Spiritual Discernment

Paul in his book to the Corinthian Church explains that one of the gifts of the Spirit is discernment of spirits. That is understanding the spirit by which people or organisations are influenced or even subjected to. Subjection naturally speaks of kingdom, that is when we subject ourselves to a particular thing, everything relating to that thing have an influence upon us. When we subject our lives to King Jesus all the benefits of His Kingdom become ours, so long as we don't subject ourselves to other kingdoms or spirits.

I am rarely free on Sundays these days, but when I am my wife and I try to visit local churches in the area to see and hear what God is saying to these local congregations. An alarming thing I have noticed in the last 15 years or so, is the familiarity of things which are being said during services which don't sit right. One such thing is the term of "this house" and all that this house represents. I recently put this to prayer and asked the Holy Spirit to show me what was really being said by this comment and term. Amazingly as I watched a documentary on the Roman Empire, the narrator started to speak about temples the Romans built for their demigods and the term they used for them. The most common term for these temples was house and they spoke about the spirit of that house. Immediately I realised the Holy Spirit was revealing to me the reason why this kind of talk is infiltrating the church today. These spirits are continuing to have an influence on the body of Christ today and it is even coming out in our worship times!

Again another common saying we often hear in our congregations is "Welcome to the house of God" and whilst many of us would automatically see this as being appropriate to a place of worship that fact remains that we, God's body and people, are the only true houses or temples of the Holy Spirit. So when we meet together, we the temples of the Holy Spirit are joining together to bring worship and honour to King Jesus, the place or building in which we meet has little or even no bearing on the presence of God. Another common adjective we like to bring to offering sermons is that we are contributing to the work of God. Whilst this can be true, the reality remains that most of the funds we bring to the church today rarely are used to see souls saved. In fact the commandment to "go into the world and make disciples" is almost a lost cause for many congregations but more importantly for many believers.

Why do I say these things? Is it to be cynical or negative about the body of Christ today? Not at all, if Christ is the head of His body and I am a part of that body than I would be cynical towards Christ our Lord and myself as a part of His body. In fact I know that the only hope the world has is in Christ of which we the body are a part. I say this to make us his body aware and hopefully discerning of potential influence and harm that other spirits besides the Holy Spirit can have on our gatherings and most importantly upon us individually. We need to be aware in 1Peter5:8 as Peter said "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.."
God Bless