The Word of Wisdom By Smith Wigglesworth

The Word of Wisdom By Smith Wigglesworth

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. —1 Corinthians 12:8

God bless you! When He blesses, no one can curse. When God is with you, it is impossible for anyone to be against you (Rom. 8:31). When God has put His hand upon you, every way will open with blessing to others. The greatest thing that God has allowed us to come into is the plan of distributing His blessing to others.

“I will bless you and…you shall be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2). When we know the power of almighty God, we never need to be afraid of any weapon that is formed against us (Isa. 54:17), believing that the Lord of Hosts will rise up and stand against the enemy. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways” (Deut. 28:7).

God’s power upon us, His wonderful blessing of us, His providential promise written down for us are to make us ready, every day and under all circumstances, to know that He who promised will surely fulfill. What a wonderful Christ! God has chosen a blessing for us in the midst of anything we encounter. The power of the Highest overshadows us, the glory of the Lord is behind us and before us. Who is able to withstand that almightiness!

God, breathe upon us so that we may be “endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49), enriched with all the enrichment of heaven, crowned with blessing. The Lord will lead us forth from victory to victory as His people. Oh, what a blessing to know that we are the fruit of the Lord! His people are the precious fruit of the earth. I am not afraid to say these things to you because I know God wants to bless you. Why should you go away without blessing when God has promised that you will have a portion that cannot be measured (John 3:34)? Why should you fear when God wants to remove fear? Are you ready? You say, “What for?” Oh, for His blessing that will fill your life, overflow you, change you.

Are you ready? Ready for what? To get a childlike simplicity and to look into the face of the Father and believe that all His promises are “Yes” and “Amen” (2 Cor. 1:20) to you.

Are you ready? Ready for what? To be awakened into that “Spirit of adoption” (Rom. 8:15) that believes all things and dares to ask the Father. Spiritual Gifts

We have carefully gone through a few verses in the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, so I hope you are well established in the thought that you are not to be ignorant about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God does not intend for you to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts: gifts that have revelation, that have divine knowledge, that have within them the power to deliver others and the power to pray through.

The gift of intercession, the gift of laying hands on the sick, the gift of prophecy, the gift of the word of wisdom, the gift of the word of knowledge, the gift of discerning spirits, the gift of tongues, and the gift of interpretation— all these are included in this one verse: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant” (1 Cor. 12:1).

So I implore you to think seriously in your heart— because you have to be in the world but not of it—that you need to be a personal manifestation of the living Christ. Just as Christ walked about the earth, you have to walk about as a child of God, with power and manifestation. People do not take time to read the Bible, so you have to be a walking epistle, “known and read by all men” (2 Cor. 3:2).

Seeing that this is so and that you have to correctly comprehend that Jesus is the Word and that you have to believe the Word of God and not change it because of people who have other opinions, take the Word of God. Yes, take the Word of God; it will furnish you as you stand strong in the Lord. It is there that you will find out that you do not need anything better; there is nothing better. It is there that you will find all you need: food for hunger, light for darkness, largeness of heart, conceptions of thought, and inspiration.

I like the words of Paul. They are beautiful, and they come forth so often by the power of the Spirit, such as this word: “Strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). This might of the Spirit can fill everybody, and it brings forth the revelation of the Word. The Giver, Then Gifts

We have clearly seen, I believe, why gifts were particularized, why there are varieties of gifts and varieties of positions in which to hold gifts. We must not forget that the Giver is to be received before the gifts. Salvation always precedes sanctification, and sanctification will always precede the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification prepares the body for the Holy Spirit, and when the body is rightly prepared for the Spirit, then it is the work of Jesus to baptize with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then makes Jesus King in your life; you regard Him as Lord and Master over all things, and you become submissive to Him in all things. You are not afraid to say, “You are mine! I love You!”

I love Him. He is so beautiful; He is so sweet; He is so loving; He is so kind! He never turns a deaf ear; He never leaves you in distress. He heals brokenheartedness; He liberates the captive; and for those who are down and out, He comes right into that place and lifts the burden. It is truly said of Him, “He came to His own and His own had no room for Him; but to as many as had room for Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God.” (See John 1:11–12.)

Thus I bring you again to the nature of sonship: it is grace bestowed, poured out, pressed through, or covering you, preserving you from all evil. It is boundless grace, grace that brings capability for your lack of ability, until God has you in His own mind and purpose.

The Gift of the Word of Wisdom

In 1 Corinthians 12:8, the Word of God tells us about the word of wisdom: “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit.” It does not say—and you must clearly understand it—it does not say “the gift of wisdom” but the gift of “the word of wisdom.” You have to “rightly [handle] the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15) because it will mean so much to us.

The gift of the word of wisdom is necessary in many instances. For example, when you want to build another church building, maybe larger than the one you are in, so that everybody can speak and be heard without any trouble, a word of wisdom is needed regarding how to build the place for God’s service.

A word of wisdom is necessary when you are faced with a choice and it is difficult for you to know in what direction to go. That word can come to you in a moment and prepare you for the right way.

The gift of the word of wisdom is meant for a needy hour when you are under great stress concerning some business transaction; provided it is a godly transaction, you can ask God what to do and you will receive wisdom along two lines.

It may come through the gift of the word of wisdom, or it may come forth just because the power of the Holy Spirit is upon you. I have been trying to show you that if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can manifest any gift. At the same time, you are not to forget that the Word of God urges you to desire earnestly the best gifts; so while the best gift might be to you the word of wisdom, or some other gift, you should not be lacking in any gift.

That is a remarkable statement for me to make, but I declare to you that Scripture lends itself to me to be extravagant. When God speaks to me He says, “Anything you ask.” (See John 15:7.) When God is speaking of the world’s salvation He says, “Whosoever believes.” (See John 3:16.) So I have an extravagant God with extravagant language to make me an extravagant person—in wisdom. If you have extravagance without wisdom, you will know very well that it is going to be of no profit. You have to learn not to be extravagant in this way so that you will not waste anything, and you have to learn above all things that you have to be out and God has to be in. The trouble with so many people is that they have never gotten out so He could get in. But if God ever gets in, you will first have gotten out, never to come in anymore.

To this end, we pray that God will show us now why we really need the word of wisdom and how we may be in a place in which we will surely know it is of God. I am going to give you an example of the word of wisdom through an experience I had, and it will help you more than anything else.

A Questionable Word and a Word of Wisdom

One day I went out of my house and saw a friend of mine named John who lived opposite me. He crossed the road, came up to me, and said, “Now, Smith, how are you?”

“Very well, John,” I said.

“Well,” he said, “my wife and I have been thinking and praying and talking together about selling our house, and every time we think about it in any way, your name is the only one we think about.”

That was a strange thing to me.

“Will you buy it?” he asked.

Now, if you remember, when David went wrong he only went wrong because he violated the holy communion and knowledge of what kept him. What was it? What was the word that would have saved him? “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exod. 20:17). He had to break that law to commit sin.

I was not dealing with a sin; however, looking back, I see that there were many questionable things about the situation, so that if I had thought about it for a moment, I would have been saved from many weeks of brokenheartedness and sorrow.

What was the first thing that I should have asked myself? “Can I live in two houses? No. Well, then, one is sufficient.”

The next thing was, “Do I have the money to buy the house? No.”

That is sufficient in itself, for God does not want any person to be in debt, and when you learn that secret, it will save you from thousands of sleepless nights. But I was like many people; we are all learning, and none of us is perfect. However, I do thank God that we are called to perfection, whether we come into it at once or not. If you miss the mark of holiness ten times a day, fortify yourself to believe that God intends for you to be holy, and then stand again. Do not give in when you miss the mark. There is a saying that goes something like this: “No man fails to succeed in life because he makes a blunder; it is when he makes the blunder twice.” No person who fails once loses his “high calling” (Phil. 3:14 kjv). Therefore, the Word of God says that when you repent with godly repentance, you will never do the same thing again. (See 2 Corinthians 7:9–11.)

It is not for you to give in; you have to fortify yourself. The day is young; the opportunities are tremendously large. May God help you not to give in. Believe that God can make you new and turn you into another person. Now, what was the trouble with me? It was that I didn’t discuss this transaction with God. Many of you are in the same place. What do we do afterward? We begin working our way out. So I began working this thing out. “How much will you take for it?” I asked.

He named the price. I thought to myself—this was a human thought—“Now, the banking society will give me all I want. They are well acquainted with me; that will be no trouble.”

So the loan officer came to look over the house. “It is a beautiful house,” he said. “It is very reasonable. You will lose nothing on this if you ever sell it. It is well worth the money. But I cannot give you within five hundred dollars of what you need.”

I did not have five hundred dollars; I couldn’t get it out of the business I had at that time, so I still tried a human way. I did not go to God. If I had, I could have gotten out of it. But I tried to work my way out. Why? Because I knew

I was wrong from the beginning.

The first thing I did was to try my relatives. Have you ever done that? What was wrong? They were all so pleased to see me, but I was either a bit too soon or a little bit too late; I absolutely just missed it. They all wanted to lend me the money, but I was there at the wrong time. I tell you, every time I saw a relative, I had a Turkish bath without paying for it.

I had another human plan then: I tried my friends. The same thing happened.

Then I went to my lovely wife. Oh, she was a darling! She was holy! I went to her and I said, “Oh, Mother, I am in a hard place.”

“I know,” she said. “I will tell you what you have never done, my dear.”

“What?”

“You have never gone to God once about this thing.” That is the secret. When you get out of the will of God, then you try your own way.

So then I knew she knew, and I knew what I would get if I went to prayer.

“All right, my dear, I will go pray.”

It is lovely to have a place to go in which to pray—those places where you open your eyes to see if you can see Him in reality because He is so near. Ah, to walk with God! “Father,” I said, “You know all about it. If you will forgive me this time, I will never trouble you again as long as I live with anything like this.”

And then came the word of wisdom. He has it. And yet it was the most ridiculous word I ever heard in all my life. The Lord said, “Go see Brother Webster.”

I came downstairs. I said, “He has spoken.”

“I knew He would.”

“Yes, but you see He said such a ridiculous thing.”

“Believe it,” she said. “It will be all right. When God speaks, you know it means it is all right.”

“But Mother, you could hardly think it could be right. He has told me to go see Brother Webster.”

“Go,” she said.

Brother Webster was a man who kilned lime. The most he ever got per week, to my knowledge, was $3.50. He wore corduroy trousers and a pair of big work boots. But he was a godly man.

Early in the morning, I jumped onto my bicycle and went to his house. I got there at eight o’clock.

“Why, Brother Wigglesworth, what brings you so early?” he asked.

“I was speaking to the Lord last night about a little trouble,” I said, “and He told me to come and see you.”

“If that is the case,” he said, “we will go down to my house and talk to the Lord.”

We went to the house and he locked the door.

“Now, tell me,” he said.

“Well, three weeks ago I arranged to buy a house. I found out I was short five hundred dollars. I have tried everything I know and have failed. My wife told me last night to go to God, and while I was there God said, ‘Go see Brother Webster,’ so here I am.”

“How long have you needed it?”

“Three weeks.”

“And you have never come to see me before?”

“No, God never told me.”

I could have been able to know the next day if I had gone to God, but I tried my way and went to every man possible without going straight to God. I hope you won’t do that now that you are to have the word of wisdom God is going to give you.

Brother Webster said to me, “For twenty years I have been putting aside a little more than half a dollar a week into a cooperative society. Three weeks ago they told me that I had five hundred dollars and that I must take it out because I was not doing business with them. I brought it home. I put it under the mattresses, under the floor boards, in the ceiling, everywhere. Oh, I have been so troubled by it! If it will do you any good, you can have it.”

He knows it all, He knows it all,

My Father knows it all;

Your bitter tears, how oft they flow,

He knows, my Father knows it all.

I would like to change that verse somewhat. I will sing it

the way God changed it for me:

He knows it all, He knows it all,

My Father knows it all;

The joy that comes and overflows,

He knows, my Father sends it all.

Yes, He knows. Glory to God!

“I had so much trouble,” Brother Webster said, “that I took it to the bank yesterday to get rid of it. If I can get it out today, you can have it.”

He went to the bank and asked, “How much can I have?”

“Why, it is your own,” they said. “You can have it all.” He came out, gave it to me, and said, “There it is! If it is as much blessing to you as it has been trouble to me, you will have a lot of blessing.”

Yes, beloved, He knows just what you need. Don’t you know that if I had gone to the right place right away, I would never have been in trouble? What I ought to have known was this: there was no need for the house at all. I could not rest. I got rid of the house and took the money back to Brother Webster and said, “Take it back; take the money back. It will be trouble to me if I keep that money; take it.”

Oh, to be in the will of God! Don’t you see, beloved, there is the word, the word of wisdom. One word is sufficient; you don’t need a lot. One little word from God is all you require. You can count on it; it will never fail. It will bring forth what God has desired. May the Lord give wisdom to you so that you may “rightly [handle] the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), walk in the “fear of the Lord” (2 Chron. 19:7), and be an example to other believers (1 Tim. 4:12). Never take advantage of the Holy Spirit, but allow the Holy Spirit to take advantage of you.

I have come to a conclusion that is very beautiful, in my estimation. I once thought I possessed the Holy Spirit, but I have come to the conclusion that He has to be entirely the Possessor of me.

God can tame your tongue. God can so reserve you for Himself that your entire body will be operating in the Spirit.

The Lord of Hosts is in the place, waiting to change the human race and fit it for a heavenly place.