The Word of Knowledge

Paul writes in 1 COR 12:8 about the gift of the 'word of knowledge'. John Wimber defines this gift as "God revealing facts about a situation concerning which the person (ministering) had no previous knowledge"(Power Healing). Through them God will often reveal where a person has pain or where specifically they need healing. Sometimes a word of knowledge seems very general (i.e. when someone gets the word for 'lower back pain' and there are 35 people present) while at other times it can be much more specific. (i.e. lower back pain comes when you are with a one or two individuals). The latter of course is far more risky to give:)

This past week I have had several times where God gave me some specific words of knowledge which really encouraged me. On one occasion I was sitting with 3 Omani Muslim men when the Lord gave me a word that one of them had pain in the left knee. When I inquired, one did have that problem, and I told him that God wanted to heal him. Until now he hasn't given me the chance to pray, but they were a bit shocked at the way this Christian was able to 'know' that.

Secondly, I was with an Iraqi Muslim man on another occasion. He has a significant degree of deafness in both of his ears, which I was offering to pray for. He was very interested to receive healing prayer, especially after sharing some testimonies of God healing deafness that we had seen. While we were leaving, a very distinct word of knowledge came about a "right knee". I just asked him directly, "By the way, what's wrong with your right knee"? He said, "Oh, you are very attentive". I told him that I noticed nothing in the way he walked that would indicate a knee problem. I explained it was a word of knowledge and that the Lord was going to heal his right knee FIRST when I came to pray for his ears. For both of us, the result of the word of knowledge was a release of faith. Something I definitely want more of as I go to pray for his deafness to be healed!!

Finally, in one of the church meetings we had, the Lord gave me two very specific words of knowledge back to back for two women. The first woman had responded to two general words of knowledge that I had given earlier in the meeting and the Lord had healed her of both problems. While I was praying for her for the release of gifts, I got a word a knowledge that she had a problem in her left knee - when I asked her she was a bit surprised. It was related to her having diabetes. It was hurting at that very moment. We prayed and the Lord took away all the pain. First there were the two general words (given to the church), which resulted in her being healed, and then the specific word for her alone which also resulted in a healing. Another woman was watching while we prayed.

She came over and had pain all throughout the left side of her body. She was quite young and it was unusual. I began to pray for her, when all of sudden a word of knowledge came about the 'middle of back on the left side'. I stopped praying for her left side and asked her about the back pain. She verified that she had back pain in that very spot. We prayed - and all the pain left almost immediately. After that, with a new release of faith and expectation, I prayed again for the pain that was all throughout the left part of her body and the Lord completely took it all away. She testified that she was completely healed.

So, there you have my experiences this week with the word of knowledge. They don't always come a specifically as they did in case as the last two women, wherein I was with one person and the word came that related to them personally. I wish they did always come that way. Of course, as good "fruit inspectors" we want to see the Kingdom come (and in these cases that meant physical healing). In each of these cases, there was good fruit produced - for the Muslims, they became far more interested in 'my message' when they saw the Lord speak through the words, and in the case of the Christian women, they faith grew and they received the healing touch of the Lord.