prophecy, discerning of spirits
prophecy – “Prophecy is the ability to speak words given by the Holy Spirit in a language understood by the speaker.” (DP) Often this is a word about something God is going to do (foretelling). Agabus prophesied the great famine (Acts 11) and how Paul would be mistreated in Jerusalem (Acts 21). The elders prophesied over Timothy concerning his ministry and a spiritual gift God wanted to give him (1 Tim 4:14). Other times this is a word from the Lord to encourage, exhort, comfort.
How does this differ from a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom? I’m not sure, I think of them all as “a word from the Lord.” Have I ever prophesied? I’m not sure of that either. As I said before, I’m more familiar with the general expression, “a word from the Lord”, which sort of covers them all. Besides, as I said earlier, they don’t come with labels.
When Covid first became a thing, Mary was working in the hospital and was concerned that she would catch it. God gave me “a word” for her, “You will never get Covid.” And she didn’t. It wasn’t positive thinking, I was absolutely certain. I don’t know how to label this.
Another time I was returning from a Bible study I was leading and as I neared the church building of that little church I mentioned before, the Lord gave me a very clear and strong word regarding a situation we were facing. I shared it with the pastor, he acted on it and it was solved. Was that a word of wisdom or a prophecy? I don’t know and I don’t really care! Just glad to flow in the Spirit! We will see more about prophecy in ch 14.
discerning of spirits – Every Christian should walk and grow in discernment, but this is different. This is like the other gifts, a word from the Lord that is revealed to you, where you suddenly see behind the scenes.
Examples of this in Scripture:
Peter to Simon in Acts 8, thy heart is not right in the sight of God … for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.
Paul in Acts 13 to Elymas the sorcerer, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, child of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season (discernment + prophecy).
Paul in Philippi, Acts 16; a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us . . . The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
This is especially necessary or helpful when the church is open to and experiencing the gifts of the Spirit. There are evil spirits out there who love to masquerade as the Holy Spirit and deceive the brethren. We need this supernatural insight. I once read about a young church which was open to the Spirit moving among them. One night, a man walked in off the street, asked if he could address the church, and they let him (things were a little different in the 60s and 70s!!). Suddenly, a normally quiet brother stood up, pointed to the man, and said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ!” Everyone was shocked! The man left and the brethren began chastising the brother. But it turned out that the man off the street had come in with the intention of leading them astray. It doesn’t always, or even usually, work that way, but that’s discerning of spirits, a seeing behind the scenes.
NEXT: tongues, interpretation of tongues
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