Reference: Discerning Of Spirits
American
1Co 12:10, a miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost to certain of the early church, empowering them to judge of the real character of those who professed to love Christ, and to be inspired to teach in his name, 1Jo 4:1; 2Jo 1:7. Compare Ac 5:1-10; 13:6-12.
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Only be strong and very courageous to ensure that you obey all the instructions that my servant Moses gave you turn neither to the right nor to the left from it so that you may succeed wherever you go.
But then a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold some property. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back some of the money for himself and brought the remainder and laid it at the apostles' feet. read more. Peter asked, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the money you got for the land? As long as it remained unsold, wasn't it your own? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? So how could you have thought of doing what you did? You didn't lie only to men, but also to God!" When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized everyone who heard about it. The young men got up, wrapped him up, carried him outside, and buried him. After an interval of about three hours, Ananias' wife came in, not knowing what had happened. So Peter asked her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for that price?" She answered, "Yes, that was the price." "How could you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?" Peter asked her. "Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and these men will carry you outside as well." She instantly fell down at Peter's feet and died. When the young men came in, they found her dead. So they carried her out and buried her next to her husband.
They went through the whole island as far as Paphos, where they found a Jewish occult practitioner and false prophet named Bar-jesus. He was associated with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. read more. But Elymas the occult practitioner (that is the meaning of his name) continued to oppose them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye and said, "You're full of every form of deception and trickery, you son of the Devil, you enemy of all that is right! You'll never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord, will you? The Lord is against you now, and you'll be blind and unable to see the sun for a while!" At that moment a dark mist came over him, and he went around looking for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, because he was astonished at the Lord's teaching.
to another miraculous results; to another prophecy; to another the ability to distinguish between spirits; to another various kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages.
Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Fausets
1Co 12:10. Discerning between the operation of God's Spirit and that of the evil spirit, or unaided human spirit claiming to utter the dictates of God's Spirit. Ac 5:1-11; 8:28; 1Co 14:23,37: "if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." It is this which assures us of the inspiration of the New Testament The books were accepted as inspired, by churches having men possessing" the discerning of spirits" (1Jo 4:1; 1Ti 4:1).
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But then a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold some property. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back some of the money for himself and brought the remainder and laid it at the apostles' feet. read more. Peter asked, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the money you got for the land? As long as it remained unsold, wasn't it your own? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? So how could you have thought of doing what you did? You didn't lie only to men, but also to God!" When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized everyone who heard about it. The young men got up, wrapped him up, carried him outside, and buried him. After an interval of about three hours, Ananias' wife came in, not knowing what had happened. So Peter asked her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for that price?" She answered, "Yes, that was the price." "How could you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?" Peter asked her. "Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and these men will carry you outside as well." She instantly fell down at Peter's feet and died. When the young men came in, they found her dead. So they carried her out and buried her next to her husband. And great fear seized the whole church and everyone else who heard about this.
Now he was returning home, seated in his chariot, and reading from the prophet Isaiah.
to another miraculous results; to another prophecy; to another the ability to distinguish between spirits; to another various kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages.
Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Morish
This was one of the gifts in the early church, needful for 'testing the spirits,' because even then many false prophets had gone forth into the world. 1Co 12:10; 1Jo 4:1-3. This gift was especially necessary at the time when the word of God was not fully written.
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As soon as the entire nation had completed its crossing of the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua. He said, "Gather together twelve men from the people one man from each tribe read more. and tell them, "Pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests' feet were standing, bring them along with you, and put them down where you camp tonight.'"
to another miraculous results; to another prophecy; to another the ability to distinguish between spirits; to another various kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages.