TEACHINGS

By Henry Miranda 

DISCERNMENT is one of the many gifts we receive from the Holy Spirit.

“To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10 NRSV).

In First Corinthians 12:10, discernment is the divinely enabled ability to distinguish a good spirit from a bad spirit. It is a manifestation of the Spirit, which is to be utilized to edify the church. Spiritual discernment is not a function of the mind; it’s a function of the spirit. The Spirit helps us know what cannot be objectively verified.

We need to discern the spiritual source of the teachings coming through supposed evangelical Christians. If we simply used the objective tools given to us in the Bible, the deception in the church today would find no audience. The falsely “prophesying ones” talk on Christian airwaves, speak in Christian pulpits and write Christian books. They are not discerned to be of another spirit by their outward appearance, their affiliations, their pedigree, or the number of their followers. We have what we need: the Holy Spirit (the Bible) for discerning spirits. The Holy Spirit will tell us if the “prophesying ones” are from God.

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,” (Philippians 1:9 NKJV). 

How can you tell a false prophet, a false teacher, or even a false Christ? I don’t think we could with our own human understanding. According to the word of God, we are to test all teaching. But how do you know, or how do you expose those that are flawed? (1 John 4:1-6). 

Prophecy has a spiritual source. When John tells us not to believe every “spirit” (1 John 4:1), it is because many false “prophets” have gone out into the world. The spiritual source speaks through a human spokesperson. Thus, if someone claims to speak for God and is giving spiritual teaching, we must determine whether or not the teaching is from the Holy Spirit or a deceiving spirit.

This is the essence of the discerning of spirits. Prophecy is to be carefully tested to see if it is from God. This type of testing is objective. The word dokimazo (to test, examine, prove, scrutiny (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals to recognize as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy) means we need to know if people claiming to speak for God are indeed doing so. Nothing could be more foreign to Paul’s teaching in First Thessalonians than uncritically accepting religious teaching for subjective reasons. But this is exactly what many Christians do today. They believe that if a teaching makes them happy or uplifted, it must be from God. False doctrine makes many people happy. Conversely, true doctrine makes many people upset.

As Christians, we should measure what we are taught against the infallible word of God, which can make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Failure to search the Scriptures for errors may make us vulnerable to false teaching. They are some Christians who have not carefully examined their beliefs and, consequently, accept every new opinion and follow the guidance of every new teacher uncritically. As Christians, we must carefully weigh and examine what people tell us.

What Is the Spiritual Gift of Discernment?
The spiritual gift of discernment is the ability to quickly perceive whether such things as people, events, or beliefs are from God or Satan. People with the gift of discernment know that Satan and his demons disguise themselves as holy. They also know that Satan uses counterfeit miracles to deceive people and that he empowers false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, and false doctrines.

Discerning of spirits is the supernatural ability given by the Holy Spirit to perceive the source of a spiritual manifestation and determine whether it is of God (Acts 10:30-35), of the devil (Acts 16:16-18), of man (Acts 8:18-23), or of the world. It is not mind reading, psychic phenomena, or the ability to criticize and find fault.

Discerning of spirits must be done by the power of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit when something is or is not of God. The gift of discerning spirits is the supernatural power to detect the realm of spirits and their activities. It implies the power of spiritual insight—the supernatural revelation of the plans and purposes of the enemy and his forces. It is a gift that protects and guards your Christian life.

Discernment in Scripture

Jesus was able to know the presence of Satan (Matthew 4:1-11), see when someone was influenced by Satan (Luke 22:31), and know when someone’s words were influenced by Satan (Matthew 16:23). John (1 John 4:1), Paul (Acts 16:16-18), Peter (Acts 5:1-11), and the disciples (Matthew 10:1) all demonstrated the gift of discernment.

We live in an age where almost any religion or religious opinion is tolerated. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of cunning, lying, deceiving teachers in the world. God requires us to use our minds to learn to discern between truth and error and identify and avoid deceivers.

 As long as we are in this world, which belongs to Satan, there will always be false teachers. The question again is, how do we know who’s telling the truth and who is lying to us? We must carefully submit to a new teaching, searching the Scriptures for its accuracy in God’s word. We must examine their message and their moral life and character. There are some that have the gift of charisma; they can talk anybody into anything. They can sell ice to the Eskimos. That’s why it’s so easy for us to be deceived, and that’s why we have to be on the lookout for false teaching.

 I remember reading once that it took five years to train a soldier in the Roman army. As born-again Christians, we don’t start out mature; we are like infants, small and vulnerable. We have a growing process that we have to go through to reach our maturity in Christ. Just like the Roman army, we have to train to be able to battle the enemy.

If you want to grow spiritually, you need to learn discernment. That way, no one can lead you down the wrong path. Failure to discern between error and truth will leave us open to false teaching and, at the risk of staying infants, being tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every word of doctrine, and by the cunning and craftiness of man in a deceitful scheme.

Training is the most important part of an infant’s life. Born-again Christians must be taught the word of God and how to live their lives according to Christ. It is the most important time in a Christian’s life because you start as a new creation in Christ. It’s very important to be able to hear God’s small still voice when deciding the direction in your life. To receive from God, we must be where God wants us to be, not where we want to be.

If you have a train ticket going to New York and the train leaves at 7:00 am, and you arrive at 8:00 am, there is no way that you would get to New York on that train. In the same way, with God, we must be where he wants us to be, or we will miss out on our blessings.

That’s why it’s so important to discern between God’s Spirit, the demonic spirit, and the human spirit. Discernment enables a person to judge and discern whether one who prophesies, speaks in tongues, or performs miracles does so by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 It’s possible for a Christian to come under the influence of a spirit, whether from God or the devil; hence, it is the function of “the gift of discernment of spirits” to judge whether a given actor’s repetition of acts flows from the Holy Spirit, a demonic spirit, or the human spirit.

Spirits can be summarized under three headings:

1. The Holy Spirit: which always inclines us to do good.
2. The demonic spirit: which always inclines us to do evil.
3. The human spirit: which may be inclined to do either good or evil, depending upon whether we follow right reason or selfish desires.

If you want to grow spiritually, you need to learn discernment. In his letter to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul laments the lack of maturity in his readers and advises that maturity comes from learning to distinguish (discern) good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14). As Christians, when we hear false teaching, the spirit of God will trouble our hearts, and we may feel agitated in our spirit.

We must be careful about falling into the trap of blaming every evil thought that comes into our minds on an evil spirit. We are really quite good at creating our own problems, and the atmosphere that we live in today, through TV, radio, music, etc., is saturated with evil and sinful concepts. Most of the time, the enemies simply let things follow their natural course.

We need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, and we need to learn to obey the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Only the human spirit and the spirits of the fallen angels have a desire to dominate and control you. Satan is always out there waiting to trap you in your sins to take away your God-given freedom. That’s why learning to hear God’s spirit is important, which is part of learning to walk in the spirit.

The gift of discernment relates to message, motive, tone, attitude, character, and Christian lifestyle. The gift of discernment allows a person to discern between the one who has something to say and the one who has to say something.

God requires us to use our minds, reason, and education in faith. We must be able to identify deceivers and avoid them. As Christians with the power of the Holy Spirit, we should have some insight into God’s plans and purposes for us. God will give you a vision of your direction in your Christian walk (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).

Christians must not be naïve about claims of spiritual authority and gullibly accept all such claims. Many cults and charismatic leaders have gained popular support, often among disenchanted former church members, for there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing who claim authority based on divine revelation, anointing, or prophetic mantle to validate their teachings.

It’s a tragedy to have a misguided tolerance toward false teaching.