Discernment of spirits
Discernment of spirits is a term used in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Charismatic Christian theology to judge the influence of various spiritual agents on a person's morality. These agents are:
- from within the human soul itself, known as concupiscence
- Divine Grace
- Angels
- Devils
Judgment of discernment can be made in two ways. The first is by a charism or spiritual gift, held as divinely granted to certain individuals for the discerning of spirits by intuition. The second way to discern spirits is by reflection and theological study. This second method is by acquired human knowledge; however, it is always gained "with the assistance of grace, by the reading of the Holy Bible, of works on theology and asceticism, of autobiographies, and the correspondence of the most distinguished ascetics".
Orthodox views
mentions the gift of discerning of spirits in 1 Corinthians 12:10. John Chrysostom, in his interpretation of this passage, says that these words mean the ability to tell who is spiritual and who is not, who is a prophet and who is not, as Paul wrote at the time of many false prophets. Ephrem the Syrian, in the interpretation of the same passage, stated that the gift of discerning of spirits is good management of the church.In everyday life, the most often needed kind of discernment of spirits is discernment of thoughts. Besides thoughts, discernment of spirits can be applied to the judgment of such phenomena as dreams, visions, miracles, prophecies, and other supernatural gifts.
In an ideal case, the main tool of discernment could be the person's conscience; however, in the Orthodox view, that relates only to the people of holy life. Hilarion of Optina writes: "To the question of yours, whether your conscience can accurately show you your errors, I will answer this way - you should not trust your conscience much, because it has not yet been cleansed as it should". Because of this perversion of the conscience, basic discernment of good and evil is helped through reading of the Bible and its interpretation from the Holy Fathers. Further discernment is described in such books as Philokalia, The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus, and "Letters" by Barsanuphius and John the Prophet. Theophan the Recluse writes: "whoever wants to know more precisely what the discernment of thoughts is, let him read the book of answers of Barsanuphius and John, the clairvoyant recluses. Concerning every deed, the thoughts can double and triple - what should be done? If a passionate thought appeared as it is in comparison with a passionless one, then it would be easy to determine; but usually with someone who has begun to pay attention to himself, passionate thoughts are not in their form, but always under specious cover. Therefore, there is always a danger of acting as if for good, and yet it will be out of passion. In the mentioned book all sorts of cases are discussed by the enlightened mind of the clairvoyant elders; it presents a detailed science of how to guess the fate of God's truth in this regard". In another place: "read Macarius the Great and especially the Ladder where it is said a lot about discernment of thoughts."
According to John of Damascus, the virtue of discernment "is greater than any other virtue; and is the queen and crown of all the virtues".
The key to discernment is humility, as well as its two manifestations: consulting with others and praying about every decision a person could take: "Discrimination is born of humility. On its possessor it confers spiritual insight, as both Moses and St John Climacus say: such a man foresees the hidden designs of the enemy and foils them before they are put into operation. It is as David states: 'And my eyes looked down upon my enemies'. If you have not received this gift you should not think, say or do anything without consulting others about it, and without a basis of firm faith and pure prayer. Without such faith and such prayer you will never truly achieve discrimination".
John Cassian writes in "Conferences" that discernment "is only secured by true humility. And of this humility the first proof is given by reserving everything, for the scrutiny of the elders, so as not to trust at all in your own judgment but to acquiesce in their decisions in all points, and to acknowledge what ought to be considered good or bad by their traditions". Also it is important that "all extremes are equally harmful".
The Bible confirms the importance of counsel: "Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you" ; "Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice" ; "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed" ; "Plans are established by seeking advice; so if you wage war, obtain guidance" ; "Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers" ; "Gold and silver provide security, but good advice is better" ; "If you find someone with understanding, get up early to call on him; wear out his doorstep with your visits".
John Climacus devoted large chapter of his book to discernment, namely Step 26. In particular, he writes that "those who wish to learn the will of the Lord must first mortify their own will. Then, having prayed to God with faith and honest simplicity, and having asked the fathers or even the brothers with humility of heart and no thought of doubt, they should accept their advice as from the mouth of God, even if their advice be contrary to their own view, and even if those consulted are not very spiritual. For God is not unjust, and will not lead astray souls who with faith and innocence humbly submit to the advice and judgment of their neighbour. Even if those who were asked were brute beasts, yet He who speaks is the Immaterial and Invisible One. Those who allow themselves to be guided by this rule without having any doubts are filled with great humility. For if someone expounded his problems on a harp, how much better, do you think, can a rational mind and reasonable soul teach than an inanimate object"; "some of those who were seeking the will of God laid aside all attachments; they submitted to the Lord their own thought about this or that inclination of the soul, I mean whether to perform an action or to resist it; they submitted their mind stripped of its own will to Him, offering fervent prayer for a set number of days. In this way they attained to a knowledge of His will, either through the spiritual Mind spiritually communicating with their mind or through the complete disappearance from their soul of their cherished intention. Others on account of the trouble and distractions which attended their undertaking concluded that these disturbances came from God, according to him who said: We wanted to come to you time and again but Satan hindered us. Others, on the contrary, recognized that their action was pleasing to God from its unexpected success, declaring: God co-operates with everyone who deliberately chooses to do good. He who has obtained God within him through illumination, both in actions requiring haste and in actions allowing of delay, is assured of His will by the second way, only without a definite period of time".
Athanasius of Crete comments on the last phrase that when discerning God's will, the ones who have God in them do not look at the obstacles but look at the God's help in the matter. Also, "in all our actions, the intention must be sought from the Lord, whether in those that require haste or in those that require to be postponed. For all actions free from attachment and from all impurity will be imputed to us for good if they have been done especially for the Lord’s sake and not for anyone else, even though these deeds are not entirely good".
Peter of Damascus writes that "everything, however, demands discrimination if it is to be used for the good; without discrimination we are ignorant of the true nature of things"; "one needs to acquire discrimination, either through the humility given by God or through questioning those who possess the gifts of discrimination"; "it is excellent to seek advice about everything, but only from those with experience. It is dangerous to ask questions the inexperienced, because they do not possess discrimination".
Nilus of Sora thought that the most important and a great achievement in the spiritual warfare is to find an undeluded mentor. Regarding discernment of subtle thoughts he says, following Nilus of Sinai and Hesychius of Jerusalem, that one should cut out all thoughts, both good and evil: the ascetic should keep the mind "deaf and dumb" and keep the heart free of any thought, even if it seemed good; because, from experience, passionate thoughts follow dispassionate ones.
Gregory of Sinai says that "You can tell that a person is undeluded when his actions and judgment are founded on the testimony of divine Scripture, and when he is humble in whatever he has to give his mind to". "If you are presumptuous and follow your own counsel you will readily fall victim to delusion. That is why a hesychast must always keep to the royal road. For excess in anything easily leads to conceit, and conceit induces self-delusion." Also Gregory gives an important sign of demonic action: "The Holy Fathers teach that whatever enters the heart, whether sensory or spiritual, if the heart doubts and refuses to accept it, is not from God but is sent by the enemy. What is of God comes of itself, says St. Isaac, without your knowing even the time of its coming."
Seraphim of Sarov says about reading the Bible that "When a man provides his soul with the word of God, then he is granted the understanding of what is good and what is evil".
There is a connection between true dispassion and true discrimination: "The mark of dispassion is true discrimination; for one who has attained the state of dispassion does all things with discrimination and according to measure and rule". "Without dispassion, however, you cannot achieve the beauty of discrimination".
There are some distinct properties of true and false spirituality: "the devil cannot bring about love either for God or for one's neighbor, or gentleness, or humility, or joy, or peace, or equilibrium in one's thoughts, or hatred of the world, or spiritual repose, or desire for celestial things; nor can he quell passions and sensual pleasure. These things are clearly the workings of grace. For the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, and so on, while the devil is most apt and powerful in promoting vanity and haughtiness".
Abba Dorotheos says that "in every task you are given, even one that is extremely necessary and demands diligence, I do not wish that you should do anything with arguments or disturbances; but be sure that every work that you do, be it great or small, as we have said, is one eighth of what is sought. But to preserve one's state of soul, even at the expense of not doing the work at all, is three parts and a half".
Theophan the Recluse writes: "if the thought does not have anything bad neither in itself nor in the consequences, one still should not immediately accept it, but have patience not to become reckless. Some people waited for 5 years and did not execute the thought. The main law is: not to trust own mind and heart and verify every thought with the director. The violation of this rule always was and is the reason of great falls and delusions."
Barsanuphius the Great writes in "Letters" that in order to become spiritual and be able to discern, the person should put away not only sins but natural desires as well. That is, the very topic is for the ones with high measures. Otherwise, there is a danger of being ridiculed and deceived by the demons. Only after such preface, Barsanuphius writes: "do nothing without counsel" even if it appears to be good to you; for the light of the demons is later revealed as darkness. If, then, you hear or think or see something, with the slightest turmoil in your heart, then learn that this comes from the demons". In other words, "every thought that does not previously possess the calmness of humility is not according to God but is clearly a form of righteousness coming from the left hand. For our Lord comes with calmness, whereas all that comes from the adversary occurs with turmoil and the commotion of wrath; indeed, if they seem to put on "sheep's clothing," you should know that "inwardly, they are ravenous wolves." So they are manifested by their turmoil. For it is said: "You shall know them by their fruits." ". When there is nobody to ask, Barsanuphius advises to pray 3 times about every deed we want to know about whether it is from God or from the demons, and observe where the heart inclines, even to the slightest degree. Note that Letter 21 was written to abba John who was preparing for hermitic life. That is, discernment without counsel is allowed by Barsanuphius when absolutely necessary because hermits visit people rarely. In another place Barsanuphius writes that he prays that God granted abba Dorotheos the gift of discernment, but without heart labor no one gets it.