Lesson 6. The “Discerning of Spirits” School will help you successfully identify demonic forces. Author: John Edwards.
Through Revelation or Deduction?
If someone asks for prayer, believing that they may need deliverance, the presence of spirits can certainly be discerned through revelation or deduction. It is not necessary to have a special revelation about a demon’s presence in order to cast it out. If someone is constantly struggling with tormenting fears and panic attacks, then revelation is not necessary—the presence of evil spirits is already obvious.
Deliverance is often regarded as a last resort in those rare cases when intensive counseling and various spiritual disciplines, such as extensive Bible study, fasting, and prayer, have failed to resolve the problem. My experience in this area has taught me that the need for deliverance is actually far greater than most Christians realize; there is no harm in immediately confronting the possible work of spirits.
A doctor diagnoses an illness based on the symptoms experienced by the patient; in the same way, evil spirits can be exposed by their activity in a person’s life. Just as the fruit of the Spirit is recognized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, evil spirits are likewise recognized by their fruit, including fear, hatred, anger, cruelty, depression, and so on.
Anyone who wants to be used by the Lord to bring freedom to others must always be ready to pray and confront the possible presence of the enemy based on deduction and revelation.
Fear of Water
Several years ago, I was invited to preach at a Christian celebration on the island of Corfu. Near the hotel, beneath the cliffs, there was a swimming area for guests. It was deep enough, and swimmers used a pontoon moored at a small pier to go out into the sea. One guest in a life jacket climbed out of the water onto the pontoon, and I asked him whether he had enjoyed his swim. He said that he was terribly afraid of water and had ventured into the sea for the first time. He had always been haunted by a fear of drowning; at one point, he had even been excused from swimming lessons at school because it was such a serious problem for him. I suggested that he might need deliverance from a spirit of fear, and we prayed together for a little while. I commanded the spirit of fear to leave him. He felt pressure in his chest, followed by deliverance. Then I suggested that he go into the water. He cautiously descended the steps behind me, but soon he was swimming freely with the help of the life jacket, without any fear or panic. After I returned home, I received a letter from him saying that he was already taking swimming lessons in his pool and that the fears that had troubled him for 40 years had completely disappeared. I offered to pray for him, not based on any revelation about a spirit of fear, but on the sense of panic he had lived with since childhood, which was a clear sign of the presence of such a spirit.
I often began ministering deliverance, confident that evil spirits were present simply because someone had told me about their condition. Only after I began praying would I receive revelation about exactly which spirits were present. If we decide to minister only when we have a special revelation, we may deprive many people of the help they so desperately need and that has been provided for them through Christ’s victory on the cross.
How the Discerning of Spirits Operates
The Holy Spirit can work through various natural feelings to bring us awareness of the spiritual realm, sending a particular thought into our hearts or giving us a dream or vision.
The apostle Paul did not want to be like someone who “runs aimlessly” or fights “as though beating the air” (1 Cor. 9:26). He wanted to make sure that his efforts for the Kingdom of God were achieving something worthwhile. When we Christians recognize that we are engaged in a battle against satanic forces, we will stop “beating the air” and strike the enemy’s power with the intent of defeating it. In difficult situations, we will want to “bind the strong man” so that we may “enter his house and plunder his goods” (Matt. 12:29). The Holy Spirit can give us knowledge of and sensitivity to the forces of evil in the heavenly realms so that we can pray effectively against them.
The following examples, drawn mainly from my personal experience, will help explain how the Holy Spirit conveys the information He considers necessary for us.
A Vision of the Spiritual Realm
We have considered how the eyes of Elisha’s servant were opened so that he could see the angels protecting him. Sometimes our eyes may likewise be enabled to see angels or demons, depending on when the Holy Spirit considers it necessary.
Monkey
Once, at the end of a Sunday service, I was praying for a lady who had asked me for help. When I began praying with her, she suddenly experienced a strong physical reaction in her legs, which I perceived as a manifestation of an evil spirit. After a few minutes, she was delivered and returned to the other members of her family, who were waiting for her to one side. Then a young man approached me and said that while I was praying for the lady, he had seen something resembling a small monkey running around her legs.
He received “discernment of spirits” and saw the spirit being cast out in the form of a monkey. It should be noted that in the revelation, the spirit running around the woman was shown externally, but in reality, the evil spirit was operating from within and needed to be cast out. The discernment clearly revealed demonic activity, not the exact location of the evil spirit. When we receive a similar revelation, we need to be careful not to attribute more to it than the Holy Spirit intends to reveal.
Spanish Pastor
Once in Spain, I ministered to a pastor whose parents had taken him to occult healers when he was a child. He was delivered from several spirits, coughing and gasping for breath during the deliverance. I literally saw a dark cloud come out of his mouth and fly across the room. It happened very quickly and was not very clear, so I initially thought, “Did I really see that?”—although I knew that I had definitely seen it. I believe the Holy Spirit allowed me to see that the demon had left the man.
Distorted Face
One day, a man came to my home who, as I later learned, was deeply involved in witchcraft. We were talking about the demands of the Gospel, which he fiercely opposed. When I looked at him, his face seemed extremely ugly to me. To my own surprise and my wife’s, I told him, “You are very ugly!” I had never said anything like that to anyone before or since. When he left, my wife wanted to know why I had been so rude to him. She was certain that he was quite handsome and not ugly at all.
All I could say was that when I began speaking with him, I was shocked by the ugliness that appeared on his face. The man was dating a young woman who attended our church. I never saw him again. Fortunately, his relationship with that young woman ended soon afterward. The Holy Spirit enabled me to see, in his facial features, some of the demons operating in him.
Mary’s Suffering
Sometimes, while praying for people’s deliverance, I saw that spirit flash across their faces in a sudden expression—the spirit from which they were to be delivered.
During a seminar I helped conduct in France, a young woman approached my wife and me and asked us to pray for deliverance from the constant oppression in her life. As we prayed and began addressing the demons oppressing her, she entered a trance-like state with a very strange expression on her face. Her head tilted to one side, her eyes gazed upward, filled with an intense look of agony and sadness. As I watched her, I thought I had seen that expression somewhere before. Then I remembered that some Catholic churches have sculptures depicting the mother of Jesus holding His crucified, dead body in her arms. Mary’s expression in the sculpture was exactly the same as what I saw on the French woman’s face.
I bound every spirit associated with the idea of “Mary’s suffering,” and the girl immediately reacted. Crying out, she was delivered from the spirit manifesting in her. Later, she explained to us that she had been consecrated to the Virgin Mary as a child. I believe that such dedication to a dead person can open a door to an evil spirit.
Discernment in Dreams
Sometimes God can speak to us through dreams. The Bible records various examples in which He chose to reveal His purposes in this way. Joseph had a dream foretelling the time when his father and brothers would bow down to him (Gen. 37:5). Jacob saw in a dream a ladder reaching to heaven (Gen. 28:12). The wise men from the East, who were seeking the infant Jesus, were warned in a dream not to return to Herod but to go home by another route (Matt. 2:12). The wicked also received dreams from God, warning them of His displeasure and threatening them with judgment. Examples include Pharaoh of Egypt in the time of Moses and Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian despot.
God said that He would reveal Himself to His prophets in visions and dreams. Numbers 12:6 says: “If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal Myself to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.” This is also emphasized by the prophet Joel, whom Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost:
“‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams’” (Acts 2:17).
Roman Ruins
In 1981, my wife and I traveled to southern France to conduct a series of meetings at a church of the Assemblies of God in Hyères. We spent the night in the city of Orange, staying at a small hotel in the city center. That night, I found it very difficult to sleep because I sensed an atmosphere of aggression. Angry voices could be heard in the street, and when I finally dozed off, I dreamed of scenes of violence and confrontation.
The next morning, we went into the city and saw the ruins of a Roman amphitheater built during the time of Augustus, as well as a Roman triumphal arch erected to celebrate Julius Caesar’s victories. The city’s landmarks portrayed a history of great violence. Originally, this land was inhabited by former legionaries who were given plots of land after leaving the Roman legions. The spiritual forces ruling over this territory had brought a sense of aggression into the city. Without a doubt, the events of the past—violence and bloodshed—were connected to the spiritual dominion over the city.
I had a troubled night because of the sensitivity the Holy Spirit had given me to discern the influence of the “strongman” ruling over that region.
Death Like a Black Cloud
The International Missionary Bible College (IMBC) in Burgess Hill, Sussex, holds an annual “camp conference” in August. Christians from various churches join its staff and students, bringing their tents and caravans; meetings are held throughout the week in a large tent set up on the Bible college grounds.
During one such camp in 1982, our family pitched our tent near those of the other participants, and we enjoyed the conference. At that time, one of IMBC’s local lecturers, Jean-Jacques Zbinden, was seriously ill. He had undergone heart surgery, which resulted in various complications. It was said that he would not live much longer.
One morning early, I had a vivid dream: I was in the lecture hall with other people standing around him in prayer. In the dream, I moved to the very back of the hall and looked toward the praying group. Then I saw a black cloud enveloping the sick man. It isolated him from our prayers. I pointed at the cloud and rebuked it in the name of Jesus. Then I awoke, clearly remembering every detail of the scene.
I told several friends involved in the camp ministry that week, as well as my brother Philip, about the dream. A little later that same day, we went to the room where the dying man was lying. I told him about my dream, then took authority over the spirits responsible for the illness. After the prayer, Jean-Jacques said that although he felt no physical difference, something had nevertheless happened in his spirit—he experienced light and freedom. Soon he fully recovered physically and resumed his duties at the Bible college.
Many people had prayed for his healing, but it was necessary to resist the evil spirits at work and cast them out, just as I had been shown in the dream. The Holy Spirit revealed why the illness had such a strong hold. Today, 18 years later, Jean-Jacques is still in good health and continues his work at IMBC.
