 Discernment, the word discerning simply means being able to judge or distinguish and I'll say this in a moment and give you a little bit more about it but as an introductory thought discernment or the ability to make a decision or to judge is something that every believer ought to be able to do. There are some things obviously that are so obvious and so apparent that it really doesn't require the gift of discerning of spirits to be able to know something's wrong here. I was speaking to a man after church recently probably about three weeks ago after one of the services he walked up to me I was in the front and he walked up to me and said to me do you recognize me and I was looking at him and I did I couldn't really place when I had met him or even really where but I did recognize him and I could tell that it had been sometimes since I'd seen him last so I said to him yes I do I believe I recognize you and he began to speak to me and share with me he said you know people keep me away from you and I said really he said yes people keep me away from you they won't let me get to you whenever I try to get to you they keep me from coming to you now when he said that I thought no who in the world would keep somebody from coming to me I don't get that I don't have a practice of doing that but as he continued speaking he said I am God and I said no you're not I am no he said at least I tell that to my wife and he said I don't need to read the Bible I am the Bible I am every word of the Bible and so I thought well thank you that they're keeping you away from me no I didn't need the gift of discerning of spirits to know there's something wrong here but my mind began to track back to where I had met him I had met him in this room standing right down there years ago when he had approached me and said to me he was all the Jays of the Bible that he was Jeremiah the prophet and that God had instructed him that if I didn't receive his words he was to smite me and he drew back his fist so that he might show me that I was about to be smitten I didn't feel like being smitten that day so we walked him off the property that was last time I had seen him it's been a number of years you don't need discernment to know when something's wrong not the spiritual gift of discernment there's a general discernment that we all have as human beings that you gain through experience in life there are things that you'll gain in terms of understanding and the ability to make judgment simply by by being alive parents have a discernment we used to tell our kids my parents used to tell me rather that my mom said I always know when you're doing wrong because I have eyes in the back of my head I honestly believed that for many years not many years but for a year or two till I was about 30 now as a little boy I still remember walking up behind her looking at the back of her head just to see if it would move when I moved and I even put my hands in her hair and started parting looking for the eyeballs that she said she had back there I mean honestly well if mama says it mama doesn't lie but mama was simply saying I always know when you're doing wrong because you know we know as parents that when our kids get quiet in a room sums up so there are things you learn just by experience just by general experience but there is a discernment that God wants to give to us that is scriptural and we're going to be looking at that in just a moment this particular gift here this gift of discerning of spirit speaks of the ability to and I'll use this term the ability to read hearts the ability to determine whether someone is speaking by the spirit or is speaking by some other impulse we'll see that in some examples as we conclude our study but I want to lay a foundation and to do that I'll begin with the obvious and the most obvious thing I can begin with is by simply reminding all of us here is that the Bible reveals that there is something called a spiritual world and within this spiritual world there are beings that oppose those who would follow the Lord Paul speaks of this in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 he said we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness he says in high places in other words what he was establishing was what we would today refer to as a demonic hierarchy he speaks of principalities principalities speaks of rulership it speaks of government in Satan's quote unquote kingdom in his hierarchy of authority Satan being the chief if you will there are rulers high ranking demons that he has that would be somewhat like perhaps if we were looking at it in and military terms it would be like the commander-in-chief he's the commander-in-chief but he has rulers he has rather principalities that are that are like generals high ranking generals in his spiritual hierarchy Satan himself is called by Jesus in John 14 verse 30 the prince the prince of this world and he said the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me and so what we have is we have a hierarchy of authority we have Satan who is basically the chief over these principalities or government Satan's highest ranking demons and their their desire is to oppose people from coming to a knowledge of Jesus Christ their desire is to keep people from hearing the word of God Jesus was speaking concerning a parable of the sower and the seed we all know that parable how that a sower went out to sow and he as he was sowing some of the seed fell on the wayside and he says and the birds of the air came and they took the seed before the seed was able to germinate and produce a crop and later on when Jesus began to to give the interpretation of that he spoke concerning the birds of the air as being the evil one who takes the word of God from the heart of an individual before it's given ability to actually be planted if you will and begin to produce and we know that the enemy loves to oppose the things of God he wants to wants to do everything in his spiritual power to to keep from people from hearing the word of the Lord and and being changed in 2nd Corinthians 4 verses 3 and 4 Paul said if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are lost in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine into them and so he's referred to as the God of this world not that he is a God equal to our God but that he has rulership he has power and authority so it speaks concerning principality principality is it speaks concerning powers that obviously would be a ranking just below the principalities and these are angels who have powers they have spiritual authority then it goes to rulers which would be in context a world ruler it speaks of rulership allowed by God as a result of sin and these were referred to as rulers exercise satanic control over the world in its present condition it's very possible that these rulers are the ones behind the scene influencing much of the political forces of this world in Daniel 10 verse 13 it says the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one in 20 days but lo Michael one of the chief princes came to help me and I remained there with the kings of Persia and so there may be high ranking demons who are in this behind the scenes in much of what is political today and then you have spiritual wickedness which are the angelic hosts that exercise evil influence upon the world and these are the ones who create the atmosphere of perversion and the evil that we see in the world today they obviously are behind the variety of false religions throughout the world they are also the ones who produce the mindset they encourage the mindset that provokes people to say if there's such a thing as God then how come bad things happen to good people have you heard that phrase before all of us have right why do bad things happen to good people here's something for you to think about this isn't part of my notes but it's something to think about are there such things as good people is there such a thing as good well the Bible says there's a none good no not one none not even grandma not even those who try so hard the Bible says there's none good no not one why would the Bible say there's none good because because we all have what is called a sin nature and we do those things that are sinful by nature some of us express our sinfulness in less horrible ways but all of us express our sinfulness in rebellion against God all of us do in one form or another are there things that are worse than others absolutely absolutely but is there such a thing as a good person not in the ultimate sense of the word good no can we do things that are relatively good yes why can we do things that are relatively good because we're created in the image of God and thus are given the capacity to do things that are recognized as having virtuous elements to it Jesus said even even the most evil love their own you can do good to those who do good to you and even the most vicious and horrible people may have one or two people in their life that they care about and so when we think of these that we have to deal with when horrible horrible events happened like recently happened with those those little babies that all of us are brokenhearted over in one form or another my heart has been pierced by that to hear the stories the school teacher who hurted her children into a corner and got in front of them to protect them and then was shot and killed that's a heroic act of love and sacrifice that we cannot help but commend and I thank God for people like that but we're talking about ultimate good now and the bottom line is this part of the reason why people will ask the question where was God and we're if God is so good why does he allow these things is because they have a low view of God and his holiness and a low view of evil many times they don't even realize how evil evil truly is until it is personified in front of them and they see the evil of the human heart revealed through a horrible action but instead of saying what an evil person that was they they turn and say what a bad God we have now the blame isn't with God the blame was his sin it's it's within man and there are there are demonic spirits that are behind the scenes that encourage this kind of evil activity the Bible makes it very clear there's the spiritual wickedness and and these evil spirits very often are revealed in Scripture as masquerading they can masquerade as angels of light and because they can masquerade in such a way people can be deceived by them and second Corinthians chapter 11 verses 13 through 15 Paul said such men are false apostles deceitful workmen masquerading as apostles of Christ and no wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light it is not surprising then if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness their end will be what their actions deserve and so you have spiritual deception you have those on the outside demonic forces that encourage spiritual deception and people to be deceived and and also you have within your own self the capacity to be deceived you see deception doesn't just come from Satan it can also be called self deception we can try to analyze our own thoughts we can become confused as to why we do or believe certain things and we ask ourselves did this thought come from God where this thought originate is it with my flesh is it the enemy I'm not quite sure where this is coming from and so God gives to us something called the discerning of spirits he gives us the ability through a gift now there is a discernment that God gives to us that is not the gift of discerning of spirits as mentioned earlier every believer ought to have certain discernment we ought to have the ability to make judgments again in an era where making a judgment is very often looked at as being overly critical and unloving we need to take the words of Jesus more seriously Jesus in John 7 24 said not to judge according to outward appearance but he said but judge righteous judgment when Jesus was speaking in Matthew chapter 7 he had made a statement concerning judgment judge not lest you be judged he says but I find it interesting when you look at the context of that passage that he begins by saying do not make judgments but then he rolls right into saying do not cast your pearl before swine's pearls before swine lest they turn and rend you now wait a minute a moment ago Jesus was saying judge not lest you also be judged but in the same context encourages us to exercise discernment so there must be a place for making righteous judgment there must be a place within us as believers that God states you need to make righteous judgment it's been said it is a strange fact about life that many people who are careful and explicit and exact in almost every department of their lives are at the same time when it comes to spiritual things content with vague uncertainties there needs to be a place where we have certainty so as Christians you gain spiritual discernment and I'm speaking of discernment in general now we'll move to the gift of discernment in a moment but we're to have spiritual discernment and the way that we are trained to have that is through the word of God it's taken time to read the Bible now I've been saying this a lot more clearly lately than than I have in all of my ministry experience and I'll tell you why it's because I have a strong belief that the average believer even in our fellowship where God's word is encouraged I have a strong belief that the average member of our fellowship does not read the Bible daily I believe that with all my heart because I get a lot of questions from people and sometimes even after a Bible study when I've spent 45 minutes trying to explain what they're asking about so either I'm the worst teacher which I'm willing to say I am but there's really one worse than me and we all know who he is I didn't say anything somebody yelled his name I didn't say it either I'm not explaining properly or people are not listening properly and so I'll say it again much of what is going on in people's lives today where they don't have an understanding of how to get out of this or how to deal with this really comes because they're not reading the Word of God they're not waking up in the morning or finding some time during that day to make sure to read at least a chapter of Scripture at least a chapter they're not they get busy with their day they have so much to do and they go out and they say I wanted to read today and then the next day and the next day it becomes a habit of their year and before you know it here comes new years and they're making a resolution I will read through the Bible this year the same resolution they made last year and the year before we really do need to get up and read that word guys to find some time because the Word of God is what gives you a discerning ability you know what God's word says and over time you grow to be able to put it together you see when I teach the word that's to supplement what God has already been teaching you throughout the week so that you can sit back there saying yeah I read that recently oh I see how that fits in as a new believer I went to a Billy Graham crusade in down south somewhere I forget if it was in north or south Carolina back in 72 I think and I had been part of a group people called the navigators the navigators encouraged Bible memorization and so I had been learning to memorize Scripture at that time and when Billy Graham was sharing at that time he was not giving the the verse he was simply quoting it but he wasn't giving the proof text and it's found in 1st Corinthians or John he didn't do that but as I was listening to him I was saying that's John chapter 7 that's 1st Corinthians chapter 2 I was able to do that because I was reading and I was memorizing so what he was saying I was able to listen to with an ear to discern so that I knew that this man speaking up there wasn't deceiving me discernment is something God wants every believer to have and over time with discipline you become more discerning in Hebrews chapter 5 verses 13 and 14 the writer says anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness but solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil and so there is a discipline of discernment and we need this discernment today because our world is filled with false teachers and false prophets that's one of the ways that we know that we're in what the Bible refers to as the last days in 1st Timothy 4 1 Paul said the spirit speaks expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith giving he disseducing spirits and doctrines of devils so that's one of the ways we know there's so many who rise up and say he is here and or he's over here and follow me there's so many that do that today and it just is a proof that we're living in those times throughout the New Testament we've been warned concerning false prophets we were looking at 2 Peter and I'll refresh you in chapter 2 verse 1 how it says there were also false prophets among the people even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even deny the Lord about them bring on themselves with destruction and so today we do have many false prophets who have arisen and they do produce systems that reject the Lord Jesus Christ but how do we know that they are false teachers well let me give you a couple things develop that then move on one of the things that you're going to see about a false teacher will be that they will preach a false Jesus Christ they preach a non-scriptural Jesus what they'll do is they use selected passages but they take them out of its context there is another Jesus you know and these false teachers bring this other Jesus 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 4 says if he that comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive another spirit which you've not received or another gospel which you've not accepted you might well bear with him he was concerned about the Corinthians because he said they're coming bring in a different spirit different gospel different Jesus and because your discernment isn't there you might put up with them you might bear with them and so there are earmarks of false prophets one like I said what do they say about Jesus Christ well normally a false prophet will deny the deity of Jesus Christ the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the word of God but that Jesus is God in the flesh in the beginning was the word the word was with God the word was God is what John says in chapter 1 verse 1 and the word dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth he says later on in the same chapter and so Jesus Christ is presented as being God in the flesh Colossians 115 he's the image of the invisible God the first born over all creation Colossians 2 9 in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily Jesus Christ is God in the flesh false teachers will come and will say now Jesus Christ is the first creation of God or he's the first cause or he is the spirit brother of Lucifer they'll always change Jesus he's a great teacher he's a good prophet he's one of the greatest prophets outside of the last prophet and they'll say things like that about Jesus and so when they always cause Jesus to be less than what he really is and 2 when you speak to somebody and this is just general discernment once again when you speak to somebody who's not teaching you concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in a proper sense they always have an authority that is not the Bible it's always extra biblical so you speak to a Mormon and the Mormon will say well we have the Bible and we consider it to be the word of God but we also have a companion the Book of Mormon and we have modern revelation pearl the great price and doctrines and covenants and you end up with extra biblical material you speak to a Jehovah's Witness and I know all of us in this room have which shows how effective they are in their evangelism you speak to one and they'll tell you that their material that they have is something that is to be spread if you asked one to just sit down with you on a regular basis and if you said to them listen I'm willing to hear you out if we can read just the Bible and and not your material they won't do that I had a woman who one time wanted to convert me to be in a Jehovah's Witness and I was a young man at the time I was about 23 years old and she came to the house knocked on the door we had a conversation she said I'd like you to know what we believe and I said have no problem with that but I'm not going to read your material let's study the Gospel of John verse by verse and see what the Bible says concerning Jesus Christ I can't do that why can't you do that well I knew why she couldn't do that because I'd been studying what they believe and one of the statements that came from the publication was came from the originator of Jehovah's Witnesses was if you read the Bible along with his study helps in a year you will be walking in the light but if you read the Bible without his study helps in a year you'll return to darkness so they taught and they teach their adherents that you need our material which they considered to be the teachings of God alongside of to interpret the scripture and so that is very much the truth about about cults and their final authority it's never the Bible it's always something extra Jude 3 and 4 says beloved while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints for certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and denied the only Lord and our Lord only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Paul in Galatians 1 6 through 9 said I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel which is not another but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ but even if we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you then that what we have preached to you let him be occurs as we've said before so now I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you then what you've received let him be occurs their final authority is normally extra biblical third their teachings take you away from the one true God Jesus came to bring us to the Father their teachings take you away the Holy Spirit when he is involved in the teaching draws you to the Lord the Jesus Christ that's why Jesus in John 16 14 said he will glorify me he will take what have of what is mine and declare it to you and then finally their group or organization is the only way to God they will say they are the only true church they are the only true group of believers and so unless you're with them you're not going to make it but the Bible says in acts 412 salvation is found in no one else there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved and so we need discernment we need discernment that goes beyond our simple experience in life we need discernment that is found in scripture based in scripture fundamentally but even so sometimes the things that people bring to you are not apparent or immediately apparent there are sometimes you if you're a new believer there are sometimes you might be just drawn in because my goodness you've only been a Christian for a year six months nine months a couple of years and here comes some sophisticated individual who's been part of their organization for many years and they come and they begin to share with you things and they can get you tongue tied they can get you twisted up they can get you confused my Marie when she was a young believer and you need to remember perhaps you don't know and I don't know if you really need to remember but let me say it this way Marie was a young Christian as I was a young Christian when we got married I haven't always been this old so we were both young and so as a young believer when Marie got saved and we were married some Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door and wanted to talk now my Marie is a very friendly woman and more than willing to talk about Jesus but Marie at that time is a young believer maybe three years four years old in the Lord and these two women came and Marie comes to me she says the Jehovah's Witnesses at the door I said you want to talk to him she says yeah let's talk to him I said okay invite him in okay come on in these two women come and sit down on the couch Marie turns around and I'm not there it's the truth I walked out and I was standing in the hallway and I was listening to the conversation and I wanted to give her a opportunity an opportunity to see what they do but I was there as her husband in her covering to to respond when necessary and they began to twist her and I heard my little girl there I call her my little girl I heard my girl as she was wanting to answer and she knew this was wrong and then they started talking down to her you know dear this is what the Bible says sweetheart and I'm standing in the other room listening till I could take it no more and then I came walking around the corner and I sat down with them and had a very interesting conversation after that and one of the things by the way I'll share with this you with this this is helpful there are always two there is one who's learning and there's one who's training that's what you have they have the one learning and the one training it's a mentoring program all you need to do is look to see who's leading the conversation in this particular it's always a sway by the way I just looked for the one who was speaking so I came and I sat down and I spoke to the one who was speaking and as I spoke to her I said something that triggered the other woman so the other woman says well I can answer that because I had asked a question that I knew they couldn't answer I can answer that and forgive me this sounds arrogant forgive me I turned to her and I said I'm not talking to you I said you see I'm asking her and she says but I said no excuse me let's have some ground rules this is my house when we conversed in my house I have the authority to say who's going to speak and who's not in things of this man therefore you're not saying anything she's speaking to me she says well she's not going to I said oh really then I looked at the young woman and I said is that the kind of organization you want to be part of an organization where other people do your thinking and tell you what to believe is is that what you think the Kingdom of God is all about a hierarchy where others tell you exactly what you need to know and how to know and what to say somewhat like a puppet that is being maneuvered on a string by somebody who thinks for you the other one gets mad we've had enough of this I said oh no you need to hear more you know what I'm saying but see I allowed Marie to go through that experience so that she could see spiritual warfare because that's what you're dealing with spiritual warfare and the weapon God gave to you the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but our mighty and God to the pulling down of strongholds so God has given us spiritual weaponry the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and that's what we wield in these things you see and so in these discussions there needs to be a spiritual discernment Marie has learned since then many things and she's capable now of sharing her heart but she was a young believer at that time and I wanted to experience that because those are the things that I had been experiencing those are the things that caused me to learn to sharpen my sword and slice people up in a nice little way I'm teasing God gives us discernment in 1st John chapter 4 verse 1 it says beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world and so normally you test the spirits the things that are being said by the word of God again what if you're still maturing in your faith well God gives to us the gift of discerning of spirits by the way the gift of discernment let me say it very briefly the gift of discernment discerning of spirits is one of those gifts that is difficult to exercise as a gift difficult gift to possess and I'll tell you why in a very practical way it's because you can feel you're really judgmental and harsh I have that gift and I can tell you that from personal experience you feel harsh you feel you're judging these people who am I to call into question these people who am I to do that it's one of those things that is very difficult because you hear what's being said and the spirit of the Lord is speaking to you and saying that is not so that is not so and then you call into question and those around you sometimes may think that you're arrogant where's your humility but that gift is it is it is it's such a strong and powerful sense that this is wrong there's something wrong here and and I have that gift and I can tell you that there have been many times when when even as a young believer I knew there's something wrong here this is this doesn't line up with what I know God to be and so that gift of discernment is one of those gifts that can be difficult you might be the only one who's seeing it at that moment and your friends might be saying to you how come you had to say that why are you this way and you can feel bad I have to tell you especially in my early days especially in my early walk the Holy Spirit was was gifted me with this and I and I would feel so bad and so judgmental and I take Lord I want to be loving and caring I want I want to have a tenderness in my heart and how come I I sense there's something wrong here and I have such a passion in my heart when I heard these things and the Holy Spirit finally said it's one of my gifts and and you need to learn to exercise that gift you see in Acts chapter 5 you see this discernment occurring in the case of a man by the name of Ananias and his wife Safira turn your Bibles with me there Acts chapter 5 I want to show you something in Acts chapter 5 verses 1 through 11 very famous story but I'll show you this gift in action Acts 5 verse 1 a certain man named Ananias with Safira his wife sold a possession and he kept back part of the proceeds his wife also being aware of it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet but Peter said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of land for yourself well it remained was it not your own and after it was sold was it not in your own control why have you conceived this thing in your heart you have not lied to men but to God and Ananias hearing these words fell down and breathed his last so great fear came upon all those who heard these things the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him now it was about three hours later when his wife came in not knowing what had happened and Peter answered her tell me whether you sold the land for so much and she said yes for so much Peter said to her liar liar pants on fire no Peter said to her how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord look the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out immediately she fell down and his feet breathed her last the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her out buried her by her husband great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things how did Peter know satan it filled his heart how do you know that discernment discernment of spirits he knew God gave to him that sense and he he made it very clear verse three and Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit to keep that part of the price of the land for yourself you conceive this thing he says in verse four why have you conceived this thing in your heart so the Lord reveal that you see in Jeremiah 17 10 we read I the Lord search the heart I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his doings and so God gave to him a discernment he knew what was taking place and this was not of the Lord in Acts chapter 8 you might want to turn there Acts chapter 8 we have the story of a man by the name of Simon who was a sorcerer in Acts chapter 8 beginning at verse 14 when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent Peter and John to them who when they had come down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit for as yet he had fallen upon none of them they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus they laid hands on them they received the Holy Spirit now when Simon saw that through the lane on of the apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given he offered them money saying give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit Peter said to him your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money you have neither part nor portion in this matter for your heart is not right in the side of God repent therefore of this your wickedness pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you for I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity discernment he saw what was taking place and he made it very clear I can see your heart this is something that the Lord will reveal and the apostle Peter spoke with great authority as this took place in Acts chapter 16 verses 16 through 18 Paul was in the city of Lystra once when we were going to the place of prayer we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling this girl followed Paul and the rest of us shouting these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved she kept this up for many days finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her at that moment the spirit left her you know there are a lot of people who ran around and try and jump in and say oh this is from God I mean I'm telling you there are people who come to your door and they're not necessarily demon possessed how did he know because the Holy Spirit gave him the discernment and there was a sense we were in India in a place called Rameshwaram Rameshwaram is one of the places in India where they have Hindu priests who ply their trade at the banks of this body of water the pilgrims will come into Rameshwaram which is regarded as one of their holy cities and they will pay priests to pray for them prayers of blessings then they'll go and wash themselves in this water we went to Rameshwaram many years ago and Randy Walls and I were taking a walk in the city and as we were walking just looking at the outskirts of the city really I'll never forget this there was a man who had one man on either side and one behind him and he was being led forced even dragged towards the steps of a temple this man was wild he was throwing his head back and I was across the street from him I I wouldn't I wasn't more than 30 feet from him was right across the street I had come to a corner he was across the street and up the street maybe 40 yards to my left and I was at an intersection a T intersection we were about to take a left turn and this man was coming from my left towards this temple that was right there at the intersection and coming from behind up the street entering into the intersection was a horse drawn small buggy and I'll never forget this incident because this man who was being dragged towards the temple was fighting him fighting them and they were dragging him when he turned and looked in my direction when he looked in my direction the blood in my veins froze and I saw this man is demonically possessed there's no doubt about it I've had people in the past say how do you know when someone is demonized you know and the horse that was coming to the intersection stopped at the intersection and actually reared up in its hind legs and the man who is driving the horse had his whip out and began to hit the horse because he wanted to take a left the horse reared up when it saw this man and ran off in the opposite direction with this guy hitting the horse because he wanted to take a left and the horse said no we're going to take a right and I thought it had more horse since then he did that horse knew better the men didn't the horse knew better it sensed the evil it wasn't just a man acting crazy it was a man demonized and I am telling you when I experienced that I now know the difference between someone acting irrationally and somebody demonized in the early days of our ministry I got a phone call from somebody who said I believe my friend is demon possessed can I bring her in for you to cast the demon out I said sorry the church is closed this is a recording I said okay and I told my assistant to stay with me and I put him in front of me but anyway hi and she came in they brought the woman in they sat her in a chair in front of me the woman closed her eyes she began to writhe in the chair and I looked at her and I said if you are demon if there is a demon within in Jesus name manifest yourself she began to grind her teeth and she began to pull towards me I'll be honest with you this is the truth I was a young man then I've grown okay when she started coming out of the chair I pulled back I was a knock her out man I'm not kidding I am not gonna come on put that jaw here I really did I really did I was a knock her out the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said she's not here to be beaten up but I'd never seen anything like that and my flesh just reacted immediately and and you know I I didn't hit her but almost did and and as she was there you know I said sit down and long story made short she was just a woman who wanted a lot of attention she was willing to do whatever she could to get it there is a difference between somebody acting irrationally and somebody who's demonized the gift of discerning the spirits is that gift that enables you to instantaneously know this is spiritual this is demonic this is not natural this is not normal and I am telling you that should you ever encounter a demonized person there is no question you don't have to run around saying was Jesus God in the flesh these are the three tests you don't have to do that you just have to in the name of Jesus come out because you have authority by the way to in Jesus name deliver them you have that authority in Jesus name so discerning of spirits yes there is a natural discernment that we gain over time the ability to make judgments we gain that through experience just life there is the discernment that is spiritual in its essence in that we read the scriptures and we know God's truth and we're able to see and make judgments and then there's a gift of discerning the spirits that God will give to you where there is a sense that this is I can see the heart I can see what's going on here this is not of the Lord this is what's going on and it's that sense of that spiritual activity within that person's life that God gives to you at that moment and that's called the gift of discerning of spirits and it's one of those gifts that I do believe that the Lord is is quick to give especially in certain circumstances and situations I don't ask for you to be asking for that particular gift but I do believe that we have some in this room right now who exercise that gift and you may have been judging yourself harshly for a longest time thinking you're just a very judgmental critical person when in reality the Lord is simply giving you some insight that is supernatural it's not your own and you have to learn how to exercise that gift how do you exercise the gift under normal conditions with mercy and compassion with love and understanding and that's how the gifts of the spirit always are operated right through the love of the spirit