Discerning of spirits

By Tyrone Garrat

1Cor 12:1-10. This passage of Scripture describes the 9 ‘gifts’ of the Spirit. This is not the ‘fruit’ of the Spirit, but gifts given to Believers in Jesus for the building up of the church.

Another version says, ‘distinguishing between spirits’ which means that when we have the gift of discerning spirits it means we have the ability to distinguish between the two spirits.  So when someone is speaking we will be able to discern whether what they are saying is coming from God or whether it is coming from satan (e.g. when Jesus said to Paul, “Get behind me satan”.

This gift works alongside the gift of knowledge.

There are four types of spirit:

1.       God’s Spirit

2.       Heavenly Spirits

3.       Human spirit

4.       Evil spirits

We all know about the Holy Spirit which is given to all Believers when they are ‘born again’. Heavenly spirits are the angels and the cherubim and seraphim. The human spirit is inside every human being.

Finally evil spirits are all the forces that oppose the will of God, such as fear, doubt, despair, distraction, tiredness, laziness etc.

I read a story about a man who received a prophecy and he was immediately able to see all kinds of demonic forms and he saw people with things like arrows in them which represented such things as hatred and bitterness, envy and jealousy and al kinds of afflictions. If you have the gift of discerning spirits you will see demonic forms.

Once I (Tyrone) was in the supermarket and I became aware of the people around me and as I looked at each one I felt an ability to see into their lives as if they were open books. Even though people had no idea this was happening they were opened to me.

(Hugh) Often sparkly eyes go hand-in-hand with someone who knows Jesus. You can just see by looking at them.

(Colleen) In the book of Exodus, there is the story of Moses who came down from the Mountain and whose face shone because he had been in the presence of God.

(Robbie) It’s like a ‘first love’, when we come to the Lord, which for me lasted the first 6 weeks and then faded. But even now you can sense when God is with you.

I (Tyrone) also read about a man called Frances of Assisi who had such a peace about him that the animals were attracted to him and he even befriended a wolf!

 There are men of God like Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947), a British evangelist who was part of the  Pentecostal movement, who had such a power about them that when they stepped into a tram for example, they began preaching and the power of God fell on the people and they ended up falling down, weeping and repenting.

Such is the power and holiness of God that even Peter said to Jesus when he realized the truth that he was standing before God, felt shame and asked to Jesus to ‘depart from him for he (Peter) is a sinful man’

Let us be encouraged to continue to seek God and may He give us the grace and humility to stay the course until the end! Amen