Gifts of the Spirit: Wisdom, Knowledge & Discerning of Spirits

Good to see y'. All. Y' all probably saw me singing on Sunday, and you're probably like, oh, she's never nervous. Child, I am nervous tonight. Amen.

You know, when you sing with a praise team, it's a bunch of you. So if you mess up, they could just turn your mic down, and then nobody can hear you. But when you're sharing the word of God, clearly nobody can turn the mic down or nobody will hear anything, so. But I really do want to say a few things before I start. One, I feel so blessed to be able to stand in this capacity tonight.

I've been in church for a long time. Like, y' all know my parents. Bishop. I don't call him Bishop. I call him dad, but y' all call him Bishop.

Bishop Tony and Mama Denise. I am a pew baby. I was pretty much born on a pew, but, you know, here I am. But I really do take, like, this desk or this responsibility. I really do honor it, and I cherish it, and I believe that it should be sacred.

And so I want to tell you that I'm here tonight, really, because I said yes. And one of the things that you're going to notice about me tonight is I love to tell stories. So I love to tell stories because they make me feel less nervous. And then also, I like to make people laugh, and it just kind of helps bring a little levity to this situation.

So towards the end of 2024, I was asking the Lord to, like, reveal to me what he really wanted me to focus on for this year. And I had some friends who came to me. They're really deep. They're deep wells. Amen.

And so they were like, yeah, the Lord has given me a word for 2025. And, you know, it's like a really deep word, like alignment and patience. And I was like, ooh, like, lord, give me a word like that, you know? So I'm talking to the Lord, and I don't know about y', all, but the Lord talks to me like I talk. So a lot of times, the Lord talks to the Lord.

It's like I'm talking to another black girl. Okay, I know it's the Lord, but I'm just telling you, that's how he talks to me. Okay? So I was talking to the Lord, and I'm like, lord, you know, like, I really want a deep word for 2025. Like, when somebody asks me what you're focusing on for 2025, I want to be able to give them something deep.

And I don't Know why you have to do that? Like, that makes it deeper. But I was like, give me something deep, right? And the Lord said, you know what I want you to do? Exactly how the Lord was talking to me.

I want you to tell me yes. I'm like, that ain't deep. Like, nobody's gonna take me serious. What you mean? So then after I talked to the Lord for a little while, he was like, I want you to tell me yes.

And so I said, but, Lord, I do tell you yes. Like, don't play me like that. Like, I tell you yes. And he said, you do tell me yes. But usually your first answer is no.

And your fifth answer, see, you say, oh, that's how the Lord get me. Okay? He's like, your first answer is usually no, and your fifth answer is yes. Or your first answer is no, and your third answer is yes. Or you just flat out say no, and I have to use somebody else to do what I told you to do.

So I was like, ooh, okay. Woke up and chose violence today, Lord. All right, I hear you. And so I said yes. And so two weeks into the year, Pastor Stephanie sends out an email to the pastors and the elders, and she's like, hey, we're going to be doing this series on spiritual gifts.

And, you know, let anybody, let me know if you want to speak. My spirit immediately said yes. Like, immediately as I read the email. And I was like, see, you told me that I say no first. Yeah.

So I was like, I didn't say no, though. Okay. I was just like, I don't think she's talking about me like, I'm a baby elder. Like, I just became an elder. I'm like a mini little baby elder.

Like, this is for the people who've been eldering for a while. She didn't mean that for me. Right? And the Lord said, so are you telling me no? And I was like, I didn't say no, Lord.

He said, well, then tell me yes. So I responded to her email, and then I wanted to throw up. Like, I was like, oh, my God, why did I do that? But as soon as I said yes, it was like I hit download. And the Lord started giving me this message for tonight.

This was in January. And I was like, oh. So when you say yes, then he gives you the word. Oh, okay, got it, got it, got it. So that's why I'm here tonight.

I'm here because I said yes. And I want to encourage you to say yes. Now, it may not mean this, but when the Lord tells you to go or to do yes. Let there be a yes in your spirit, and just trust that he's going to give you what you need for this moment. Okay, so the second thing I want to do before I start is I want to honor my husband, and he did not know I was gonna do this tonight.

We were riding in the car on the way here, and he was like, you know, kids don't have any sense of anything that's going on. They knew I had to speak tonight. They're like, oh, okay, Mom. You know, at school today, so and so was talking about something, and I was like, child, I'm trying to get my mind on the word. Like, I can't talk about that right now.

And so Troy is like, I need y' all to be quiet. Let your mom get her thoughts together. I was like, thank you, Lord. But then he began to speak over me. And that's what this man does on a regular basis, and I wanted to take time to honor him publicly.

I tell you, I'm a very strong personality. Woman. That's how I describe myself. I have a very strong personality, which means I'm a lot of. I'm a piece of work.

Amen. But I wear a lot of hats. I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a daughter, I'm a sister, I'm an aunt. I'm actually a nana. I could tell you about that another time, because I'm really young, but I do have grandchildren.

I'm a stepmom. And those are all of the hats that I go to sleep with and wake up with, because I can't take any of those off, right? And then I have to put on senior vice president at bank of America hat and board member hat. I wear a lot of hats, and at the end of the day, I really like to be quiet. And I'm almost a little bit of an introvert.

And Troy gives me a place, a soft place to land. He allows me the space to be soft and not strong and very vulnerable. He captures all my tears, and he builds me up when I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. And that's what he did on the way to church tonight. So thank God for him.

I thank God for you, babe. Honestly, I would not be here if it wasn't for you. And you know why? And I'm not gonna cry. Okay?

All right. So I love you and I honor you. He really is my covering, so I bless God for him. Okay? So I'm gonna Jump into the word.

But I'm gonna start with a prop. All right, don't get nervous. Okay. When I walked in with this plate tonight, the first thing that JJ said was, what you got?

And I was like, I can. I was like, it's for my message. He was like, what? I was like, it's for my message. Okay.

Does anybody know what this is? What does this look like, huh? It look like dinner. Oh, come on. You in the word?

Yes. All right, so this is a plate with aluminum foil. That's what it is. Some of y' all got nervous, like, should I know what that is? It's just a plate with aluminum foil.

And I'm gonna tell you about this plate with aluminum foil. I actually feel like a plate with aluminum foil tonight. And I'm gonna tell you why. I mean, why I say that. So growing up in my parents house, we didn't have what I have now, which is, like, a drawer of Tupperware.

Matching Tupperware with, like, the matching lids, you know, different sizes, so, you know, very bougie life. Okay. We didn't have that. Okay. If you come to my house now, we have a whole drawer full of Tupperware.

They all match. We didn't have that growing up. So anything that was a reusable container could also serve as a. To store food. Okay.

So if you went into the refrigerator and you pulled out, like, a country crock, like, the brown tub, it could be butter.

It could be pork chops. I mean, so you just have to, like, prepare yourself. You don't know what's going to be in the tub. Right? You don't know.

So you just open it and just pray that it's the butter that you need. But if push came to shove and we did not have any reusable containers, my mom would say, just go get the aluminum foil. Now you might be saying, is she saying aluminum? I am not. I said luminum, because my mom didn't say aluminum foil.

That was very proper. We called it luminum. This is luminum or foil paper. Okay.

And also, if we were going to someone's house, we weren't gonna take my mom's nice dishes to somebody else's house. Just wrap the food in aluminum foil and take the food to another. So I didn't think that was weird. I thought that was normal. I didn't know anything different until I got older and somebody said, can you bring some food to this little get together we're having?

I said, oh, yeah, sure. What you want me to Bring. They said, can you bring some fried chicken? I was like, I don't know why you're asking me to bring the fried chicken. Feels a little stereotypical.

But it's okay because I like fried chicken and I make a mean fried chicken. Okay? So anyway, I'm about to make y' all hungry. So I got up that morning and I went on the journey of making fried chicken. Okay, the fast is over, so y' all can eat fried chicken tomorrow.

Okay? But I'm going to tell you how I made it. So I got up, I washed the chicken. Now, I know that for some of these younger millennials, they don't believe in washing chicken. Bless y'.

All. Mama Denise taught me to wash the chicken. Okay? A little vinegar, a little lemon juice. So we washed it, I washed the chicken, and then I seasoned the chicken.

Now, here again, it's probably a cultural thing, right? I season with my spirit, right? I can't tell you. Teaspoons, tablespoons, half a cup of this. Half a cup.

You just season it until your spirit says, that's season, girl. It's good, right? So I season the chicken, and then I marinated the chicken. Y' all hungry yet? Sorry, my bad.

I should have brought y' all some chicken. Next time. Next time. All right, so I marinated the chicken in buttermilk, right? And then once it's marinated, then you have to dress the chicken in flour.

You also have to season the flour with your spirit. Did y' all know that you gotta season the chicken and the flour. You can't just season the chicken. Season it with your spirit. Amen.

So I season the chicken, and then you have to fry it in some fresh, hot grease. Now, again, not oil. This is not the healthy version, okay? You need to go get some Crisco or some lard if you gonna fry it in olive oil. I don't want it, okay.

Cause it's too healthy. That's not what I want. I want fried chicken and some grease, okay? And if you have some old grease that was used the last time you fried the chicken, it's gonna be even better. Okay?

All right. Anyway, we're not talking about chicken tonight. That's not what you're talking about. Okay? All right, all right.

So I made the chicken. I put it on the. I was going to put it on a plate, and I realized I had nothing to take this chicken to these people's house in. So what did I do? I wrapped it in some aluminum and went on about my way.

So I went over to the people's house. They said, oh, just put that in the kitchen with the rest of the stuff we're gonna eat in a little while. And I said, okay. And when I walked in the kitchen, I was like, oh, people actually have dishes that they take food to other people's house in. I mean, it was these nice, beautiful serving dishes.

They all had matching tops and lids. And I was standing there like, oh, my God, I want to go home. But guess what? The chicken was going to bless you if you could just get past the fact that it was on a plate wrapped in aluminum foil, Right? Because I had taken time and put a lot of effort and spirit into my chicken.

Here's the truth. When it comes to having spiritual gifts operate in our lives, some of us feel like this in the presence of more qualified, more polished, more presentable gifts, like a Pastor J or Pastor Terry, right? And we're like, what am I doing? I'm just like a plate with aluminum foil. But don't let the world miss out on the message because you're doubting the presentation.

The presentation is you. So I may be standing before you tonight as a plate with aluminum foil, but the message that the Lord has given me to share with you tonight, I know that it's from him, and it's been marinated by Him. It's been seasoned with Him. And when we talk about operating in the spiritual gift, sometimes we feel like he can't use me. I'm too far gone, or I've messed up, or he constantly has to correct me.

If you have the spirit of God living on the inside of you, if you ask, and it's in his will, he can give it to you. It doesn't matter what the presentation looks like on the outside. All right, so that's what we're talking about tonight. We're going to talk about the spiritual gifts. So if you have your Bibles or your devices, turn with me to First Corinthians, chapter 12, and we're going to read verses 4 through 11.

And tonight I'm going to read this passage in two different translations. One, because I like one of their translations, and the other one, I believe it just kind of gives you a little bit more. So I love the new living translation, and then I also love the Amplified Bible because I love words, right? And I love how it just kind of breaks things down for those of us who need things broken down. All right, so we're gonna read First Corinthians 12, verse 4 through 11, and I'll let you know like the verse numbers.

So you can follow along in case you're reading from a different translation. Verse 4 says, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. Verse 5. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the Same Lord. Verse 6.

God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. Verse 7. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. Did y' all read that? Verse 7.

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so that we can help each other. Verse 8. To one person gives the ability to give wise advice, wisdom to another. The same spirit gives a message of special knowledge. Verse 9.

The same spirit gives great faith to another and to someone else. The one Spirit gives the gift of healing. Verse number 10. He gives one person the power to perform miracles and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.

Still another person is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one, Lord. This thing is. Oh, sorry. It is the one.

I lost my place, guys. Okay, sorry. All right, here we go. Okay. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a spirit is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.

Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. Verse 11. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. Now we're going to read that same passage in the Amplified Bible.

Verse number four. Now, there are distinctive varieties of spiritual gifts. These are described as special abilities given by the grace and extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit operating in believers. Do I have any believers in the house tonight? But it is the same Spirit who grants them and empowers the believers.

Verse 5. And there are distinctive varieties of ministries and service, but it is the same Lord who is served. Verse 6. And there are distinctive ways of working to accomplish things, but it is the same God who produces all things in all believers. He inspires, he energizes, and he empowers them.

Verse number seven. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit or the spiritual illumination and the enabling of the Holy Spirit for the common good. Verse 8. To 1 is given the Holy Spirit the power to speak the message of wisdom and to another the power to express the word of knowledge and understanding according to the Same Spirit. Verse 9.

Holy Spirit Wonder Working faith is given by the same Holy Spirit and to another the extraordinary gifts of healing by the one spirit. Verse 10. And to another the working of miracles. And to another prophecy which is foretelling the future, speaking a new message from God to the people. And to another discernment of spirits, which is the ability to distinguish sound godly doctrine from the deceptive doctrine of man made religions and cults.

That's what discernment of spirits means. To another various kinds of unknown tongues and to another interpretation of tongues. Verse 11. All these things, the gifts, the achievements, the abilities, the empowering, are brought by one and the same Holy Spirit, distributing to each one individually, just as he chooses. And everyone says amen.

That's the word of God. I love that. Okay, so three Wednesday nights ago, my brother Jonathan Daniel gave us an introduction to the spiritual gifts. He shared that the Holy Spirit distributes gifts when we ask and it's our job to receive them. Anybody remember that?

That was right before launch. Okay. He also admonished us to desire both the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts. So it should be a desire. We should have a desire to want the Holy Spirit, but also to want the gifts.

Amen. Last week, my brother Marcelo helped us to connect how the fruit of the spirit works with the gifts of the spirit. I loved it when he said we should eagerly pursue the fruit of the spirit and eagerly desire and cultivate the the gifts. So we should be pursuing the fruit of the spirit and then desiring and cultivating the gifts of the spirit. Tonight we're going to focus specifically on the gifts of revelation.

And those are the gifts of wisdom, the gift of knowledge, and the gift of discerning of spirits. And what I've tried to do tonight is I know for me, I like things to be a little broken down so that they're kind of in bite sized pieces. I don't know, maybe I'm like a little baby or something, like, I don't know. But I like things kind of simple, Right. And so what I've tried to do is we're gonna go through each of these three spiritual gifts and we're gonna talk about what the spiritual gift is and what the spiritual gift is not.

And what I hope is that you'll walk away from tonight saying, God, I wanna know more about that, right? Just like when you eat some good fried chicken and you want the recipe, I can't give it to you, I don't know the recipe, you just gotta cook it. But when you walk away and you're like, man, I need to know that recipe. I want to eat that again. Right.

That's what I hope you walk away tonight with a desire to want to go deeper, to learn a little bit more and to ask God for the gifts. So that's what we're going to talk about tonight. We're going to talk about wisdom. We're going to talk about knowledge, and we're going to talk about the discerning of spirits. Let's start with wisdom.

So wisdom and knowledge are usually very closely intertwined. Right. A lot of times when you hear about the gifts of the spirit, a lot of people will say the gifts of wisdom and knowledge, and it almost sounds like they're the same thing. Right. Or they go together.

Well, they do work together, but they are unique in their function. They both have their own function. The truth is we need supernatural God breathed wisdom more now than we've ever needed before. Because some of us know people who have been in church for a long time who seems like they may be an older saint or somebody who's been doing this for a long time, and they don't have any wisdom and know how to apply it. Right.

So what we should be asking for is, is God breathed wisdom for our age for this time that we live in. Right. So let's talk about what wisdom is not. That's. We're going to start there and then what wisdom is.

Wisdom is not human genius because we know a lot of people that are very smart and they're not wise. So sometimes we think, oh, they're older, so they're wise. No, not necessarily. Right. And sometimes we discount the younger people because they're not older, but they may have wisdom.

Right. So wisdom is not human genius. It is not theoretical. It's not based on some kind of abstract thinking or reasoning. Right.

You can't just throw something out there and see if it's wisdom. Let me see if that works. Right. That's not wisdom. But wisdom is also not just having moral discernment or knowing the right thing to do.

Because sometimes we know people that know the right thing to do, but they're still not wise. Or is it really godly wisdom? Right. They could just tell you, well, that seems like it's the right thing to do, but they're not telling you, go to God and pray and see what God would tell you. Right.

That's when it becomes that God breathes supernatural wisdom, which when you begin to seek God for it. But so let's talk about what wisdom is. So here in First Corinthians The Greek phrase of wisdom is Logosophies, which is also the type of wisdom that we read about in Proverbs, which I love to read. I try to read a chapter every day for every month, right? Proverbs 8:1 says, Listen as wisdom calls out hear as understanding raises her voice.

So the word wisdom in First Corinthians is the same wisdom that we read about in Proverbs. It is the ready utterance of wisdom, or the willingness to hear and understand new revelations that come from the Spirit. Lord, I want your wisdom. I want new revelation. I want to be able to speak when you tell me to speak and let it be new and fresh.

That's godly wisdom, right? Godly wisdom is both moral and relational. Wisdom is knowing, but it's also doing, because some of us know what to do, but we're not actually doing it, right? We're hearers of the word, but are we doers of the word, right? That's where wisdom comes in.

It's both moral and relational because you can internalize all the information in the world and not be wise. You just know stuff, right? But you got to actually do the stuff that you know about, right? And here's the last thing I'll mention about wisdom. Wisdom must be applied so that it can edify those who are around us.

These spiritual gifts are not given to us to boast us up and to make us better than somebody else. No, these gifts are given to us so that we can edify somebody else and those around us. James tells us in James, chapter 3, verse 13. If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, right? Doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.

He goes on to say in verse 17, wisdom from above is first of all pure. It's also peace, loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. That's wisdom. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

Here's what I want you to know. When you think about wisdom. It has to be applied.

It's given, and then it has to be applied. If you have a sticker and you just carry the sticker around, you're not actually using it for its purpose. You're supposed to take the back off and stick it onto something. That's why it's called a sticker. It has to be applied, right?

That's the same thing about wisdom. We can't just carry wisdom around like this, and we're not Applying it, it has to be applied. Amen. All right, so now let's talk about knowledge. Listen, Troy told me I was not going over time tonight, so if it seemed like I'm going fast because he told me, get done on time, daughter.

All right? He also told me that. See, he gets me together, too. Okay? Amen.

All right, so let's talk about knowledge. The gift of knowledge involves a deep understanding of spiritual truths. It's more than just accumulating information. It's about comprehending the heart and the mind of God. Right?

You can have all the books in your library, but if you never open them and read them, how will you get the knowledge out of them? Right. It's the same thing for godly knowledge. He wants to give you the knowledge. When you ask for it, he wants to give it to you.

But this supernatural empowering of knowledge is the ability to see something and say, wow, I really think this is what God is saying in this moment. Right? So let's talk about what knowledge is not. First, it's not an occultic gift. It's not being a spiritual medium, or hopefully.

I know nobody in here is going to a spiritual medium or tarot cards or any kind of psychic. It's none of those things. It's not a gift that can be given to someone who is out here talking about, they. They saw you marrying a billionaire next week. No, that's not.

That's not what knowledge is. It's not given for a believer's own personal advantage or to take advantage of another believer. It may seem weird for me to be saying this to other believers, but in this time that we're living in, we have so many people who are just trying to gain a following.

They just want somebody to follow them. And you're like, where are you going? If I don't know where you're going, I'm not following you. Right. And so they try to tap in, oh, yeah, I know this, and I've got this word, and it's deeper than everybody else's word.

And it's like, do you tithe. Do you have a pastor that you're accountable to? They have knowledge, but are they applying it? Right. That's why I keep.

I mean, because I was. This. Today I was really thinking about. I was like, why does it seem like this keeps coming up in this? Like, it's like a thread that goes through all three of these gifts.

Because right now, in the times we're living in, people are so easily deceived. I literally had someone who told Me like, oh, yeah, I grew up in church and all this kind of stuff, and now I'm following this man. And he told me something, and I said, what?

And she was like, no, I mean, you gotta really listen to this. I said, first of all, don't send that to me because I'm not gonna listen to it. Cause I'm not even about to let that inside of my ear gates. Amen. But I was like, here's someone who says they know the truth, but they're easily deceived, right?

But the spiritual gifts are not here to lead us off track. So if you start to hear things and it's. And it's contrary to the word of God or contrary to what you're hearing in the house, you need to run away from that as fast as you can, go the other direction. Amen. But knowledge is also not meant to be haughty or puffed up or highlighting the type of pride that over characterizes how much we know over others.

I'm sure we all know some people like that. Well, I. Okay, if you start talking deep, I don't want to talk to you because I don't even know what you about to talk about. Right? Did you just try and tell everybody you know everything?

No, you don't know everything, but okay, bless you. All right, so it's not meant for that, right? It's not supposed to be built up in pride. That's not what knowledge is supposed to be. Okay, so let's talk about what knowledge is.

Knowledge is the ready utterance of supernaturally imparted truths that have already been revealed. Those with the supernatural gift of knowledge, they can study the Bible and extract profound insights that can guide and lead others. We have a lot of those people that preach to us every Sunday. And I'm not just saying that because they're here, but I'm telling you, God, sometimes when I hear Pastor Terry preaching, I'm like, girl, I done heard that word before, but my God, I ain't never heard it like that, right? They're able to extract supernatural truths, right, that have already been revealed.

And they're able to minister in a way that it pricks our heart or it causes us to do something. Right? Knowledge relates to the things that are to be done. We can then correlate the gift of knowledge with the last book of the Bible revelation. Because John was basically telling us, here's a blueprint for what the end of the world is going to look like.

It's knowledge, right? But here's what I want you to know. Knowledge can pass away. First Corinthians 13:8 says, Love never ends. As for prophecy, they will pass away.

For tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will pass away. This is where I tell you that knowledge and wisdom go. So they're so intertwined, they go together so well because this is what differentiates knowledge from wisdom. Wisdom penetrates deeper than knowledge.

It's eternal. This is also why these two gifts have to work so closely together. When the gift of knowledge is given, then we should also be asking God, give me the wisdom on how to apply it. Right? So it's almost.

It's both. And yes, they have their own unique purpose. But you need both, right? Because God, I want you to give me the knowledge that I need, but also tell me how to apply it so that I'm not just out here doing my own thing and doing something contrary to what you would have for me to do. All right, so the last one we're going to talk about tonight is the discerning of spirits.

And this one is very near and dear to my heart because I operate in it a lot.

And I'm not talking about it, but I tend to. I can walk into rooms and I feel. I don't say energies, because that's kind of weird. Now. People are like, ooh, your energy.

I don't mean it like that, but I can literally walk into the room and I can see things that are going on around me. And sometimes it's overwhelming. I'll be honest with you. And sometimes people can come up to me and be talking to me. And I'm like, she had a hard time this morning, and she's talking to me about.

She could be talking to me about something completely different. Like, I have a very. It's a very strong sense of a spirit of discernment on my life. So this one is very near and dear to my heart.

The gift of discerning of spirits or distinguishing of spirit provides discernment to recognize the true source of spiritual manifestations which guard the church against deception. That's really the basis of what the spiritual gift is. There's been some that have said we don't really need it in these times. Like it was more for the New Testament Church because the New Testament was still being written. They didn't have the New Testament to reference.

But I'm telling you, I believe, and I said this earlier, we need it more now than we have ever needed it before. 2nd Timothy 4. 3 tells us, for a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. If that don't sound like 2025, right, people will.

They'll base their whole spiritual lives on a 60 second YouTube clip, right? Instead of actually getting in a church where somebody can hold them accountable and they'll say, oh no, I'm a part of this e church or I'm a part of this e community. What is the E community when your child is sick? Can you call that e community? Pastor?

You need a pastor, man. You need somebody that's going to pour into you, that's going to tell you, like, hey, you, you a little off there, daughter, get it together.

But they have itching ears. That's what this is the times that we're living in, right? And so that's why we need the discerning of spirits even more. Here's what discerning of spirits is not. It's not a natural or emotional discernment of another person.

So this is what I was saying earlier. It's not meeting somebody for the first time and you just don't like them. I don't know her vibe. I don't know. Why do Christians say.

What do Christians even say that? I, I don't know. Her energy was just off. I'm like, girl, what you talking about? You know, I just didn't like her.

Well, why not? I don't know. It's just somebody, you know, I have a strong spirit of discernment on me. Like, nah, that's not what the spirit of discernment is about. It's not about.

It's not a natural or emotional discernment. You might just not like the person. You don't like their personality. Just say that. I don't like the way she talk.

I don't know, whatever. But it's not, oh, I have a spirit of discernment on me. No, no, no, that's not what it means. Discerning of spirits is not being overly critical of others. Well, I just don't like her because she seemed like she's better than everybody.

What made you feel like that? Because she had on a certain way of dressing a way she carries herself. That's not what discernment is. That's not what the spirit of discernment is. Right.

It's not being overly suspicious. Now I'm going to tell y' all this story because I want to make y' all laugh and y' all all look, y' all looking at me like y' all mad or tired. I don't know. But anyway, I'm gonna tell y' all this story, and Troy, is. He gonna kill me for telling this.

But anyway, does anybody have a next door thing for your neighborhood? Next door? Or a neighborhood Facebook page? Stay off of there.

Because there's a lot of people, they operate in the spirit of suspicion on there. Okay, so.

So, you know, we moved into a new house about a year and a half ago, and the lady who lives across the street, very old school, she brought us a plate of cookies. I don't know where the cookies came from. I let the kids have two cookies, and then I donated the rest of them to the trash can because I didn't know. I don't know where they came from. I mean, I don't know.

But anyway, y' all just pray for me. All right, so. But she brought over her number. Very nice lady, by the way. She actually took us to dinner at some other point, too, but she brought over some cookies and brought her number.

And to be honest with you, it was so, like, old school that I forgot to give her my number. And I was like, oh, I should give her my number. So I had to tell the kids, take my number over there. But the lady gave me her number, so we exchanged numbers. And so one day I'm at work, and Troy and I, we do hellofresh.

Anybody know hellofresh? Okay. Like the meal prep thing. Love it. Okay.

We've been doing it forever. And so every Monday, the hello Fresh guy comes to our house and delivers a box of food to our house. It's a bright green hello Fresh box. Okay? And the person who delivers it is, like, those people that don't have, like, an Amazon truck.

Like, it's just a random person in their car delivering hellofresh boxes. Maybe we shouldn't trust them. We don't know where they're getting from. Anyway, I'm not going to think about it. The food is always fresh.

Amen. It's hello Fresh. Okay? Uptown. He texts me.

I was at work in Charlotte. Uptown, okay? She texted me and said, hey, there's a suspicious car in your driveway. I said, what? Now, granted, we have cameras all over our house.

Kids can't get away with nothing in there. Amen. So I was like, oh, I'll check the camera. Don't worry about it. She was like, yeah, because they were going to different houses in the neighborhood, and now everybody's on edge.

What? So I went right to my phone, went to the app I pulled up rewound the tape, right? So when I go back and look at the tape, first of all, when the van came to our house, Troy was at home for lunch in the city of Concord. Truck in the driveway. So I was like, okay.

So I saw the truck, the car pulled in, they brought the box to the front door, dropped it off, they sent me a picture. So I was like, okay, yeah. So I texted the lady back and said, are you sure that they didn't deliver anything to the house? And she said no, they did not get out that car. They just pulled in your driveway and just sat there and it was just so suspicious.

And I said, oh my God. So I told her, I said, no, I really think it was the hella fresh people. Like we got the box, they sent me the thing. So later on I went on next door, her daughter lives in front of her and the man had accidentally went to her house. That lady posted that man's van and a picture of the man with the hellofresh box on next door and said, please be on the lookout.

I was like, oh my God, take this down. The man is not suspicious. And so people are commenting on there like I really don't think they're casing houses with hello fresh boxes in their hands.

Listen, the discernment of spirits is not a spirit of suspicion. I don't know, they just suspicious to me. It's just something about that car that's sitting two houses down from me waiting on their family member to come out. No, you're being weird. Stop it.

It's not a spirit of suspicion. That's not what discernment is, okay? And it's not being manipulative or being over condemning of others. Meaning you condemn people to the point that they don't feel like they could ever come back to the Lord. That's not a spirit of discernment, right?

If anything, you're running people away from the Lord instead of bringing them to the Lord. Amen. I'm going to move on fast, but that's not what discerning of spirits is. So let's talk about what it is. It's the ability to recognize whether an utterance is coming from God or from an evil spirit.

Here's what the hearing discernment should push us to ask. Is what I'm hearing in agreement with what the Scriptures say?

Second Peter 1, verse 20 says, above all you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God. So when you're operating in the spirit of discernment, you should be able to ask yourself, is what I'm hearing in alignment with what the scriptures say? Otherwise you might be as suspicious and weird. Okay, here's number two.

You should be able to ask yourself, does this line up with the outward fruit of the Spirit? Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23. Here's the last question it should be able to ask yourself, does this line up with God's nature? Does this line up with God's character? You looking at a person and saying, I don't like they vibe, that is not.

That's not lining up with God's character. And it should make you question, why do I feel that way? You can't mask that in, oh, I have a spirit of discernment. No, no, no, no, no. Here's what God's nature and his character is.

Psalms 103, 2, 11 says, Let all that I am praise the Lord. May I never forget the good works he does for me. He forgives all my sins, he heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercy. He fills my life with good things.

Does this align with God's character? That's what it should push us to ask. The spirit of discernment is a supernatural ability to recognize and distinguish between the good or bad and the various kinds of spirits. You can come get on the piano because it's going to help me get this through faster. Okay.

Because I'm almost done. I don't want to get in trouble tonight. Amen. All right, so here are some examples of various spirits that those who operate in this gift should be able to recognize. Number one, evil spirits.

John tells us in First, John, dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the spirit. We need people saying that spirit is not of God. We need that right? We should be able to recognize the spirit of infirmity. In Luke chapter 13, there was a woman who came into the synagogue.

Jesus saw her. She had a spirit of infirmity. For 18 years. She was bent over and could in no way raise her. When he healed her, he cast out the spirit of infirmity, the spirit of divination.

Right. It's too long of a story to tell, but in Acts 16, Paul recognized this woman who was operating in the spirit of divination. She was actually speaking what sounded like a positive word. Oh, these are men of the most high God. They've come to say this and that to us.

And at one point, his spirit became grieved and he turned around and he cast out the spirit of divination, right? And then it should also help us to discern the spirit of truth and error. First John tells us in First John 4:6. But we belong to God. And those who know God listen to us.

If we do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. This is how we know if someone has the spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. Here's the last thing I'll tell you about the spirit. Spirit of discernment. It requires exercise.

Now, you may look at me and think, she don't work out. I do. Actually, I lift pretty heavy. I work out twice a week. I have to go to my trainer in the morning.

But when I first started going to him, I was very. I didn't know what I was doing. I was very out of shape. But he teaches me. He has taught me how important it is to have good form, right?

So I don't hurt myself, right? So when I'm lifting 40 and 50 pound weights, right, I have to. I. I've done. I can do it now because I've exercised the gift, because I've listened to what someone has told me about. This is the proper form.

This is how you do it. This is how you lift, right? This discerning of spirit requires exercise. John told us of two churches in Revelation that they ex. One exercised the gift well, which was the church of Ephesus, and one did not exercise the gift well.

The gift is crucial for maintaining the purity and the integrity of the church. God, help us to have more people who are seeking after the spirit of discernment so that we can maintain the purity of the church. Y'. All. Y' all can stand with me tonight.

I really want us to pray into this moment.

I finished at a good time, babe.

My prayer is that because the gifts of the Spirit are readily available to you, I pray that you will begin to ask God, God, I want the spiritual gifts because he's not gonna just come down and touch you with it, right? You have to want it. It has to be a desire of your heart. And if that's scary for you, right, because that's real, right? Like, well, I don't even know what that means per se, right?

If that feels scary for you, just begin to ask God to minister to your heart in that area. Lord, I know I want the spiritual gifts, but I don't know what gift to start with. And I feel like maybe it's this one. But what should I do? Right?

And he's going to speak to you. Here's what I tell you in your asking. Remember that the purpose of walking in these gifts is to serve the body of Christ. That person that's standing next to you, they need you walking in your gift. If your gift is the gift of wisdom, they need you walking in that gift.

If your gift is the gift of knowledge, there's somebody in this room that needs you walking in that gift. If you have the gift of healing, which I think my dad is talking next week about, you remember, the week after next, he's talking about the gifts of healing prophecy, right? We need all of these gifts working together. It's like a toolbox, right? We can go and get the right tool that we need.

If you need to. To put a hammer in the wall, you don't get a screwdriver, you need a hammer, right? And so we need to ask God, God, cultivate these gifts in us. If it's me that you want to use, here I am. Use me.

But they're here to serve the body of Christ, to edify others. So tonight, my prayer is that what you've heard will light a fire in your heart and you will begin to ask the Holy Spirit for the gifts in your own life. If you ask and it's within his will, he's going to give it to you. So I'm going to pray over you tonight. And I'm going to ask God to light a fire in us.

Light a fire in us so that we can begin to operate in the gifts of the spirit. Father, I thank you for this moment, for this time. I thank you for the ability to share with your people tonight.

I ask that this word would go deep into their hearts. Oh God. A lot of information in a short period of time. But I ask you, God, that they will. They will begin to hear these things in their spirit.

Oh God. And it will drive them to your word, oh God. That they will begin to desire. Desire the fruits and the gifts of the spirit, oh God. That you would begin to cultivate it in them.

And God, this is the prayer that I had today as I was sitting in my room and preparing for tonight. There's some people who have been taken advantage by the gifts. I ask you, God, that you would heal their hearts tonight. Oh God. So that they will not be turned off by the gifts.

Oh God. Because someone used it in a way that was. Was different than what you would have for them. Oh God. I ask you, God, that You would heal that place in their heart.

So that they can begin to operate in the gift that you have for them. Oh God. Every gift is needed. The gift of wisdom. Oh God.

The gift of knowledge. The gift of prophecy. The gift of healing. Oh God. And I ask you, God.

That as your people stand here tonight, oh God. That they will not only begin to. To desire the gift, oh God. But they will begin to cultivate it. Oh God.

Let it be so clear in their spirits, oh God. What you would have for them to do. And I ask you, God, that those gifts will be work. They will start to work even more in this body, oh God. That it would edify those of us who can hear.

Who hear them and who experience them. Oh God. I thank you for this house, oh God. This house that has a heart to want people to learn and to grow. And to not just be fed on the milk of the word, oh God.

But also to partake of the meat of the word, oh God. To want to go deeper, oh God. Light a fire in us tonight, oh God. Let it burn deep, oh God. Let your spirit, oh God.

Let it overwhelm us tonight, oh God. Let it overtake us, oh God. Tonight, Holy Spirit, you are welcome. You are welcome. In our homes, oh God.

Let our. Let the spirit, the spiritual gifts, oh God. That operate in our lives, oh God. Let it not only operate here, oh God. But in our homes, oh God.

With our children, oh God. In our. In our workplaces, oh God. When we go outside of these walls, oh God. That it would edify the body of Christ, oh God.

But that it would not only the Christ, oh God. Those who are in the Christ, oh God. But those who will come to Christ, oh God. Burn a fire in us tonight, oh God. Let us want you more, O God.

Let us want you, Holy Spirit. Let us want you. Let us desire you, o God. More than what we've ever had before. Let it be.

Go deep, God. Let it go deep in our hearts, oh God. We want you. We need you. We desire you, O God.

We desire the spiritual gifts, oh God. More than we can even ask or think, oh God. Exceedingly and abundantly, oh God. Is what we're asking tonight, oh God. And when we walk out of this place tonight, I ask you, God, that you would begin to reveal yourself to your people.

Oh God. Greater revelation, greater words, oh God. That you would give us knowledge, but also give us the wisdom on how to apply that knowledge. Oh God. Help us to apply the knowledge of how to be a.

A good wife, oh God. And a good mother and a good daughter. Oh, God. And a good employee. Oh, God, give us the wisdom on how to apply that knowledge.

Oh God, let us be a light wherever we are. And we ask God that we don't walk away from tonight just hearing another word. God. But we don't just hear. But we do.

And I ask you, God, that you would reveal yourself to your people tonight. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.