“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Having the gift of discernment without the fruit of the Spirit can become dangerous. If a person can discern spiritual things but does not walk in love, humility, patience, and self-control, they may begin to criticize and judge the people they are supposed to help.

Remember what happened between Jesus and Peter.

“From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Peter, out of love, told Jesus that He should not die. Jesus responded by saying: “Get behind Me, Satan!”.

It is important that every believer operate in discernment. The GS would always say “everyone is a suspect in the spirit unless proven otherwise by the Holy Spirit”. You must discern the spirit behind every seemingly good advice. They might even have good intentions towards you but at moment it is not the will of God for you.

Jesus was not calling Peter Satan. He was discerning and rebuking the spirit influencing Peter’s words.

This teaches us an important lesson: do not destroy a valuable relationship while rebuking a person for something that is actually a demonic spiritual influence.

Discernment should help us deal with the root, not unnecessarily attack the person. We must learn as believers to walk in love which is the foundation of all other Fruit of the Spirit especially when rebuking or correcting one another. 

PRAYER

Father, sharpen my discernment by fire now in Jesus’ name. Amen