The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Knowledge

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2 KJV)

As God’s Church, we have made giant strides forward in our understanding of the Holy Spirit. One of these significant steps ahead is recognizing and acknowledging the Holy Spirit as a Person and not merely some divine force. But there is another step forward we need to take—we need to know Him as the spirit of wisdom or knowledge and not only as the spirit of power.

The Holy Spirit is, without any doubt, the power of God. And many Christians have no trouble with this aspect of the Spirit’s nature and operations. In fact, when many of us hear about the Holy Spirit, we typically think about power—miracles, falling under the power, gifts of the Spirit, casting out devils, etc.

However, He is also the spirit of knowledge or the spirit of wisdom. Jesus often described Him as the spirit of truth (John 16:13). Zechariah saw Him as the seven eyes (omniscience) upon the Messiah (Zechariah 3:9), and John saw Him as the seven eyes upon Jesus the Lamb (Revelation 5:6). As the spirit of knowledge, He brings knowledge to us, gives us the understanding to apprehend knowledge, and also the prudence to use knowledge for spiritual exploits.

To fully appreciate the role of the spirit of knowledge, we must first grasp how God’s power works beautifully with His wisdom. His power and wisdom are the two hands He uses to do what He does. While wisdom is rooted in knowledge, power is grounded on ability. Furthermore, these two virtues are not mutually exclusive or options before us because they perform distinct functions though this difference is sometimes blurry.

God’s wisdom opens our eyes to be aware of what is there, makes us know what to do to get desired results, and nurtures us into maturity as God’s sons. Therefore, wisdom opens our eyes, strengthens our hands, and matures our characters. Furthermore, and many of you will find this surprising, Satan’s most deadly ability against us is not his power but his wisdom. Besides, the Lord says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” As I wrote before, contrary to what we assume, most of our problems are not power problems but wisdom issues.

The Church will not enter the next phase of glory on earth by more power alone. But along with increasing power to reign, the Spirit of God is bringing us into a higher dimension of divine wisdom and knowledge. If knowledge is power in natural things (think of what science has accomplished in the past 100 years), it is power in spiritual things a million times.

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What is the difference between wisdom, understanding, and knowledge?

Do you know the Holy Spirit as the spirit of knowledge? Has He been teaching you who Christ is, how spiritual things operate and what you need to do to turn things around? Desire to know Him not only as the spirit of power but as the spirit of knowledge.

Ask the Father to help you know the Holy Spirit as your Teacher (the knowledge “Imparter”!)