One of the most interesting and widely displayed gifts in the Bible is the gift of discerning of spirits. Many questions have arisen about exactly what this gift, that comes via the Holy Spirit, is. In this post, we will examine this most important manifestation and try to address some of the common misconceptions.

1 Corinthians 12:4–6 (KJV)
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

1 Corinthians 12:8–10 (KJV)
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 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:

• There are the four manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are available to everyone.  They are the 3 vocal gifts, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues and gifts of healings.  You can view more information about this here. Today though, let’s talk about one particular manifestation that is in realm of administrations of the Spirit. Let’s talk about discerning of Spirits.
• First and foremost let’s define what ‘discerning of spirits is’.

DEFINITION: discerning/διάκρισις/diakrisis – separation, distinguish or differentiate

• Discerning of Spirits is a manifestation of the Spirit whereby you are allowed to separate, distinguish, or differentiate spirits, particularly three classes of spirits: demon spirits, angelic spirits, and human spirits.
• The gift is supernatural and not natural and comes at the spur of the moment.
• We can often understand what something is by looking at what it isn’t.

What Discerning of Spirits is Not

• It is not the gift of discernment.
  • Don’t forget the last two words, discerning OF SPIRITS.
  • In trying to identify what this gift is, at times people have made substitutions based on their 21st century understanding of what ‘discerning’ means.
• It is called discerning of spirits not the gift of suspicion.
  • Everyone can have the gift of suspicion and not be anointed at all!
• Discerning of Spirits is not the ability to read people.
  • It is not natural perceptiveness.
  • There is nothing natural about this supernatural manifestation.
  • Knowing about personalities, being a good judge of character, or being able to read body language is not discerning of spirits.
• Discerning of spirits is not fault finding.
  • It is not being able to hone in on human weaknesses or faults.
  • Everybody has human faults.
  • Welcome to the club.
  • If you think you’re spiritual because you think you have an ability to point these faults out, you are sad case indeed.
• Discerning of spirits is not seeing evil spirits only.
  • It is discerning of spirits (all classes) not discerning of evil spirits (one class).
  • Some people see devils everywhere and in everything.
  • Some things are not devils, some things are just human frailty.
  • If all you are seeing is evil, there is absolutely something wrong with your life.

There are Way More Good Angels than Devils or Demons.

• One of the things that causes people to draw back from this particular gift of the Holy Spirit is fear.
• Have you ever thought about this verse in Chronicles in this light?

2 Chronicles 32:7–8 (KJV)
7 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: 8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

• Here is the thought: “There are more with us than there are with them.”
• There are a limited of fallen angels. The Bible tells us that 1/3rd of the angels fell with Lucifer.
• That means that God’s good angels, outnumber the devils ‘bad angels’ by a factor of 2 to 1.
• If God would just let the Angels duke it out, heaven would win just on sheer numbers alone.
• There is no reason to fear.
• Now put Jesus at The head of the host of heaven.

Revelation 19:11–14 (KJV)
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

• Are you kidding, you put the resurrected Son of God, who already defeated Satan and all his cohorts in the regions of the damned, at the head of army of God and it’s not even close.
• There are more with us than there are with them.
• But wait a minute, there’s more.

1 Corinthians 15:24–28 (KJV)
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

• Remember this fact: all of the action of final eliminating all the enemies of God by the Lord Jesus Christ is done, all of that happens, with God the Father sitting down!
• What would happen to Satan if God the Father got up off His Throne?
• What if the Father stood up?
• What if He engaged in the battle?
• Jesse Duplantis wrote a book entitled “Close Encounters of the God Kind?” In it he details, how God took him to heaven. In one part, the Father was sitting on His throne and He just moves his pinkie a twitch and an angel is slammed up against the wall. It was an illustration of the mega power of God. Just a twitch of the finger and an angel, maybe the same angel that slew out 185,000 Assyrians (1Kings 19:5) that came up against Israel one day, was hurled out of the way.
• Don’t ever forget, “there are more with us than there are with them!”
• Here is another area to look at that will help shed some light on gifts of the Spirit, that is, how does the Spirit unveil these moving’s of God? When the manifestations come, in what form do they appear?

Vehicles of Manifestation: Dreams

• The first vehicle is dreams.
• Are you a dreamer?
• Does the Holy Spirit communicate to you through this avenue?

Matthew 1:20–21 (KJV)
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

• Joseph, husband of Mary, was a dreamer.

Question: Can you pick out which gifts of the Spirit are at work in this incident?

• The angel of the Lord appeared… – Discerning of Spirits
• …that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost… – Word of Knowledge
• …He shall save His people from their sins. – Word of Wisdom.
• If information received through any vehicle has a past, present, or future component you now have bacon eggs and hash browns, that is you have a mixture of manifestations. A flowing together of the gifts.
• This happened more than once with Joseph.

Matthew 2:13 (KJV)
13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

Question: Can you pick out which gifts of the Sprit are at work in this second incident?

• The angel of the Lord appeared… – Discerning of Spirits
• …Herod is about to search for the child… – Word of Wisdom.
• This happened yet a third time to Joseph.

Matthew 2:19–20 (KJV)
19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.

• One more time, pick out the gifts in this third incident with Joseph and the vehicle of dreams.
• The angel of the Lord appeared… – Discerning of Spirits
• …those who sought the child are dead. – Word of Knowledge.
• Joseph was not the only Bible person that this ever happened to.
• There are other people God dealt with in this way.
• Look at Jacob, for example, in the book of Genesis.

Genesis 28:10–13 (KJV)
10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

• Jacob saw Angels, that is discerning of spirits but that is not all that he saw by this gift.
• Jacob, also, saw the Lord above the ladder.
• God is a spirit, the Bible says so (john 4:24).
• So, these incidents where God the Father was seen, where Jesus, except for the thirty three years He walked the earth, was seen, where the Holy Spirit was seen falls under this category of gift called discerning of Spirits.
• Seeing the Lord, seeing Jesus, and seeing the Holy Spirit, are all in this same class of gift.
• Jacob saw the Lord above the ladder and Jacob saw angels all through this vehicle of dreams.

ILLUSTRATION: Seeing Satan; Seeing the Glory
I had been saved for just a few months when I had a manifestation along this line. I had gotten up to pray at 6:00 AM. After I finished praying, I was still a bit tired and decided to go and lay back down. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I saw Satan. I believe I either fell into a dream or had a vision, I am really not sure. But, I saw the enemy. He was clothed in a dark cloak. His face was blackened, I could not see his face but I saw his form standing before my bed. All of a sudden, out of the upper left corner of the room, a small pen light appeared. The light began to grow and grow in the corner and then when it got fairly large in size, the light began to move toward the cloaked figure that stood before my bed. All of sudden Satan disappeared completely. The light moved to the place where the enemy had previously stood. Still growing in size, the light illuminated the entire room, and out the light came a voice saying these words, “I am the Lord your God.” I will never forget that dream vision. Those words are with me to this day, almost 40 years later.
Let’s go on to another vehicle or way the Holy Spirit manifests.

Vehicles of Manifestation: Visions

• Isaiah said that one day he saw the Lord.

Isaiah 6:1 (KJV)
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

• Isaiah had a vision of the Lord.
• John on the island of Patmos had a vision. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.

Revelation 1:10–17 (KJV)
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia;… 12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

• A Holy Spirit vision is a vehicle for the manifestation of the gifts.
• When you have a vision you see things in the realm of the Spirit.
• When you see angels, devils, or human spirits that is discerning of Spirits.
• Why does God give people visions?
• Could it have something to do with how God wired some of us as picture oriented people?
• Ezekiel had a great many visions.

Ezekiel 1:26–28 (KJV)
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. 27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. 28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
Ezekiel saw the Lord and described him as a fire from the lons up and fire from the loins down.

• He had similar vision described in chapter eight.

Ezekiel 8:1–5 (KJV)
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. 2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber. 3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. 4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. 5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

• The Lord gave Ezekiel these visions.
• The form of God that he beheld was a manifestation of discerning of Spirits.
• The information that he received about the sins of Israel was a Word of Knowledge.
• It is a very foolish thought to think that you can sin without God seeing what you are doing.
• It is a further foolish thought that God won’t show your sin to someone relevant in your life via these vehicles that we are addressing.
• This is true saying, if you keep messing up, God may show you up.
• My wife, Sharon, has a more constant experience of this gift in her life.
• Knowing that, you must think I am some kind of crazy to go out and sin against her.
• I won’t do it. God shows her stuff!

ILLUSTRATION: The Children’s Angel.
One summer day when the children were small, Sharon’s agenda was overloaded. You know how it can be for mothers in general. She was a mother of four small children at the time of this incident. They were on the back porch playing in a small plastic swimming pool. Sharon was some kind of exasperated, rushing around trying to watch the children and handle everything else. She finally blurted out in prayer to God that she needed help and all of a sudden she saw a huge being standing on the back porch. She could not see all of his head. The angel was taller than the roof line. There he was watching the children. His whole attention was fixed on them. The vision brought an immediate comfort to Sharon.

• Again, this is discerning of spirits.
• John the Baptist had a vision.
• He saw the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3:15–16 (KJV)
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

• John the Baptist had an open vision, he saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus.
• Please forgive the repetition, but this is discerning of spirits.
• The disciples had a vision and they saw human spirits.

Matthew 17:1–3 (KJV)
1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

• The transfiguration came through the vehicle of visions.

Matthew 17:9 (KJV)
9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

• In the vision, there was a manifestation of discerning of spirits, human spirits. Moses and Elijah had been dead for many centuries. But man is a spirit being, (1Thess. 5:23). And, that is what the disciples saw.
• As you can see this gift of the Spirit is an extremely prevalent one in the Bible.

Vehicles of Manifestation: Revelations or Inward Knowings

• One day Paul had a manifestation of discerning of spirits. In this case, he discerned an evil spirit.

Acts 16:16–18 (KJV)
16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

• Notice the phrase, “…this she did many days…”
• Paul didn’t have the manifestation the first day.
• He didn’t have it the second day.
• The Bible says, “…after many days…”
• After many days, the Lord showed him this spirit, in his spirit.
• He discerned it. He knew that it was a demon spirit by an inward knowing.
• When he discerned it. He cast it.
• If you are seeing into the realm of the Spirit, mark this down, you automatically have authority over any alien entity.
• When it comes to manifestations, God starts it and God finishes it.
• He will not leave you hanging.
• He will show you something so you can get your head beat in!
• No you have authority.
• It was very real in that realm.

Call to Action:

This brings us to this concluding thought. The realm of the Spirit is mostly an unknown realm to us. It is fear of that realm that causes people to draw back from allowing God to use them in this gift of the Spirit we have been discussing in this post. Don’t draw back. It is not about you. It’s about the Lord trying to help other people through you. Allow Him to use you. Trust me you will come out of it okay. The Lord will see to it.

Question: There were many Bible examples given in this post and several personal examples. How did this help you? Maybe you have a personal testimony to the glory of God that may encourage someone else. Please leave that in the comments section below.