The Spirit has placed gifts in the Church not just for our edification and healing. Some have a different purpose. One of the gifts of the Spirit is the ability to call out an error that can lead a Church to veer off the path of truth and embrace an error.
When Paul listed the gifts of the Spirit, he said, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (I Corinthians 12:7).
The words “common good” broadly mean to bring people together. The common good reunites people who were divided after embracing something contrary to the message of Jesus and His Kingdom. More specifically, this means that when this spiritual gift is demonstrated, its effect, if accepted, will be profitable for the entire Church.
One gift we can fail to recognize is the gift of discerning spirits, “He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or another spirit” (vs. 10).
The gift of discerning spirits, the ability to distinguish between heresy and truth, is not popular in some circles of the Church. Labels like “heresy hunter” or “You’re just being negative” are attached to those who have this gift in an attempt to dismiss or even silence their voice.
The ones with this gift can appear to the uninformed as someone with a ministry of tossing cold water on emotionally led and excited people. What this gift brings may be uncomfortable, but it’s necessary. The Church must remain spiritually in tune with the Spirit and God’s truth, or we will be tempted to follow seducing spirits of error. That’s why the Spirit gave this gift to the Church.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by ekrem from Pixabay
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