I frequently visit an ordained pastors blog.
There is one thing he is fond of saying every now and then, "There is no gift of discerning of spirits!"
His tone behind the statement is as if anyone who believes there is a gift of discernment is in error.
So let's take a look and see if the man is correct in his statement or is it he who is in error?
Spiritual Gifts Series: The Gift Of Discernment
The spiritual gift of discernment is also known as the
gift of "discernment of spirits" or "distinguishing between spirits."
The Greek word for the gift of discernment is
Diakrisis.
The
word describes being able to distinguish, discern, judge or appraise a
person, statement, situation, or environment.
In the New Testament it
describes the ability to distinguish between spirits as in
1 Corinthians
12:10, and to discern good and evil as in
Hebrews 5:14.
The Holy Spirit gives the gift of discernment
to enable certain Christians to clearly recognize and distinguish
between the influence of God, Satan, the world, and the flesh in a given
situation.
The church needs those with this gift to warn believers in
times of danger or keep them from being led astray by false teaching.
See also
I Corinthians 12:10,
Acts 5:3-6;
16:16-18;
1 John 4:1.
A very good question.
The Bible teaches that all Christians should grow in spiritual discernment.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again
for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of
God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who
partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness,
for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of
practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.-
Hebrews 5:12-14
Paul told the Thessalonians:Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise
prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to
that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.- 1
Thessalonians 5:19-22
While he encouraged the Thessalonians not to discount or dismiss the
Holy Spirit - by despising that which was being taught as coming from
God (prophecy) - Paul instructed them to test everything.
In other words, if someone preaches or teaches something that he or she
claims was inspired by God, we are not to despise it - which would
result in quenching the Holy Spirit.
However, we are to carefully examine that which is being taught.
Earlier, Luke called the people of Berea - where Paul and Silas had been
sent to preach -
"more noble-minded that those in Thessalonica,"
because they received the word with great eagerness, examining
[anakrino] the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek
women and men.-
Acts 17:11-12
Thus the Bereans did not quench the Spirit, but rather tested what was being taught, using Scripture as their guide.
The only way to grow in spiritual discernment is by relying on the
guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells every true Christian, and by
studying God’s Word, the Bible.
These two go hand-in-hand.
The Bible provides the standard against which all teachings must be
tested:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the
man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.-
2 Timothy 3:16-17
This reliance both on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and on God’s Written Word should keep Christians focused on God.
If Christians were to rely only on their ability to listen to the Holy
Spirit, they would leave themselves open to all manner of private
teachings and interpretations - without any rules by which to rest such
revelations.
At the same time, it they were to rely only on their own ability to
interpret and apply the Scriptures, they would leave no room for God’s
guidance in revealing to them the riches of his Word.
As Christians our focus should always be on the living God, with whom we have an interactive relationship.
No Christian is an island. There is much to be learned from one another,
as we share the wisdom and insights God has revealed to us from His
Word, by His Holy Spirit.
Sadly, though, many Christians leave the responsibility for discernment
almost completely up to others. Their guidance comes primarily from
televangelists, authors (and, more often than not, their ghost writers),
their pastors, or their favorite websites.
That’s like being spoon-fed by someone else - marking one as an infant,
rather than as a mature Christian:
For though by this time you ought to
be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary
principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and
not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed
to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is
for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to
discern good and evil.- Hebrews 5:12-14
By all means, let’s learn from one another - eagerly receiving the word, while also examining everything carefully.
Christians who believe that the Spiritual Gifts are still available
today, see the gift of "distinguishing between spirits" (discerning
whether they are human, from God, or demonic), to be a special form of
discernment (revealed, instead of learned):
Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there
is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the
message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by
the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to
another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another
distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds
of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All
these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each
one, just as he determines.- 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
In Moses day there was the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day.
They followed the pillar of fire at night. The desert can get real cold
at night, if you refused to follow the fire you got cold. The desert
can get very hot during the day, if you refused to follow the cloud you
had no shade and fried in the hot sun overhead. Therefore it made very
good sense to follow the pillar of fire and the cloud where ever they
would go.
Spiritual discernment : calling on the Holy Spirit to lead or give
direction on a matter.
It is how the Spirit shows the church or its
people what God wants them to do and be.
There is discernment of :
- gifts,
- spirits,
- actions,
- intents,
- the spirit of the times we live in.
Discernment is more than just a skill. Discernment is a gift from God
before it is anything else. Yet there are clearly skills you put to use
in using your gift, and you can become better at it through training and
experience.
Discernment is more than just a process.
Even for the most 'material' or
'nitty-gritty' matters, there is a Spirit at work nudging us, leading
us, even pulling us by the nose ring. Even for the most 'spiritual'
matters, there are disciplines, methods, processes, means, and tools
which the Spirit can work through to help us discern rightly.
Discernment isn't usually a sudden zap from beyond, but something which
emerges from hard work.
Learn to discern. Yearn to discern.
We have to discriminate between what is true and what is false, ...
between what is primary and what is secondary, between what is central
and what is peripheral.
When the Spirit is on the move, it's characterized by:
Christ-centered spirituality in every aspect of life;
Rejection of all prejudice, class/ethnic/educational barriers,
exclusiveness, and denominational warfare. When it follows the Spirit,
the Body of Believers knowingly chooses to counter-model prejudices by
living without regard to them.
(The Christians on the net who have delved into politics have demonstrated that they are not the least concerned with "Christ centered spirituality.
I got an email yesterday from a good brother that was full of venom and bitter root judgment that was totally carnal and very politically biased. )
Bringing attention and worship to Jesus Christ, and awareness of God's/Jesus'/Spirit's work.
An unusual level of passion, energy, or impact.
These are the main things to look for in discerning about something:
*it is governed by love, for if it is not, it's worthless (
1 Corinthians 13:1-3);
*it centers us onto Jesus the Christ and Lord (
1 Cor 12:3), and His good news;
*it directs us to Scripture, not away from it (
Isaiah 8:19, 20);
*it builds up the church and its members (
Ephesians 4:11-12), giving it power, wisdom, character, boldness, and unity.
*it helps create in us a love of righteousness, a heightened sense of sin, and a turning away from known evil.
'Discernment' is sometimes used as a catch-word for speaking against
others (as with some
'discernment ministries' that pollute the internet), or to defeat them in a
struggle for power or influence, or just to pick at them until they quit
or retreat.
Discerning eyes look for whether something that's labeled
'discernment' is done from love, or whether it just is a clanging gong
or a noisy cymbal.
Jesus didn't call us to love ideas, he called us to
love people. John put it as bluntly as he could :
"One who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (
I John 4:8)
When discerning, the Christian must keep in mind why he/she is doing it.
Ask yourself, "If I raise this issue, how am I pointing people to
Christ? How am I helping them grow in the Spirit? In what way am I
loving them?"
If there's no answer to those questions, or if you have to
stretch far and wide to come up with a complicated or weak answer, then
it's best not to speak. Indeed, it's time to focus on listening,
because it may be your time to learn.
The New Testament passes along the testimony of those who knew Jesus and
His mission in person. For the early church after the apostles, for the
Reformers, and for us today, believers turn to Scripture because they
know the Spirit speaks there.
It is Scripture which shows us the
Spirit's priorities, and Scripture which shares with us the vision of
the coming Kingdom. The Spirit works through Scripture, not against it.
Through the Bible, you can discover wisdom and direction. Without it,
you'll fail to distinguish God's Purposes and Word from your purposes
and words.
This is true of what you think and do today, and it's also
true of the past, including the most treasured of traditions. If the new
or the old stands against Scripture or is used to thwart its central
thrusts, we must stand with Scripture, or we will fall for anything.
This 'Scripture principle' is not there to hold the Spirit in chains.
It's to be used in the light of freedom in Christ, knowing that
Scripture does not directly address most matters. Instead of demanding
direct 'Scriptural warrant' for a practice or course of action, it's
better to seek these signals :
- that Scripture does not speak against it;
- that the practice or teaching conveys the Gospel, and is fully in
keeping with the root and heart of Christian belief found in Scripture;
- that it turns the focus onto Christ, not persons, ideas, ideologies, organizations, wondrous signs, or activities;
- that it is truthful, not rooted in a lie or distortion.
If these are all true, then no direct warrant is needed from Scripture,
tradition, or for that matter, sometimes even from common sense. The
Spirit has every right to lead us into new things that look like folly.
The Holy Spirit is sovereign. Discernment is about finding out if it's
the Holy Spirit and not someone else's folly.
There are some people who could stuff themselves with Scripture until it
came out their noses, and they'd still refuse to let the Spirit teach
them anything. They're not discerning at all; they're seeking support,
not truth.
For the rest of us, the patient, prayerful, steady study of
Scripture brings many rewards. The Spirit rewards such diligent
listening by developing within us an understanding of why God acted in
the past. Since the same God is acting today toward the same purposes,
this gives you a sense of what God is doing now and what role you may
have in it.
The Scripture principle is not a substitute for the Spirit. It works
only because the Spirit works through Scripture. We rely on this truth
when we read the Scriptures in earnest prayer. Without the Spirit's
action, the Bible's pages would lay still, moving your life no more than
a dictionary or encyclopedia. If the Spirit is working in us, the Bible
is aflame with truth and vision for every corner of our lives and for
the whole world.
The Spirit wants us to study, to trust, and to shape
our lives according to what is in Scripture; to steep it into our souls,
to live by the contours and the world vision of the Scriptures. No one
can prove that the Bible is the authentic story of God's dealings with
humanity. That has to be shown to each of us by the Holy Spirit.
Anyone who denies the authority of the written Word in/for the church
comes real close to bypassing the Christ who is the living Word of God,
and who is what the written Word is about. We cannot just nakedly 'go by
the fruit' of the Spirit, because it is Scripture which tells us what
fruit we are to look for, and in what contexts they are the work of the
Spirit.
Without the Bible, we can't accurately recognize what is from
God, or tell it from what's fake.
There is another warning to be given here. You can have God-gifted
leaders, go through prayerful discernment, decision-making, and
accountability processes, and even have things start to go well. But the
surest way for them to turn wrong is to start telling others that your
decisions are "God's will". That's something known in the distant
future, if at all.
It's a pretty big boast, if you think about it : you
know what the Almighty knows. Most believers and non-believers alike
rightly dismiss such talk. And pride does come before a fall.
Decision-making isn't always a matter of the thunderous "Will Of God",
and even when it is, you may not have it right. This is a reason the
Spirit builds humility into people.
Scripture shapes an authentic Spirit-led experience, and sets the bounds
for it. When looking for the course and purposes of what God is doing,
Scripture ranks first.
Discernment is more than the work of an individual person. The Spirit
acts within the gathered believers (the Church) so they can discern what
to do and be. Within that context, specific persons may be given the
gift for leading the church as it discerns. Such gifted people are given
a 'spiritual eye' for cutting through facades and confusion, for
getting to the heart of the matter.
They listen closely, notice what's
happening in the world around them, and instinctively know what place it
has in God's plans. Someone who's gifted in discernment of spirits can
find where evil lurks in good things, and where the Spirit is working
when things are going wrong.
When the church was starting out, there was only one way she could learn
the faith: on her feet. The church had to learn while she was doing.
The Spirit had to teach the Christians how to love at the same time as
moving them to act on that love, and teaching them mercy at the same
time as empowering them to live merciful lives.
Christians sometimes forget that what we teach and discuss is inevitably
our own understanding of Scripture. Other understandings, if drawn from
Scripture and open to be judged by Scripture, are possible and even
faithful. We discern to learn.
That's why it's so valuable to have the input from 2000 years of
churchgoing Christians (tradition) and the billion Christians of today
(fellowship). Meaning springs out of life; the Spirit's way is lived and
experienced. Even more: it is lived and experienced as a part of those
who believe in Jesus and his good news, a Body of Followers whose
members are formed and shaped in this way, as found in Scripture.
This
community teaches each other, recalls history, shares their experiences,
and affirms each others value. It (sometimes) has the strength to say
no and to get each of us to amend our understandings and change our ways
when we're going astray, and to show a more excellent way in all
things.
When you're being checked by the church, you're being checked by others
who have also done patient, prayerful, steady study of Scripture. The
Spirit didn't give a sense of God's purposes only to you but also to
others, in a slightly different way for each of them.
If they didn't
study God's ways, they won't have that sense, and thus are a less
trustworthy part of the discernment process. (You'll never find out one
way or the other unless you listen carefully, and have the guts to put
away any defensive reactions you might have.)
Church actions should be set up to discern the right direction before it
acts, to keep effective tabs on it while it acts, and to debrief after
it acts, taking whatever disciplinary actions or clarifying lessons are
needed. Do this, expecting that the Spirit will lead, if really asked
and really given a chance to lead.
One drawback of the church's role in discernment is that it is made up
of people. (It's a benefit in more ways, but here's one way it's also a
drawback.) People are strange, and sometimes do wrong. They are not
all-knowing, and have badly-damaged understandings.
They can be fooled.
People love to be sweet talked, to be showered with puffery and to get
their egos
stroked. They push aside what's bad news for the camp they're
in. It's easy to become a yes-man or get stuck in the 'no' position.
These facts must be kept in mind when discerning with the church. But
remember too that these things are also true of you. Your role in
discernment requires checking and re-checking and cross-checking, and so
does the church's.
Neither you nor the communicated Word nor the Church local or universal
are the bridge between the biblical events and our putting the Word into
living effect. It is the Holy Spirit's doing.
Like everything else in this world, our discernments are bound by our
imperfections and thus can be false or shallow or merely mistaken. But
it helps greatly to have the right attitude toward it :
Make sure you can be held accountable by specific trusted people, on small things as well as large ones;
Allow those others to actually do it. Don't fight back nor blindly accept, but pay attention and be a servant about it;
Be ready to hold others accountable, if need be - even if that makes you uncomfortable.
This way, you become less bound by attitudes and actions which block your discernment.
One of the keys to discernment is surrender. If you treat "I" as the
emperor of all things, you won't be in the right place to find out what
God wants of you. In fact, this selfish imperial view of existence lies
at the heart of all sin : we act as if we're God, even though we
certainly know better. The emperor 'I' has no clothes.
So we need to set
aside what we want and what we've been taught, and join with Jesus in
His prayer in the face of His most ultimate decision :
"Yet not as I
will, but as You will." (
Matt 26:39).
Another key to discernment is a 'sense of peace' about something. That
peace must take place not by itself, but within the rest of the
framework of discernment, or it's not divine.
Yet the absence of such
peace is, by itself, bad news. Such peace and security comes and grows
with prayer. Peace is a gift God is more than happy to give. God wants
us to have some sense of security about what we do. Since God is not a
God of confusion, it will not do in God's purposes for God's followers
to be confused, or be confusing.
Some hints which confirm: --- a chance encounter with just the right
person; --- a thought or conviction that keeps growing; --- something
from the Bible which comes to mind; --- something said in conversation
which keeps coming to mind; --- an opportunity which suddenly opens up.
--- it 'bites back', becoming harder to stop the more you or anyone else
tries to hold back.
These hints mean nothing by themselves, but can mean a lot when taken together.
A decision empowers you to act. When you don't decide, you give power to
someone or something else to make the decision. So if there is not a
clear sense of direction from the Spirit, it could be a hint that God
didn't want you or your church to decide anything.
If so, then let
things happen as they will, leaving it in the hands of others whom God
is calling forward. It is just as likely, though, that you're just
ducking the question. The best way to discern the difference is :
If the search for leadings from the Spirit finds nothing or almost
nothing (as against having an unclear or conflicted sense of leading);
if there is a specific someone who is clearly stepping forward;
if that specific someone is doing this out of concern or love and not a drive for power.
It may take a lot of humility to admit that you are not God's chosen one
and you don't hold the reins of power. But in fact, you don't; God
does, and God will work through people other than yourself or your
group.
There is a harbor in Greece with a very narrow opening that has shallow
rocks on both sides of the opening just under the water that can't be
seen. If one doesn't know exactly where to enter this protected harbor
there could be hull damage. There are three lights set up on poles about
50 feet from one another in a straight line. The helmsman knows that if
he sees three lights he is off course, the same if he sees two lights.
When he sees only one light he knows that it is safe to proceed into the
harbor because he is lined up with the narrow entrance perfectly. All
the lights line up and appear as one.
Discernment is like that. One light is our sense of inner peace by the
Holy Spirit. Another light is the Word of God. And the other light is
confirmation through others or through the 'highlighting' language of
the Holy Spirit. when they all line up as one it is safe to proceed
forward.
Remember:
"When in doubt, DON'T.
"God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede." ------ Oswald Chambers
"I never learned anything while I was talking."------ Larry King
"Conflating modern-day intuition, etc. with the real Spirit is like
confusing a gentle breeze with a tornado. If the real Spirit were really
working in the post-apostolic church, it would be just as ambiguous as a
cyclone." ------ online comment.
"Discerning and acting on God's will does not mean you'll never have
difficult days or feel lousy sometimes. But choosing to live in
alignment with God makes you more joyful, compassionate, and peaceful,
even on bad days."------ Debra K. Farrington, *Hearing with the Heart*
"The majority of historic heresy is based on an interpretation of the
written not the living word. The 'living word' -- which is the Word in
action through the gifts of the Spirit -- is all application and totally
subjected in interpretation to the body of Christian truth, not an
elevation of subjective over objective truth." ------ Ron Zess (online).
More of Jesus let me learn More of His holy will discern; Spirit of God,
my teacher be Showing the things of Christ to me.------ ('More About
Jesus', EE Hewitt, 1915)
(1) Have you had the experience of thinking you were being led by God to
do something, and it turned out not to be so? What were the
consequences? Looking back on it, what could/should have alerted you to
this?
(2) What kind of matters have you sought God's guidance about? How has the result surprised you, if it did?
(3) Have you ever used "God's will" as a cover for your own plans or
ideas? Are you doing so now? What led you to do it? (Please, don't talk
or think about when others have done so; that just breaks down into the
blame game. Talk about yourself.)
(4) Take a look at
1 Thessalonians 5:19-21. It says 'Don't quench the Spirit' and 'test all things'.
How do they fit together?
How might these be seen as working against each other?
Have you ever been involved in an activity or a church where one was
used to render the other as void? How? Why? Did you take any action?
(5) List the people you would most likely turn to when you're making a
tough personal decision? What is it about them that would cause you to
turn to them?
(6) For church-goers and cell members : how do the members of your church use each other as a way of discernment?
