Discerning of Spirits

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’re arrayed 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, 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.

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 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 kinds of spirits that confront us in the Christian walk. Let me mention four.

First of all, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Very important to be able to discern the Holy Spirit. Secondly, there are angels, both good angels and evil angels. 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 of all, 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 is 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, 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 angel spirits, too. And, of course, later on 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 sail 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 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 in Acts 16, verses 16 through 18:

“And it happened, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought 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, and 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 Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim 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, greatly annoyed…”

Do you know that it’s legitimate sometimes to be annoyed? To be annoyed with the devil is not a sin.

“…But Paul, greatly annoyed, 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 he [it, the spirit] came out that very hour.”

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 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’s a little similar from my own personal experience. Actually, this incident in my life is mentioned in Kathryn Kuhlman’s book Something More. It happened while I was ministering in 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 Spiritualist medium, and I said I wasn’t prepared to pray for her. So, she went away, but came back a few weeks later, and she said, “I have given up being a medium, and I want you to pray for me.” So, I felt I couldn’t refuse. I wasn’t confident of her sincerity, but I began to pray with her, and it was hard going.

And after a while, I just 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.” And for a moment, my heart sank, and I thought, “Oh, I’m going to be in a car that’s going to be wrecked against a tree.”

And then I realized, “That isn’t the Holy Spirit. That’s that 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 she’d repented of her evil practices. But I really believe that was a turning point in my life. You see, when you go to a fortune teller, the fortune teller predicts something evil about your life, as often happens. If you say, “Oh, isn’t that terrible! Think what’s going to happen to me!” in a certain sense, you are submitting to Satan’s destiny for your life. 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.’