“What is the spiritual gift of discerning spirits?”……The gift of discerning spirits, or "distinguishing" spirits, is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. Like all these gifts, the gift of discerning spirits is one of the gifts believers are given by the Holy Spirit, who disperses these gifts to individuals for service in the body of Christ. Every believer has spiritual enablement and capacity for a specific service, but there is no room for self-choosing. The Spirit distributes spiritual gifts according to the sovereignty of God and in accordance with His plan to edify the body of Christ.……When it comes to the gift of discerning spirits, every born again believer has a certain amount of discernment which increases as the believer matures in the Spirit. In Hebrews 5:13-14 we read that a believer who has matured beyond using the milk of the Word as a babe in Christ is able to discern both good and evil. Not only is the maturing believer empowered by the Spirit of God through the Scriptures to tell the difference between good and evil, but also between what is good and what is better. In other words, any born again believer who chooses to focus upon the Word of God may be enabled to be spiritually discerning.……There are certain individuals, however, who have the God-given ability to distinguish between the truth of the Scriptures and erroneous and deceptive doctrines propagated by demons. Although we are all exhorted to be spiritually discerning (Acts 17:111 John 4:1), some in the body of Christ have been given the unique ability to "spot" the forgeries in doctrine that have plagued the church since the first century. But this does not involve a mystical, extra-biblical revelation or a voice from God. Rather, the spiritually discerning among us are so familiar with the Word of God that they instantly recognize what is contrary to it. They do not receive special messages from God; they use the Word of God to "test the spirits" to see which line up with God and which are in opposition to Him. The spiritually discerning are those who "rightly divide" (2 Timothy 2:15) the Word of God in a thoughtful and diligent manner.……As the Apostle Paul writes, there may be diversities of equipping in the body of Christ, but those diversities are meant for the edification and building of that body as a whole. And the success of that body is dependent upon all parts of the body faithfully fulfilling their place in the body as God has enabled them. No spiritual gift should be used to "lord it over" others or claim for oneself a special anointing from God. Rather, the love of God is to be the basis of how we use our spiritual gifts to edify or build up each other in the Lord.……The Discerning of Spirits

This next gift is one that is really needed in the dangerous and perilous times that we are now living in.

The first thing to notice about this gift is that the "s" in the word "spirits" is with a small "s." This means that it is not referring to the Holy Spirit. The only other spirits that are out there that this gift is referring to are the following three kinds of spirits:

What happens in this gift is that the Holy Spirit will give you supernatural discernment, insight, and knowledge involving these three kinds of spirits. Many of the times, this gift will be be used to fully expose what is really going on and operating behind the scenes with someone.

Here is how this gift will come into play with each one of these kinds of spirits.

A) Demonic Spirits – with demonic spirits still being allowed to roam in the air and interact with us to some degree in this life, we really need this gift in full operation today just to handle this one type of bad evil spirit.

As you know, many times demons can literally enter into a person's body if they have the appropriate legal rights to be able to do so. But once they are in someone's body, they will then try and hide and not show themselves.

They know if they get caught and exposed on the inside of that person's' body, they risk that person either finding Jesus if they are not saved yet, or if it is a Christian, that this person will then seek out a deliverance from another believer.

Since some demons are very good at hiding on the inside of someone once they enter in, God needs to activate this gift through some of His own so they can detect when a demon is on the inside of someone and expose its presence.

Once the demon has been exposed, then you can set the person up for a deliverance. But the first thing to be able to do is to discern and detect that the demons are already on the inside of that person in the first place.

…There are several ways that this type of discernment can work in this realm.

First, the people who have this gift in operation from the Holy Spirit will sometimes be able to "see" the demons manifest through a person's eyes. Sometimes the demons just cannot help themselves and they sometimes will rise up and show themselves through a person's eyes. They will literally be looking directly at you through this person's eyes.

When you see this kind of a manifestation happen, what you will see is pure hate and pure evil looking at you. You will be able to tell that this is not the person they are residing in. This kind of a look can also be caught on camera quite a bit, as demons sometimes like to show themselves when that person is getting their picture taken.

Again, you do need this gift of discerning of spirits from the Holy Spirit to be able to see this when it happens, but it is very easily seen by the people who do have this gift in full operation from the Holy Spirit.

Another way that the Holy Spirit will help you discern and sense demons in someone is through either a sense of smell or a sense of feeling. …Some people will get a real sick feeling in their stomach, like they want to vomit when they either see or get around someone who has a demon on the inside of them.

I have a friend who has this special gifting on the inside of her from the Holy Spirit, and this is always one of her tells when she knows that she is sensing a demon on the inside of someone.

Other people will be able to literally smell their presence, and their smell is extremely noxious and toxic. The people who have this kind of gifting say it is the worse smell they have ever smelled.

What the Holy Spirit is doing with this kind of gift is pulling back the curtains in the spiritual realm and allowing you to either see, feel, or smell the demons in the person they are residing in.

Then once the demons have been exposed as being on the inside of that person, then you can move in to set that person up for a deliverance if they will be open to it.

Another way you can pick up a demon being on the inside of someone is just through a strong inner knowing or a strong sensing from the Holy Spirit.

You may not be able to see them in the person's eyes when they do come up and manifest, or feel them or smell them, but you can get a strong inner knowing or a strong sensing from the Holy Spirit that this person does have demons on the inside of them.

B) God's Angels – The Bible tells us that God's angels are also spirit beings. They are ministering spirits.

Throughout history God's angels have appeared to people many times. The Bible is full of these kinds of stories from the Virgin Mary, to Daniel, to the apostle John in the Book of Revelation.

However, the Bible also warns us that Satan and his demons can appear to us as angels of light. As a result, you will need proper discernment from the Holy Spirit if an angel were to ever appear to you.

The false religions of Islam and Mormonism are two perfect examples of demons appearing as angels of light to the two people who started these two false religions.

If those two people would have known how to properly test a spirit appearing to them, those two demon angels could have easily been stopped dead in their tracks and those two false religions could have easily been prevented from ever having started up.

If an angel were all of a sudden to ever appear to you, the first thing you will need to do is properly test it out. 1 John tells us exactly how to do this. Here is the verse:

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, BUT TEST THE SPIRITS, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." (1 John 4:1-4)

What this means is that you directly ask the angel to identify who his Lord and Master is. He better say that it is Jesus Christ. Then you ask him to confess to you that Jesus Christ has come to our earth in the flesh.

If the angel cannot make this direct confession to you that Jesus Christ has already come to our earth in the flesh, then you are dealing with a real, live, demonic spirit masquerading as an angel of light.

At this point, you should command the demon to now leave you in the name of Jesus Christ.

In addition to the above test, you could also receive a strong discerning of spirits direct from the Holy Spirit. You will immediately sense that something is not right with this angel, and you will then pick up with a strong inner knowing that this is not an angel from God.

If it is an angel from God, you should feel a sense of peace and comfort coming in from the Holy Spirit, as He should be bearing witness that this is one of God's angels.

C) Human Spirits – in addition to angels and demonic spirits, the third kind of spirit this gift is referring to is just our own human spirits. For instance, someone could have a bad spirit of pride on them.

It will not be a demonic spirit giving this person this kind of bad pride, it will just be his own natural spirit, as we are all totally capable of having bad kinds of spirits build up in our systems without the help of any kind of demonic spirits, since we have already been born into this world as corrupt sinners.

Where this gift will really come into play is on discerning some of the real bad apples that are out there, especially those of the criminal type such as rapists, money scammers and swindlers, and pedophiles. Pedophiles are especially good at seducing some of the family members so they can then work themselves into getting closer to some of their younger children.

That is why parents especially have to keep a sharp eye on any new people who come into their immediate circle of influence.

Just realize that this is a gift that the Holy Spirit can manifest for you and to always keep yourself open and sensitive to anything that the Holy Spirit may want to transmit your way if you ever do come across a few bad apples such as these types.

God the Father is very protective over His own, and He will not hesitate to have His Holy Spirit give you major warning signals if you ever start to cross paths with a bad and evil apple who is either targeting you, or any of your close friends or family members for some kind of an evil act.