Gift of Word of Wisdom

The first spiritual gift that 1 Corinthians 12:8 talks about is the word of wisdom, one of the revelation gifts. First of all I want to clarify that there is a difference between the Gift of the Holy Spirit that was given on the day of Pentecost evidenced by speaking in tongues and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit that God chooses to impart to believers according to his will for the edifying of the body of Christ (the Church). The gift of the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit) builds up the individual when they pray in tongues but the gifts of the Holy Ghost build up the body of believers. Both are essential and the church's function would be impaired and ineffective having one without the other. I would like to pause for a minute here and say that I ran a reference earlier on religious organizations and one thing they have at the top of the list are "by-laws". I understand that everything has to have rules and  be done decently and in order but sometimes our churches limit the power of God because of the by-laws, rules, and regulations. What I mean by that is some organizations only allow for certain parts of the New Testament scriptures to be part of their assembly and eliminate others. Yes, it is true that not everything is written for today when it comes to the law of Moses in the Old Testament. The law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and he ushered in grace. However, there are some parts of the Old Testament that we are supposed to keep and obey such as the Ten Commandments, for example. That still applies for today. But anyway, to move further in talking about the gifts, the Word of Wisdom is one of those things that are usually not on the program for the order of service in church. One reason being is because the gift of the word of wisdom always deals with future tense situations that have not happened yet but God reveals it to the believer and allows them to see or hear glimpses of what is to come. The reason this gift is so powerful but is often overlooked and pushed out of the church among religious folks is because majority of them are caught up in tradition and are comfortable with the same old same old. Word of wisdom provides something fresh and new to look forward to and it's hard to break the shell of hard-core Christians who think they already know. The believer who has the gift of the word of wisdom might be shunned or put out of certain clicks/groups in the church when the message they share has something to do with the impending judgment or wrath of God coming upon a person or territory because of sin. Many people mistake the word of wisdom as prophecy, but prophecy is nothing more than to provide exhortation, edification, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:4). Prophecy is not all about telling future events, but when people don't study the word, they will believe what has been passed down for years and accept it as right. Anyway, moving on. It is important that the believer who has the gift of the word of wisdom stay close to the Lord so they will not lose their sharpness or keeness in the Spirit when it comes to hearing the voice of the Lord. Notice I didn't say that they will lose the gift but I said they can lose the sharpness and that sharpness is what makes the operation of the gift accurate. Romans 11:29 says For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, meaning God gives the gifts according to his will without any invoking of the individual to get them on their own. But even though God does not take away the gift once he has granted it, the gift can become contaminated resulting in clairvoyance, which is a power to see things by the power of evil spirits rather than the Holy Spirit. People who fall into that category may have had the genuine gift of the word of wisdom that comes through the Holy Ghost but if they continue to backslide and fall away from truth then they will still be able to use the gift but it will most likely glorify fleshly things that please the carnal mind rather than spiritual things that bring peace, joy, love, and faith which glorifies God. Someone may have the question, "how to get the gift of the word of wisdom"? Well, first of all, the word of wisdom comes from God that he gives to the believer as he sees fit for them to use it in the body of Christ to provide a warning or just to give encouragement that helps the people be able to see beyond their present state and situation. Everything that God reveals through the word of wisdom might not be for the whole entire church body, but it might just be for one individual or a small group of people such as the pastor and deacons and board members of the church, or it could just be something that God wants to reveal to the individual about their own personal lives. Prayer in the known native language and praying in the Spirit (speaking in tongues) are two ways to get connected to the mind of God so he can reveal his will. Fasting is another way, because fasting allows you to set aside time just to meditate on God and spiritual things without being distracted from television, food/drink, sex (with a heterosexual spouse), games, social media, and any other things that soak up your attention and keeps you from focusing on God. Reading the bible daily and studying the scriptures prepares you to receive spirit gifts from God. And living a clean, holy life in the sight of man and God. In order for God to use a person effectively, the vessel that he is working through needs to be clean. One reason for this is because whenever God uses a person to share something they received through divine revelation of the gifts of word of wisdom and word of knowledge (these two gifts usually go together), then Satan will come to try to make them believe that what they just spoke was not from God at all, or he may tempt them to become proud and lifted up thinking they are worthy to have the gift. If a person is not living holy and seeking to please God in their daily lives, then they could easily fall prey to Satan's attacks and lose the effectiveness of the gift. Some of the signs of them losing the effectiveness are getting things wrong that never come to pass, having confused messages that glorify the flesh and the Spirit, speaking things that do not line up with the holy scriptures or the holy nature of God, and deception where they are deceived into believing they are right even when everybody else that hear the message know that it is wrong but they fail to acknowledge they're wrong. As I said earlier, first a person must be filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit and then these other gifts can operate more effective in their lives as they progress in prayer and seeking the will and mind of God. One thing about the Holy Spirit is that the signs will follow the believer (Mark 16:16-18), and the church has the right to measure any message that is given by word of wisdom by the written word of God because God is not going to contradict his word that is already written in order to give a word that is revealed. The two will always line up. That is not to say that everything given in a word of wisdom will be understood by the natural mind instantly, but over time if it is truly a word from God then out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, that word will be established and come to pass at the appointed time of God whether it be judgment or a promise of a blessing. Many times people discredit words uttered when it comes to future events because it has not happened even after so many years have gone by, but we must understand that God is not on our timetable and even if the full manifestation of a thing has not come to pass, when the message is really from the Lord, he will leave signals that point to the coming of the main event. It's just like when God told Abram that he and Sarai would have a son. Well, it didn't come to pass until 25 years later. They became discouraged over the long wait for the manifestation and took matters into their own hands but the promise still came to pass anyway and
God never forsook them but he kept blessing them until he fulfilled what he said. Another thing is that when a Spirit-filled believer gives a message through the word of wisdom and God is orchestrating it, it will produce a certain fear in the hearts of those who hear it. In other words, they will have a totally different feeling come over them than they would if just the Average Joe was talking. The real message will capture the minds of the people that causes them to continue to look forward to the happening of the thing. Only those who remain in tune to the Spirit of Christ will be able to endure until what was revealed in the Spirit by the gift of the word of wisdom is produced in the earth as it was foretold.