"If the Gifts of the Spirit are suppressed, the gift of discerning of spirits is suppressed also." . .Robert Blackburn

 One of the greatest reasons many have sought to keep the gifts of the Spirit from operating fully is, a selfish motive. God did not give everyone the same gifts; they are distributed out within the Body, as the Spirit wills. Too many people, were actually ill, because someone had something they did not have. Another fear of these gifts, was simply, detection. The Spirit sees everything in us; and it cannot be refuted, that the Spirit gave some the ability to see many of the same things He sees.

We cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, within ourselves. To the natural man, these things are considered foolish, or even unnecessary. Why can't we in ourselves know what is of God? Because, as the Word says, they are spiritually discerned. One might ask, why did the scripture warn us about wolves in sheep's clothing. The truth is, they don't look like wolves; they look like sheep; you can't tell, looking on your own. When we are filled with the Spirit, we have a spiritual ability to discern, both good and bad. We can sense when something is not just right, or even false. I think that if we have been told to focus on only what someone in authority says, we lay aside our ability to know things ourselves; in the Spirit.

Not everyone is spiritual; not everyone is called, not everyone is chosen, and not everyone is what they appear to be. Somebody has to know the difference; and that's what many oppose; someone knows. We might have forgotten something; no one is to glory in themselves; no one is to take glory that is meant for God only, and give it to themselves, or to anyone else, for that matter. What likely turned some off about discerning of spirits, is it became clear, that the Spirit had gifted certain people to actually see the spirit of people and what their true attitude and purpose were. Those who were operating out of envy, strive and self-promotion, would be detected. We couldn't have that.

Repressing what the Spirit wants to do among us, makes us weak and very argumentive. To suggest that some who have somehow been placed in authority, may not belong there, is extremely offensive to those who think no one could possibly know the difference. I don't feel led at this time, that we should talk about what should be done with the knowledge of what the Spirit sees; just that we know, that somebody, is not seeing things they should be seeing. In truth, many did see. The Spirit did not stop passing out gifts in the Body, just because many did not want them there. Sadly, too many who did obtain certain gifts like this, were pushed out or silenced.

I say this in the fear of the Lord. We will either have all of the Gifts of the Spirit operating in their fullness, or we may find ourselves without any. It might sound to some of us, that the Spirit was picking and choosing, as to who had certain gifts, and who did not. The truth is, that is exactly what He was doing, and continues to do. It's all, done by the same Spirit.