Spiritual Discernment 2. Discerning of Spirits

Introduction

It is likely that the church in Sardis were familiar with this prayer, “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil 1:9-10 NIV cf. Eph 5:9-10), but when Jesus spoke to them, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Rev 3:1-2), it is clear that they were grossly lacking in spiritual perception? Things have not changed. A famous Bible teacher of last century remarked, “the gift the church most needs today is discernment.” (A.W. Tozer). In a day when many local churches are led by pastors whose personal spiritual vision seems to totally set the tone and direction of congregational life we even more need a revival in spiritual insight.

Few church leaders encourage their people to interrogate what they teach, whereas Paul exhorts us, “Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thess 5:19-21). I remember as a very young Christian walking up to preachers with my Bible in hand and asking sincere but difficult questions. We will have reached a point of mature discernment when, “small things as small be seen, and great things great to us should seem” (Barth). This week’s American elections, for instance, are not in the same category as what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Rev 2:7, 11 etc.). One level of challenge is to think outside our radical western individualism.

Community Discernment

An example of this is how we interpret 1 John 4:1-3, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

Discerning the right use of the name of Jesus in 1 John involves attitudes to sin/sinlessness (1 John 1: 8-10; 5:18), strong love for the body of Christ (1 John 2:9-11; 3:14-23; 4:19-21), remaining in fellowship (1 John 2:19) and accepting apostolic authority (1 John 4:6). Woven together they form a matrix in which the integrity of what a person says about Jesus can be tested. Discerning “spirits” involves looking at people’s relationships.

The “spirits” in 1 John after all are not demonic powers but what false prophets were saying about Jesus. Christ himself prophesied, “when the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26). The Spirit does not testify to himself, at the root of his being he longs to witness to Jesus. Any spirit whose testimony is not to Jesus is not the Spirit of God (Acts 16:7; Rom 8:9; Phil 1:19; 1 Pet 1:11).

The New Testament applies this test rigorously. In Acts 16 we read of a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who was daily “crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days.” Sounds like free advertising, but the story continues,  “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.” Since “the Most High God” was a title used for gods in the non-Jewish religions of the ancient world (cf. Gen 14:18; Dan 3:26) the evil power in the slave girl was manifesting an anti-Christ spirit. There was no way it was defining “salvation” in terms of the death and resurrection of Jesus. When Paul cast the demon out “in the name of Jesus Christ” he revealed the only saving name under heaven (Acts 4:21).

Jesus warned us that “many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” (Matt 24:11). Some years ago, an African preacher appeared who was drawing large crowds to his meetings here in Perth. A friend of mine discerned that his stories were false. So, she paid for someone to go to his homeland and check them out. He was exposed as a false teacher and has never been back; I know that he was privately receiving money from wealthy benefactors in the city. A first century Christian document called the Didache says, “no prophet who orders a meal in a spirit shall eat of it: otherwise he is a false prophet”. Why do we give space to these people? Recently someone asked my counsel about a man who was encouraging believers to give money to his ministry so that they might in turn receive a “prophet’s reward” (Matt 10:41).  Surely a prophet’s reward is to be an intimate friend of God and has nothing to do with money. Jesus did not say about false prophets, “You will recognize them by their gifts” but “by their fruits.” (Matt 7:16). Anyone with supernatural abilities who fails the character test is a false prophet.

This Old Testament scripture applies to us. “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ …3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer…For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut 13:1-3 cf. Matt 24:24; 2 Thess 2:9-11; Rev 13:13). A church which does not test is failing God’s test! You cannot mature in discernment if you are “nice” Christian. I taught my students to conduct the “Jesus test”: measure the time before the preacher says “Jesus” (not “God” or “Holy Spirit”) and see if they teach “Jesus” as the reality itself rather than an illustration of some principle (e.g. faith, influence) (Col 2:3).  Many were appalled by the results.

Jesus said, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45). Listen to what people talk most about and what they talk about most passionately and you will see into their hearts and their idols (Ezek 14:3ff.).

The Spiritual Gift of Discernment

 

I want to speak briefly about what 1 Corinthians 12:10 calls “the ability to distinguish between spirits”. As a young Christian there were a number of times when I spontaneously exhibited demonic like manifestations in meetings. One particularly intense episode was when I was in church and suddenly went blind. On these occasions godly people escorted me into some back room to identify and cast demons out of me. This helped temporarily but the problem didn’t seem to be going away, until a wise Pentecostal pastor exhorted me to abide in what the scriptures had to say about my life (James 1:22-25). From that point on the demonic problems never returned.

Is the gift of discerning spirits the supernatural capacity to discern what sort of demon is controlling a person? It’s hard to see this kind of gift operating in the life of Jesus. Generally tends to take authority over evil powers whom he describes as “unclean” i.e. religiously impure (Mark 5:8 etc.), or speaks to them in terms of observable activities e.g. “You mute and deaf spirit” (Mark 9:25). In the New Testament demonic powers don’t seem that sophisticated in hiding their activities. The horde of demons in Legion were visibly devastating the poor man’s health (Mark 5:2-5 cf. Luke 13:10-17), a deaf and mute spirit likewise threw a young boy into fire and water to kill him (Mark 9:17-25). The riots which destructively oppose the gospel in Ephesus evidence the spirit of Artemis and so on (Acts 19:23-41).

 

There are reasons for believing that “discernment of spirits” refers to the ability to properly judge prophecies.  The expression “spirit of the prophets” throughout in 1 Corinthians 14 (vv. 12, 14, 32) strongly suggests we are to evaluate prophecies through the use of this spiritual gift. This interpretation fits the exhortation to test prophecy elsewhere in the New Testament (1 John 4:1 cf. Matt 24:24; 1 Thess 5:19; 2 Thess 2:9) and respects the high value given to prophecy throughout scripture (1 Cor 14:1, 38).

When Paul says to the Corinthians, “Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.” (2 Cor 2:10-11 cf. Acts 20:28 -31), he points to the gospel itself as the most profound test of the devil’s activities. This brings me to what I think is crucial point in developing a mature ability to discern spirits.

 

The Clash of Witnesses

The key text on prophecy, Revelation 19:10, “the testimony of Jesus…the spirit of prophecy” is spiritually situated within a clash of kingdoms (Eph 6:12; Col 1:13) conducted between the witnesses to rival lings. If clarity about ultimate spiritual matters comes through this clash of witnesses in the real life situations of this world.

Jesus himself is the true witness (Rev 1:5; 3:14) with whom we must be united. False witnesses are key to his trial before the Jewish high council (Mark 14:57), and he confesses to his Roman Judge, “for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” (John 18:37). The perfection of Jesus’ witness is the way he will die (1 Tim 6:13).

In Hebrew law, witnesses didn’t supply neutral information but took sides for or against the character of the accused. If their testimony proved false “It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (Deut 19:21), “a false witness will not go unpunished” (19:5, 9) “A false witness will perish” (Prov 21:28). The power of Christ’s death is that he will take upon himself the penalty false witnesses deserve under the Law of God.

The Lord led me to an important Old Testament foreshadowing this week. After their exodus from Egypt the people are thirsty in the wilderness and angry to the point of killing Moses as if his testimony to the Lord was false (Ex 17:1-5). Then the Lord intervenes and says, “I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink” (17:6). The Lord stands on the rock as if he is the guilty party. Paul informs us, the struck “rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:40). In willingly taking the wrath of God on fallen humanity’s false witness and by praying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34), Jesus perfected his testimony (cf. Prov 3:5). This pattern of perfection continues.

Like Jesus, Stephen is on trial because of false witnesses (Acts 6:13), like Jesus he “cries out” for those who are stoning him to death, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (7:60). Dying in the presence of the enraged multitude the heavens open and he sees the glorified Christ standing at the right hand of God (7:54-56). Through the Spirit (7:55) he sees Jesus standing as his “Advocate” (John 14:16) before the tribunal of God pressing home his own final victory before lost humanity through his own perishing life. I was preaching about this in Myanmar a few years ago and something strange happened to me. I had such an experience of the overwhelming triumph of Christ over sin, Satan and death that I had to repress a great desire to break out in laughter so great was the triumph of Christ over evil. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

With a heart free from bitterness or retribution Stephen was graced to see beyond this world to the foundation creation in the all-forgiving love of the Father. Jesus explains to his impoverished (Rev 2:9) but favoured church in Smyrna, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev 2:10). Because of their spiritual status the Lord would use the false witness of the Jews (2:9) for a supernatural testing which would redound to his glory.

Such things have always been the case, Luther was opposed by false witnesses at the Diet of Worms (1521) and forced to leave Catholicism, early in his ministry Calvin was forced to leave Geneva (1538), Wesley was prohibited from preaching at Oxford (1744) and he and others were banned from parish churches. At the birth of modern Pentecostalism an influential Evangelical denounced the Azusa St revival as “the last (great) vomit of Satan” (G. Campbell Morgan), around the same time 56 leading Evangelical theologians in Germany declared that the new movement was “not from above, but from below”.

 

When in the wisdom of God false witnesses rise up (Ps 27:12; 86:14) and attack the messengers of God something decisively shifts in the spiritual realm. In the power of the Spirit of Christ crucified the focus shifts from ordinary human experience to the eternal testimony the suffering saints bear to Jesus (Rev 19:10). As only after the forgiving heart of God was fully opened in Jesus at the cross (John 7:37-39; 19:34; Acts 2:33), as only after the forgiveness declared by Stephen could Saul/Paul be converted, so we will see mass convictions of sin after such a love is released once more in our time (cf. Matt 5:11-12).

Conclusion

The Puritans discerned that our worldly affections “bribe our discernments” (cf. 1 John 2:16). the Lord must break our worldliness so that we can maturely see through the natural/material into the spiritual/eternal (Eph 4:13). We must let go to the attachments of this world. For the sake of the outpouring of the Spirit, for the sake of the salvation of many and the restoration of the Church, am I willing to be attacked by false witnesses so that I might release to them unconditional forgiveness and so see into things as Jesus sees them to the glory of God? “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot, martyred Ecuador 1956