What Is the Gift of Discerning of Spirits?

Well, as you mentioned, it's listed as part of the gifts, what I would call the supernatural spiritual gifts that God gives to people at certain times. So there are principles by which we live all the time but then there are special endowments uh for particular times you the and the nine gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 seem to be of the latter nature. So there is living by faith every day but and there's faith as a fruit of the spirit but then there's a gift of the of faith for certain times. There's wisdom natural human wisdom that we can acquire.

There's spiritual wisdom by which we live every day which we can acquire from the the proverbs and so on. But then there is a gift of the word of wisdom for a specific time God supernaturally endows you. So I so it is with discernment. So the concept of discernment is being able to distinguish good from bad, right from wrong or discerning motives or discerning uh intentions or discerning what's truly going on. So again, I would say there there's there is a three-fold application of the concept of discernment. Humans can have discernment. Uh even if they're not Christians, they can develop discernment. Uh every Christian should have discernment about spiritual things of knowing what's good, bad, uh be related to wisdom.

But the discerning of spirits is a specific gift. And in the context of 1 Corinthians 12, it's indicated not everyone is given it. It's given for a specific time. It's a supernatural endowment. So it's specifically the discerning of spirits. So it's the ability to tell the origin, the spiritual origin of a certain action or utterance. And if you think of it in that way, there there really only three spiritual sources of anything. The first, of course, God. and angelic beings. Second of all, the devil and demonic beings. And third of all, humans, the human spirit. So if I speak, it could be from God like uh tongues or prophecy uh or interpretation of tongues or some word of wisdom being disclosed, word of knowledge being disclosed.

Or it could be demonic. I could be demonpossessed or I could be influenced by a demon knowingly or unknowingly. and what I'm saying was actually prompted by by the devil or demonic force. Or it could be just my own human spirit, which probably most of the time would be that um where I'm just speaking of my own personal opinion, my um knowledge, whatever wisdom I might have, you know. So the discerning of spirits would be a specific instance where God gives you the supernatural ability to know that's of God, that's of the devil, or that's just that human spirit speaking. Now, here's an example. Acts 16, Paul and his company were missionaries preaching the gospel, and this young woman follows them and says, "These are the servants of the most high God.

You know, listen to them." Well, that sounds like a wonderful endorsement. But Paul looked back at her and rebuked the evil spirit. He discerned that this was not of God and this was not just her uh her accepting the gospel, but this was the mocking of an evil spirit. So, he actually rebuked the evil spirit and cast the devil out of her. Uh she was employed as a fortune teller. Uh, and so she was able to say some things by this evil spirit and and this is another subject being delivered from evil spirit. But I believe in her heart she must have longed for liberty and she was bound.

And and so God knowing her heart and God giving wisdom to Paul, he discerned that she was possessed by an evil spirit. He was able to cast out that evil spirit. Now, why would that be important? Well, because you know, as far as Paul could have known naturally, she could have been a follower, but the people, the town's people knew her reputation. They knew what she was involved with. And so, even if it would have seen an endorsement, it would have put Paul in that same category. So, the town's people might have thought, well, Paul is another type of medium or fortune teller or something of like what we found this woman to be.

So it would have been very detrimental for the gospel had Paul not known what was truly going on. But because God showed him, he was able to cast out the evil spirit. And so I think that thing that happens today. Um I I can give an example. I remember in Houston I was in service and suddenly a woman stood up and started speaking in tongues. Well, we as Pentecostals are, you know, we're not trained to somebody does that. We wait. We pray for the interpretation. We listen to what God has to say. But that pastor instantly discerned this was not of God. So he spoke out and he said, "Sit down.

What you're saying is not of God." Well, if she was just um an innocent saint that maybe missed it, that could have been crushing to her. But if she was being motivated by an evil spirit, that's exactly what needed to happen. Uh so you have to have discerning of spirits. There have been times where I felt something was a little off track. I didn't think it was evil spirit. So what I did is said well let's all pray let's all stand and pray and emotion to the musician let's sing a song and then later I can talk to that person to say look let me tell you the difference between you getting excited or you know you feeling God is giving you something versus what you're supposed to say to the whole congregation.

So if you if it's if somebody gives a prophecy if it's of God you want to let it happen. If it's just human imagination, you want to perhaps handle it diplomatically, but but end it in a nice way and train that person. But if it's an evil spirit, you want to take authority immediately and oppose it. So, you have to have the discerning of spirits to know how to respond. Now, as I've indicated, sometimes we think of everything as God or the devil. But don't forget, some things could just be the human spirit. Not everything is caused by the devil. Uh the devil gets more credit than he deserves sometimes because humans have an amazing ability to do stuff on their own.

Another example I remember in Jackson, Mississippi, a man came up to the altar and people started praying for he started bucking, kicking, flailing just and people gather around. The men started rebuking the evil spirit. They started grabbing him, trying to hold him down. Back then, a lot of the thought was if there's an evil spirit in a person, you you hold him down and cast the devil out of him. So, they're all trying to do all that. The pastor looked at it for a minute. He just walked up. He had everybody back off, and he just whispered in the man's ear. The man instantly straightened up, calmed down, and proceeded to walk out of the church.

So, the men of the church were awakened by the amazing spiritual ability of their pastor. And so somebody asked him, 'What did you tell that man that immediately got control of the situation? He said, 'I told that guy, you're just creating a disturbance and if you don't stop right now, I'm going to call the police. So he discerned it wasn't an evil spirit. He discerned that man was seeking attention and causing disturbance and disrupting the service. So you have to have discerning of spirits to know what to do. Uh, so I believe if you're in a situation where something unusual is going on and you want to know, Lord, is this of you or is this a demonic force or is this just a person just getting out of line, you you should pray and ask God to give you the discerning of spirits.

And it's especially important for a leader to know what should I do at that particular moment. So it's not the general gift of discernment. You know, I discern that you need to do this or you should do this or you It's the discerning of spirits, the spiritual origin uh of an action or utterance that you need to know the source in order to respond properly.