By The Spirit II

1Cor.12:³¹ “But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces) …” (AMPC)

Yesterday, we looked at the gifts of the Word of Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge enumerated in  1Cor.12:8. I cannot count the number of times or the number of people that have walked into my office wondering how I knew certain things, secret things. “If not that my wife and I discussed this on our way to church and we came in the same car. Then we walked into the church and you said exactly what we said in our car, I would have said that my wife had come to tell you.” I cannot count the number of times men have said this exact thing to me. That is the Word of Knowledge; it knows the things that you are hiding. There was a time in one of our meetings that God said there was someone present wearing beads around the waist and the beads were for seduction. How can anyone see the beads around anyone’s waist? The Word went forth, the ladies came out and God delivered them. You have to understand that the gift of the Word of Knowledge is available to you also. In business, someone is talking to you, but you can hear the lies – Word of Knowledge. You just know that it is a lie. In fact, sometimes you know the truth; so, the person is telling you ‘A’, but you are hearing ‘B’.

The Word of Knowledge is so amazing. What I am about to say next can sound funny to some people, but I hope you understand it. There is only one team I support, and that team is the Super Eagles. I have people that are close to me that think I am crazy. In their opinion, the Super Eagles are useless and hopeless, and they cannot understand why I support them. If you only support people because they are good, then what is the point? You only love your wife because she is good. You do not love her because she has a temper. Something is wrong with that. I hope you understand what I mean. I play sports; I do not pray to win. I fight to win. I have never gone to a game praying, “O God, let us win.” Why? The other people are also praying. So, prayer is not what determines who wins, at least not primarily. Except when God just wants to change things.

The Super Eagles were scheduled to play a match on a Saturday. Perhaps, God did not just want me to have a lot of heart ache while preaching on Sunday morning. On Friday, I was not praying, I was just sitting down, and I saw the score-line “2-0”. And I tried to change it, I tried to wield spiritual power. They said, “This one is FYI [for your information] only.” Note that I did not pray and ask, ‘God what is the score-line?’ and I am not saying people should not do that. I am just saying, it pleased God to say, ‘This boy is going to be very sad on Sunday morning. Let us tell him upfront so that he can prepare himself.’ These are the side benefits of the gift of the Word of Knowledge and not the purpose. The purpose is for the common good, for me to serve my brothers and sisters. But the same way the pipe does not remain dry as long as it is carrying water, similarly, the gift of the Word of Knowledge will benefit your life also.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, let it please You to give me the gift of the Word of knowledge so that I can serve God’s people and take His work forward, in Jesus Name. Amen!