Simply put, I’m just not sure. I’m not sure we’ve got it right. I’m not sure we’re describing it right. I’m not convinced.
For the past few decades I have been part of the church family who rightly expects the Gifts of the Spirit to be exercised in church life today, just as they were in the first Christian communities. It’s where I belong. Nothing tells me that they were only useful for an apostolic era and that they are now no longer valid or needed. If anything they are needed now more than ever and I long for other parts of the church to join us as we experience and share God’s active Spiritual Gifting building each other up.
But having said this I am not uncritical of it all – far from it. And one thing that I am increasingly unconvinced about is the way we conceive and present ‘Words of Knowledge’.
Taking my charismatic reading glasses off for a moment, re-reading 1 Corinthians 12 goes like this…
The NIV translates Paul’s greek in this way:
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
Note the phrase ‘message of’ used before ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’.
Now what is a message of wisdom and a message of knowledge?
In the church today a message of knowledge, often linked to and not very clearly distinguished from the gift of ‘prophecy’, is the same kind of thing a Spiritualist minister has. It is the kind of knowing about something that is hidden from view. A spiritual knowing of something that normal people couldn’t know. Mostly this comes out when people are about to pray for healing so that the person ministering reads out a number of words of knowledge about people in the room (“there’s someone here who…”) and asks for those people to indicate who they are and invites them to receive prayer.
Now, on the one hand I am completely happy that God in his grace and in his eagerness to encourage people to trust him, might use this way of communicating to us. Indeed, as many have noticed, Jesus himself seemed to have this ability on a few occasions – most notably the woman at the well (knowing that she was not married).
At meetings today, then, people pray for ‘words of knowledge’, hoping that God will give them specific details about people’s lives that will enable them to open themselves to prayer. in larger meetings this is often the major way praying for healing is expressed. Specific words are given and specific healings are asked for. A more recent for of all this is ‘Treasure Hunting’ where Christians pray asking God to give them specific people to look out for. Then they go out on to the streets looking for these strangers, and if they see them, will tell them that they are their ‘treasure’ and that God has something for them.
But I’m not convinced. I’m not sure this is what Paul was talking about and I’m not sure it’s how God normally acts.
In Jesus’ ministry (our primary model) we see Jesus healing all the time. Yet, was there any occasion where Jesus acted like we do? Did he ever anticipate a healing with a word of knowledge? I can’t find one. Instead he simply healed people, asking them what they had wrong with them and healing them through his own word of authority. Indeed, he asked a blind person, obviously blind I imagine, to describe what he wanted God to do for him.
Did Jesus ever do treasure hunting? Not according to the gospels. Did he ever encourage his disciples to do it? No. Instead he simply told them to go to people’s homes and towns, and heal people who were ill or sick. Did he ever address the crowd and say something like, “There’s someone here with a pain in their left arm”, or “a bowel complaint”… or whatever? No. Instead he let people bring to him their sick friends, letting them tell him what was the problem… and then he healed them.
In Spiritualist churches we see many people convinced by the mystical knowledge of the seer, conned into believing that they really do know something when tests show that in fact they are as wrong as often if not more that they are right. Isn’t our dependence on this kind of seeing also similarly problematic. I am sure that I not the first skeptic in a room of 500 (or even 100) to doubt the words of knowledge given from the front. If God is ‘here to heal’, then why not simply ask people who are ill, and know that themselves, to come forward and receive healing. Why would God complicate things by adding a middle man?
Knowledge is important and Jesus had specific spiritual knowledge to bring us. As Dallas Willard points out very brilliantly Jesus knew things that we don’t about the way things work in reality in this world. He knew that there was nothing to fear if God is with us and that trust is the most appropriate response to this knowledge. Hence we consider the flowers and the birds… Jesus knew that judgement was around the corner for the people of Israel if they continued to believe that God’s biggest concern was to overthrow the Romans. Jesus knew that words had power – power to heal and power to forgive. He knew that he had the words of eternal life.
The spiritual gift of knowing stuff and helping others to know it too is not about knowing where people’s bodies are in pain. It is much more about knowing God, how he works in the world and how great is his love for people. This gift of knowing something is far more valuable and more urgently needed in our churches.
Let us avoid the show of knowledge and return to the reality of letting people with real knowledge of God’s world build us up and show us the way forward.
May God give us more messages of knowledge than ever.
What do you think?
GROWING ENTHUSIASM 
HI there,
Just came upon your site today, and read your blog entry entitled “when is a word of knowledge a word of knowledge”.
Loved it.
Completely agree about words of knowledge- they’re given when they’re given, but to pray to get them, and make that a focus as in treasure hunting—not what was intended. It so does not sit well with me. It’s not meant to be a show of “let me get info from God so I can perform healings”. That’s missing the mark, at least that’s what my gut tells me.
On the topic of healing, I’ve seen, and been apart of healings. True, and undeniable healings. They were conducted in a straight forward “I need healing, prayer for healing performed, and healed” manner. No spectacle, or show. No treasure hunting. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, God performed miracles.
Jesus healed in that manner, and encouraged the prophets to emulate Him (Mathew 17:14-20 )
I personally believe that in these end times, genuine healings done in that manner will prove to be a convincing occurrence to those who are not saved.
Just my thoughts, and wanted to thank you for a well written entry!
Thanks Sher for your comment 🙂 I’m glad it struck a chord. It is good to keep thinking and talking about things. I too have seen God heal in very normal and straight forward ways… which is amazing. I guess, perhaps like you and others, I am still thinking about it all.
Just wondered if you’d seen Derren Brown’s recent programme on the faith healing “industry” in the US? Was this post inspired by it? I wouldn’t recommend it to people who might not handle a challenge to their faith, but sounds line it’s right up your street and it may explain some of what you see and doubt.
Hi
Yes I did see the programme, and thought it really interesting. I’m not sure it represented the charismatic movement that I am part of in an accurate light however, as I don’t know anyone who would fraudulently slip a shoe to make it appear that a leg had been healed or who would use previous knowledge gained from a form to infer they had a ‘word of knowledge’ for a person. But I am interested in the group dynamic that is so powerful in effecting our responses and I thought it shone some light on the power of the crowd.
My post wasn’t directly inspired by the programme, it’s just that I am not sure that those of us who long for God to heal need to make ‘words of knowledge’, in the way they are currently expressed, as the primary way of ‘doing ministry’. I’m not against ‘words’ of any kind – just wondering if they are the primary way we ought to lead into praying for healing and especially within large meetings of people.
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Hi
I do think that words of knowledge used in the right way can encourage people who might not think that there illness or need is important enough to revive prayer.
I have experienced services where it seemed that these were planted to build up excitement and then healing has just been a production line.
I believe that the Spirit does give us guidance to help others, but this should always be to bring Him glory not us. SO I am not happy when this becomes the whole focus of a service rather than just part of it. When used that way I do think that it encourages and opens people up to receive healing from God.
my Dad has a catholic back round and received words of knowledge for him through the 700 club. The ones that were needed were that he was told that because he had been a smoker most of his life and felt responsible for his disease, he did not think God would heal him but that God was, tenderly, lovingly, and completely healing him. That came after the first word of knowledge that day that had so specifically characterized his cancer. I know he was thinking when he heard the first words that that sounded just like him but it could not be for him because he did this to himself. So, to hear that second word of knowledge, and knowing that God saw right into his whole thought process, was critical to him having the faith to believe enough to receive healing. He even felt the warmth in his body. Is he healed? He eats better, sleeps, better, and breaths better. He is still going through all the treatments they have set up for him. Had it been me with my penecostal back round I would have jumped up and said “That’s me! Thank you God for healing me!” and never looked back. I would have walked by faith and not by sight from that point forward. My Dad’s treatments are for symptom management alone because he has stage 4 lung cancer and they can’t cure him. He still hopes they will be able to find a clinical trial for him to participate in. I am at this point wondering if a person can lose a healing that was meant for them by not understanding how to receive a word of knowledge. I felt the Holy Spirit during that episode and knew God was doing something and even my Dad knows something happened that day but won’t claim he is healed until the doctors say so. My question that has me searching out information and is why I stumbled across this site is: If someone saw God healing someone through a word of knowledge and there is evidence in the person by the feeling of warmth going through their body and them knowing that “something happened” can that event be changed by the person not accepting the words at face value and praising God for what he has already done? Did God heal Dad that day or was it just what God wanted to do but was not able to do because of a spirit of unbelief that caused my Dad to think that healing that way would be too good to be true. He thinks if God is going to heal him it will be through getting into the right clinical trial. What do you think? What I know for sure is that God was involved that day. Those words of knowledge were for my Dad. They said God was healing his cancer. Is it a done deal or Did Dad’s unbelief change what could have been? This happened March 7th and today is March 29th. The chest xrays they take frequently for positioning of radiation did not make them say, something is wrong, there is nothing here. They do not discuss the xrays with Dad but I would sure think they would notice missing tumors. He is done with radiation and has begun chemotherapy treatments so there won’t be more xrays. If he was healed it would be hard to tell because his health improvements could come from tumor shrinkage and he will still not feel wonderful due to the treatments.
Activation is the word, that’s what the word of knowledge does it encourage
The person who’s sick or experiencing pain and health issues. It also establish the Pastor prophet in his ministry that God is using him to bring deliverance, it’s not a show or a game it’s serious business. Here’s how I got a word of knowledge I had a shooting pain in my knee on Saturday morning until I was afraid for my health, then a voice spoke to me saying the pain is for someone else, someone that will be in service on Sunday I said wow ok being a pastor after the message that Sunday I said there’s someone in here with a knee problem before I was finish saying it the person step to the front for prayer instantly. It’s easy to just tell the sick to come forth but remember some folks will try and hide their illness because of pride but when the Holy Spirit Pin point the situation it’s always powerful, and to do this type of work one must be in fasting and praying and praising and studying the word of God. the church needs all the gift operating in the Church in these last days more than ever.
Regards
Pastor A. Thomas