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For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of sound mind.
2 Tim 1:7
We usually think of fear as an emotion. We are born with a natural capacity to fear just as we are born with a natural capacity of faith which is the opposite of fear. Yet what St Paul is talking about in Timothy is not an emotion but a spirit. This spirit which some may have did not come from God. It came from satan. God gives us power and love and a sound mind. Satan gives us a spirit of fear. Just as fear can be a spirit so can anger be a spirit and sexual desire which is natural can also be a spirit of lust. We can receive those evil spirits from birth or we can receive those spirits through sin. Once we receive a spirit it will eventually manifest itself by some form of sickness. So a spirit of anger can produce high blood pressure or heart problems or a spirit of legalism or judgment to auto immune diseases like lupus or diabetes. Now many in healing ministries believe that the gift of discerning of spirits is necessary to go along with the gifts of healing because of the relationship between the evil spirits and the particular sickness that a person is dealing with. Just as the gift of interpretation of tongues goes along with the gift of tongues, the gift of miracles with the gift of faith, and the gift of knowledge with the gift of prophesy so too, does the gift of discerning of spirits with the gifts of healing. It is also believed that the way St Paul lists the gifts of the Spirit also corresponds one to one with the fruit of the Spirit. For example love with wisdom, joy with knowledge, and peace with faith. If you go down the line the fruit that lines up with discerning of spirits is the fruit of faith. What makes that fruit important is once the spirit is discerned, faith can cast it out. Once we are delivered from the evil spirit the sickness will have to depart. Because sin abounds in the world St Paul states that grace abounds more. Because there is so much sin there is so much sickness which requires so much grace. The gift of discerning of spirits is a very important gift of the Spirit for the times we are living in. But unless we are clean ourselves, Spirit-filled and wholly sanctified we will not receive the gift and like the sons of Sceva the spirits can turn on us if we try to cast them out. Pray for the gift of discerning of spirits. It is essential for our times. Amen |