Many Christians don't think they need to discern which spirit is talking to you. They think that if they hear anything it must be from the Lord. If they read that Satan might show up as a spirit of light, they figure that does not apply to them. If they read to test the spirits, that does not apply to them. This thread is not for them! It is for those Christians who have realize that hearing with their spiritual ears mean that they can hear from good and evil, so they test the spirits and try to discern between good and evil. I wanted to discuss discernment of spirit, and not why some don't.
There are a number of ways and thing I consider for discerning of spirit that I can hear from.
I use my experience hearing. I use the test recorded at 1 Jn 4:1-3. I also you 1 Cor 12:3. I know a lot of people use their understanding of the fruit of the spirit, which I understand but see problems with it. Jesus said that if you ask for something good we are not going to get something bad, and I use that concept. Of course I do use my understanding of the Bible, but that more for deciding when to test the spirits. I use the fact that God said that He place before us good and evil and to choose good, so I must have some basic understanding of what is good and what is evil. I try to remember things that the Lord told me in the past and apply them, which is probably the most useful of the above mention things I use to discern good from evil. Then sometime I have to just put my trust in the Lord, that what is happening is going to work out for good even if per chance the devil is meaning something for evil. I don't like doing that, but sometimes it seems the only way to go.
Now I would love to exchange ideas, thoughts, and experiences with someone who also hears from the Lord and works at discerning between good and evil when they hear to make sure they are hearing from the Lord. If you have never caught evil spirts trying to approach you because you do discern between good and evil, I don't really want to hear from you at this time, because you are not using discernment of spirits. You need to start doing that, but do that first and I then would like to read what you have to say.
I will start with something I learned from the Lord which I found useful and interesting. He gave me an interesting teaching about the first words the snake said. The first four words the snake said were "Did God really say..." They are words meant to bring doubt that God speaks to us. So Satan's first attack against us is usually "doubt", and specifically doubt that God speaks to us. That is of course the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit who is about faith and specifically faith that you can hear from our Lord Jesus Christ.
So one way to discern between spirits is to consider whether the spirit you are hearing from is promoting the idea of believing and hearing Jesus Christ by faith or is causing you to doubt whether you can and have heard from the Lord.
For example: have you ever prayed and asked God to give you an answer and then thought you heard from the Lord only to later start doubting whether you actually did hear from the Lord? This is what I am talking about. We have to live by faith, so if you asked the Lord and believe you got an answer you probably did. Yet there will almost certainly come a thought to you about whether that was really the Lord, even though you had already concluded that it was the Lord. If that is the case, almost certainly the first thought was from the Lord and the second thought almost certainly was not yours but the snake trying to get you to doubt.
Now I wrote almost certainly, because the snake could have said something as if he was the Lord. If that was the case the Lord will come and correct the conclusion reach but He will not come and try to get you to doubt that you heard from the Lord. That is to say the Lord is not going to just pull out the tare (word from Satan) in you but rather the Lord will plant in the same area of thinking to correct the problem.
That is just one thing I picked up on discernment of spirits. Let me know something that you picked up. thanks
There are a number of ways and thing I consider for discerning of spirit that I can hear from.
I use my experience hearing. I use the test recorded at 1 Jn 4:1-3. I also you 1 Cor 12:3. I know a lot of people use their understanding of the fruit of the spirit, which I understand but see problems with it. Jesus said that if you ask for something good we are not going to get something bad, and I use that concept. Of course I do use my understanding of the Bible, but that more for deciding when to test the spirits. I use the fact that God said that He place before us good and evil and to choose good, so I must have some basic understanding of what is good and what is evil. I try to remember things that the Lord told me in the past and apply them, which is probably the most useful of the above mention things I use to discern good from evil. Then sometime I have to just put my trust in the Lord, that what is happening is going to work out for good even if per chance the devil is meaning something for evil. I don't like doing that, but sometimes it seems the only way to go.
Now I would love to exchange ideas, thoughts, and experiences with someone who also hears from the Lord and works at discerning between good and evil when they hear to make sure they are hearing from the Lord. If you have never caught evil spirts trying to approach you because you do discern between good and evil, I don't really want to hear from you at this time, because you are not using discernment of spirits. You need to start doing that, but do that first and I then would like to read what you have to say.
I will start with something I learned from the Lord which I found useful and interesting. He gave me an interesting teaching about the first words the snake said. The first four words the snake said were "Did God really say..." They are words meant to bring doubt that God speaks to us. So Satan's first attack against us is usually "doubt", and specifically doubt that God speaks to us. That is of course the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit who is about faith and specifically faith that you can hear from our Lord Jesus Christ.
So one way to discern between spirits is to consider whether the spirit you are hearing from is promoting the idea of believing and hearing Jesus Christ by faith or is causing you to doubt whether you can and have heard from the Lord.
For example: have you ever prayed and asked God to give you an answer and then thought you heard from the Lord only to later start doubting whether you actually did hear from the Lord? This is what I am talking about. We have to live by faith, so if you asked the Lord and believe you got an answer you probably did. Yet there will almost certainly come a thought to you about whether that was really the Lord, even though you had already concluded that it was the Lord. If that is the case, almost certainly the first thought was from the Lord and the second thought almost certainly was not yours but the snake trying to get you to doubt.
Now I wrote almost certainly, because the snake could have said something as if he was the Lord. If that was the case the Lord will come and correct the conclusion reach but He will not come and try to get you to doubt that you heard from the Lord. That is to say the Lord is not going to just pull out the tare (word from Satan) in you but rather the Lord will plant in the same area of thinking to correct the problem.
That is just one thing I picked up on discernment of spirits. Let me know something that you picked up. thanks