Discerning of spirits

[Qu3333n]

I was wondering what it felt like to discern what was the feeling it would be great if you could break it down for me or give me an time when you discerned how you felt and what it was like. Thanks in advance.... Hey I thank you guys for replying and giving me a better outlook on this I know now that I must pray and ask God what he wants me to do with this certain situation I thank u guys and I love each of you very much ?

Edited February 19, 2018 by Qu3333n
To Thank

[enoob57]

All discernment must be Biblically based

2 Tim 3:16-17

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
KJV

 

[4LdKHVCzRDj2]

10 hours ago, Giller said:

Mat 7:21-23
(21)  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
(22)  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
(23)  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Now there are genuine miracles, and claims of miracles that are not genuine, these specific people in Matthew 7:21-23 were not genuine, and God never ever knew these specific people.

The meaning of this verse carries much more than this.

They were people who did not obey the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, who walked according to their flesh and its lusts.

 

There are people who indeed have great faith, and can do wonders, and have not God in them. Just because people prophesy, heal, and do wonders in Jesus' name does not mean they are saved, we shall know them by their fruits, as taught by the Lord.

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:2

"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." - 1 John 4:8

"But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him." - 1 Corinthians 8:3

 

And it can also refer to people who, is a very big group nowadays, go to church, profess faith in Christ but never repented of their wicked and evil ways... They have chosen to love darkness instead of light. And indeed, many, many people are into this group nowadays; living in darkness/deceit.

"but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" - Mark 3:29

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." - John 3:19

 

Or the Lord Jesus is in us, or He isn't. Surrender to the Lord Jesus before it is too late.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." - Romans 8:1

"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
    Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." - Romans 8:9

 

Glory to God! Amen.

[GandalfTheWise]

11 hours ago, Qu3333n said:

I was wondering what it felt like to discern what was the feeling it would be great if you could break it down for me or give me an time when you discerned how you felt and what it was like. Thanks in advance

Here are the two general ways I've seen the term discernment is used by Christians.  1. Some Christians use it for any situation they feel any form of error correction, be it doctrinal, behavioral, etc. is needed.   For these people, discernment is error detection of any sort.  2. Some Christians reserve the term primarily for situations when God gives us a sense that something is not right even though things might appear typical or normal.  For these people, discernment is a subjective sense that something is spiritually amiss though they cannot put their finger on it.

I'm assuming that you are asking about the second way the term is used.

Dealing with errors, mistakes, problems, etc. is basically a day to day part of life.  Seeing people in churches make honest mistakes, commit sins, and fall short of perfect ideal behavior is not uncommon.  There are arguments and debates over doctrine and practice.  It's part of sanctification and maturing spiritually.  This is the messy part of being the body of Christ.  Our own imperfection, sins, etc. cause problems for ourselves and others.  My opinion is that the majority of problems we see are indeed just spiritual growing pains of a bunch of imperfect though sincere believers.

However, there are those times that something is spiritually unhealthy and amiss.  In these situations, discernment is often a subjective sense that something is not right even though appearances might be right.  It is not just the run of the mill error correction and process of growth, but that something unholy is present in some manner.  The challenge is sorting out our personal dislike, animosity, doctrinal nitpicking, and social expectations that cause us to feel uncomfortable about someone or not like them from a true spiritual sense of something that is really amiss.  It is more like Peter seeing someone bringing a nice donation for the poor and God showing him that something was spiritually amiss with Ananias.

I recall one time when my wife and I had joined a church in the aftermath of a nasty church split.  I had arrived somewhat early before a service (maybe a wednesday night one?) and was sitting in a pew meditating and praying by myself in a mostly empty sanctuary.  I suddenly felt shivers and the hair on my neck literally felt like it was standing up and I had a strong sense something was very wrong.  I turned around and saw one of the church elders had entered the sanctuary.  This was one of the pillars of the church who had been there for decades.  I more or less shrugged this off as a "that was weird" but didn't completely forget about it.  As I slowly learned years later, this man had been hurt deeply in the original church split, and had basically become a lone ranger for whom his purpose in life was protecting the church from outsiders (which to him included pastors who "come and go").  I recalled the shivers and chills episode one night when I literally saw his face turn red and veins beating in his forehead as he berated the pastor.  This was a man who behind doctrinal correctness, commitment to the church, decades of ministry as a Christian, who had allowed a root of bitterness to spring up inside and was defiling many.  In hindsight, I'm still not sure why God showed me that, if I missed something I was supposed to do to help this man, or if it was a lesson in learning to listen carefully for the future.

Another story, is that after we had moved to our current house, my girls were scared to go into the basement.  I had spent some time fasting and decided it was time to pray over the house.  I went down into the basement and felt shivers and chills.  I then spent a bit of time rebuking the enemy and praying over the basement and suddenly start shivering again.  I then realized I hadn't eaten in a few days, was standing barefoot on a cold concrete floor in shorts and a t-shirt with an air conditioning vent blowing on me.  Duh!!!

I've had a few times I've had a similar sense of something wrong about people and situations since.  My response is to keep my eyes open and pray and consider what God wants me to do.  I recognize my own fallibility that I might just be acting on my own reactions and feelings, or that God might be letting me know something is spiritually wrong.  In one of those situations, God made it clear to me something was spiritually wrong with the leader of a ministry group I was in.  It was one night in a prayer meeting for the group that the leader had us praying for the future of the ministry and what God wanted for it.  It was much the same as many other prayer meetings in other groups and churches I had been at over decades.  However, this time I just had this cold feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong and suddenly saw that everything the leader was doing was manipulative for personal glory.  Everything on the surface seemed good and he had seemed a humble servant leader being in the background.  This group had been experiencing some problems and frustrations and disagreements among people but was an effective ministry. It was like in an instant God showed me that most of the problems were due to this leader's manipulation of people and he was holding the ministry back.  I realized that virtually every time people started arguing that this leader had just done something to put them into a no-win situation.  What God had me doing after that was tending the hurt and wounded and preventing more injuries.  I was to be a peacemaker and healer among those in that ministry.  God had not put me in a position of any authority to be able to do anything about the leader, but He had put me in a position where I could take care of His people while He took care of the leader situation Himself.  I was newcomer and lead guitarist for the worship band and had no established standing or credibility in that church or among the church leaders there.   There were a multiple times I really felt like laying into that guy, but I felt like I would be stepping outside what God wanted me to do.  The bottom line was that after a few months of my constantly stepping in and bringing peace between people, the manipulation started becoming apparent to everyone.  People started getting along and wondering why they were arguing in the first place and started to see him as the source of it.  Instead of a having a fight over who God wanted to be leader of the group, God just slowly made the leader's motivations obvious to everyone.  Within about 6 months, most people had left the ministry, and the church leaders replaced him with someone else.  The last I heard, it was rebuilding and doing quite well under the next leader.

I've found that it is a matter of prayerfully walking with God so that I neither falsely accuse a fellow Christian because I merely was taken aback by them or disagreed with them or had indigestion that day, nor ignore a clear call from God to be active in a situation.    I think it also very important to learn what God wants us to do when He does show us something.  Do we leave a situation? do we directly confront? what does He want us to do?