This is a Powerful Weapon - Discerning of Spirits

foreign [Music] 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 where a raid against an evil spiritual Kingdom spirits of wickedness and so it's essential that we are equipped to handle our spiritual enemies [Music] 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 first Samuel 16 verse 7 the Lord tells 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 third 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 read how Nathaniel came to Jesus and it says Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him behold an Israelite indeed in whom was no God 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 guile this spirit Nathaniel was amazed he said to him how do you know me Jesus Anson 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 Nathaniel 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 many 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 her 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 are sailing with you so we see that an angel came to that stormtask 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 Nathaniel 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 it in Acts 16 verses 16 through 18. and it happened that as we were going to the place of Prayer a certain slave girl having a spirit of divination met us who was bringing 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 you're mother or your aunt is going to die 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 after Paul and us and she kept crying out saying these men are Bond Servants of the most high God who are proclaiming 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 Philippa 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 Philippe 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 was greatly annoyed do you know that it's legitimate sometimes to be annoying to be annoyed with the Devil is not a sin but Paul was greatly annoyed and 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 it the Spirit came out at that very moment 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 Catherine Marshall'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 spiritus 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 stay in her eyes and she said I see you in a car and it's wrecked against a tree and there's blood 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 [Music] foreign

Channel: Derek Prince

Views: 15,654

Keywords: Holy Spirit, Spiritual Warfare, gift of the spirit sermon, gift of the spirit bible study, gift of discernment from the holy spirit, gift of the spirit vs fruit of the spirit, derek prince gifts of the spirit, derek prince gifts of the holy spirit

Id: 16muBXh9ytA

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023