What is The Spiritual Gift of Discernment? (Gifts Test Answers)

What is The Spiritual Gift of Discernment or more accurately, the gift of discerning of spirits. The gift of discerning of spirits is like unto prophecy and and many of these knowing gifts in that you just know the type of spirit that is in operation.

With the discerning of spirits, you can distinguish if someone is operating out of their own spirit, God's Spirit, or a demonic spirit.

Many Presentations of This Gift

Sometimes, the gift of discerning of spirits involves you seeing in the realm of the spirit to know whether something is from God or not, but other times it's just a knowing in your knower. You just feel it deep down.

Evil Spirits Can Be Discerned with An Unsettling or Disturbance in Your Spirit.

When Paul the Apostle was annoyed with the woman who was saying that these men are men of God in Acts 16:16-24, he was operating in the gift of the discerning of spirits. The Bible talks about him being troubled in spirit because he knew just by knowing, not based on what they said, but based on the spirit behind what is being said, he knew that it was not God. She was saying right and truthful things, but it wasn't the Holy Spirit leading her. It was the evil spirit that was in her. 

Deliverance Ministry And This Gift

And so what the Apostle Paul did was he cast out the spirit out from within her. Why? Because he discerned that it was a demonic spirit. 

So the gift of discerning of spirits is used heavily in deliverance ministry, because with this gift, you are able to know whether it's the person speaking or if it's a demonic entity inside the person that's communicating. 

So of course, when you finish performing deliverance ministry, you'll be able to tell, okay, am I in the presence of a demonic spirit, or am I in the presence of a human spirit? If you're in the presence of demonic spirit, you know that you have to continue your work in casting out those spirits. Sometimes these impressions or fleeting thoughts just pass through your mind, like, "okay, something evil is here", then you have to ensure that all the evil spirits that remain are cast out.

Likewise in Church services we can sense the flow of the Holy Spirit, recognize the presence of angels, and know or see what God wants to do by this same gift of discerning of spirits. 

So discerning of spirits can involve all five spiritual senses, but usually it tends to be a knowing in your knower or seeing gift, where you know or see by the Holy Spirit whether something, someone or an atmosphere is of God,a human spirit or demonic.

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