Lesson 8. The “Discerning of Spirits” School will help you succeed in recognizing demonic forces. By John Edwards.
The word of knowledge comes when the Holy Spirit brings a thought or understanding to our minds through revelation. We become aware of the truth about something that has happened or is happening, and this awareness is based not on our personal observation or deduction, but on inspiration.
Most instances of discerning of spirits in my ministry to people have happened in this way, usually when I was praying with them. They often later say, “How did you know that?” or “When you said that, you hit the nail right on the head.”
Thus, I would like to point out that when the Holy Spirit reveals certain things, it is because God wants the person to be set free: such signs of the manifestation of God’s goodness serve as encouragement to them.
Truth Brings Freedom
Accompanied by a sister from our congregation, I visited a woman who had asked us to pray for her. When preparing to pray for deliverance, it is wise to bring someone else with you. We talked with this sister about the various problems and pressures she was experiencing, and then began to pray. However, nothing significant happened, and we sensed a spiritual dead end. I sought the Lord, wanting to know the reason, and the word “incest” came to mind. I could easily have ignored this thought, but I have learned to act on even such gentle promptings. It was difficult to imagine that anything like this could have happened in her life, so I asked her whether there might have been a history of incest in her family. She burst into tears and said that she had been involved in such a situation. When she was a teenager, her older brother abused her, but ever since then she had kept it secret, ashamed of what had happened. She would never have told anyone herself, but the Holy Spirit revealed the reason certain spirits had entered her life. She forgave her brother, and when we commanded the evil spirits that had entered her during the emotional trauma to leave, she was set free.
Those who serve in deliverance must be compassionate; their motivation must be love for desperate people. We must always take care to spare those who come for help unnecessary pain and suffering.
Revelation
Christian counselors must be very cautious about revelations they believe they have received concerning someone’s past experiences. It is not always necessary to disclose a word of knowledge, and under certain circumstances doing so may even cause problems. For example, if, while praying for a husband and wife, one were to reveal an unpleasant incident from their past, it could hurt one of the partners and create tension in their relationship.
Unfortunately, some people have been told that they were abused in the past, or that certain tragic, evil, and vile things were done to them—things they had probably forgotten—when in fact nothing of the sort had ever happened. Such assumptions can cause tremendous confusion in a person’s life, creating suspicion and fear. I am very cautious about claims of alleged witchcraft or satanic activity supposedly having taken place in the lives of relatives many generations ago. I believe that such “revelations” are often the product of the vivid imagination of well-meaning helpers. Those who speak words of knowledge must be sure of the source and truth of such revelations.
Not Ritual Abuse, but Simply Rejection
One of our church counselors referred a certain brother to me for help because he was deeply troubled by the man’s story. This man came to one of our services specifically arranged to help those in need of deliverance, claiming that he needed deliverance from the effects of satanic abuse that had occurred during his childhood. After speaking with him, I learned that he had no memory of any abuse at all, and there was no indication that his family had been involved in occultism or satanic activity in any way. His belief that he had been abused resulted from someone once telling him about a vision they had imagined, in which he was depicted as a child during a satanic ritual.
The man truly needed deliverance. When ministry was given to him, he reacted loudly and angrily, but it turned out that his problem was rooted not in ritual abuse, but in demons that had entered through feelings of rejection and problems in his relationship with his father.
Some associate every demonic problem with occult practice, but this is not so. Occultism is only one of many ways demons can enter the lives of men, women, and children.
Presumption
During my visit to Poland, a young man approached me who claimed that he needed deliverance. When I asked him what he wanted to be delivered from, he refused to say, insisting that the Holy Spirit Himself should give me the necessary revelation. I refused to pray for him, telling him that it was presumptuous of him to expect the Holy Spirit to show me something he could have told me himself. It is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit to provide us with help according to His will. Naturally, we may seek His discernment, but we must not demand it. Those who demand supernatural revelation are in danger of receiving it from the wrong source and may fall into deception by listening to spirits of divination.
The Need for Discernment During Times of Spiritual Renewal
Many churches and gatherings have recently experienced outpourings of the Holy Spirit accompanied by various, sometimes astonishing, manifestations. Some of them caused a great deal of publicity and were covered on television and in the national press. People attending such gatherings reacted in unusual ways—they fell, laughed, cried, trembled, and made strange sounds, at times seemingly quite involuntarily.
When the Holy Spirit moves powerfully in a gathering of people, there will inevitably be a response. Some experience deep peace, others joy, while still others experience emotional release. The crowd that gathered to look at the disciples on the day of Pentecost thought they were drunk—for their behavior when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit seemed strange to the observers.
When the Holy Spirit works in this way, demons usually react and manifest themselves. Where there is a lack of understanding that some manifestations may be demonic, all manifestations may be attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit and regarded as something positive. Some people have tried to identify certain manifestations as possible prophetic confirmations from God that He is giving them spiritual gifts or empowering His people for a special work.
I heard a young man at one such meeting being encouraged to believe that the manifestation of “pins and needles” he felt around his mouth and jaw testified to the impartation of a prophetic gift. However, in my experience, such a manifestation could indicate the presence of an evil spirit connected with his family’s past occult practices. If such spirits are resisted and cast out, the tingling manifestations will cease immediately.
A Gift for Today
As we experience a greater move of the Holy Spirit in our churches and gatherings of God’s people, we will need greater wisdom and a fuller understanding of the move of the Spirit of God.
Fortunately, we are not left to our own presumptuous and mistaken judgment; the gift of discerning of spirits will help us distinguish between a demonic manifestation, an emotional reaction, and the Holy Spirit. We should earnestly desire the gift of discerning of spirits and seek its development in our lives. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, which was experiencing many supernatural manifestations. He did not want them to be “ignorant” concerning spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1), so that they could recognize when someone “speaks by the Spirit,” meaning the Holy Spirit, and when the inspiration comes from the wrong spirit (verses 2–3).
Our Task
Just as in the days of the Old Testament, when God spoke at various times and in different ways (Heb. 1:1), so today the Holy Spirit can use different ways to communicate the revelation we need to carry out the “works of the Kingdom.”
I believe the examples I have given have encouraged and helped you. Perhaps you have discovered that God is already advancing you in this gift.
The commission Jesus gave His disciples remains the same: “Preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons.” This is the task entrusted to us for our generation.
I understand that those who believe a Christian cannot need deliverance from evil spirits will view the experiences described in this book skeptically and may consider them false or imaginary. I myself once held this view because I was taught it in my youth. However, my experience over the past twenty years and my personal study of Scripture have convinced me otherwise. I would ask those who have such doubts simply to seek God’s guidance and wisdom in this matter.
And those who are already engaged in the battle, I encourage to “fight the good fight” and remain filled with the Holy Spirit.
