HOW DISCERNMENT MAKES YOU POWERFUL
Have you ever walked into a place, or sat next to someone, and didn’t feel well after that? It could be because you have been affected by that person’s spirit. That is why discernment is so important. It is essential to take authority over evil spirits in order to walk in the powerful way we were called to live. This teaching also touches on practical tips on how to deal with community and protect your heart in relationships with other people.
Credits: Teaching by Pastor Kris Vallotton, BSSM First Year 2015/2016
‘DISCERNMENT’: BSSM LECTURE NOTES
One day Kris Vallotton prayed for somebody and while he was praying, he started having suicidal thoughts. Before he prayed, he didn’t think about suicide. So he stopped praying and asked the person if he had suicidal thoughts. The man started crying and said that he was dealing with suicidal thoughts all the time. That day, he discovered how the things that other people deal with can influence his mind and thoughts if he doesn’t take authority over them.
There are also territorial spirits. Have you ever felt there is ‘something in the atmosphere’ when you drive into a city or walk into a shop? You may even have had dreams of the spirits that are over a particular place.
The good news is that if you discern the spirit, you don’t need to partner with it. You have the power to take authority over it because you bring heaven with you wherever you go. You can bring the Holy Spirit with you and influence the atmosphere around you.
All of us experience emotions. It is pretty normal to take offense after you’ve heard from somebody that they didn’t like what you did. Or to be angry if you see something that you simply don’t agree with. The most important thing is to deal with those emotions quickly. If you stay angry long enough or carry that offense with you, you will attract demons. Having discernment is not good enough. It’s what you do with your discernment that matters.
One of the deadliest spirits is that of self-pity. Selt-pity attracts evil spirits. When you open that door and meditate over it long enough, you invite other spirits such as depression.
HOW TO TAKE AUTHORITY OVER YOUR ENVIRONMENT
When you walk past someone and you suddenly feel rage, anger, have lustsful thoughts, etc., do the following:
Ask the Holy Spirit what you must say. Imagine all that you say during the day as a red line. God’s words are a blue line (figuratively speaking). When you partner with the Holy Spirit, God will speak His words through you. Imagine the picture of the red and blue line again: when God speaks through you, you release the blue on the red. When you speak life and partner with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, you change the atmosphere around you. The Spirit that is in you has already won all these other evil spirits 2000 years ago. You simply need to walk in your authority that has been given to you at the foot of the Cross and when you invited Jesus into your life.
The devil is not a creator. He steals intellectual property. The devil only duplicates what is really valuable.
GOD’S DESIGN FOR DECENCY AND ORDER IS NOT THE SAME AS YOURS
We often come to the wrong conclusion that if circumstances are bad, we have done something wrong. We live in this fantasy world where we think God is going to make everything around us perfect. We believe that if we please Him enough, then we will have no problems. However, God says in His Word that He will deliver us from all our troubles (when we partner with Him), so He didn’t say we will never have problems. In fact, as Kris Vallotton said: “If you don’t run into a demon once in a while, you might be running in the same direction. Sometimes, the dogs of doom lie at the gates of destiny.” Maybe you are standing in your greatest breakthrough when life is at its toughest.
If you are going to do something with your life, it might look like a mess at the time. God’s design for decently in order is not the same as yours. If we designed the giving birth process ourselves, it would probably look very different than what it looks like now. The baby would probably be clean and come in a hygienic zipper wrapped in beautiful wrapping paper. But, just like the birth process, sometimes things look ugly, bloody and watery, but it is still life (and the greatest treasure we could ever imagine).
Likewise, the way of the Kingdom is different from that of the world. If you have one talent and you are jealous of the person who has five talents, you will probably only have one talent for the rest of your life. The better option would be to make the best use of the one talent that you do have because then it will pretty soon multiply into two talents. Don’t judge the people who have five talents: rather hang out with them and serve them because the anointing that they have flows down on the ones who want to learn from them and serve them in a humble way.
The act of sowing and reaping is not judgement. That is the law, but Jesus would like to come between your sowing and reaping when you ask for forgiveness and repent.
Don’t blame God for what you did. Many of the problems we have in our lives, we created ourselves. We often choose to partner with evil spirits (such as anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, rage, self-hatred, etc.), instead of standing on the promises of God and seeing ourselves the way He sees us.
COMMUNITY AND OFFENCES
Few things can compare to the sweetness of a good friendship. We were created to know and to be known. I have been blessed by special people in my life and won’t swap their friendship for anything in the world. But unfortunately, the flipside is also true: I have been immensely hurt by people – mostly by people who are very close to me. It is extremely important to live in community and to have someone in your life who you trust more than you trust yourself. It is a great idea to cultivate these friendships throughout your life. You never know when you will need to lean on them. When you need a friend to stand next to you in a time of need, it is not the time to build the friendship. You need to establish the friendship during the good times, before the crisis strikes.
Why is it so important to live in community?
There are many reasons. We were created to share life and to love people. Another important reason is to keep us in line with ourselves. Sometimes, we get into a rhythm of doing things and we are not aware of how our behavior affects people around us. When someone loves you so much to tell you how you can improve, it is a great gift. Is it easy to hear? No. At least not for me! I always cry my eyes out. But it is a good kind of pain.
The other side is also true. Sometimes we get bad words from somebody, and it is simply not the truth. The person who approached you may be dealing with an issue in his or her heart, and you simply remind the person of that, or you happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. It can also happen that someone comes to you and gives you a bad word, but his heart’s intention was never to hurt you. If that happens, you simply need to flush that word. Do a prophetic act: put your hand on the toilet handle and flush it. You don’t need satan’s lies in your life. Just as the body eliminates the things that it doesn’t need, you need to get rid of deadly words that have been spoken over you. It is always a good idea to ask the Holy Spirit what the truth is. He might want to say something to you and teach you something about yourself that you didn’t know before. If you want discernment, learn from the best Discerner there is.
