Spiritual Discernment William Mark Bristow With many of the manifestations being taught and sought in the body of Christ today Angel visitations gold dust gemstones appearing and the like how are we as individuals to determine which are really from God? Paul clearly states, And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (2 Cor 11:14 KJV) Jesus spoke of false prophets who would perform lying signs and wonders such that it might deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24:24) In recent months I have begun to reflect upon the many revelations told to me by this one and that in the congregations. It seems that many are trusting in spiritual feelings - spiritual peace or a special blanket of love that descended. Just last night in our Tuesday night Bible Study two people said to me, God told me!! I fear we have traded our only guide for Christian Faith and Practice for the days of Israel when there was no King and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25 KJV) Though there is a spiritual gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10), hard evidence suggests that few have the gift and that many of those who do fail to understand its working and application. This thing of spiritual discerning is not at all complicated. It is as simple as right and wrong dark and light. Let me be absolutely crystal clear here. I believe in the supernatural spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God speaks to His people today. I'm Pentecostal! But I'm only as Pentecostal as the Word of God! It is the Bible the veritable Word of God Eternal Secure Infallible - a more sure Word of Prophecy. (2 Peter 1:19) which is our only guide for Christian Faith and Practice. Period. All foundation for spiritual discerning therein lies. For a believer today, any spiritual revelation, visitation, vision, dream, prophecy, or manifestations of any sort MUST be spiritually discerned by the Word of God. Last Sunday morning, I did something surprising for a Pastor, I asked our congregation to close their Bibles as most of the crowd would tell you they have a good knowledge of the Word of God. I then asked individuals to quote for me the Ten Commandments. Not ONE person was able to complete the Ten. Many couldn't give one. Some quoted Jesus' summary of the Ten into Two Great Commandments (Matthew 22:37-39). Some knew the list given to Moses was in about Exodus chapter 20 and were able to turn there and
read. You may be thinking, What does Pastor Mark teach his people??!!! Most of our Sunday morning congregation are old-timers in the Christian Life. Many of them are our best workers. Most have been in the Word of God, both in the church and in their private devotions for many, many years. Obviously, we have studied certain passages, meaningful to us as individuals and left vast seas of other scripture untouched thus creating huge holes in our knowledge of God through scripture (which is the ONLY place He has revealed Himself to man, by the way). Thus, our spiritual discerning has huge gaps and holes in scriptural knowledge which is obviously filled with our spiritual feelings. Many are trusting in a revelation by the Spirit to judge a teaching, or manifestation. Again, let me be clear. All teachings (doctrine) with which the Apostles in scripture came in contact were judged by Scripture. 6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.. (Galatians 1:6-9 KJV) The Spiritual Gift of Discernment was manifested, not in judging doctrine, but as to what spirit motivated a young girl to follow the Apostle Paul and day after day cry out, These are men of God, which show unto us the way of salvation... (Acts 16:16-18). By the way, what the spirit of divination said through this girl WAS TRUE! I am alarmed at the revelations I am hearing regarding Angels. I won't elaborate here -- these things are all over the Web. I am concerned when self-proclaimed apostles and prophets publicly confirm and endorse evangelists who it seems were dibdabbling in sin at the time. There are reports that a certain evangelist known for gemstone manifestations was caught seeding the stones supposedly falling from heaven. I am personally acquainted with an incident of one young evangelist who claims supernatural manifestations of gold dust to have the dust in his coat pocket he put his clean hand in his pocket to get his pen and pulled it out covered in gold dust. Someone nearby said, Oh! It's happening now! To borrow one of my co-workers oft used remarks, Huh!! If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that
ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Eph 4:21-23 KJV) Notice what the Word says of our old nature it is corrupted with deceit and lusts. Remember lust in scripture hardly means sexual things as it does today the sense is much broader it can be greed, power, riches, and take many other forms. The point it this: When there are holes in our Biblical discernment and we rely on our spiritual feelings we're in danger of discerning with the old nature fraught with what we want and deception. The NLT translates this passage, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. 23 Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. 24 You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God s likeness righteous, holy, and true. I've watched so many prophesy what they want to hear. I'll confess something to you. In my early days, I did it myself. How well I remember sitting in the back seat of an Oldsmobile returning home from a wonderful cottage prayer meeting- where the Word of God had been richly taught and where God had indeed marvelously moved by His Spirit upon the people. My friends in the front seat a husband and wife who, at the time were attending a Bible College. The wife turned to me and said, Mark please pray. You know I own a large home in another city. We desperately need to sell it. She went on to describe their plans for the profit to be used in their forthcoming ministry. I sat for a few miles praying, then I felt I should prophesy a Word of the Lord. (I had recently heard teaching concerning Romans 12:6 that I should prophesy according to my faith. Looking back, I'm not so sure the teaching I heard was that sound...) With great exuberance I turned to the wife and said, Thus saith the Lord, the house will sell in three days! Oh, there was great rejoicing that night in that Oldsmobile on its way from Midland, Texas to Monahans, where we all lived. I don't know that house has sold yet??!! Certainly it did not sell in three days. I heard what I wanted to hear out of my own mind. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deut. 18:22 KJV) You see, I didn't know much of the Word at that time in my life. Oh sure! I knew the Bible stories of Noah, Adam and Eve, the birth of Christ, Moses and the Red Sea and such. But I never knew it was possible to prophesy presumptuously. Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines presumptuously as taking liberties or overstepping the bounds. I overstepped the bounds I spoke the thing which the LORD hath not spoken. I spoke what I thought was a very good thing the answer rather MY answer to the need. With evidence of these and other failings I began searching the scriptures and found
answers. Today, some thirty-five years later I am most cautious with the words, Thus saith the Lord, and God told me. You will frequently hear me say, The Word of God says... Colossians chapter 3 gives a very practical application of right and wrong, dark and light, -- in short discernment. Notice verse 16. The Word of Christ makes us WISE. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God s right hand in the place of honor and power. 2 Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. 3 For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your * real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. 6 God s terrible anger will come upon those who do such things. 7 You used to do them when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you. 11 In this new life, it doesn t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, * circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, * slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. 12 Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 You must make allowance for each other s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace. And always be thankful. 16 Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father. * Colossians 3:4 Some manuscripts read our. * Colossians 3:11a Greek Greek. * Colossians 3:11b Greek Barbarian, Scythian. Holy Bible : New Living Translation. electronic ed. Wheaton : Tyndale House, 1997, c1996, S. Col 3:1
We see a great contrast here between the scripture in Ephesians 4:23 where our old nature cannot be trusted as it is filled with lust and deception and Colossians 3:16 where allowing the Word of God to live in our hearts makes us wise. We are told clearly to Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Notice it is the Word which gives counsel rather than our feelings of peace or any other spiritual feeling manifested. Recently, a friend on another continent wrote asking my thoughts on his pastor who has regular visitations of angels. Here is a portion of my reply to him, the word Angel appears in the KJV in exactly 192 verses according to Libronix Digital Bible Software - scattered across what 4000 to 8,000 years of history (depending on which scholar's time line you follow). That's hardly frequent. At first glance, Peter had two encounters with an Angel in Acts, and Paul had one, Cornelius had one, one told Philip where to preach, and one smote Herod for blasphemy, and that's it for Acts -- hardly frequent. Many scholars feel that the book of Acts covers about 60-65 years of history after the birth of Christ. Nowhere do you find daily running conversations with God as many claim to have today. In fact you find weeks and perhaps months in the powerful Apostle Paul's life seeking a direct answer and for days and weeks the only answer is, No. Not here. (my paraphrase Acts 16:6-11) Without a scriptural precedent for much of the revelation, visitation, and manifestations today what is the source? For a true believer there are only two other possibilities when the source is not God. The flesh speaking presumptuously when the Lord has not spoken. (Deut 18:22) The devil as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14) We should here discuss another source considering that someone may not be a believer but a charlatan. Fakery some years ago a certain preacher was caught planting feathers in a service held at Mabee Center and claiming they were supernatural manifestations of the dove of the Holy Spirit I've got the expose on video a video produced by Willie George and Charles Capps! (That evangelist is still traveling with some on the outskirts of the extreme prophetic movement today.) I learned a former member of one of our congregations, a fine, sensible, stable, Christian woman was present, and as none of the major ministries present at the time said anything against the manifestation - my friend accepted it as real, until she saw how it was done. A letter dated January 9, 2008 from a pastor of a church in the Phoenix area is turning up on the Internet, expressing concern about an evangelist who was caught red-handed seeding (read planting ) gemstones as supposed supernatural manifestations.
Face facts! Most Christians are gullible. Like Simon Magnus of old, there are still those proclaiming that they are some great one for money. It is with the wisdom of the Word of God that we discern. Although I have never seen a true manifestation of gold dust - I wouldn't say that God, who is omnipotent couldn't do it. However, where does that leave poor Peter speaking to the cripple at the gate beautiful? Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. (Acts 3:6 KJV emphasis mine.)