Message
The gift of the discerning of spirits helps Christians to identify the kind of spirits operating in the lives of people they come in contact with. For example, a believer who has the gift of the discerning of spirits will be able to tell when he or she comes across a person who is not a child of God but is pretending to be filled with the Holy Spirit. With the gift of the discerning of spirits, believers are equipped to identify those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing around them. God intends that this gift play a vital role in the lives of believers, and it becomes heightened with greater intimacy with Him; unfortunately, many believers do not seem to appreciate its importance. You must note, however, that the gift of the discerning of spirits is not the spirit of discernment, as many people erroneously call it.
In today’s Bible reading, Paul and Silas were on a very important assignment to tell the people of Philippi about Jesus when a demon-possessed girl met them. Everything she said about them was accurate; however, if Paul did not have the gift of the discerning of spirits, he might have put her in front of their evangelistic campaign or even made her the head of the evangelism team based on the things she said. However, Paul saw beyond her words and was able to identify that they were sponsored by an evil spirit, which he eventually cast out of her.
As I mentioned earlier, the gift of the discerning of spirits is vital for all Christians; however, it is even more critical for ministers of God to operate in it. This is because agents of the devil can sometimes sneak into the gathering of believers by pretending to be children of God (). In such cases, ministers of the gospel must seek them out because they are not among the congregation of saints to have fun; they are there to slow down the work of God and extinguish the fire of God that is burning in the midst of the congregation.
Beloved, you must not be caught off guard by demonic operations around you. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and do not have the gift of the discerning of spirits yet, ask God for it today so you can recognise and deal with the forces of darkness appropriately. Tomorrow, I will talk about how to deal with witches and wizards, especially within a church setting.