A supernatural gift, a revelation, which enables us to see the source or root of the problem. This is not a natural discernment (working things out), but a spiritual impression that we can name e.g. spirit of infirmity, divination. We can discern the activity of the Holy Spirit, demonic activity, or angelic activity. We don't sit as judge, but look as an observer, and ask God how we should deal with it. Words of Knowledge; Prophecy; and Discerning of Spirits all need to be accompanied with a Word of Wisdom - know what to do with what we receive.
So in this session we're going to start, I'm going to do some teaching in discerning of spirits, and then we're going to do some activations for a little while just to get you busy. So if you open up your notes there in Section 17, you'll see the section on discerning of spirits. I'll just read to you a scripture passage, then we'll go into explaining it. This is out of Book of Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 16 and Luke is writing. He's writing about his adventures with Paul: and it came to pass, when we went to prayer, a certain young woman who was possessed with a spirit of divination met us, and brought her masters much gain by fortune-telling. The same followed Paul and us and cried out, saying these men are servants of the Most High God, they show us the way of salvation. And she did this many days, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit: I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her. And he came out that very hour.
So this is an interesting story in the New Testament, of Paul is going to a prayer meeting, and as he goes to a prayer meeting, the place that they were in was the centre of occult activities. It was a centre of spiritism, divination, that kind of thing, and so what happens is there's a young woman there. Notice her message; her message is: these are the servants of the Most High God. Is that correct? Yes, it was. They're showing us the way of salvation. Is that correct? Yes, it was. What she was saying was correct, but the motivating power behind it was a demonic spirit, because she herself was involved in divination. It said: there's a young woman, who was possessed with a spirit of divination, met us. The word possessed is a very bad translation because it actually means literally to have a spirit, not to be totally controlled. You use the word possessed, you think totally controlled. She's not totally controlled. She had a familiar spirit, because she was involved in fortune-telling.
It says she had a spirit of divination. The word divination is the word python, literally she had a python spirit wrapped around her, speaking into her ear, talking into her. It was invisible to the natural eye, but it was very real in the spirit world, so constantly, because of her involvement in divination, in the occult, she had this spirit familiar to her, attached to her, joined to her, would talk to her and give information about people. So people would come, they'd pay money to have their fortune told, and the spirit, because of that access to the spirit realm and spiritual network, spirit internet, it could share facts about people that would stun them. Then as a result of that, they would open up their heart to receive direction, and their lives would come into agreement with the spirit and into bondage.
Now when you look at it, the woman is saying all the right things, but Paul discerns that behind it there's a spirit operating, and he discerned exactly what it was. Luke said it's a spirit of a python, and it brought the masters - so she was a servant girl - a lot of money because of her fortune-telling. So the whole of that area was given over to fortune-telling, was given over to divination, given over to the demonic realm, and this girl came with a spirit. Now Paul, it says an interesting thing. It said Paul - although she followed us and cried out so and so, she did this many days - so Paul didn't address it immediately, but he became irritated by it. It says Paul being grieved, or feeling oppressed. The exact meaning of that word I'll just get for you. Let me just find it here - the exact word there means literally to toil, or to struggle to break through, or to feel worried or pressured, or to feel grief. Isn't that interesting?
So when a spirit is operating against us, then you can feel all kinds of feelings or sensations, like difficulty breaking through, there's no freedom or flow. You can feel turmoil around you, you can feel perhaps stressed trying to achieve what you're trying to achieve, or you may even feel grief. Those are the kinds of meanings associated with that word, and so he was experiencing the sensations, what she said was okay, but what was behind it, at the root of it, was demonic, and eventually when the Holy Ghost led him, he turned around, spoke and directly commanded the spirit: come out of her. Immediately the woman, or over the next hour, she was delivered of that spirit, and of course if you read on, you find then that there was a massive reaction, and Paul was then put into jail and beaten up. But there was again further miracles took place.