The Gift of a Word of Knowledge

I was involved in another prophetic experience that I think has some
great lessons. It happened when I was flying our ministry plane to
Nashville, Tenn., with some of our musicians to do some recording.

After taxing
to the General Aviation ramp, a line girl directed us to a parking spot.
After we deplaned, the wife of one of our musicians said to the line
girl as she walked past her, “You get along with animals better than you
do people—you should have been a vet.” The line girl looked stunned,
and I couldn’t help wondering if this had insulted her.

Our team left with their ride, which had been waiting to take
them to the recording studio. Before I left, I gave my fuel order at the
service desk when the line girl came in and blurted out, “Was that girl
with you a psychic?” I said, “No, but why do you ask?” She told me that
when she was parking our plane she was thinking about how she gets
along better with animals than she does people and that she should have
become a vet. That’s when the musician’s wife spoke to her.

It was just a small terminal, and this conversation was so loud
that everyone in the terminal looked intently at us. I explained how
this lady was a Christian, and how Christ loves all people and has a
plan for their lives, and sometimes He gives His servants information
like this about them to confirm His will for their life. The line girl
was deeply moved and resolved to take seriously that she was “called” to
be a vet and to pursue it.

Then the other employees and passengers in the terminal started
asking if this girl was coming back, and could they get a message like
this? This led to a lot of ministry in the terminal over the next few
months as we went back and forth for this recording.

At that time, we
had not set up prophetic ministry teams, but if we had, I would have
sent a team over to park in that terminal for as long as there was an
opening for ministry. This helped us see the need for this, and now we
can be more responsive.

Almost every such opening that has led to a lot of fruit was the
result of someone just stepping out and taking initiative. We must keep
in mind that the Holy Spirit is the “Helper,” not the “Doer.” He will
not do anything without us, and we should not want to do anything
without Him.

Faith is basically the willingness to take initiative even
when you may not know the exact outcome. This is why true faith is not
faith in an outcome, but in the Person we put our trust in. We must seek
to simply do the will of the Lord, and not just seek results, because
results can be very different than we’re expecting. The same miracle
that has a great impact in one place may not have any in another place,
just as we see in the Lord’s own ministry.

You may be thinking that you would love to be able to hear that
clearly from the Lord and touch other people like this young lady did.
The truth is you can, and you possibly already do but just don’t realize
it. We get impressions from the Lord but think they are our own
imagination, or something else, and don’t act on them. We can’t give people prophetic gifts, but we can help
them recognize and stir up the gifts that they’ve been given. Every
Christian has the ability to know the voice of the Lord.

Stirring a city with a word of knowledge like Jesus did through
the woman at the well, or like Philip the evangelist in Acts 8, would be
wonderful. It is obvious that Philip was using the gift of a word of
knowledge because we’re told in Acts 8 that the people gave attention to
him because of the miracles that they “heard and saw.”

Then Philip was commanded by the Spirit to leave such a great
revival and go into the desert to share the gospel with just one man—the
Ethiopian eunuch. That an evangelist, who all seem to thrive on crowds,
would be this obedient is almost as much of a miracle as him being
translated afterward. However, hundreds of years later when explorers
first entered Ethiopia they were astonished to find that the Christian
faith had preceded them. We won’t know until eternity how many were led
to salvation by Philip’s obedience and neither could Philip.

The point is that we cannot judge the fruit here—we must just
focus on obedience to the Holy Spirit. A single word of knowledge might
stir a city, a general aviation terminal, or just one person, and the
one person could bring more fruit than the others combined. Be obedient.

About the author: Rick Joyner is the founder and executive director of MorningStar Publications and Ministries (morningstarministries.org) based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also the author of numerous books, including the best-selling The Final Quest and a recently updated version of Overcoming Evil in the Last Days (Destiny Image).