There are so many con-artists in the Church and in the world today, so much so that the gift of discernment has become a necessity in the life of every believer. In your business dealings, if you do not want to fall victim to the canker-worm of cheats and frauds, you need to rely on the Holy Spirit to help you exercise discernment over business opportunities that are brought your way. In your job, if you do want to escape from agents of darkness looking for every opportunity to milk their employers dry and implicate innocent people along the way, you need the gift of discernment to begin to operate in your life. The stories narrated in Joshua 9:1-16 are good life lessons on the need for the gift of discernment. Joshua was hasty in entering into a pact with the Gibeonites without first consulting God, and he ended up falling for a lie; the impact of which continued to affect the Israelites generations after (2 Samuel 21:1-9). Be wary of any deal or matter that is brought before you which requires you to make a hasty commitment. Also, at your work place, be careful when a document is brought for your signature and pressure is being applied on you to sign it quickly without thoroughly scrutinizing its contents.

In contrast to Joshua who fell for the lies of the Gibeonites, we also read of Paul who was able to detect the spirit of divination at work in the supposed ‘public relations secretary” who volunteered to serve his missionary team in Thyatira. She followed Paul and his team for several days. Publicizing what Paul and his team came to do in that locality. Thank God that Paul, through the gift of discernment, detected after many days that it was a demonic spirit at work in her. If this was not found out, many people would have assumed that she was operating with the same spirit as Paul and his team, luring them to follow her and enabling the evil spirit in her to make merchandise of them. This would have brought shame to the Name of Jesus Christ, and the message of the gospel would have been adulterated. This is a great lesson for evangelist and missionaries: volunteers should be handled with caution. Free services may not be free at the end of the day. We have had such experiences in our ministry, where people have come to tell us that there are openings in some countries for missions, only for us to later find out that they were just trying to use the church to realize their dreams of getting out of the country, or even trying to swindle the church of her money. We therefore need the gift of discernment to be able to detect the wily moves of the enemy. This gift is freely given when you thirst and ask God for it in prayer. Ask for it today.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.