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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor August
25, 2002 Now
to each one the manifestation of
the Spirit is given for the
common good. To
one there is given through the
Spirit the message of wisdom, to
another the message of knowledge
by means of the same Spirit, to
another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by
that one Spirit, to another
miraculous powers, to another
prophecy, to another
distinguishing between spirits,
to another speaking in different
kinds of tongues, and to still
another the interpretation of
tongues. All
these are the work of one and the
same Spirit, and he gives them to
each one, just as he
determines.
(1
Corinthians 12:7-11) 1-Introduction
to
Spiritual
Gifts 2-The
Enabling
Gifts
of the
Holy
Spirit 4-The
Gifts
of
Tongues
and
Interpretation
of
Tongues 8-The
Gifts
of
Knowledge,
Wisdom,
and
Faith However,
the use of the word "discerning"
in the King James has created
some confusion in the church
between this particular spiritual
gift and what is often called
"spiritual
discernment." Spiritual
discernment is something we all
need, but it is not the same as
"discerning of spirits." Look
with me 1 Corinthians
2:11-14: This
is what we speak, not in words
taught us by human wisdom but
in words taught by the Spirit,
expressing spiritual truths in
spiritual words. The man
without the Spirit does not
accept the things that come
from the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him,
and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually
discerned. The
fact that "spiritual discernment"
and "discerning of spirits" are
different is reflected by the use
of different forms of the Greek
word to identify them. The
root Greek word used in our text
today from 1 Corinthians 12 is
diakrino, which means "to
separate, make a distinction,
discriminate, or to prefer." Look
at the the video
screens. So
the idea is "to determine the
channel through which something
has come." In
the context of spiritual gifts in
corporate worship that
"something" is some type of
apparent spiritual phenomenon
that has occurred in a worship
service. By determining the
"channel," we can determine the
origin or source of the thing in
question -- and that is the goal
and objective of this
gift. Keep
in mind that the Bible encourages
us to "test the spirits." Look at
1 John 4:1: Also,
consider 1 Thessalonians
5:21-22: The
bottom line of these Scriptures
is this: If something is spoken
in church we need to test it --
to find the channel through which
it came. Why?
Because its origin will determine
to a large extent how we react to
it. What
are the possible "channels" or
origins of a word or some other
manifestation of apparent
spiritual activity in corporate
worship? Basically there are
three: In
1 Corinthians 7 we find a clear
biblical example of the possible
origins of something spoken -- or
in this case written -- to the
church. Paul is writing to the
church at Corinth regarding
various issues they've asked
about. Notice what the tells them
in verse 10: He
states directly that this command
is not his own. It is from
God. But
look at verse 12: What
he is saying here is that this
bit of guidance is of human
origin. Paul is giving his own
view. He is a person with great
spiritual wisdom, yes, but he
says the advice he is giving is
his own. It is not a command from
the Lord. Another
example of this is found in verse
25: So,
even when coming from someone who
is mature in the faith and has
been mightily used of God, a word
may simply be of human origin.
And sometimes the person giving
the word may not even know for
sure. That's why we as the body
must weigh things
carefully. Let's
look at two biblical examples of
"discerning of spirits" in action
-- one involving Jesus, the
other, Paul. First
in Matthew 16:15-23. Jesus is
speaking to His disciples, and He
asks them a most important
question: Jesus
replied, "Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah, for this
was not revealed to you by
man, but by my Father in
heaven. And I tell you that
you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will
not overcome it. I will give
you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven; whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in
heaven." Then he warned his
disciples not to tell anyone
that he was the Christ.
From
that time on Jesus began to
explain to his disciples that
he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things at the
hands of the elders, chief
priests and teachers of the
law, and that he must be
killed and on the third day be
raised to life. Peter took him
aside and began to rebuke him.
"Never, Lord!" he said. "This
shall never happen to you!"
Jesus turned and said to
Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to
me; you do not have in mind
the things of God, but the
things of men." But
Jesus immediately
discerns
that this supposed encouragement
from Peter is really from the
mouth of the devil and is
contrary to the will and purpose
of the Father. I
want to make a point here that's
not directly related to our study
of this spiritual gift, but it so
important if we're going to be
mature in our understanding of
the devil's schemes. This
event, where Peter is rebuked by
Jesus, immediately follows a very
high spiritual moment for Peter.
He has just identified Jesus as
the Messiah and Jesus responded:
"Blessed are you
Simon…." In
one moment, Peter spiritually
discerns Jesus' true identity --
this rugged fisherman has heard
from God. But the very next
moment, Peter spoke words that
came from the devil. The
lesson we need to learn is this
-- hear me now: We are
particularly vulnerable to the
devil's deception immediately
after a high spiritual moment --
and the devil knows it. While
we're dancing in the aisles and
rejoicing, the devil is looking
for an opportunity. He knows that
at this high moment we feel
invincible and have relaxed our
guard. Friends,
help me, as pastor of this
church, to remember that when we
experience high moments of
spiritual breakthrough -- moments
of success -- we need to drop to
our knees and be looking over our
shoulder. We need the gift of
"discerning of
spirits." Listen
to this quote from the late
Oswald
Chambers
from one
of the
devotions
in his book, My Utmost for His
Highest: Unguarded
strength is actually a double
weakness, because that is
where the least likely
temptations will be effective
in sapping strength. The Bible
characters stumbled over their
strong points, never their
weak ones. That's
a word for all of us. Watch out
when you're riding high
spiritually. We
find another example of the gift
of discerning of sprits in Acts
16. Luke is describing an
incident that happened on one of
Paul's missionary journeys.
Starting at verse 16: She
kept this up for many days.
Finally Paul became so
troubled that he turned around
and said to the spirit, "In
the name of Jesus Christ I
command you to come out of
her!" At that moment the
spirit left her. We
don't know why what she was
saying was not good. Maybe she
used a mocking tone. But I think
it's more likely that the people
in that area, when they witnessed
her "advertising," began to
associate Paul and his teaching
with her witchcraft. Paul's
intellect, as highly developed as
it was, and even his great
spiritual insight, were not
enough to immediately recognize
that an evil spirit was seeking
to do him damage through this
woman's words. There
is another area in which the gift
of "discerning of sprits" can be
critical. In the School of
Healing Prayer video course that
we're doing on Wednesday nights,
Dr. Francis McNutt discussed this
gift in the context of praying
for the healing of others. This
type of praying occurs regularly
in our corporate worship, so I
want to cover what Dr. McNutt
said. If
you don't believe that's true,
read your Bible. Evil spirits are
cited as the cause of fever,
epileptic type seizures,
deafness, deformity, and other
conditions. Of course, these
things can also be caused by
bacterial or viral infection,
accident, injury or developmental
defects. The
gift of "discerning of spirits"
helps us know whether a problem
is rooted in the activity of evil
spirits. Dr.
McNutt and his wife, Judith, have
discovered over many years of
ministry that about one-third of
the people they pray for for
healing have some demonic
activity that's affecting their
spiritual, physical, or emotional
health. Their
experience is that prayers for
physical healing or inner healing
are ineffective if the cause is
an evil spirit. In that case,
what is needed is a prayer of
deliverance. Now,
it is best not to pray such a
prayer unless an evil spirit is
actually there. You don't want to
go around telling people that
they're demonized if they're not.
You can create a lot of anxiety
and confusion that
way. But
we must be cognizant of the
possibility of demonic activity,
so that we can know how to pray
for people effectively. This is
why we need people on our prayer
teams who have the gift of
discerning of spirits -- to
increase our effectiveness in
praying for healing. People with
this gift know when an evil
spirit is present. Those with
experience can even tell what
kind of spirit -- whether a
spirit of fear or lust or anger,
or a spirit of
infirmity. It
should be obvious that this kind
of information is very helpful
any time we are praying for
others, but especially so when we
do not have opportunity for an
in-depth interview with the
person being prayed
for. Now,
there are some people in this
service who already have
manifested this gift of
"discerning of spirits." We could
always use more, because my
intention is to group people into
prayer teams, where at least one
member has this enablement, so
that we can be sure that when we
pray for people, we're really
attacking the source of the
problem. The
goal of this entire series on
"spiritual gifts in corporate
worship" is to move us toward
being everything that God
intended us to be as a church.
God wants us to be a church in
which the gifts are understood,
sought after, and used
appropriately to help bring
people to wholeness. Friends,
we need to get serious and
intentional about utilizing these
gifts, that we might see the
manifestation of God among us and
become everything Jesus intended
for his church.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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The
discerning of
spirits
(Tenth
in the series,
Spiritual Gifts in Corporate
Worship)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Today I want to talk with you
about the spiritual gift commonly
called "discerning of sprits."
You may have noticed that the
text I just read from the New
International Version of the
Bible uses the word
"distinguishing" rather than
"discerning." Most other modern
translations do so as
well.
The term "discerning of spirits"
comes to us from the King James
Bible. Both words --
"distinguishing" and "discerning"
-- are synonyms, and either one
describes this gift quite
accurately.
Sermons
in
this
series
The
Spirit searches all things,
even the deep things of God.
For who among men knows the
thoughts of a man except the
man's spirit within him? In
the same way no one knows the
thoughts of God except the
Spirit of God. We have not
received the spirit of the
world but the Spirit who is
from God, that we may
understand what God has freely
given us.
The kind of discernment Paul is
talking about here is not
specifically identified in the
Bible as a "spiritual gift," but
nonetheless we do know that it
does come from God through the
Holy Spirit -- and certainly it
is something God gives us.
Spiritual discernment enables us
to have insight into the things
of God, to see things from God's
perspective. It is very important
to seek to develop this type of
discernment in our lives, but
our, as I said, subject today --
"discerning of spirits" -- is a
different thing.
Dissecting
the Greek
Dissecting the word will help us.
"Dia" is a primary
preposition denoting the channel
of an act and krino simply
means "to
distinguish."
Following
biblical
injunctionsDear
friends, do not believe every
spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from
God, because many false
prophets have gone out into
the world.
Test
everything. Hold on to the
good. Avoid every kind of
evil.
1)
Something can be from
God.
If it's from God then it is
true right and we should
receive it and obey it.
2)
Something can be of the devil
or the
demonic.
If it's from the devil we know
it's a lie and we should
reject it.
3)
Something may simply be of
human
origin.
If it's of human origin we
need to weigh it
further.To
the married I give this
command (not I, but the Lord):
A wife must not separate from
her husband.
To
the rest I say this (I, not
the Lord): If any brother has
a wife who is not a believer
and she is willing to live
with him, he must not divorce
her.
Now
about virgins: I have no
command from the Lord, but I
give a judgment as one who by
the Lord's mercy is
trustworthy.
Satan
speaks"But
what about you?" he asked.
"Who do you say I am?" Simon
Peter answered, "You are the
Christ, the Son of the living
God."
In the natural what Peter said is
an admirable thing. He has just
identified Jesus as the promised
Messiah, and certainly anyone
would think it is in the best
interest of the people of Israel
that the Messiah lives a long
life.
A
warning for all of
usIt
is in the aftermath of a great
spiritual event that the least
likely things begin to have an
effect. They may not be
forceful and dominant, but
they are there. And if you are
not careful to be forewarned,
they will trip you. You have
remained true to God under
great and intense trials --
now beware of the
undercurrent. Do not be
abnormally examining your
inner self, looking forward
with dread, but stay alert;
keep your memory sharp before
God.
Discerning
an evil spiritOnce
when we were going to the
place of prayer, we were met
by a slave girl who had a
spirit by which she predicted
the future. She earned a great
deal of money for her owners
by fortune-telling. This girl
followed Paul and the rest of
us, shouting, "These men are
servants of the Most High God,
who are telling you the way to
be saved."
What this woman was saying is
perfectly true -- and at first
glance it would seem to be a
benefit to Paul and his
companions. Perhaps this is why
it took "many days" for God to
get through to Paul that this
woman's declaration was of
demonic origin and not from
God.
An
aid to prayer
He noted that nearly every
difficulty we encounter in the
natural, including sickness,
disease and psychological
disorders, evil spirits can be
caused by evils
spirits.
What
God wants
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020825a: The Discerning of
Spirits.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado