18 Keys to discerning that I’ve learned over the years:
1. Remember that first impressions count — they are intuitive snapshots. When a woman distrusts a man she meets for the first time, her assessment of his character is usually correct.
2. Become familiar with the quiet voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10:2-5) and you’ll recognize “the voice of a stranger”—the lies of a deceptive person. How quickly you spot lies will depend on how familiar you are with truth. God never contradicts His Word.
3. Renew your mind until it becomes the mind of Christ (Ephesians 4:23; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5). Doing this involves action as well as words. “Let him who stole steal no more but rather let him labour, working with his hands that which is good, that he may have to give to him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28). The “put off” vice was stealing; the “put on” virtue is to be giving. (The virtue is the thing opposite to the vice.)
The renewing of the thief’s mind takes place as he learns the value of money that has been earned by hard work.
Most thieves are lazy — why work for money when you can steal what someone else’s hard-earned money has bought? The former thief quits stealing and becomes a giver! His giving is not just due to the fact that he has stopped stealing; it is a product of the work that has renewed his mind.
4. Wash your own window, or you won’t know which one is dirty – yours or the other person’s (1 Corinthians 11:28, 31). If you have confessed your sins and are walking in the light, the problem you are discerning is not in you but in the other person.
5. Don’t mistake all sexual desire for sinful lust. Desire is a legitimate emotion (1 Corinthians 12:31 & 14:1). What you might discern is a woman’s strong desire for a husband, which you could mistake for lust.
6. There are no positive or negative emotions, only emotions that are expressed positively or negatively. It is as right to hate sin as it is wrong to love it. Our emotions are as neutral as our hands, which can be used wrongly or rightly. A clenched fist can also be a helping hand.
7. Don’t judge people or things prematurely (1 Corinthians 4:3-5). Every secret will be revealed and every motive will be exposed on the Lord’s Day.
8. Take captive and imprison every thought that contradicts or opposes the truth of God’s word (2 Corinthians 10:5). Do not entertain error.
9. Reject humanistic suggestions that are alien to God’s purpose, and which oppose the Lord’s personal leading in your life (Matthew 16:21-23). Don’t limit the power of God to your own experience.
10. Don’t dismiss the unthinkable as unlikely. A prophet discerned a despicable intention lurking in the heart of a king’s servant. The servant reacted with “Am I a dog, that I would do such a thing?” But he proved that he was indeed a dog by suffocating the sick king in his bed (2 Kings 8:7-15). But don’t develop a spirit of suspicion that will cloud your discernment. Just bear in mind that people will always surprise you—even when you think you’ve seen it all. Believe me, you haven’t.
11. Know your own spirit. (Luke 9:54-56) If you don’t, how will you discern the difference between your spirit and the Spirit of God? (1 Corinthians 2:11)
12. Guard the entry entry-points to your life. The wall of any city is only as strong as its weakest gate (Psalm 141:3; Psalm 119:36, 37). Demons use television as an easy point of entry.
13. Don’t mistake information for intelligence (2 Sam. 18:19-32). Intelligence is assessed from information gathered. In the process much is discarded. You need to ray about what you’ve seen so you can interpret it correctly.
14. Appearances can be deceptive, so make sure you ask the Lord about who is and who isn’t, and what is and what’s not (Joshua 9:3-15). Don’t assume it — prove it! Ask God to show you.
15. Who has the Naming Rights to a tall office building? The major tenant! (Mark 5:9) Legion spoke for the man because the demonic spirit had taken him over. Jesus asked the man for his name, not the demon’s name. When Legion replied Jesus knew it was living in the penthouse and the floors below it in the man’s life (so to speak) and had forced the man into the basement.
16. Identify and list known offenders. An adulterous spirit in a woman is often heard in her spiteful voice, and a lying spirit in a man’s proud words. An envious voice expresses criticism or accusation. After you’ve heard these and other voices a few times, you’ll identify them from past experience. The more you observe the more things become obvious.
17. Don’t prophesy or encourage what you have discerned in a person. It’s possible to discern a strong-willed woman and prophesy a valiant Deborah, and in so doing release a destructive Jezebel on an already intimidated church and an emotionally and spiritually besieged pastor!
18. Nothing much happens until you draw a line between what you know and what you don’t—and then step over it (1 Samuel 17:3, 40). David crossed the creek that separated him from Goliath. Crossing takes you out of knowledge and into revelation. It puts you into God’s hands, which is a scary but exciting place to be.
Caution: If you think these keys will enable you to discern others while your own life is a mess—don’t even think about it! And don’t mistake presumption for faith, because it isn’t.