Spiritual Gifts part 160: satan's primary sin was pride.

Spiritual Gifts Part 160: satan’s primary sin was pride.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

Point 3: What is a “Spiritual Gift”?

A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability graciously given by God the Holy Spirit to each believer (without regard to merit) at the moment of salvation …

…so that the Holy Spirit might manifest Himself in effective service for the benefit of the Royal Family, ending up with God the Father being glorified through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your spiritual gift becomes operational as you grow spiritually.

Discernment from spiritual growth is part of being equipped to function effectively in your spiritual gift.

What is discernment?

Discernment is the skill in separating divine truth from error and half truth.

Discernment is the ability to consistently and successfully identify thoughts, teachings, teachers, situations and people…

… according to whether they are sent from God or from the kingdom of darkness (the sin nature, the world system, or fallen angels).

Discernment
is the skill of distinguishing between what is from God and what isn’t.

There is an order to how the word of God trains us to be discerning, and the first order of business is to let the word of God discern our own souls.

When it comes to human beings, we tend to notice appearances, but the Bible tells us that the Lord looks at the heart.

1Sa 16:7b
for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We know that, by birth and by nature , every human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; Jer 17:9.

The plan of God after salvation is to renovate the hearts of the believers, clearing out the garbage and replacing it with the mind or thinking of Jesus Christ.

Discernment is being able to determine what is coming from the thinking of Christ and what is coming from doctrines of demons, 1Ti 4:1.

1Ti 4:1 1
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

the first demonic doctrine:
 
1. It is a lie
2. It exalts self
3. It opposes God

The lie here is not just the fact that they could never be as God is.
 
It consisted in rejecting God and His purpose for them.
 

So discernment is ultimately a soul thing, a thought thing.
 

 And the source of things is ultimately somebody’s soul:
yours, another person’s , an angel’s, God’s, satan’s.

In fact the very first sin was a thought.

The Bible tells us that angelic sin is along the lines of three closely related evils:
 

1. Ambitious pride
2. Anti-God
3. Untruth
 
This captures the essential character of satan.