The importance of Discernment

Discernment is a key gift which I believe every believer should stir up and pursue, in fact we should covet all the gifts of the Holy Spirit; however for the purpose of todays article we will focus on the gift of discerning of Spirits. We’ve seen how the enemy has gotten away with a lot of demonic manifestations in the church because the gift of discerning of spirits was not functioning in the leadership, we’ve also made extreme mistakes in our personal dealings due to this kind of spiritual ignorance.

Apostle Paul teaches on the various gifts of the Spirit whilst addressing the Corinthians in one of his letters touching briefly on discerning of Spirits, you can read more on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in one of our articles - this will enlighten and broaden your knowledge on the various manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 - But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

Discerning of spirits is a God-given ability to detect the presence of and the identity of spirits. It gives supernatural insight into the realm of “spirits.” It’s not just a discerning of devils or evil spirits, but a discerning of both good and evil spirits. For further clarity and understanding a spirit is a living personality, whether it is the Spirit of God, the human spirit (which is the spirit of man), or an evil spirit.

There are many voices speaking today, voices of various Spirits and we must be able to discern which voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit. This is why we must spend quality time in the presence of the Lord, hearing His voice, knowing His voice and responding to His voice. We must allow the gifts of His Spirit to operate and function in us.

An example in scripture where we see this gift in operation is where the Lord revealed to Apostle Paul and his companions, that the slave girl in their midst was possessed with a spirit of divination in Acts 16:16-19 "Now it happened as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour."

What we must also note is that there is false discernment that is based on mistrust and we must be very careful not to fall into this trap of suspicion fear and criticism. You can recognize false discernment by the coldness around it. False discernment may be packaged in a type of love, but it does not originate in love it comes out of criticism.

True discernment is rooted deeply in love.

Spiritual blindness equals walking blindly in life and as believers we can not afford to engage life without tapping into the life of the Spirit, as this is our navigational compass in all affairs pertaining to us. To engage this gift we need to stir these gifts that are laying dormant within us. Today I urge you to invite the Holy Spirit into your life and purposefully surrender all your senses to him (physical and spiritual sense) and allow him to help you unlock this treasure inside of you. When we surrender our senses to God , He enhances them and divine inputs gets downloaded in us.

Shalom: Kay King