Supernatural means “super-natural.” As C.S. Lewis pointed out, almost all of the miracles of Jesus were simply the speeding up of a natural process. There was never any wine that did not start out as water and go through a process—Jesus just sped up that process. There was never anyone healed that God did not heal through the “natural” processes He placed in us, but through Jesus and His workers He sped this up.
Words of knowledge, which is receiving information through the Spirit about someone, is like touching one little cell of the mind of Christ. When Jesus looks at something, He knows all that there is to know about that person. When we look at someone in the Spirit, He can give us just a tiny fraction of that information and it seems spectacular to us. If we are given a name, birthday, or other details, we’re astounded, as the person usually is too. Even so, this is not to wow people but to help them.
When we receive a bit of supernatural knowledge like this, if we will not get too excited and keep inquiring of the Lord, He will often give us more. Sometimes He’ll also give us a “word of wisdom,” so that we know how to use this knowledge to help that person. Again, it’s not just about getting the word of knowledge, but about helping the person, church, or other entity.
Now let’s discuss the weird. There is good weird and bad weird, but just about everything supernatural is weird to those who are used to living only in the natural realm. To start operating in this realm, we need to learn to distinguish between the good and the bad. The devil is a master counterfeiter. We’re not going to outsmart him with our own intelligence since he started off smarter than we are and has thousands of years of experience on top of it. However, we have been given the mind of Christ. Therefore, our whole devotion is simply to abide in Christ who has already won and will win every encounter.
Even so, this is not something we should become arrogant about and by our pride fall from the place we’ve been given. Even the great Apostle Paul admitted to having been “foiled by Satan.” If it could happen to him, I think it could happen to any of us. However, we cannot let the fear of failure control us, but rather faith in Christ, who will cause all things to work together for good for us and always leads us in His triumph. If we get distracted and make a mistake, we need to admit it, learn from it, get up, and keep going.
That being said, the least likely way we will get to know the voice of the Lord is to spend too much time studying the enemy and how he tricks people. We are exhorted to know his schemes, but we should spend far more time and energy seeking to know the Lord’s voice than discerning the enemy’s. We should know the Lord’s voice so well that if the enemy tries to interject something, we will pick it up right away and know it is not our King’s voice.
