What the Bible says about Holy Spirit Enables Perception
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Reflect on the New Covenant, under which God leads and guides us by His Holy Spirit, enabling us to perceive, to see, and to hear His Word. The Israelite people were 38 or 40 years in the wilderness in the presence of God, yet they did not get it! It never sank in because God did not perform what would have given them the ability to perceive what was happening in their lives spiritually.
This is confirmed in Deuteronomy 5:29, near the end of the chapter that contains the second recording of the Ten Commandments. Moses writes:
Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
Except for
a precious few of those Israelites, nobody received God's Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
Reading through this list, we may think, “I don't have any of these!” Quite frankly, we may have seen few of these actually exercised over our years attending the church. We may have never even seen a miracle or a healing with our own eyes or heard anyone get prophecy right, at least not yet. How about the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge? We may have witnessed a little more of those than we realize, not being “tuned in” enough to recognize it!
What about the gift of discernment, or as it reads in the passage, “discerning of spirits”? The New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips paraphrases Paul's expression as “the ability to discriminate in spiritual matters.” This latter phrasing seems to be a more precise expression of what Paul means—not just the ability to detect evil spirits but to distinguish between the spiritually positive and negative.
Dictionaries like Wikipedia define discernment as
the ability to obtain sharp perceptions or to judge well. In the case of judgment, discernment can be psychological, moral, or aesthetic in nature. . . . Christian spiritual discernment can be separated from other types of discernment because every decision is to be made in accordance with God's will. The fundamental definition for Christian discernment is a decision making process in which an individual makes a discovery that can lead to future action.
This description of discernment emphasizes making correct decisions that proceed to wise actions.
Of the verb form (diakrino, Strong's #1252) of the word Paul uses in I Corinthians 12:10, Strong's Concordance comments, “to separate thoroughly, i.e. (literally and reflexively) to withdraw from, or (by implication) oppose; figuratively, to discriminate (by implication, decide), . . . contend, . . ., discern, doubt, judge, be partial, stagger, waver.” Discerning is a matter of separating, discriminating, evaluating, and judging, and once done, a person either approves or opposes the subject of his discernment.
In our society, words like “discriminate” and “judge” are considered almost taboo, but the truth is that we must make judgments all the time. What would be the point of discernment if it does not lead to a judgment? In Solomon's prayer before God in I Kings 3:9, he asks for discernment between good and evil so he could judge God's people. God, pleased with both the humility and good sense of his prayer, rewarded Solomon immensely.
Ronny H. Graham
The Gift of Discernment and Godly LoveRelated Topics: Diakrino | Discerning Between Good and Evil | Discernment, Spiritual | Gift of Discernment | God's Gifting of Solomon with Understanding | God's Gifting of Solomon with Wisdom | Holy Spirit Enables Perception | Human Perceptions | Judging | Judging as Evaluating | Spiritual Discernment