John Nash was a genius mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in 1994; you may remember him from the biopic A Beautiful Mind. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which included frighteningly real hallucinations.
Being extremely intelligent, Nash believed he could solve this problem like all the others: with his mind. But during a poignant scene with his physician, he tells Nash:
You can’t fix this problem (with your brain), because your brain is the problem.
While Nash was able to master his demons enough to live a successful life, one might say he lacked the ability to discern what was real from the imaginary.
The typical definition of discernment means “to judge well,” but in the church world, discernment is elevated to a spiritual gift. 1 Corinthians 12:10 includes a list of gifts or abilities given to believers, including:
…the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits…
Those spirits to be discerned can vary widely, and in some evangelical circles, there are literally dozens of spirits named. Such as the spirit of infirmity, control, the love of money, gossip, haughtiness, pride, jealousy, fear, insecurity, heaviness, and more.
Here’s the kicker, when someone claims to have the spiritual gift of discernment, they can spot these various spirits in other people.
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