DISCERNMENT – HOW VITAL!
Memorise: But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1
Corinthians 2:14
One of the methods Satan and his agents use in
deceiving people is the act of camouflage. The Holy Spirit has put us on notice
concerning this in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15
“And no marvel; for Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if
his minister also be transformed as the minister of righteousness; whose end
shall be according to their works.”
From the time of the early church, the agents of
darkness have sought to come into the church without being noticed, so that
from within, they could carry out the mission of their master, which is to
steal, to kill and to destroy. If they could attempt this in the earliest days
of the church (as was the case of Simon the sorcerer – Act 8:9-24), what should
one expect in the end-times, when without doubt the devil knows that he has but
a short time before his destruction (Revelation 12:12)?
By the nefarious activities of these nice looking,
seemingly harmless, active and warmth-exuding evil geniuses, not a small number
of promising ministries and ministers have been cut short. Some bright stars of
the kingdom have been dimmed by the enemy’s deep penetration into the centre of
operation and into the life of the undiscerning leadership of the church. The
world will say “unsuspecting leadership” because they exist in the realm of the
sense where suspicion is used in fishing out “suspects”. In the kingdom of God however, we should not think that
mere suspicious would enable us to identify fake brethren who are working as
agents of darkness. This is tantamount to operating by the arm of flesh (1
Samuel 2:9). We are bound to make mistakes if we rely on our sensory
observations rather than on the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in
discernment.
In our Bible reading of today, a young lady had been
following Paul and his team for several days, announcing them to be servants of
the Most High God. No human intelligence would have identified her as a devil
(which she truly was); in fact, she would have been considered a potential
minister (a prophetess) whom Paul (a missionary) could entrust the leadership
of the church to at his departure. Thank God that was not to be. I guess Paul
by himself did not know who she really was until the day the gift of
discernment of the Holy Spirit manifested.
Action Point
Pray that God will make his
ministers recognise the need for the gift of discernment to be in operation in
our churches and what God will graciously pour this gift on His church.
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