The Need for the Gift of Discernment of Spirits

In the midst of the outburst of the Prophetic gift and other miraculous gifts in our age, there is another gift Christians have to pray for: the gift of discernment!

We cannot always rely on people who claim they have come from the occultic world to expose fake men of God. What if they are not telling the truth? What if they are mere attention seekers? What if they are also agents of the devil seeking to destroy genuine men of God? What if it is Satan’s agenda to make the love of many towards God grow cold? What if they are telling the truth? We need this gift earnestly from God to judge even these so-called former occultists.

This gift sets you on course and helps you guard against false prophets and charlatans. Remember, we are to test all spirits to see if they are from God. It takes the gift of discernment to do so.

“1 John 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 
     2  By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ” – ESV

“1 Thessalonians 5:19  Do not quench the Spirit.
20  Do not despise prophecies,
21  but test everything; hold fast what is good.
22  Abstain from every form of evil.” – ESV

” Revelation 2:1  “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2  “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. ” – ESV

There are also many Pharisees who seem very religious and condemn genuine anointing of God because those they condemn do not belong to their sect. I pray that this Gift would become the order of the day so that we would receive only true prophets of God.

Do not be mistaken, there are people whom, if you try to judge them using only the Written Word, you would miss it by a thousand miles because “the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life.”

I remember when I was in the world, I cunningly and craftily branded someone a witch. I convinced people that this person wanted me to become a wizard. I also added that this person sent me to their camp where they allegedly ate human beings and used someone’s leg to play golf, and so forth with many other weird tales.

Pastors and many people prayed for me, believing the story was true! None of them discerned that what I was saying was false. It was only one gentleman, who was not even a man of God, who detected that I was telling lies. Yet, I was able to deceive many men of God.

I described so many things by imagination and even provided what seemed like indisputable proof. No one told me I was lying. I was so confident about what I was saying. Each story was carefully calculated. This was back when I was in Junior High School, about a year before my conversion or first encounter with the Lord.

So, brethren, I hope you understand the angle I am coming from. Imagine if someone had asked me in those days whether certain men of God were part of it; I believe I would have, out of a wicked heart, mentioned some names to vindicate myself!

Beware, Satan is crafty.