RUSSELL SANDERS
5-17-2020
THE REVELATION GIFTS
DISCERNING OF SPIRITS PART 1
Discern: to perceive; see clearly; distinguish or recognize.
Discernment: keenness in seeing and understanding; insight.
There is a natural discernment and a supernatural discernment. We all have to varying degrees a natural ability to perceive things and to recognize truth from fiction, to see matters or personalities with a degree of clarity. It helps us to judge a person’s character also. Our human spirit has a certain amount of natural discernment.
Cardinal Manning put it this way. He said, “The eye of the soul acquires a discernment whereby some (people) can instantly read the character of others.” This is an example of finely tuned “natural” discernment. This study is not what we are talking about here.
The Holy Spirit’s gift of the “discerning of spirits” is a supernatural gift whereby you can discern, or “see clearly,” the spirit operating in a person or influencing a person. It is a spiritual influence separate and apart from their own human spirit.
Sometimes a person may be influenced or “moved upon” by Holy Spirit, in which case we may receive a “witness (or discerning) in our spirit” that it is genuine and of God.
However, when we think of “the discerning of spirits,” we are generally speaking of discerning or perceiving an evil spirit. When this gift is active, the Holy Spirit reveals to you in a supernatural enlightenment of the presence of a specific evil spiritual entity we call a demon, one of Satan’s minions. That revelation comes to us usually at a certain moment in time. For me, it is like an “ah ha!” moment, and I know either the specific name of the demon or the specific characteristic of the demon.
Jesus operated in this gift on almost a daily basis. The word tells us he cast out many evil spirits. This resulted in many deliverances and healings. It appears that most of His healings came from casting out the spirit that caused the sickness or disease.
Evil spirits attack people in many different ways. Sickness and disease originate in that spiritual realm to cause us problems in our physical realm. Victory is obtained through the blood and name of Jesus. Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us our victory comes from the spiritual realm, not the carnal (fleshly) realm.
The most severe demonic attacks create strongholds that we cannot break in the natural. A spiritual deliverance is needed. These attacks result in the following problems:
1.
Possession
2.
Recession
3.
Obsession
4.
Oppression
5.
Depression
Acronym: P.R.O.O.D.
We will begin to look at these issues on another day, but tomorrow, we will take a closer look at this gift of discerning of spirits given by the Holy Spirit and how it works.
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