 Have you ever noticed that everybody claims to have this gift when most often few actually do have this gift? This gift that is misunderstood that everyone seems to have they claim to have but really if you just look at our lives really don't have it or don't exercise it in a biblical fashion that is this gift of discernment. Everyone seems to believe that they have the ability to discern the gift of discernment. As a matter of fact oftentimes you might even hear it kind of categorized or called or saying that they are a good judge of character. What truth be told rarely are we really a good judge of character. We say we are but how many times we've been burned by someone that we thought was a friend or a close associate. We're really not that good to be honest but when we see this term that we see in the bible called the gift of discernment really we only see this passage once. This gift is only mentioned one time in the bible. Now you know what I'm saying when the bible talks about these gifts it's not really focusing on a specific gift it's just the spirit of the Lord moving upon us which is why it's not really called a spiritual gift. In 1 Corinthians 12 it's called the numitikon which are the spiritual things things of the spirit so it's the holy spirit that moves in us to one empower us for service for his glory for his purpose and it might show up different ways but let's go to this passage in 1 Corinthians 12-10 and then we'll see these gifts or these operations of the spirit being named. In verse 10 we'll go to and says and to another the effectant of miracles to another prophecy and to another here it is the distinguishing of spirits or the discernment of spirits and this word here is diakresis which is to judge is that necessarily what it is giving a judgment upon something and so this this distinguishing of spirits it's only mentioned one time in the bible and not a lot of explanation is given so what could that possibly mean? Now there are some that believe that because what was going on the founding of the church that this might also be a gift that's not in use but I wouldn't go that far because I'm pretty sure this gift is still in use as a matter of fact John brings something like this up not with the same terminology but he says this in 1 John 4 he said beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see where they are from God why because many false prophets have gone out into the world now he'll he tells us how we can know them one they present Christ in a different fashion saying that he is not from God that that he calls the spirit of antichrist but clearly John is saying that this is something that we ought to do to test all things with a test of spirit how do you test the spirit well there's only one way you can do so and that is by the word of God if something that's not lining with the word of God well then there's a good indication matter of fact an absolute indication that this is not of God in Acts 18 we see Peter going down to Sumeria with John because the Samaritans have placed their faith in Christ however they have not received the Holy Spirit and so here we've got these two Jewish apostles who go down to Sumeria to lay hands on these Samaritans on these Samaritans and they receive the Holy Spirit however there's one person there who looks like a believer but is not and he's called out he's identified by Peter as not being one let's go to verse 18 he says now when Simon saw that the spirit was bestowed through the laying one of hands of the apostles hands he offered them money saying give this authority to me as well so that everyone on whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit now Peter recognizes that his spirit Peter obviously has this gift Peter said to him may you may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money well his point is as he says as you have no portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God well how does Peter know that well because Peter has the ability to discern between the spirits this particular spirit is in this man versus a genuine spirit one of the Holy Spirit is that how this works well there there is the ability I would imagine according to the Bible because again the Bible didn't go into great detail how this how this particular pneumatic on how this spiritual gift works but apparently you could also determine the heart or understand a person's heart sometimes let's be honest it's evident sometimes we can see people today and you can just tell what their heart is like they may not even see it as a matter of fact even those around them they may not even see as a matter of fact they might be so blind to what they see or to what they're doing that they might accuse others of being what they are what they are themselves is that us when we see that is us is that us having the spirit or the gift of discernment no sometimes it's just common sense sometimes things are just blatant sometimes things are obvious if a guy is kind of bulked up and muscular is that the spirit of discernment to say that hey I can discern that this guy works out well no that's just evident it's obvious to the eyes but there are some times where you really can't tell and this is where we get to thinking that we all have this gift to discern because we think we know and we haven't been proven wrong we think that we're a good judge of character well this isn't this gift has nothing to do with being a good judge of character although you are to be to exercise that but understanding that everybody is fallible so if you give a negative assessment about somebody at some point in time it's going to prove to be true because that's what human beings do we let people down and that's not what this gift is about this gift is about just discerning a couple of things matter of fact let's go to first that's all the inspiration one notice what it says some versions might say test everything or in this case examine everything carefully hold fast to what is good well how do we do so gives us an understanding of this a little bit if we just go to the top of this passage instead of verse 21 let's go to what paul is saying in verse 12 he said and this is him kind of at the end tell him here here's a little final checklist to go through but we request of you rather than that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the lord and give you instructions and that you esteem them highly very highly in love because of their work live in peace with one another we urge you brothers admonish the unruly encourage the faint the faint hearted help the weak be patient with everyone see that no one repays another with evil for evil but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus do not quench the spirit and look what he says do not despise prophetic utterances but examine everything carefully so this is what this kind of comes in so we can see the context when he says but examine everything carefully so this is this is in relations to verse 20 do not despise prophetic prophetic utterances this is not about someone giving some sort of future foretelling could it be in place sure but prophetic utterances is just simply giving a revelation of God well principally how do we get a revelation of God how do we even give a revelation of God well simply by open his word his word is literally a written living revelation of him that is quite literally the definition of a prophetic utterance we are giving a revelation of God through our mouths and don't despise that do not despise the word remember Paul in 2 Timothy 4 says the time will come the people will not endure sound adoption but they will have these itching ears and what will they do they'll go after people to tell them what they want to hear Paul starts it off by saying preach the word he says reprove which is to prove them wrong if they are wrong show them how so with the word rebuke if they're not going to listen exhort with all-long suffering Paul goes on to say later that he has kept the faith not kept believing but kept the faith kept the tenets of the faith the word and so you can test what is happening you can test what someone is doing by the word will you be able to know it 100% of the time no we're just not always that capable to see the devil's handy work but whatever we see whatever we do we just judge it and test it in light of the scriptures now so are there some folks that seem to be better at judging things or testing spirits where something comes from yes there does seem to be that those folks that have that ability in certain cases 100% of time nobody has this gift 100% of time as a matter of fact no one has any of the gifts all the time there are times where people who could heal in the bible could not heal all the time and so you don't have this gift of discernment all the time what we do sometimes is we act as though because we are feeling as though we are wiser smarter more intelligent more in tune the next person because we see things differently than the next person that they don't have to sermon we do and it very well could be that that's the case but it also could be that you don't have to sermon because people who are so caught up in themselves who think that they are better than everyone else who and oftentimes it tends to be those who are the more self-righteous those who are the more judgmental who think that they have discernment and those who disagree with them they don't have good discernment they don't have good judgment and that's probably not the case there's probably everyone at some point in time has a little bit of discernment and everyone at some point in time has no discernment and if you want to be really discerning discern yourself discern the spirit that's in you make sure that you're not the person who thinks that you have it to where you can see it all and people need to come and hear you tell them how it ought to be this person what we all ought to do is we hear the word of God take it and compare what you've heard what you've seen what you've experienced with the word of God but that is if we don't do what it says in the next portion of this passage says do not quench the spirit verse 19 do not quench the Holy Spirit and do not despise the word the prophetic utterances the revelation of God test but test everything or examine everything so how do we do so reading the word of God being closer to God and in other words not quenching the Holy Spirit who wants to reveal things to us and in that way we can exercise to some degree this ability to discern again the word in Greek simply refers to a judgment or an understanding and so we want to get understanding and all our getting get understanding and how do we do that for the most part through his word