What you really need is - I've learnt now when people come for prayer, say: don't tell me all your problems, just what is it you're believing God for? What do you need from God? That forces people out of, I'm full of problems, to looking for solutions, so for example, if you go to McDonalds and line up at McDonalds and they say what do you want, you just stand there saying oh, I don't know, you know, whatever you feel to give me. It's sort of nonsense isn't it really, so - and suppose you go to McDonalds and stand in line up there, and they say what do you want, and you begin to talk about how hungry you are, and how long it is since you've had your last meal, and you start to - you know, they're going to get bored with all that, so just tell me what you need, you know? So when you come to an altar call, or someone's come up for prayer, and you ask: what do you want, and they say oh, whatever God wants for me.
I say, well He wants lots of things for you, but if you don't know them specifically, you probably won't get any of them. People don't like that answer, but it's actually very true. It sounds very spiritual, oh whatever God wants. Actually, if we know what God wants for us, we can ask specifically, and believe to receive it. If we have that kind of attitude, whatever He wants to give, it's passivity and full of unbelief. It'll produce nothing. You've got to realise that, so that's why Jesus many times in the Gospels asked people, what do you want? The blind man comes up. Now hello, what's up with Jesus? You know, there's a blind man, and He said: what do you want? Hello! [Laughter] I know, I can't see. [Laughter] But can you get the idea? But Jesus was wanting him to verbalise what He was looking for, so many times Jesus asked the person: what do you want, so He made them express their need, or their faith. He made them give voice to what they were wanting from Him, so when you're ministering to people, it's helpful if they tell you what they want, what they're believing God for, or looking to God to do.
You may not have all the answers, but at least you're focussed on the solution, not on all the problems. Having said that, there are some counselling issues that people need help to pull their problem apart, and find out what it's rooted in, and sort that out. Without knowing that, you can't deal with it, but it just helps if you can keep people in a faith mode. So the word of wisdom is, what do we do? In 2 Samuel 5:22 to 25 David was anointed king, and immediately he was anointed king, the Philistines rose up to go out to battle, and they wanted to kill him. His immediate response was this; he put on his armour, put on his sword, got the army together, went out to fight. Then when he slowed down a bit, he said Lord, do You want me to fight? [Laughter] Should I go into this battle - two questions: Lord - now notice they're simple, and they both actually have a yes/no answer. Lord, should I fight this battle? Yes or no? God says yes. The second question, will I win the battle? Yes.
So he said: then how do You want me to do it, and He showed him how to do it. That is a word of wisdom - what to do, when to do it. Next time he comes back, they come back again, he defeats them, routes them out, gets rid of their idols, they come back a little while later, back into a new battle. So now the tendency is to think like this: oh, the Philistines, I know how to deal with them. I've already one victory. I'll do it this way, leaning on your experience, rather than leaning on the Holy Spirit. He was not like that. He went God, what do you want me to do? God said don't do it the same way, this is how you do it this way. You wait, go around behind the trees and ambush them from behind, when I set it up for you - so that is a word of wisdom, what to do, when to do it, how to do it. You'll find many situations in marriage, family, ministry, work, you don't know what to do, you need a word of wisdom - what to do, when to do it and how to do it.
Noah got a word of wisdom. God showed him to build an ark. God revealed what's about to come, gave him a prophetic word: there's going to be rain. What's rain, Lord? They hadn't any rain. He said okay, let me put it to you this way, there'll be no ground to stand on. [Laughs] The whole place is going to be covered in water. He said well, what do I do? Build an ark, so He showed him what to do, gave him the pattern and how to do it. That's wisdom, wisdom from God. Think about this. Jesus was out with a group of the religious leaders. They brought a woman caught in adultery, she's caught in the very act. Now she's caught in the act - where's the man? They caught them in the act, I mean if they're caught in the act, there's got to be two of them. Where's the guy? So there's a hypocrisy here, where they're judging the woman, and they're trying to set Jesus up, so they bring in the woman to Jesus, and say Jesus, Moses Law said she's been caught in adultery, we caught her in the act, there's no doubt about the crime. Moses Law said she should be stoned to death, what do you say?