Evidence of the Gift of Holy Spirit: A Way of Life, Part 3
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Faith and Discerning of Spirits
Action manifestations:
- Faith
- Healing
- Miracles
- Prophecy
- Discerning of Spirits
The way these five manifestations work together, it’s very difficult to separate them. But they do work together in pairs.
- Faith and Discerning of spirits go together.
- Healing and Prophecy go together.
- Miracles, in the middle, are what is outside the natural, what is not physically possible. So, Miracle often goes together with another manifestation, such as Prophesy (outside the natural).
We’ll talk about healing, miracles, and prophecy in the next session. In this session, we’ll briefly talk about faith and discerning of spirits.
The manifestation of faith is not our faith.
Faith is strength that waters the food to cause it to grow. The strength is energized by God. Whatever strength is needed to activate something, that’s what the manifestation of Faith is. It is from or by way of the Spirit; God energizes it, and it has nothing to do with our faith.
With normal faith, you’re taking the revelation of the water of the Word into your mind and believing it, but with the manifestation (uncovering) of faith, it’s God’s strengthening to make something happen.
Faith that moves a mountain is not my faith. It’s not about what we do or believe but about God’s energizing.
When you understand why faith goes together with discerning of spirits, then you’ll more easily understand what discerning of spirits is all about.
The Aramaic word for discerning simply means to divide, separate, or set apart. If you remember all the discrimination that occurred in the 1960s, then you can see how discrimination is separating or dividing.
Matthew 13:48–50 APNT:
48 And when it [the net] was full, they pulled it out to the shore of the sea and sat down [and] sorted [it]. And the good [fish] they placed in containers and the bad they threw away.
49 So it will be in the culmination of the age. The angels will go out and separate the evil [ones] from among the just [ones]
50 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place will be crying and gnashing of teeth.
The separating here was the separating of the good fish from the bad fish. The point is not just to tell them apart but to separate them so that bad can be thrown away.
Mark 16:17–18 APNT:
17 And these signs will follow those who believe, in my name they will cast out demons and they will speak with new tongues.
18 And they will capture snakes, and if they should drink a deadly poison,190 it will harm not them and they will place their hands on the sick and they will be made whole.”
The Aramaic says, “capture snakes.” The King James Version says, “take up serpents.”
A snake is a symbol of something that is a pretender. In Aramaic, it is to display or appear like something else. Part of the idea of discerning of spirits is to capture the snake, the pretender. The spirits that are influencing people’s lives for the Evil One. They’re pretenders; they show off. They act like they’re in charge, but they’re not. We have the same commission to go forth as Jesus gave the disciples; we can capture those snakes.
“If they should drink a deadly poison, it will not harm them.” The “deadly poison” is a representation or symbol for “poison words.” Scripture uses poison to represent words. Devil spirits often accomplish their aims through words.
Discerning of spirits is not isolated. Our mission is not about knowing who they are and what they do. When dealing with a spirit, the manifestations work together, and God shows you what to do about it.
Sometimes, the person doesn’t want to get rid of that spirit. You still have authority over that spirit. There are all sorts of things you can do.
Acts 14:6–8 APNT:
6 And when they had traveled around all the island as far as the city [of] Paphos, they found a certain man, a Judean sorcerer, who was a false prophet, whose name was Barshuma.
7 This [man] attended a wise man, who was the proconsul and was called Sergius Paulus. And the proconsul called for Saul and Barnabas and asked to hear the word of God from them.
8 And this sorcerer, Barshuma, whose name is interpreted Elymas, was standing against them, because he wanted to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
A sorcerer is someone who uses crafty words to deceive people. There are deceiving spirits.
Acts 14:9 APNT:
But Saul, who was called Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit and looked at him
Paul needed to know the source. Was this just an argumentative guy, or was it something more serious and spiritual? As Paul is looking at him, God is can show Paul what he needs to know and do.
Acts 14:10 APNT:
and said, “Oh full of all treacheries and all evil [things], son of the Accuser and enemy [Beelzebub in Aramaic] of all uprightness, will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the lord?
This is not just a question. Barshuma/Elymas was trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith, and Paul was going to put a stop to it. In the next verse, faith comes in as God tells Paul what to do.
Acts 14:11–12 APNT:
11 And now the hand of the lord [is] on you and you will be blind and you will not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a thick darkness and blindness fell on him and he wandered around and looked for one who would take [him] by his hand.
12 And when the proconsul saw what had happened, he was amazed and believed in the teaching of the lord.
Paul commanded it on the authority of what God had told him. The manifestation of faith came into there to energize the strength to make it happen. When Paul handled the way God wanted, not doing anything to magnify the enemy, the result was believing on the part of the proconsul.
This is our way of life: to seek and speak the will of the Father.
John 5:30 APNT:
I cannot do anything of my own will, but as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is upright, for I do not seek my will, but the will of him who sent me.
Some groups and denominations place great emphasis on knowing the names of the spirits, how they operate, and what they do.
Ephesians 6:12 KJV:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
The powers are the only ones in the Word that are named. They are usually identified as a “spirit of something.” The powers have other spirits under them, but only the powers are named. There are only about 15 identified in the Word. Other than that, they are just called unclean spirits or evil spirits. You don’t need to know their names.
People make it complicated; God made it simple.
Spirits don’t like to be by themselves; if you see one, there are probably others. They sometimes work in tandem. For example, one partner in a marriage might have a spirit of accusation, and the other have a spirit of rejection. Sometimes, the spirits will flip or swap between the partners.
You can see examples of how the spirits work in the Old Testament, such as in the life of King Saul.
We expose them, not to glorify them, but to glorify God.
Another example is pride and pity. One is lifted up with pride, another is pressed down with pity. Sometimes, a boss is filled with pride, and an employee feels constantly unappreciated. You can see this pattern in the record of David and Absalom. Absalom was lifted up with pride and brought low with pity (no one listens to me).
Another example is in the record of Samson and Delilah—lust and bondage.
There are reasons why these records are in the Bible.
2 Corinthians 2:11 KJV:
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
We don’t want to magnify the devil, but we don’t want to be ignorant of him either.
Devil spirits portray themselves as being powerful; Irish mythology depicts them as ugly little gnomes and elves. If you saw an ugly, small little elf, you wouldn’t be intimidated. But they make themselves appear huge—they’re pretenders.
They are little in comparison to our huge strength in Christ. We don’t have to focus on our power and authority. Instead, we just focus on God and know that he will tell us what we need to know and what we need to do. All we have to do is obey.
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