The gifts of revelation are attributes given by God to the children of God with a certain purpose, where he shares his knowledge with the church to build it up and glorify his name. God grants this knowledge in a supernatural way and uses the person as an instrument to manifest each of these gifts of revelation.
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What are the revelation gifts?
The gifts of Revelation are those that the Holy Spirit uses to reveal to his Church in a supernatural way a knowledge that only he can give and that it is not possible to perceive humanly. As the word expresses it:
“For to him is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit… to another, discernment of spirits…” (1 Corinthians 12:8,10)
In this sense, these gifts help the Lord’s church to know situations that are hidden from our human limitations. Therefore, the gifts of revelation are known as the eyes of the Lord within the church.
However, these gifts are not attributed to all the children of God, but each person develops different gifts depending on the purpose that the Lord has. So when he grants us this privilege we must take advantage of it in the best way and activate the power of God in us to glorify only him. We must be careful of vainglory and of giving ourselves merits that do not correspond to us, since this is not to God’s liking.
3 gifts of revelation: God’s attributes for his children
As previously stated, the gifts of revelation are granted in order to know the purpose that God has through supernatural events that highlight his power and majesty in the earthly world. Among these gifts we find:
1.- Word of Science
The word science is related to the knowledge that God supernaturally gives us regarding a specific event that can be from the past or the present. Knowledge comes from the Greek gnosis (γνῶσις) which describes the information provided related to a given topic.
In this way, the word of knowledge is that gift that is granted through the Holy Spirit, who communicates to the believer that he possesses the knowledge of revelation that allows him to know about facts of the past or present.
Depending on the context, it is a supernatural gift, which shows part of the science or knowledge of the Lord, who is Omniscient, so he shares with us part of his truth, of his knowledge about a fact that he wants to highlight.
In this sense, the gift of knowledge refers to God’s revelation about events that occurred in the past or that are occurring at this time. This knowledge is achieved supernaturally and transcends human limits. This can be seen in the following passage:
“And while Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him: Behold, three men are looking for you. Arise, then, and go down, and do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” (Acts 10: 19-20)
In this way, the revelation of that knowledge can be granted through a vision, a dream, a feeling inside, an audible voice, among others. But when it comes to the revelation of past or present events, we are before the gift of the Word of Science.
So the gift of science is part of the trinity of God, who is omniscient because he knows everything. He knows our thoughts and feelings.
In the same way, this word of God is not given for the exaltation of the person because it is purely divine, it does not come from human force but only from the Lord and it is used to build the church, which is the body of Christ.
The supernatural manifestations are attributed so that the person who has the gift of science can make known everything shown by God. It is a unique ability that manifests the limitless knowledge of the Lord.
2.- Word of Wisdom
Another of the gifts of revelation that the Lord bestows on his son is the gift of wisdom, in which he is given information regarding events that are going to occur in the future. This in order to alert the people and the churches to do the will of God.
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Within the churches, this gift is of great importance because through it we can be alert about the events that will happen in order to know how to act correctly, ask God for direction and intercede through prayer so that everything is under his control and we can cope with a certain situation, whether it is a negative or positive fact.
The term Wisdom comes from the Greek sophia (σοφία) and the definition is the same “wisdom”. This refers to that gift by which the Holy Spirit supernaturally reveals knowledge of events that will be confirmed in the future.
In this way, the word wisdom is a revelation in the spiritual realm that is given to believers in the event that a special need or a certain event occurs within the church or in a nation.
Through this word of wisdom, the people, church and nation warn us and manifest what should be done in a specific situation. In the word we can find different examples of this type of gift of wisdom:
“In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, stood up, giving to understand by the Spirit, that a great famine would come on all the inhabited earth; which happened in the time of Claudius. (Acts 11:27-38)
In this passage you can appreciate the manifestation of the gift of the word of wisdom, where it is pointed out that one of these prophets was Agabo who said that times of scarcity and famine would come.
It can be seen that this gift turns out to be very useful for the church, because through this gift, the disciples of Antioch were able to organize themselves to send help to the church in Judea. In the same way today it is important to listen carefully to the messages that the prophets have for the church of God.
However, it is also important to highlight that we must be aware of false prophets who reveal calamities that are false and what they do is harm the people, creating panic and leaving a bad testimony.
Likewise, this same prophet named Agabo appears announcing Paul’s suffering and imprisonment some time later, where the Holy Spirit does not prohibit him from going to Jerusalem, but does alert him to what will have to happen. This can be seen in the following biblical passage:
“And while we remained there some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea, who came to see us, took Paul’s girdle, and tying his hands and feet, said, This is what the Holy Spirit says: Thus shall the Jews in Jerusalem bind the The man whose belt this is, and they will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” (Acts 21:10-11)
Therefore, this gift can be used to warn the servants of God about facts regarding the ministry that has been given to them, in order to strengthen the will of the Lord, to alert them to any situation and confirm its purpose.
In this sense, it is first important to know that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and that the Lord is its source. So the children of God need his guidance at all times and we must ask him for wisdom from above.
When we speak of the gift of wisdom, we refer to an attribute of God and not of men, and it is instantly inspired by the Holy Spirit.
3.- Discernment of Spirits
It is the gift through which the Lord reveals what kind of spirit is at work in a given circumstance. It is the gift that manifests whether a supernatural fact comes from God or from the devil.
The term discernment comes from the Greek diákrisis (διάκρισις) and refers to the ability to clearly understand a particular event. The gift of discernment of spirits is the ability that God gives to some believers to know and differentiate if some manifestations are divine.
In this sense, through this gift, it is possible to discern if the miraculous fact is truly from the Holy Spirit or, on the contrary, if it is from hosts of evil. So this gift allows us to know when a spirit is evil. In this regard, the word warns us the following:“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1John 4:1).
In the word we can find different events in which the spirits were tested. We can find the case of Pablo, who found a girl who was possessed by the spirit of divination, which is an evil spirit. So he used the gift of discernment and was able to detect it and cast it out of her.
This young woman was not considered insane or crazy, but was seen with the ability to guess and predict the future, since the spirit that possessed her was that of divination. So people paid her masters for that divination service, with which she earned a lot of money.
But Paul had the gift of discernment and was able to identify the evil spirit, since those supernatural powers of divination did not come from God, but from the devil, so he rebuked him and cast him out right then and there. This can be seen in the following passage:
“It happened that while we were going to pray, a girl who had a spirit of divination met us, who gave her masters great profit by divining. She is she, following Paul and us, gave voices saying: These men are servants of the Most High God, who announce to you the way of salvation. And this he did for many days; but displeasing Paul, he turned and said: I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, that you come out of her. And she left at that very hour.” (Acts 16:16-18)
In this sense, the gift of discernment means seeing beyond what our eyes can see, and it is given to the person so that they can identify the spirit that is manifesting itself, be it in someone’s words or actions. This spirit can be evil or come from God.
In Paul’s case, he was able to discern that the girl’s spirit was evil, that it did not belong to God, and that is why he was able to cast it out of her body. So as Christians we must be able to identify the spirits so as not to be deceived and not receive anything that is not pleasing to the Lord.
Relationship between the gift of knowledge and the gift of Wisdom
When one speaks of these two gifts of revelation, the gift of knowledge and the gift of wisdom, one may come to think that they mean the same thing. However, it is important to clarify certain aspects around these two terms.
The two words come from the term “logos” which means “word” that refers to the essence of something or someone. Therefore, the wisdom that is given to the believer is little compared to the great wisdom that the Lord possesses.
Through this he calls us to be and do, that is, it must be put into practice and made to arrive at the right time, according to God’s direction and his perfect will.
For its part, the word of knowledge is when a believer is given a little knowledge of God, which is infinite. So…