THE GIFT OF DISCERNING OF SPIRITS!!

Last Sunday, we looked at one of the revelation gifts: “THE WORD OF WISDOM.”  

Today, we shall consider another revelation gift: “THE DISCERNING OF SPIRITS.”

What does it mean to discern? To discern means to perceive by seeing or hearing. It means to understand or see something that is not immediately clear or obvious. It means to understand something that is not immediately clear.

There are two types of Discernment: a) The general Discernment: This is the ability to differentiate between the good and the bad.

It is the ability to deal wisely in the affairs of this life. Joshua 1:8 as follows, “…Thou shall make thy way prosperous and thou shall be able to deal wisely in the affairs of (this) life.”

General Discernment is acquired by properly renewing your mind with the Word of God.

In Joshua 1:8, God told Joshua that the key to success lies in diligently studying and meditating on the Word of God, and by so doing, he would obtain wisdom to deal wisely with the affairs of this life. This particular ability is given to everyone (Jam. 1:5).

You can discern based on the ability you acquired because of your sound knowledge of the Word of God. This ability (wisdom) is gained through a proper knowledge of the Word of God.

Example of general discernment is the discerning of false prophets abound in the Scriptures: Our world is filled with voices claiming to speak for God.

Do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have is from God (1 Jn. 4:1-3).

This means that we shouldn’t believe everything we hear just because someone says it is a message from God. There are many ways to test teachers to see if their message is truly from the Lord:

1. Check to see if their words are in line with what God said in the Bible. If it contradicts the Word of God in any way or by any measure, it is not from God.

2. What is their commitment to the body of believers? (1 Jn. 2:19). Are they really committed to the work God has put in our hands to do in this ministry or are they moving from one church to the other?

3. What is their life-style like? They have flamboyant life styles.

4. They like titles (1 Jn. 3:23-24). You find them answering titles live “Reverend.” Only God’s name should be revered (Ps. 111:9). By answering that, they are taking the place of God. “Reverend” is not one of the 5 ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11.

They also take titles like Dr. when they have never seen the four walls of any University. They answer right and left Reverend. They answer Bishop and Archbishop. I have never seen any Archbishop in the Bible.

Most of them do not do what they preach. Many of them tell you, “Do what I say, but don’t do what I do.”

Some of them answer Bishop of the whole world.

Some of them answer “Consuming fire” which means “Oku na ere re” in Igbo. Only God can be called “Consuming Fire” (Heb. 12:29; Deut. 4:24).

Some of them wear cap on their head like the Jews while praying in the church. But the Bible says that we should not do that (1 Cor. 11:3-4).

They wear big cross on their necks. A good number of them have developed “Mr. Ibu” kind of stomachs, and you wonder whether they fast at all.

They sell holy anointing oil. They use holy water to pray for people thereby shifting the people’s faith from Jesus to water. That is idolatry!

Many of them conduct Infant Baptism. The Scripture does not allow infant baptism because baptism is an outward manifestation of an inward reality (Mk. 15:16-17). Children can only be dedicated to God.

5. What is the fruit of their ministry? You will not see changed lives in their congregation. Worldliness is the order of the day. Sin is not talked about or it is trivialized. The life of righteousness and holiness is left out (1 Jn. 4:6).

False teachers are popular with the world because, like the false prophets of the Old Testament, they tell people what they want to hear. People don’t want to hear their sins denounced; they don’t want to listen to the demands that they change their behavior.

6. What do they believe about Christ? Do they teach that Jesus is fully God and fully man? A teacher who denies Jesus’ full and true humanity proves that he is not from God (1 Jn. 4:6).

7. They attract attention to themselves: The Holy Spirit will never attract (draw) attention to man, to make man Lord. When the Holy Spirit is in manifestation, He always makes Jesus Lord.

b) The discernment of spirits: This is a specific gift mentioned among the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:10. It is called the discerning of spirits. It is a special endowment that the Holy Spirit has given to some believers to be able to see into the realm of spirits.

What then is the discerning of spirits? The gift of discerning of spirits is a supernatural insight into the spirit world (the realm of spirits). It is a supernatural ability to discern (perceive) the source of a supernatural manifestation. It is the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking through someone.

Therefore, the discerning of spirits is the same as seeing or hearing in the realm of spirits. The discerning of spirits is limited to a single class of objects – spirits.

It is called the discerning of spirits, and it deals with spirits that exist in the spirit realm, whether they are divine, satanic or human.

The discerning of spirits is not simply discerning of devils, or the discerning of evil spirits. It also deals with the entire class of spirits, including good spirits, bad spirits, and even human spirits.

It is used to detect the presence of evil spirits or to examine the source of a manifestation, which is dubious.

The gift of discerning of spirits reveals the kind of spirit in operation behind any supernatural manifestation.

But to understand the discerning of spirits, we need to understand the realm in which spirits exist first. Whenever you see things in the spirit realm, you are seeing them with your spiritual eyes. These eyes are different from your natural eyes.

According to science, we have five natural senses: ability to 1) see, 2) touch, 3) feel, 4) hear, and 5) smell.  This means that you as a natural human being, can contact the physical world around us through these senses.

In reality you have 15 senses. Let me explain. First Thessalonians 5:23 says that a normal human being is a spirit. He has a soul and lives in a house called the physical body.

This implies that, there are 3 realms that surround us at all times. We have: a) The physical realm which interacts with your physical body, b) The soulish (or intellectual) realm which interacts with your soul, and c) The spirit realm which interacts with your spirit-man.

Here is the point: Your soul has 5 senses just like your physical body. Your spirit-man also has 5 senses like your physical body. When you go to bed at night, your physical body and your soul are completely at rest.

If you happen to have a dream or a vision, that is your spirit interacting with the Holy Ghost. It is your spirit that God speaks to when He gives you dreams in the night. He speaks to you Spirit to spirit.

How does the spirit realm and the discerning of spirits go together? First of all, there are four types of spirits that exist in the spirit realm:

1) The Holy Spirit, 2) The heavenly spirits – angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim and the 4 living creatures, 3) The human spirits, and  4) The demonic spirits – principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, Lucifer, demons, fallen angels (Eph. 6:12).

When you begin to operate in the spirit realm, you’ll run into these 4 types of spirits. As a believer, you have spiritual eye balls. The problem is that they may be closed – blinded.

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4).

But there is an anointing that opens your eyes that you may see what is going on in the realm of the spirits (Eph. 1:18-19).

Examples of people that saw into the realm of spirits abound in the Scriptures:

1. Isaiah saw the Lord. In Isaiah 6:1 prophet Isaiah said, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.”

2. Discerning the risen Christ. Through the gift of seeing into the realm of spirits, one could also discern the risen Christ. No one has actually seen Jesus in His physical flesh and bone body (Lk. 24:39) since He ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9; Heb. 1:3), because He is now seated on the right hand of the Father where He ever lives to intercede for us (Heb. 7:25).

Stephen discerned the risen Christ. Acts 7:55-56 says, “But Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”

3. Discerning the Holy Spirit. John, in his vision on the Island of Patmos, saw the Holy Spirit as seven spirits before the throne of God (Rev. 4:5). That means that in the realm of spirits, John was seeing these seven aspects of the Spirit of God.

4. Discerning the spirit behind a particular manifestation. Supernatural manifestation can come from different sources.

Many of the things that seem miraculous or supernatural to us actually do not come from God. Remember that Satan is also a supernatural being.

When the gift of discernment of spirits is in operation, you can know the very spirit behind a given manifestation or operation. It reveals the kind of spirit behind a particular supernatural manifestation whether good or evil.

For instance, Paul was able to discern that the kind of spirit behind the supernatural manifestations of a certain slave girl was the spirit of divination.

When the gift of discerning of spirits was in operation, Paul turned to her and spoke directly to the spirit of divination, commanding it to come out of her (Acts 16:16-18).

Here the spirit operating in this slave girl is a familiar spirit. The familiar spirits are usually familiar with people and they communicate with the one through whom they operate.

The Bible talks about familiar spirits. They are familiar with you – even though you are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. If someone is in contact with them, they will tell him things about you. This little girl that Paul cast the devil out of had a spirit of divination – a spirit of divining.

That means foretelling (fortune telling) – but it is the wrong kind of spirit. Here Paul dealt with an evil spirit behind an operation. Paul dealt with the spirit involved, not with the person.

5. Prophet Elisha also manifested the gift of discerning of spirits.

In 2 Kings 6:8 - 18 Elisha prayed, and said, "LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, "Strike this people, I pray, with blindness." And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.”

Conclusion: The gift of discernment of spirits is indispensable in the work of the Kingdom of God especially in these last days.

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)               05.08.2018

Scripture for the week: This week, “The LORD will undo all that afflict you and give you fame instead of shame” (Zeph. 3:19-20).