Discerning of spirits: White Balance
I originally studied media and graduated as a Media Assistant. My training also included photography. Even though the cameras in today's smartphones are extremely advanced, I still enjoy high-quality images that can only be achieved with a proper SLR camera.
Anyone who is a little familiar with biology knows that cameras work like our eyes. However, we don't really see with our eyes, but with our brain. The eyes provide the necessary information that our brain eventually produces in our head into an intelligible image, posing as our vision. In this process, our brain also has to correct a lot of what we see, such as depth and color. Unlike us humans, cameras do not have their own brains, but the photographer needs to replace the role of the brain himself. The camera doesn't understand green is green or orange is orange, and it doesn't even know what the colors are.
When modern SLR cameras were developed, the aim was to build as simple a way as possible to control the color functions of the camera. Instead of having to adjust each color individually, someone smart came up with White Balance.
White Balance is a way to tell the camera only what is white, based on which the camera can determine all other colors. However, if you choose to make the camera believe, say, that blue is white, the camera will determine the colors completely differently based on it. The property can be used in different conditions not only for color correction, but also for various artistic purposes.
I see a great connection between the White Balance principle and our ability as human beings to evaluate life situations when distinguishing between things. In this context, I also see its influence on the gift of discerning spirits, which is known as one of the nine spiritual gifts:
“To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.”
1 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)
The gift of discerning spirits is the ability or attribute to recognize spiritual reality, different spirits, and their inner state & motives. This includes, in addition to recognizing God's Holy Spirit, also the work of angels, evil spirits, or individual people’s spirits/hearts, or the prevailing atmosphere of different circumstances.
When it comes to prophetic gifts, the gift of discerning spirits can definitely be considered one of them. Prophetic gifts, in particular, are strongly connected to the wearer's own state of heart and maturity. This means that we are best developed in gifts by investing in spiritual maturity and Christlikeness:
“…But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
Hebrews 5:14 (NIV)
The most common belief of the gift of discernment is that operating in it would always be experienced as an emotional experience. Although this is one level of the gift, in reality it works more broadly. In fact, at its most mature, the gift often cooperates with the gift of wisdom. It provides the ability to weigh spiritual, supernatural, and even ordinary everyday circumstances and situations. The definition of gift rests not only on the evaluation of the supernatural, but on the spirituality. We easily believe that ordinary everyday life has nothing to do with spirituality because the world has thought us to think that way. Let us remember that when Jesus came into the world and lived ordinary human life, he was more spiritual than any of us.
One way to grow in the supernatural side of discernment is to learn to discern the ordinary life according to the will of God:
“I (Jesus) have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
Joh. 3:12 (NIV)“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead *judge correctly.”
Joh. 7:24 (NIV)
(*Jesus isn’t speaking of condemning people, but how to make sound conclusions.)
Whether it's our natural ability to make situational assessments or the supernatural aspect of discerning spirits, their reliability follows a similar principle to the White Balance of SLR cameras. We discern right & wrong, healthy & unhealthy, circumstances and people's motives according to our own set of values.
Before we were born again, we lived in more or less self-centeredness. At our most basic, we define good and evil according to our natural senses based on how things feel to us: things that feel good must be good, and things that feel bad must be bad. According to this kind of view, a healthy lifestyle would be bad and every person who flatters us would always have pure motives. Relying on such discernment makes it easy for us to be open to deception and manipulation.
As born-again believers, we can be either self-centered or Jesus-centered. Father has called us to a Jesus-centered lifestyle where He is the center of our attention and motives. This is done by spending time with God in the form of prayer, praise, or reading the Bible. This is what Jesus meant when He spoke of "abiding in Him":
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
Joh. 15:4 (NIV)
While our focus is on Jesus and, consequently, on His finished work on the cross, the Gospel and who God is as a person, then, like White Balance, other aspects of our being fall into their proper places and our spiritual insight becomes clearer.
To share a few examples of how our White Balance can be off:
Example one:
Some believers have sworn to follow a particular Christian denomination. In making a particular denomination a model for Christianity as a whole, they discern and judge Christians from other denominations as at best less spiritual than themselves, or at worst as lost and heretical.
I have heard from Christians of all kind of denominations how I represent either conservative, liberal or charismatic Christianity. However, I have never aimed at any of these three, but rather I try to focus on Jesus and model His example.
While discerning, we should filter everything through the Bible and the example of Jesus, and not other way around, filterin the Bible and the example of Jesus through our favorite denomination.
Example two:
How we view God colors a lot of our discernment about what we see as being of God and what is not. So, it doesn’t surprise me if the viewpoint that views God as a judgmental father, says it sees dreams and visions of God's judgments as calamities and sickness for sinners just to teach them a lesson. In the same way, it doesn't surprise me that a perspective interested too much in evil spirits sees and experiences them everywhere and all the time.
At the opposite extreme is the viewpoint that sees God as a father whose whole existence is based only on serving our personal wants. This perspective refutes several principles that belong to natural spiritual growth, such as confessing sins, repenting, taking responsibility for one's own actions, and the obligation to think not only about oneself but also about the well-being of others.
If a certain extreme becomes the standard, by setting it as White Balance, then the opposite is seen as bad.
Example three:
I have met believers who think of either themselves or a particular person as an Apostle or a Prophet. However, in some cases that I have observed, these individuals have, in my opinion, been Evangelists. Since these believers have constructed their view of these ministries by setting their White Balance either on themselves or on these particular individuals, based on this, they define the callings of others they encounter as something completely different.
However, one of th best ways to identify someone's calling is to start by maintaining an objective attitude. By getting to know the person and listening to them, you can find out what kind of topics they are passioned about and follow the results they produce.
So let's learn to take excellent pictures by adjusting our White Balance to what is really white, on Jesus:
“The true light (Jesus) that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”
Joh. 1:9 (NIV)
I'm not saying it happens quickly or easy, but it's true that when we put Jesus at the center of our attention, our insight, gifts, feelings, thoughts, and everything else in our lives follow:
”And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory (Jesus), are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
Follow the freedom!!