Discerning of Spirits 💥 This is a Powerful Weapon

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Today I’m going to speak about the remaining gift of revelation, distinguishing or discerning of spirits. The ability to recognize, identify   and distinguish between various  kinds of spirits that confront us.   And in this connection we need to bear 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 persons with bodies, but we are  arrayed against an evil spiritual kingdom,   spirits of wickedness. And so it is essential that  we are equipped to handle our spiritual enemies. The purposes of this gift, I  would suggest, are fourfold.   First of all, to lift the veil that  covers the unseen spiritual world.   The world that we really have to  deal with if we’re to be effective.
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Secondly, to enable us to see  as God sees. In 1 Samuel 16:7   the Lord told Samuel this, “For God sees not as  man sees, for man look at the outward appearance,   but the Lord looks at the heart.” This gift of  discerning of distinguishing of spirits enables   us to go below the outward appearance  and see the condition of the heart.
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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,   very good and very wise. But his whole  purpose and intention is evil and destructive. The fourth 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 kind of spirits that confront  us in the Christian walk. Let me mention four:   First of all, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.  It is very important to discern the Holy Spirit.   Secondly, there are angels, both  good angels and evil angels. Thirdly,   thee are demons or unclean spirits. And fourthly,  there is 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  of all in the ministry of Jesus.   In John 1:47 and following, you 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 is no guile!’” (NAS) 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, when you were  under the fig tree, I saw you.’” (NAS) 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   who 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.” “And He said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say  to you, you shall see the heavens opened,   and the angels of God ascending and  descending upon the Son of Man.’” (NAS) Jesus said, in effect, not merely will we discern  human spirits, but we’ll discern angel spirits   too. And of course, later on in the New Testament  this was fulfilled a number of times. For instance   in Acts 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.’” (NAS) 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’d giving you examples of two forms of discernment Jesus discerning a guile spirit in 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 as we find it in Acts 16:16–18: “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 fortunetelling.” (NAS) The spirit of divination in Satan’s  kingdom is the fortunetelling spirit,   the one that predicts the future, that tells  you whether you are going to be rich or poor,   whether you are going to marry a  blonde or a brunette, whether your   mother or your aunt is going to die, and many  such things. That’s the spirit of divination,   the fortunetelling spirit. It is not from God, it  is from Satan. The Scripture then goes on to say: “Following after Paul and us, she kept crying  out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of   the Most High God, who are proclaiming  to you the way of salvation.’” (NAS) It is very significant that what she was  saying was absolutely true. That is an example   of Satan coming as an angel of light. But she was  nevertheless not serving God, but 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 is just another example of   what we have been used to all these centuries.”  But Paul didn’t fall into that trap. Through   discerning of spirits, he identified the spirit as  an evil spirit and this is how he dealt with it: “And she continued doing this for many  days. But Paul was greatly annoyed…   [Do you know that it is legitimate  sometimes to be annoyed?   To be annoyed with the devil 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.” (NAS) So the evil spirit was discerned by Paul  and then cast out in the name of Jesus.   That was a critical point. It  set the whole city in an uproar.   Satan’s purposes had been revealed and frustrated  and he became exceedingly angry and the most   unnatural tumult broke out in that city. That was  Satan’s response to his devices being revealed. Now let me give you just one example that is a  little similar from my own personal experience.   Actually, this incident in my life is mentioned  in Catherine Marshall’s book Something More.   It happened while I was ministering at a church  in Chicago. At the close of a service a lady came   to me and asked me for prayer. She said she had  personal problems. The Lord showed me, I think,   probably through the word of knowledge, that she  had been a spiritist medium. And I said that I   wasn’t prepared to pray for her. So she went  away but came back a few weeks later. She said,   “I have given up being a medium. I want you  to pray for me.” So I felt that I couldn’t   refuse. I wasn’t confident of her sincerity, but  I began to pray with her, and it was hard going.
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After a while I paused for a moment. And as I  paused, she began to look at me intently and   there was a kind of strange fixed stare in  her eyes and she said, “I see you in a car   and it’s wrecked against a tree and there’s  blood.” For a moment my heart sank and I thought,   “I’m going to be in a car that’s wrecked  against a tree.” And then I realized that   isn’t the Holy Spirit. That’s the spirit of  divination by which she operated as a medium.   And so the anger of God came over  me and I said, “You divining spirit,   I reject you! I do not accept that as my  destiny! I’m not going to be in any car   that’s going to be wrecked against a tree!  I refuse it! I will not accept it from you!” I don’t believe that the woman was  delivered. At least not at that   time. Because I really don’t believe that  she had repented of her evil practices.   But I really believe that that  was a turning point in my life.
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You see, when you go to a fortuneteller,  the fortuneteller predicts something evil   about your life, as often happens. If you say,  “Oh, isn’t this terrible! Think what’s going   to happen to me!” in a certain sense you are  submitting to Satan’s destiny for your lie.   And if you submit to it, very  probably it will be worked out.   What we have to learn to do is identify Satan even  in his deceptions, reject him, turn away from him,   turn to God 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 are able to discern   even when Satan comes to us in the  guise of an angel of light.