I am not sure whether this is a speaking gift or not, but I pushed it in this division anyway. I am thinking of 1 Corinthians 12:10: the ability to distinguish between spirits. In the New Testament age that was a very live issue because there were prophets in the church. There were true prophets and there were false prophets. The New Testament had not yet been fully written and had not yet been completed; God was still speaking by prophets. Now, if somebody came to your church and said: I am a prophet, and I have message from God, was he speaking the truth or was he mistaken? It seems in those early days there was a particular spiritual gift given to some to discern the spirits—to know: yes, this is a man of God and this is a message from God; or on the other hand to know: no, we are not to listen to this prophet; he is a false prophet. God has not sent him.

Although there is no longer any new inspired prophesy, this gift is still needed, perhaps in a lesser extent. 1 John 4:1 says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Those words are not just for that time and that era—they are for all time until Christ comes again. Test the spirits.

This is the gift of wisdom. A person with this gift will not be taken in by a plausible falsehood, a false doctrine, or a heresy. A person with this gift will not go chasing after every new fad in the Christian world. They will not be slaves of evangelical fashion. It will be someone with insight, with discernment, and with wisdom. They can read people. They can see flaws and sins which could be dangerous and are hidden from others. They can take Scripture and apply it to every day problems in life, those practical problems such with which you and I are dealing. They can give good advice. When you and I are at a loss about something in our lives—some course that we should or should not pursue—a discerning person will be able to take the Bible and say, Here are the principals, and here is how they might apply in your situation. They give us wise, sound advice.

Discernment, for example, is an absolutely key quality in an elder. A church needs as her ruling and teaching elders, men with discernment, insight, and wisdom. The church should use such men and women. The church should profit from discerning men and women. We each should have the humility to say, “There is someone whose advise I value. There is someone who is wiser than I am, who has more discernment than God has given to me. And I am going to use that person and profit from him.”¹

Edward Donnelly