# The Gift of Discernment



## Jared (Oct 26, 2011)

If cessationism is true, does that not include the gift of discernment? If there is no gift of discernment, then couldn't the devil have a hayday with us? Since we couldn't discern his presence, it seems that he would be free to deceive us. I am close to embracing cessationism but this is one of the issues that I am working through.


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## Andres (Oct 26, 2011)

Define "discernment". I don't understand it as some supernatural, special gift as much as it is wisdom that comes from knowing the Scriptures and having the mind of Christ.


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## MW (Oct 27, 2011)

1 Corinthians 12:10, "to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues." Compared with chap. 14:29, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge." The specific gift of discerning is tied to the extraordinary gift of prophesying. It is the discerning of spirits, that is, of the spirit with which the prophecy is delivered. It is itself an extraordinary gift. With the cessation of the extraordinary gift of prophecy, the extraordinary gift of discerning the spirit with which prophecy was given would cease with it. This is to be distinguished from the ordinary gift of spiritual discernment and judgment, which is said to be the property of the spiritual man, that is, the man who knows the things of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:15.


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