In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10
the apostle Paul gives a list of gifts that are given and empowered by the Holy
Spirit. One of these is the gift of distinguishing between spirits (v. 10).
This gift is first
and foremost about the ability to distinguish between whether something has
been caused by an evil spirit or by the Holy Spirit. Often this will apply to
messages that people claim to be from God. The gift is relevant for determining
whether the message really is from God or whether it has a demonic origin.
However, the ability
to distinguish between whether something is from an evil spirit or from the
Holy Spirit is very similar to the ability to distinguish between whether
something is caused by an evil spirit or has a purely natural cause. So I think
we can reasonably say that this gift would at times involve the ability simply
to tell if an evil spirit is the causer of something, whether a message or an
illness or a situation or whatever.
Cessationism
There are some
Christians today, who claim that the Spirit no longer gives the gifts mentioned
in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 because they are not needed now that we have the
completed New Testament. These Christians are known as ‘cessationists’, because
they think that the Spirit ceased giving these gifts long ago.
I am convinced that
cessationism is a big mistake and that God continues to give all the gifts
mentioned on this list, including the gift of distinguishing between spirits.
It was never God’s plan for the Bible to provide us with all useful pieces of
information for us to live our lives, and the gift of distinguishing between
spirits is one way in which He sometimes imparts useful pieces of information to
His children.
Luke 13:10-16
One passage that it
will be helpful for us to consider for this topic is Luke 13:10-16, which reads
as follows:
‘10 Now
he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold,
there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was
bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her,
he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your
disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was
made straight, and she glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the
synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the
people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days
and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15 Then the Lord answered him,
“You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey
from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this
woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed
from this bond on the Sabbath day?”’ (ESV)
This passage tells us
about a woman who had a severe spinal problem. She was bent over and couldn’t
stand up straight, and she had had this problem for 18 years.
In v. 11 Luke says
that her condition was caused by a ‘spirit’, which has to mean an evil spirit.
This is confirmed by Jesus’s words in v. 16, where He says that this woman was
bound by Satan.
Luke says that Jesus
laid His hands on her and she was immediately healed. There is no mention in
the passage of the evil spirit speaking through her, as sometimes happens in
other biblical examples of people being freed from evil spirits. Nor is there
any suggestion that this evil spirit was able to do anything else to the woman
other than give her this physical disability.
So it doesn’t seem
that Jesus simply deduced from certain visible signs that it was an evil spirit
that was causing the woman’s disability. Instead, it seems that He was able to
supernaturally discern that the woman’s condition was caused by an evil spirit.
In other words, Jesus apparently did the same sort of thing that is found in
the gift of distinguishing between spirits.
Imagining a
similar situation today
This is the only
biblical example of someone who has the medical condition of being bent over.
And the passage is clear that it was caused by an evil spirit. So it makes
sense to think that some examples today of people suffering from this condition
will also be caused by evil spirits.
I am not saying that
everyone suffering in this way today has an evil spirit causing it. But it
surely means that some do. To think that the only biblical example of someone
bent over was caused by an evil spirit, but that no one who is bent over today
is being affected by an evil spirit, makes absolutely no sense. Such a
conclusion would not be faithful to learning from what Scripture has to say.
So imagine for a
moment that you are a Christian doctor, and someone comes to see you who is
bent over.
The first thing you
would want to know is whether an evil spirit is causing their disability, isn’t
it? The way that you would go about helping this person would depend in very
large part on whether or not an evil spirit is causing the problem. So you
would want to start by learning, if possible, whether or not an evil spirit is
responsible.
It may be that if you
became aware that an evil spirit was causing the disability you would
want to refer the patient to someone else. I am not saying that every Christian
doctor should be skilled in freeing people from evil spirits.
But I am saying that
it makes absolutely zero sense to approach helping this patient in any other
way. The first thing to do, if possible, would obviously be to try to determine
if this patient’s disability is caused by an evil spirit or not.
And how would a
Christian do this? Well, one way would surely be by using the gift of distinguishing
between spirits.
It is unwarranted to
think that there would have to be obvious visible signs if an evil spirit was
involved. No such signs are mentioned in Luke 13. Instead, as I have noted,
Jesus seems to have supernaturally discerned that an evil spirit was causing
the disability. So it makes sense to think that the same kind of method would
sometimes be used today, i.e., through the gift of distinguishing between
spirits.
I have given this
example, mirroring what we find in Scripture, as what I think is a very good
example of the usefulness of the gift of distinguishing between spirits today. The
idea of cessationists that this gift is no longer useful now that we have the
New Testament is completely wrong.
A biblical
command to desire spiritual gifts
In 1 Corinthians 14:1
Paul instructs his readers to desire spiritual gifts from God, and these gifts
certainly include those mentioned in the list of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.
Importantly, there is
no good reason for thinking that Christians today are not under obligation to
obey Paul’s command. Let all of us, then, who want to live out a biblical
Christian faith, do what we are told to do in this verse.
See also:
The Bible, God’s Voice, and Useful Information
The Importance of Ministering to People Afflicted by
Demons
