Let me first try to define what’s meant by the word to distinguish or to discern. I understand it to mean the ability to recognize, identify, and distinguish between various kinds of spirits that confront us.
The discerning of spirits is the ability to recognize, identify, and distinguish between various kinds of spirits that confront us.
And in this connection, we need to keep in mind that the Christian ministry is a ministry in the spiritual realm.
In Ephesians 6:12, Paul says we are not fighting enemies of flesh and blood or people with bodies, but we’re in a war against an evil spiritual kingdom, spirits of wickedness.
And so, it’s essential that we are equipped to handle our spiritual enemies. The purposes of this gift are fourfold.
First, to lift the veil that covers the unseen spiritual world, the world that we really must deal with if we’re to be effective.
Secondly, to enable us to see as God sees.
In 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, the Lord told Samuel this, For God sees, not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
This gift of discerning or distinguishing spirits enables us to go below the outward appearance and see the condition of the heart.
The third purpose of the gift is to protect us from deception. We are reminded that sometimes Satan comes to God’s people as an angel of light. He appears to be very beautiful and very good and very wise, but his whole purpose and intention is evil and destructive.
The third purpose of this gift is to enable us to diagnose people’s problems and so help them.
Now the gift is discerning of spirits. It’s not just discerning of evil spirits. There are various kinds of spirits that confront us in the Christian walk.
Let me mention four.
First, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It is very important to be able to discern the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, there are angels, both good angels and evil angels, the seven spirits of God, and the cloud of witnesses.
Thirdly, there are demons or unclean spirits.
And fourthly, there’s the spirit of man, the human spirit.
Now I want to give you some examples of the operation of this gift from the New Testament.
First, in the ministry of Jesus. In John chapter 1, verses 47 and following, we read how Nathanael came to Jesus. And it says, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile.
How did Jesus know that there was no guile in Nathanael? There was no outward way of knowing it, but he discerned in Nathanael a guileless spirit.
Nathanael was amazed. He said to him, “How do you know me”? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
Probably Jesus was standing preaching, and Philip was standing there somewhere in the background, under the fig tree, listening.
But Jesus, looking over the heads of those that were closer to him, saw that face and discerned that guileless spirit.
Nathanael was amazed, but Jesus said to him, this is only the beginning. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Jesus said in effect, not merely will we discern human spirits, but we’ll discern angelic spirits too.
And of course, later in the New Testament, this was fulfilled a number of times.
For instance, in Acts chapter 27, we read about Paul on the ship that was being so terribly tossed by the storm. They hadn’t seen the sun or the moon or the stars for many days. All hope of survival was given up.
But an angel of God came to Paul on the ship. And after that, Paul stood up and spoke to those men and encouraged them. And he said this, for this very night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar, and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.
So, we see that an angel came to that storm-tossed ship. But the only one who was aware of the presence of the angel was Paul.
Paul discerned what the others could not see, an angelic presence there on that ship.
I’ve given you examples of two forms of discernment. Jesus discerning a guileless spirit and Nathanael and Paul discerning an angel of God on the ship.
Now, also from the ministry of Paul, I want to give you an example of discerning an evil spirit, a very significant and important example.
This describes what happened while Paul and Silas and their company were in the city of Philippi to bring the gospel to that city. And they were going every day to a certain place of prayer, but there was a slave girl following them making dramatic spiritual pronouncements about them.
This is the record in Acts 16, verses 16 through 18. And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune telling.
The spirit of divination in Satan’s kingdom is the fortune-telling spirit, the one that predicts the future, that tells you whether you’re going to be rich or poor, whether you’re going to marry a blonde or a brunette, whether your mother or your aunt is going to die, many such things.
That’s the spirit of divination, the fortune-telling spirit. It is not from God; it is from Satan.
The scripture then goes on to say, she followed after Paul and us, and she kept crying out, saying, these men are bond servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.
It’s very significant that what she was saying was absolutely true. That’s an example of Satan coming as an angel of light. But she was nevertheless not serving God but serving Satan.
You see, Satan’s purpose was to confuse the people of Philippi. They were used to divination. They were used to people with evil spirits.
If Paul and his company had accepted this girl and her testimony, the people of Philippi would have concluded, well, here’s just another example of what we’ve been used to all these centuries.
But Paul didn’t fall into that trap. Through the discerning of spirits, he identified the spirit as an evil spirit, and this is how he dealt with it. She continued doing this for many days, but Paul was greatly annoyed. Do you know that it’s legitimate sometimes to be annoyed, to be annoyed with the devil? It is not a sin.
But Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, not to the girl, but to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it, the spirit, came out at that very moment.
So, the evil spirit was discerned by Paul and then cast out in the name of Jesus. And that was a critical point. It set the whole city in uproar.
Satan’s purposes had been revealed and frustrated. And he became exceedingly angry, and a riot broke out in that city that was Satan’s response to his devices being revealed.
In dealing with these spirits the anger of God will come upon us, and we reject what they are saying and cast them out in Jesus’ name.
We do not want to submit to Satan’s destiny for our life, and if you submit to it, very probably it will happen.
What we must learn to do is identify evil or familiar spirit, in their deceptions, reject them. And look to the Lord and the Scripture and the Holy Spirit and receive God’s destiny for our life and believe that rather than Satan’s destiny.
But these days it’s very important that we can discern even when Satan comes to us in the appearance of an angel of light.