
third gift we're looking at today
is the gift of faith. Here again,
we have a secular definition that
has application to the
spiritual: But
this spiritual gift is something
beyond saving faith, sanctifying
faith, and Kingdom faith. The
gift
of faith is is "the special
ability to see the adequacy of
God and appropriate it for
particular
situations." The
gift of faith is manifest when a
person knows that God is going to
heal a particular person at a
particular point in time, or that
God is going to meet some other
kind of need at a particular time
or in a particular
way. Again,
we find examples in the Bible.
Look at Acts 3, starting at verse
one: Peter
looked straight at him, as did
John. Then Peter said, "Look
at us!" So the man gave them
his attention, expecting to
get something from them.
Then
Peter said, "Silver or gold I
do not have, but what I have I
give you. In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth,
walk." Taking
him by the right hand, he
helped him up, and instantly
the man's feet and ankles
became strong. He jumped to
his feet and began to walk.
Then he went with them into
the temple courts, walking and
jumping, and praising
God. Peter
knew God was going to heal that
man. It was the gift of faith in
action. Also
go to Acts 14, beginning at verse
8: Paul
looked directly at him, saw
that he had faith to be healed
and called out, "Stand up on
your feet!" At that, the man
jumped up and began to
walk. Understand
that the gift of faith isn't just
a "get-something-from-God" thing.
It is an extraordinary ability to
trust God, even in the darkest
hour. The gift of faith trusts
God, and isn't affected by
circumstances that may seem
totally contrary to thing the
person is trusting God
for. Those
manifesting this gift usually are
intentional and mature
Christians, but not
always. And
one thing this kind of person
needs to guard against is
criticizing others for a lack of
faith. Such criticism can be
dangerous because it can actually
damage another person's
confidence and trust in God. The
results of this can be
catastrophic, since faith is the
shield "with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows
of the evil one." Never take away
another person's shield by
criticizing his or her level of
faith. Now,
let me say again that the reason
we should desire for spiritual
gifts to be in operation among us
is that we want to be the kind of
church God intends us to be. What
he intends is for the church to
be not a natural organization,
but a supernatural organism -- a
living entity, operating in the
power of the Holy
Spirit. But
we need to do two things. We need
to seek the gifts -- and we need
to surrender to God. If we're not
surrendered, if we're not
submitted to God's authority,
spiritual gifts can become
destructive. We can end up
wounding people, as I preached
about a few weeks ago. But
when we surrender to God, when we
submit to Him, when we obey Him,
the gifts of the Spirit can flow
among us in ways that build up
the body and advance the
Kingdom.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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The
gifts of knowledge,
wisdom, and
faith
(Eighth
in the series,
Spiritual Gifts in Corporate
Worship)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
through Him who with us
sideth."
Some people have the idea that
spiritual gifts are a
"Pentecostal thing" or a
"charismatic thing." Actually,
they're just a "biblical thing."
Spiritual gifts are given by God
to the church so that the church
can be what God wants it to
be.
Sermons
in
this
series
Let
me give you some very simple
examples of this kind of
knowledge. I
know
that fire burns because I put my
hand in it and it burned me. I
learned from experience. Before I
ever visited California, I
knew
it is a state on the Pacific
coast of the USA because I had
studied geography. I learned from
education.
Biblical
examplesWhen
Jesus came to the region of
Caesarea Philippi, he asked
his disciples, "Who do people
say the Son of Man is?" They
replied, "Some say John the
Baptist; others say Elijah;
and still others, Jeremiah or
one of the prophets."
He
told her, "Go, call your
husband and come back."
Contemporary
examples
In his book, Power
Evangelism, the late
John
Wimber,
founder of Vineyard churches,
relates the story of how God gave
him a word of knowledge during a
trip on airplane. A woman's name
came to mind -- I can't remember
what it was, maybe Sarah --and he
saw the word "adultery" over the
head of the man across the
isle.
A
warningLet
no one be found among you who
sacrifices his son or daughter
in the fire, who practices
divination or sorcery,
interprets omens, engages in
witchcraft, or casts spells,
or who is a medium or
spiritist or who consults the
dead.
A
man or woman who is a medium
or spiritist among you must be
put to death. You are to stone
them; their blood will be on
their own heads.
People
with the gift of
knowledge
The
gift of wisdom
In
both the natural and the
supernatural realms, wisdom has
to do with the right application
of knowledge. But in the
supernatural, the knowledge is
based on God's truth.
The
spiritual gift of wisdom is the
supernatural ability to apply
God's truth to a particular
situation, or an immediate
problem or need. It transcends
human insight or philosophy and
may be exercised by one who has
no particular formal education or
innate genius.
Examples
from ScriptureAt
dawn he appeared again in the
temple courts, where all the
people gathered around him,
and he sat down to teach them.
The teachers of the law and
the Pharisees brought in a
woman caught in adultery. They
made her stand before the
group and said to Jesus,
"Teacher, this woman was
caught in the act of adultery.
In the Law Moses commanded us
to stone such women. Now what
do you say?"
While
the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them,
"What do you think about the
Christ? Whose son is he?"
"'The
Lord said to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand until
I put your enemies under
your feet."'
The gift of wisdom is seen in the
early church, as well. A good
example is Stephen. Turn with me
to Acts 6, starting at verse 9.
Here, the church is beginning to
face significant
opposition.Opposition
arose, however, from members
of the Synagogue of the
Freedmen (as it was called) --
Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria
as well as the provinces of
Cilicia and Asia.
Those
with the gift of
wisdom
The
gift of faith
Now,
understand that faith is common
to every
Christian. We all have to have
faith. Ephesians 2:8: "For it is
by grace you have been saved,
through faith -- and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift
of God." It is also by faith that
we receive the Holy Spirit and
live our lives in the context of
the Kingdom of God.
I
believe -- I have faith -- that
God is still in the healing
business, that at times he
miraculously heals people, even
some who have no hope as far a
medical science is concerned. But
that isn't the gift of
faith.One
day Peter and John were going
up to the temple at the time
of prayer -- at three in the
afternoon. Now a man crippled
from birth was being carried
to the temple gate called
Beautiful, where he was put
every day to beg from those
going into the temple courts.
When he saw Peter and John
about to enter, he asked them
for money.
In
Lystra there sat a man
crippled in his feet, who was
lame from birth and had never
walked. He listened to Paul as
he was speaking.
People with this gift usually
aren't all that interested in the
details of a matter -- all the
challenges and complexities and
the history. They just have
absolute confidence that God will
act.
One more thing. I put these three
together in one sermon because
they often work together. But
actually faith works with
all
other spiritual gifts, especially
the verbal gifts. We must have
faith that God is indeed using us
before we will open our mouth to
speak in tongues or give a word
of prophecy, exhortation,
knowledge, or wisdom. Faith is
necessary for all these other
things.
Seek
and surrender
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020721a: Spiritual Gifts in
Corporate Worship, part
8.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado