by Dr. Larry Ollison, Ph.D. 

         
Several years ago, my wife, Loretta, and I were speaking at a series of meetings in Iowa. At the end of one of these meetings, a man and woman came to the front of the congregation and asked Loretta and me to pray for them. I asked them what they would like for us to agree with them in prayer for and they indicated that they needed help in the area of finances. It seems that even though they both worked, they could never seem to get their finances to stretch to the weekend. Instead of having money left over at the end of the week, they had week left over at the end of the money.

Well, just as I started to pray, Loretta quickly looked up and said, “Are you two married?” I looked down at their hands and they were both wearing wedding rings. I thought to myself, “Oops, Loretta’s really missed it this time.”

The man and woman both looked up and had strange looks on their faces. The man said, “Well, yes, of course, we’re married.” Then he paused and said, “But not to each other.”

Loretta had hit the nail on the head. These two people were living in adultery and asking God to bless them. But here’s the question. How did Loretta know? We had never been to that church before. We had never even been to that town before.

Well, here’s the answer. In Acts chapter 5, there was a man named Ananias who, along with his wife, Sapphira, sold some land. When they sold the land, they kept back a certain amount of the money for themselves and Ananias took the balance and gave it to Peter and the apostles, who were the leaders of the early church.

When he laid the money at the feet of the apostles, Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

When Ananias heard these words he fell down dead. Later, his wife came in and the same thing happened to her. Now, how did Peter know that they had kept some of the money? The answer is: Peter didn’t know, but the Holy Spirit did. Peter, who had been filled with the Holy Spirit, was operating in the gift of the word of knowledge. There was no way he could have known, but the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of God, knows everything. Nothing is hidden from God.

In John 14, Jesus said that He was going to be with the Father and when He left, the Father would send the Holy Spirit in His name to be here with us as our comforter and helper until He, Jesus, returned.

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that is available to Christians is described in 1 Corinthians 12:8 and that gift is called “the word of knowledge.”

How did Peter know that the land was sold for more money than Ananias and Sapphira had said? The Holy Spirit spoke through him with a word of knowledge. How did Loretta know that the two people were not married? The Holy Spirit spoke through her with a word of knowledge.