Messages or words of knowledge, from God,
as experienced in the Church.
Real life examples of these gifts of the Spirit. Analysed.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Please quickly read the article, “Experiencing the Holy Spirit” that introduces this subsection, “Gifts of the Spirit” on the website.
Another article, “Is this ‘Holy Spirit’ stuff real?” explains how each of us can analyse the outcomes of so-called gifts and assess their genuineness.
Now, this particular article offers details about ‘Messages of knowledge’ that can be received from an ‘anointed’ Christian who has this gift. I explain a bit more about it below.
And I have no doubt that all this ‘Holy Spirit’ stuff looks – to anyone who has had no contact with this area of the Christian Church – like it came from planet Mars! But it actually began in the first century AD, as documented in the Bible, and it is now happening again.
This whole website has been developed by an analytical minded person – a now retired, experienced, qualified and senior auditor – over a period of many years. I must add that it happened with the help of a supporting team of qualified (mostly clergy) advisors. It has been designed to guide ‘thinking people’ in their journey of faith. For the who’s, how’s and why’s of this website please click here.
“Messages of knowledge”, also referred to as “words of knowledge”, and other ‘advisory gifts’ from the Spirit such as the gift of “Prophecy”, are mentioned in the Bible’s New Testament [1Corinthians:12]. Today, they are quite commonly witnessed within the Pentecostal/ Charismatic movement around the world.
Christians within the ‘movement’, who possess these gifts, are used by God as a conduit/ channel to provide guidance, directives or advice to others. These gifts like all the others mentioned in 1Corinthians:12 are used by God to edify the Church; are used in effect by the Lord to draw people to Jesus etc. And they are also used by the Spirit to further build faith and belief for those who are already members of the Church.
2. HOW MESSAGES WORK
In effect, an ‘anointed’ member of the church congregation, who possesses the gift of ‘messages of knowledge’, knows they have received a message from the Spirit in their mind. The member is also told who is to receive that message. So, they then give the message to that person, or even the entire church fellowship if that is what the Spirit has told them to do.
Of course these gifted members of the church can even receive messages for people outside of their church. These messages can just arrive in their minds, at any time in their daily lives, with a clear understanding of who they are to be given to.
3. EVALUATING MESSAGES
The messages from the Spirit, passed through a gifted Christian from within the movement, are easily recognised as real when passed on to you. They are simply about YOU. They are received so as to encourage YOU, direct YOU or guide YOU, in life.
It is normally obvious that the person passing on the message would completely lack all knowledge about the subject they are speaking about. The message, if genuine, will on the other hand be very meaningful to the person receiving it.
In essence, these messages hit home hard! You ‘dash well’ know that no one, other than God, could be behind what has just happened. And trust me that is very inspiring!
As in the previous article “Prophecy”, I will give you some examples of ‘messages’ that I have both witnessed other people receiving and have experienced for myself.
4. MESSAGE I WITNESSED
The best example of a message from the Lord that I have witnessed was given to somebody else (i.e. not me). That person receiving it was a fellow member, and lay minister, of my church at the time. A pastor, who was a guest at our evening service, delivered the message. As explained in the previous article, he had been invited by our own church leader to share his gift with us. The pastor knew nothing about those of us who were there.
4.1 The delivered message
The pastor pointed to the woman, mentioned above, to catch her attention. Clearly, he didn’t know her name. He told her that she herself ‘saw little value in her role’ in our church. In other words, she thought she was pretty useless to us. Then he started to explain beautifully, with Biblical and poetic words, how wrong she was. The message compared her to ‘a stepping stone to greater faith’, for all those people who interacted with her in our church. Indeed when they did use that ‘stepping stone’ they were aware of a beautiful aroma (of an ancient ‘essential oil’) that inspired them to continue onwards positively in their own journeys.
The message further explained God’s loving gratitude to her. So yes, very poetic and inspiring! And I mean to all of us there.
4.2 The message’s effect
Figuratively it was all so true, from my experiences of her. And clearly, the message was so encouraging to her. She was not close enough for me to see whether there were tears in her eyes. But the expression on her face made it clear she had been: reassured of her value to us fellow church members; encouraged to continue her work within the parish.
And without doubt she now KNEW that she was loved, and appreciated, by the Lord for what she was doing.
Obviously, as a committed Christian at the time, I understood the Bible’s message about God’s love for each of us. And Jesus’ life on earth, ‘as described‘ within the Bible, clearly ‘personified’ that love, i.e. he died for each of us, so as to pay for our sins. But when you hear an actual verbal ‘outpouring’ of God’s love for one of his faithful followers through the words of a ‘gifted’ person – in REAL LIFE like that – then it certainly brings home the Bible’s ‘message of love’.
Of course messages of knowledge like that, are often framed in a way that ‘clearly’ helps others listening there to know the actual words are justified. And they have been clearly earned by the person receiving them! We know those words, in effect, have been truly directed to a fellow churchgoer who we personally know! And those words absolutely have a sound basis.
5. MESSAGES THAT I RECEIVED
Now for some examples of ‘messages’ that have come my way.
5.1 The first example
Please note that we are never embarrassed by God if these messages or ‘words’ are past on to us verbally in front of our fellowship of faith. I was, for example, informed by God through that visiting pastor that I often “analysed things too deeply”, particularly the Bible’s New Testament. That one was ‘spot on’. I have highlighted my analytical nature throughout this website.
My church friends laughed. They knew me all too well I am afraid. And I laughed along with them. Yes, we all could truly accept and be uplifted by that message which had been directed to me.
The ‘Spirit’s message’ went on to tell me that I needed to look at Bible scriptures in a different way. Rather than just deeply analyse the wording there, I should ‘place myself’ in the stories and absorb the nature of events, so as to get a better understanding of underlying messages. After that advice I did start to look at the New Testament with ‘new eyes’. As indicated already, I had never before met the pastor who past on the message.
5.2 The second example
I mention in another article (“Mysticism evaluated”) how I had received advice, through a ‘pastor’ in the movement. Again, the pastor did not know me at all.
In this particular message, I was told that earlier ‘mystical experiences‘ of mine, during religious meditation, had indeed led me to genuine ‘encounters’ with God’s presence there.
Now I had ‘assumed’ it had been God’s presence that I had recognised, quite powerfully, but I could not actually prove it for myself at the time. (That is, Mr Analytical needed the evidence to be more solid.)
The pastor’s message/ words of knowledge actually began with these words, “And YOU, have known God in a way that non-one else here has …” And that did get my attention! So, it was made very clear through the rest of the message that God was referring to those earlier mystical experiences.
Yes, ten years after my mystical experience, here was God reassuring me that it really had been him after-all that I had experienced through his actual spiritual presence.
5.3 The third example
This example is, I think, worth sharing with you as well. It demonstrates how God can enter into our day-to-day lives (as faithful Christians) … to engage with us there.
I was under a lot of stress, thirty odd years ago. At the time, I had taken on a new demanding job (a complete change in career path) and was simultaneously building a new family home as an ‘owner-builder’. Ongoing deadlines for both were intense, and as a result I was in a state of continual anxiety.
God chose to get involved, even though I had not asked him to do so, i.e. ‘through prayer‘. He selected one of my old friends, a member of the ‘movement’ who had been given ‘gifts’ by the Spirit. My friend had not been in contact with me for some time, but the Lord asked him to give me a ‘message’. And look, my friend had absolutely no opportunity to know of my stressful situation. That person, is incidentally now one of my valued ‘advisory team‘.
So, my friend met me at my workplace and, although unsure about its meaning, said that he had a ‘message’ for me from the Lord. The message was, “You don’t have any need to be so stressed. The Lord will help you with all your problems. Just trust him” Truthfully, I should have known to do just that, but stress does strange things to our normal behaviour.
A flush of relief seized me, even as I heard those words. That home building programme fell into place, like a dream really, after that. And a number of ‘prayers of request‘ made by me, during home construction, were also answered with strong positive outcomes I might add. (I think I could actually write a complete article on just those events.) Responsibilities, in that new job of mine, certainly became much easier to manage as well.
Events like that, although small in comparison to some other life experiences, have the ability to create large increases in personal faith and belief, together with trust, in the Lord.
6. CONCLUSION
As I mentioned in the previous article, “Prophecy”, Christians with these types of gifts (prophecy and messages of wisdom) often mix them up. I guess I should really say that God mixes them up. Deliberately too, mind you! For a starter, one message of prophecy may be dependent on some other information being passed on in the form of a message of knowledge.
Indeed, I am still not totally sure whether “The third example” above was a ‘message’ or a ‘prophecy’. I am referring to the absolutely incredible way things fell into place for me afterwards. I accepted that God had just orchestrated (set-up) so many of the positive events that occurred. My rational/ analytical mind considered that the odds involved with all this stuff ‘coming together’ was virtually impossible. I mean it was totally ‘more of the same’, ‘more of the same’, ‘more of the same’ etc. Ballistic odds!
And rest assured, the Lord does make it clear in these messages what is expected of us etc.
‘Messages’ are basically about YOUR life. They will provide guidance, assistance and reassurance for use by YOU.
Yes, it can be so ‘hard to swallow’ for beginners. But, again, if you personally want clear personal evidence of God’s presence in your life journey, then you can open yourself to this kind of stuff by ‘joining the movement‘.
Now let us continue to the next article, “Speaking in tongues”.