distinguishing of spirits

big bend, chisos mountains, distinguishing of spirits, evil, haunted, spooky

Hiking in the spooky Chisos Mountains- discerning of spirits

Posted on May 14, 2021May 16, 2021 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I don’t often talk about personal experiences on this blog, because frankly, I don’t think most people are interested in me, lol. We are all more interested in Jesus, and His soon return.

I was thinking today about a few times in my life when I felt fearfully spooky for no reason. These occurred before I was saved. However, all my life I could feel the emotional and spiritual temperature of a room. When I got saved by His grace, the Holy Spirit delivered to me the Gift of Discerning of spirits, also known as the distinguishing of spirits (1 Cor 12:10). So now I can use that ability He planted in me from birth to His glory as a child of God

Discerning of Spirits is discussed by Alexandra Clair on her blog. Her definitions of terms in my opinion are scripturally apt and well-written to boot. So what is discerning of spirits?

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discernment, distinguishing of spirits, listening, spiritual gifts

Having "ears to hear"

Posted on May 26, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

One of the spiritual gifts is “discerning of spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10 KJV). Other translations say “distinguishing between spirits” (ESV, HSB) while the NAS says “distinguishing of spirits.” They generally mean the same thing. The word distinguishing in the Greek carries with it a meaning that someone judges, a passing of a sentence, a thorough conclusion, to detect look-alikes of things that appear to be the same. This is what Charles Spurgeon meant when he said “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

Illustration for NC Wyeth Poem,
The Picket-Guard

To a degree, all Christians have been given an ability to discern. That comes with the Spirit who resides in us. We’re all supposed to ask for discernment, and wisdom, too. We are supposed to practice it and develop it. (Hebrews 5:14). The Spirit delivers this discernment, we don’t obtain it at seminary or by study with an elder or any man-made means. It is the Spirit ultimately Who gives us the ability to detect error and truth.

While all Christians have at least the ability to discern, some have been given a Spiritual Gift of Discernment. It means some have been given an extra dose. Picture an army. All the encamped men listen for the enemy. However, some have been stationed at the edge of the camp and are on patrol. If the enemy makes a move, it is the men on patrol who hear it first. They sound the alarm. Soon the enemy is close enough f the main army to hear it themselves. However it is the guard on patrol who hear the enemy first and earliest.

Civil War Dictionary of terms explains the Picket Duty: “An advance outpost or guard for a large force was called a picket. Ordered to form a scattered line far in advance of the main army’s encampment, but within supporting distance, a picket guard was made up of a lieutenant, 2 sergeants, 4 corporals, and 40 privates from each regiment. Picket duty constituted the most hazardous work of infantrymen in the field. Being the first to feel any major enemy movement, they were also the first liable to be killed, wounded, or captured. And he most likely targets of snipers. Picket duty, by regulation, was rotated regularly in a regiment.“

It is like that with believers who have been given discernment as a gift. We are usually the watchmen, on guard, patrolling the section of ground we have encamped by. The Lord our General has stationed us in a place, given us the ability to hear the different moves of the enemy, and we raise the cry when we hear him slithering, crouching at the door, or otherwise making a move. We also detect spies (Galatians 2:4, Jude 1:4).

I don’t often talk about my own experience, because my own experience doesn’t matter. Also, the process of discernment is a mystery even to me, who experiences it every day. However I’d like to press your patience this one time and share something personal, with a tie-in to the Mark 4:9 verse,

“And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Ears of a Watchman with discernment

I’ve mentioned briefly in passing that our former pastor was let go for serial plagiarism. He had been memorizing other men’s sermons and delivering them as his own, even relating the other pastor’s personal anecdotes as if he had lived them himself. Apparently this had been going on for four years or more. I arrived at my church in January of 2012. After a few months, little things were said or done by the pastor didn’t set right with me, spiritually. I watched, prayed, and watched some more. I had an open mind. I call this phase, the “Hunh” phase, as in “Huhn, what’s up with that?” Or, “Huhn, what does that mean?” Or, “Huhn, did I see/hear what I thought I saw/heard?”

Along same summer and then fall of 2013, and my “Huhn” phase morphed into a low alarm phase. I’d leave the sermon feeling unsettled. What was happening as I listened to the sermons during this time is the crux of this essay. I’d never heard anyone speak to this process or never have seen it written about, until one comment recently by Pastor Justin Peters caught my attention. During this phase of listening to my former pastor preach, I’d have the strong sense that behind what I was hearing was…nothing. There was nothing behind the words.

WWI: “The most interesting of the special instruments
employed for the defense of Paris from aerial attack
are the “listening posts”, as shown in the illustration.
This consists of four huge horns, which gather up
the slightest sound and magnify it by means of a
microphone, so it is impossible for an
airplane to approach unheard.” Wikimedia Commons

See, when the Living God sends His Spirit to fill the words spoken from His word via a preacher or a teacher, they are heavy in my ears. It is like the words themselves are edged with neon, weightier, heavier…like there is something behind them. Alternately, when there is no Spirit carrying the words, it is like they are pale, dead, like brown leaves drifting to the ground rather than arrows piercing the heart. I can’t explain it better than that. Here is a visual.

Hearing regular words:

Hearing Spirit-filled words:

Hearing dead & empty words that are supposed to be alive:

Dead words are empty, they whisper weakly and then fall to the ground. They litter the floor of the sanctuary and flutter only when kicked while walking out the doors when the sermon is done. Jesus was explaining this to Nicodemus in John 3:8, when He likened the Spirit to wind, and said,

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

In the 1 Corinthians 12:10 verse about distinguishing of spirits, the word is pneúma . Depending on context, it means wind. Without the word “Holy” in front of it, the word means just spirits, not The Holy Spirit. (source)

As each week progressed through the summer, fall and then winter of 2013, I’d leave church increasingly unsettled. My mind would react to the sermon by saying, “It feels empty.” “It feels canned”. “There’s nothing there.”

As Gertrude Stein famously said about Oakland CA, “There’s no there there.”

When I couldn’t shake the feeling and the unsettlement grew to prickling proportions, I decided to investigate, and by March of 2013 I’d made the discovery that each and every sermon was plagiarized. That was why the words I’d heard had no power. They were not carried by the pneuma, the Holy Spirit. They were a lie.

“The tragedy of this last hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people. There is a strange thing that I have seen even in the fundamentalist circles: it is preaching without unction. What is unction? I hardly know what it is, but I know what it is not, or at least I know when it is not upon my own soul. Preaching without unction kills instead of giving life. The unctionless preacher is a savor of death unto death. The Word does not live unless the unction is upon the preacher. Preacher, with all thy getting, get unction.” ~Leonard Ravenhill

When the movie Heaven is Real was released, discernment minister Justin Peters was reviewing it on his radio program. (Link below). He was referring to a video interview of the father and son, Todd and Colton Burpo. Peters was describing how Colton looked and sounded when Colton was telling the interviewer of his alleged trip to heaven.

Peters was attempting to describe the lack of verve in Colton’s voice and the lack of animation on his face. Peters was saying that IF Colton had actually gone to heaven, there would be a liveliness on his face and a power behind his words. Peters was struggling to articulate the feeling of having ears that hear the pneuma power. He said, frustrated, “Where is the unction? There is nothing behind the words!”

I understand! Gratefully, I finally heard someone else say what I was also struggling to put into words.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary explains unction: “Unction- (1 John 2:20 1 John 2:27; RSV, “anointing”). Kings, prophets, and priests were anointed, in token of receiving divine grace. All believers are, in a secondary sense, what Christ was in a primary sense, “the Lord’s anointed.“

All believers have an unction, or an anointing, to hear the Spirit and be moved by His power. Those of us who have received the gift of discerning of spirits perhaps have a radar that is tuned to a longer frequency, or who have a greater range and hear earlier than others.

I personally believe this is partly what Jesus meant when He said of understanding the parable in Mark 4:9, “And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Jesus said it again in Mark 4:23, Matthew 11:15, Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 3:22. It is said in Deuteronomy 29:4 and Ezekiel 12:2. In the Deuteronomy verse, Moses said to Israel,

“Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.”

Having ears to hear is obviously important.

Pulpit Commentary on Mark 4:9 says: “He has “ears to hear” who diligently attends to the words of Christ, that he may ponder and obey them. Many heard him out of curiosity, that they might bear something new, or learned, or brilliant; not that they might lay to heart the things which they heard, and endeavor to practice them in their lives. And so it is with those who go to hear sermons on account of the fame of the preacher, and not that they may learn to amend their lives; and thus the words of Jehovah to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 33:32) are fulfilled, “And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.”

Acoustic listening devices developed for the Dutch army as part of
air defense systems research between WWI & WWII. Source

We all have ears to hear, if we are a believer. However those ears need to be kept clear (Acts 28:27, Matthew 13:15). If you do not have discernment as a gift, you still have a responsibility to practice the skill. Matthew 13:15 explains the first steps in keeping our ears open and receptive:

“for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should turn again; and I would heal them.”

When the heart grows callous, the eyes and the ears also dim. Keep the heart soft by continual study of the word, prayer, and repentance of personal sins.

Also, are the fruits of the spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance—apparent in the words you’re hearing? If those are present they are from God. If they are not, the words are not from God.

Third, if there is no Spirit power behind their words, there will be a difference between what people say and what they do. If you hear one thing said but observe that the above fruits are not in the person’s actions, then their words are not anointed. In other words, anyone can parrot love, peace, joy, gentleness in their speech but do they demonstrate it, too? One who speaks with unction will speak and act in alignment with God’s word. One who speaks without anointing will always show themselves Spirit-less by their actions at some point. (Proverbs 5:22; Isaiah 59:12).

While it is dangerous to base our spiritual life on feelings, the fact is, we do experience things by the Spirit. If you feel something is “off” in a sermon or a teaching, if you feel that it is pale, or lacking something, it could be that it lacks the pneuma or the unction and the Spirit is alerting you to that fact. It takes much prayer and discernment to detect the difference between a personal feeling and the Spirit’s warning bell.

Even then, the alert isn’t the end, it is the beginning. My role was not just to rely on a feeling, but to prayerfully investigate. When the cold hard facts come in is when we move ahead. The guard on patrol doesn’t come running to the encamped army saying, “I think something may be out there!” Something is always out there. The guard comes to the army and says “I saw a flashlight and heard the cocking of a gun.” Facts.

While the devices posted above where man experimented with various means of amplification and acoustic listening, our spiritual listening devices are the Word and prayer. That’s all we need. Hone your listening skills and ask for increased discernment, whether or not you have the specific gift.

And don’t listen for only the words. Listen to what is behind the words.

Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Revelation 13:9)

——————————-

Hiking in the spooky Chisos Mountains- discerning of spirits

Posted on November 20, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I don’t often talk about personal experiences on this blog, because frankly, I don’t think most people are interested in me, lol. We are all more interested in Jesus, and His soon return.

Discerning of Spirits is discussed by Alexandra Clair on her blog. Her definitions of terms in my opinion are scripturally apt and well-written to boot. So what is discerning of spirits?

“In simplistic terms this means that one has an awareness of the unseen world and its influence and workings, both godly and evil, as people or circumstances are impacted, led, opposed, or guided. … People with the Spiritual Gift of discernment have sensitive antenna, a God-planned innate ability, to probe beneath the superficial exterior to get at the truth. They may not initially understand the reasons why they feel uncomfortable even as others are on board supporting a person or plan. And yet, they have discerned that there is a spirit at work here that is not quite right. They are being moved by the Holy Spirit to take the next step, to investigate and question, to “test the spirits.” …

“Persons with this gift use intuition balanced by knowledge of scripture to spot a disingenuous person or false teaching. They sense when others have been deceived by experiential or “new age” encounters and can counsel on the perils of occult involvement. They can investigate claims of miraculous healing to know if this is truly a touch from the divine or a person claiming power that only belongs to God. They can investigate conflicts within the church body facilitating peace and resolution, Christ-centered intervention, intercessory prayer and deliverance.” …

“They have a deep abiding confidence in the power of God to change circumstances and people, balanced by a healthy and cautionary insight into the reality that may present as wrong or even malevolent.”

In the mid 1990s, my husband and I traveled by VW camper van across country. We took three months to travel from Maine to Key West, across Texas to San Diego, and then north to Carmel, CA before running out of time. We especially loved the Big Bend region and the National Park at Big Bend, Texas. It was spectacularly beautiful! I recommend everyone visit there once in their lives.

One of the campgrounds we stayed at was high in the Chisos Mountains. It is at elevation 5,400 feet. My husband and I took off on one of the trails to hike and enjoy the view in the clear desert air.

As we walked up and up, my feet slowed and slowed. I was not out of shape or tiring- in body. It was that my soul sensed something wrong. As we ascended higher on the trail, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I began to hyperventilate, and not from the elevation or the exertion. It was a panting kind of fear. Finally, my brain was screaming STOP and my feet would go forward no more. I refused to budge and inch. My husband and I turned back. He was totally perplexed but supportive.

For the first time in many years I thought about that moment today It all came rushing back to me. Was I crazy? Irrational? What WAS that spooky feeling? I looked up the Chisos area in Google and plugged in the search term “spooky.” This is what I found.

Big Bend Mysteries
From Winter Texas Online
“‘Chisos’ in native language means ghost, or spirit, and most native people avoided the pristine mountains like the plague, believing them to be alive with the spirits of the dead. Standing in the primary campground of the Chisos Basin and listening to the wind whistle through the desolate range, you can easily understand their reputation and the many myths and legends associated with them.”

Spooky Days, Frightful Nights- the Haunted Big Bend Region of Texas
From Texas Less Traveled

“The Big Bend region has always been a spooky place, dating at least as far back as when the relatives of the pit-dwelling Anasazi roamed the region and only traveled through the Chisos Mountain region with great respect and much apprehension.”

“But it’s not just what you see in this mythical land that can bring a chill to the back of the neck and make the hair stand up on your arms. It’s what you can’t see, or what you thought you saw, if even for a fleeting moment. At times like these you can easily understand why those ancient travelers through the area did so with great care and caution. According to their legends, it’s not the harshness of the environment or the hostile bands of bandits and renegades that troubled the region most, but the spirits of the mountains and the witches that live near the river. To the natives, the region was terribly haunted.”

“Today, you don’t have to look very far to find strange tales about the region. Not far away are the famous Marfa Lights, and on more than one occasion similar lights have been seen throughout the national park. Other strange events and encounters that are told often around Big Bend campfires are stories about moving, human like figures in the desert at night, but investigation the next day seldom reveals any footprints or other signs.”

When we traveled to Chisos at Big Bend, we had no idea of its reputation, and I still had no idea until today. (Left, me in the Chisos, with traveling cat.)

Now, there is no such thing as ghosts. When the body dies the soul goes either to heaven or to hell. However, demons do haunt the world, (Matthew 12:43-44). After all, satan is the god of it. (2 Corinthians 4:4). They roam and prowl as does satan, looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8).

I believe it was the presence of evil that I’d sensed there on the trail, and by the looks of the history of the place, I was not the first one to sense it.

I’ve written one other time on the blog about sensing evil. It was when the first strange humming noises started to emerge. I’d written–

“Traveling in Scotland was amazing. I loved it. I’ve always been spiritually sensitive, and I noticed that in Scotland, land of standing stones, Celtic Druids, foggy moors and crumbling castles, that the veil felt particularly thin. It wasn’t the Godly I was feeling nearby, but the eerie or demonic, particularly in standing stone circles. It is a place where legends of giants still persist. Other places where I felt that was the Salton Sea in California, and Gray, Maine. Did you ever feel that, a place that gave you the willies for no reason? Or a place that was so pure you felt you could drink it in forever?”

I can’t wait for the pure air that I’ll drink into my soul in heaven. Can’t you? But meanwhile, if you have the gift of Discerning of Spirits, no, you’re not crazy when you sense something off. It is the Spirit speaking. If you do sense something, refer to scripture and appeal to the Spirit in prayer for insight. That is the best way to go. We can’t go forward based on feelings and intuition, but the Spirit will lead. I hope never to feel that spooky fear again. I can completely understand the verse in Luke,

“Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” (Luke 21:26 NIV).

I felt like fainting in fear on the Chisos Mountain trail, and it wasn’t even the Tribulation yet which all those who have not trusted in Him will have to endure. That time will be really frightening! Jesus is the surest way to safety. He saves us from the bondage of sin now and soon, one day, He will release us from its presence forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For further reading-

If you have the gift of Distinguishing of Spirits, I feel your unease. There is very little written about it and what little there it is distinctly unhelpful, as it veers to easily into the paranormal or the just plain silly.

Got Questions has a good essay on the gift-

What is the spiritual gift of discerning spirits?

John MacArthur discusses it in this sermon, The Permanent Edifying Gifts Part 3

Pastor Tim Challies write about the Gift of Discernment in three parts, here, here and here.

church, distinguishing of spirits, jesus, spiritual gifts

What is the gift of distinguishing of spirits?

Posted on October 24, 2012 by elizabethprata

More on spiritual gifts: I asked the question in prior blog entries on whether the spiritual gifts that were given as a sign are ceased now. (tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, healing). I came to the conclusion that scripture seems to say they are concluded.

There are many other permanent, edifying spiritual gifts that remain to this day. The spiritual gifts are endowments given by the Holy Spirit. As Theology professor Wayne Grudem says, “these are the supernatural graces which individual Christians need to fulfill the mission of the church.” I won’t take time to do a series on all of them, better scholars than me have weighed in on explaining them. However today I do want to look at one particular gift, though: distinguishing of spirits.

Here is the verse from 1 Corinthians 12:10 in several different translations:

“to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” (ESV)

“To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:” (KJV)

“He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.” (NLT)

The word for distinguishing in Greek is diakrisis, and it means an act of judgment. Not the kind of judgment in court, but “properly, a thorough judgment, i.e. a discernment (conclusion) which distinguishes “look-alikes,” i.e. things that appear to be the same” goes the definition from Strong’s. (source)

Pastor Charles Spurgeon once said that “discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.”

In the bible one example of the gift of distinguishing of spirits was when Peter was able to tell instantly when both Ananias and Sapphira were lying to him and thus to the Holy Spirit.

“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. (Acts 5:1-5)

How did Peter know? Ananias had made a claim, and there doesn’t seem to have been enough time to pass for Peter to have heard any different from other sources…except from the Holy Spirit. And the exact same thing happened when Ananias’s wife Sapphira came in three hours later and laid some money down. She also claimed it was the full amount. Peter pronounced her death and immediately she fell down and breathed her last. (Acts 5:7-10).

Paul had the same thing happen, and the gift of discerning of spirits manifested itself in a way that showed him though the girl was saying something truthful, was at root an evil from a demon.

“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. (Acts 16:16-18)

The Holy Spirit had given Paul and Peter the ability to discern if what the person was saying was a lie or the truth, or was a half-truth, or was truth but was from an evil spirit.

We all have a certain amount of discernment. We should practice it, pray for it, and be diligent about it. As we grow in our faith, we employ the discernment knowledge we have gained as we strive with the Spirit. But there are other people who have been given a gift of discerning the spirits. These people seem to be able to tell earlier that something is false. They are ahead of the curve so to speak.

The men at GotQuestions tell us:

“There are certain individuals, however, who have the God-given ability to distinguish between the truth of the Scriptures and erroneous and deceptive doctrines propagated by demons. Although we are all exhorted to be spiritually discerning (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1), some in the body of Christ have been given the unique ability to “spot” the forgeries in doctrine that have plagued the church since the first century. But this does not involve a mystical, extra-biblical revelation or a voice from God. Rather, the spiritually discerning among us are so familiar with the Word of God that they instantly recognize what is contrary to it. They do not receive special messages from God; they use the Word of God to “test the spirits” to see which line up with God and which are in opposition to Him. The spiritually discerning are those who “rightly divide” (2 Timothy 2:15) the Word of God in a thoughtful and diligent manner.”

John MacArthur on 1 Cor 12:10, on how the discerning spirits verse manifests itself today says,

“This kind of gifted Christian can intuitively identify truth from error, hypocrisy from genuineness, and false prophets are everywhere today and I believe there are some people who are gifted by God to unmask false prophets. I think some of them write books. I think some of the people who have done good work in the cults and in the occult may be exercising the gift of discernment, the capacity to see through something to the core of its hypocrisy.”

The gift of discernment of spirits is a gift the Spirit has given to me. So, how does a person with this gift use it? How is the church edified by proper use of a gift of discerning the spirits?

MacArthur again:

“The gift can be exercised in many ways. Let me just share what possibly could be the use of it today. It could be used to reveal demonism in any form, any form. It could be used to reveal false prophets and spiritual phony’s. This person can spot a spiritual phony without missing, usually. Sometimes someone say to me, “You better not put that person in such a such position. You’d better not have that person come to your church and do, because something’s not right, protecting the church. I think the gift can even be used to see the intrusion of carnal elements into worship. The gift can discern one in whom the Holy Spirit is genuinely working. The same person will often say to me, “You know there’s a person really energized by the Spirit of God. I can see it.” They are the watchmen of the church.

Tim Challies wrote a book on discernment. He said, “This is not merely a gift, but a responsibility.”

You shouldn’t accumulate knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. Once you know something is true or false, you have a responsibility to do something about it. You have a responsibility to praise the Savior if you find a true teaching, but if you find a false teaching you have to say something about it, as well.

I tell my fellows at church that I am a carbon monoxide alarm. Carbon monoxide gas is poisonous and odorless. It kills, but people only detect its presence when they start to feel sleepy and even then it may be too late. False doctrine is like that, odorless, undetectable except for some symptoms that appear in people who are under its influence. If you detect a false teaching, or an evil spirit at work or a carnality creeping in, or whatever it may be as MacArthur outlined, DO something. What I do is speak to my pastor or the teacher of the class. I make a report. I tell the men, right away. I let them know what I found, how I found it, where I found it, and the methods I used to find it. This is so they can check for themselves. I also offer the scriptural foundation that in my opinion shows the teaching or carnal thing is false so they can compare it to the Word. If they deem it false, my prayer next becomes that they do something about it and therefore it will not be tolerated.

Remember the condemnation of the church at Thyatira. The people were tolerating a false prophetess. Jesus was unhappy about that. (Revelation 2:20). If you discern something is off somewhere, you have a responsibility to speak up about it.

It isn’t an easy ministry. I don’t go looking for falsity. The blogs that have a badge on their top menu bar “member of heresy hunters” or some such…I disagree with that. I don’t spend my time hunting evil. I spend my time hunting good. There is too much evil to keep up with and it always finds me anyway. Instead, I try to stay on the center line of the narrow road of His goodness by listening to sermons, praising Jesus, learning the word, exhorting about Him everywhere I go.

Sometimes in other places or in other churches when I did make a report on this or that, my report was rejected summarily without prayer or consultation to the scriptures. Sometimes I was identified as a bad influence rather than the false doctrine being bad. Shooting the messenger does happen. Poor Jeremiah, thrown into a nearly bottomless cistern… That is why having the gift of discernment of spirits is a responsibility and not an intellectual game and not a personal playground. It comes with consequences, sometimes.

Challies said,

“Satan and his spirits can be discerned in appearance. Satan invades the Christian community with teachers and leaders who counterfeit the truth. These people will always introduce teaching that is foreign to Scripture. … Though her [the slave girl’s] words were true, the spirit behind them was false and sought to lure people with a little bit of truth so that the opportunity could be used to heap reproach upon the gospel.”

And there is the nut of it. Whether you don’t have the specific gift but are maturing in your faith and gaining discernment, or you do have the spiritual gift of distinguishing spirits, not bringing reproach on the Gospel is the goal. Jesus is to be uplifted, always. It is HIS Gospel, it is HIS church, it is HIS doctrine. So even though the responsibility is heavy, the joy is wonderful when the body works together to maintain a level of purity in a local church. It is joy when we see the melding of the separate gifts result in something pleasing to the One who delivered us from the evil that we are now reporting and protecting the fellow sheep from.

In some cases, the sheep never even knew that a creeping poison almost touched them. They are happily ministering and functioning in their spiritual gifts unknowingly protected from yet another foray by satan. Praise the Lord for mature churches where all gifts of the body work together to edify His congregation and exalt Jesus, the ultimate goal of any church!