Anthony Delgado has a wonderful wife and three children. Anthony directs Youth Ministry at Often when people think of the spiritual gift of wisdom, they think of discernment. It is true that discernment takes a certain amount of wisdom, but the spiritual gifts are not interchangeable. The person who is wise is not necessarily discerning. The person who is discerning is not necessarily wise, at least not in other areas.
If you have the spiritual gift of wisdom, you have the ability to take the spiritual truths of God’s word and make them practical. Often times someone with the gift of teaching will also have the gift of wisdom because a good teacher is able to apply God’s word so that others can use it.
Wisdom does not only manifest in teachers, however. In many cases a wise man is simply one who lives according to wisdom. He is able to take the truths of the Bible and of God’s word and apply them to his own life, whether his is able to teach them or not.
I see this gift manifest among youth in two ways. First, there are some who have a desire to “know what it means” as we are talking about the Bible. Most youth are confident to trust the teachers interpretation of a passage, but the wise have to understand the depth of the Word. The second way it manifests is when the youth put the teaching into practice. Often times a youth will come to me joyfully to tell me how they applied the previous weeks lesson. The wise youth will take joy in their ability to apply God’s word in their lives.
The spiritual gifts test will yield this result for many different reasons. If you find this on your test, challenge your own ability to live out God’s word in your life and make an effort to understand the depth of God’s word as your read in your Bibles and sit through sermons and lessons.