God is omniscient. He knows everything, and when He chooses, He gives a piece of that knowledge to believers. He sends us the gift of knowledge that we, or someone around us, can then use the gift of a word of wisdom to apply it to a situation. While we should always seek and study to increase in the knowledge of God, that is not the supernatural gift of the word of knowledge. The word of knowledge is one way God communicates to people through the inspired speech of a Spirit-filled believer. This “word” could also come via tongues and interpretation or through prophecy.
The Holy Spirit told Jesus about Nathaniel’s nature, the woman’s life story, and that Lazarus was dead. He could only know these things because the Holy Spirit descended on Him at His baptism.
Elisha, Ananias (the one who talked to Saul, not the one who held back money), Paul, and Peter could only know what they knew because of the Holy Spirit.
Today we have many saying that the Holy Spirit has gifted them with the word of knowledge, and it comes out that they just aren’t telling the truth. Do they think that they are speaking God’s knowledge? Maybe. I, personally, believe that at least some of them are saying something is from God when it really is to enrich themselves either monetarily or in their influence on others.
I heard quite a few folks this week saying that they received the gift of the word of knowledge concerning the war in Ukraine. Did they? I don’t know. While I absolutely believe that some of those claiming this gift could actually have it, do they all? I can say with certainty that they don’t all have it because some say things opposite of what another is saying.
How do you know what to believe? How do you know whether the knowledge that you or someone else has is from God?
God’s word tells us to test the Spirit and gives us ways to identify false knowledge.
1 Timothy 6:3 tells us that if anyone is claiming knowledge that does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and Godly teaching, then it is false.
A few weeks ago, I said that we don’t have to memorize the entirety of Scripture because of faith. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to know the information that Scripture contains. That, we have to know if we are going to be able to test the knowledge presented to us or the knowledge we ourselves think we have.
Test everything against Scripture; pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia, and concern yourselves with things you have control of while leaving the rest to God.
1 Corinthians 2:12-16