And to others the discerning of spirits. (D&C 46:23)
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (1 Corinthians 12:8-11)
For behold, to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the word of wisdom; and to another, that he may teach the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; and to another, exceedingly great faith; and to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; and again, to another, that he may work mighty miracles; and again, to another, that he may prophesy concerning all things; and again, to another, the beholding of angels and ministering spirits; and again, to another, all kinds of tongues; and again, to another, the interpretation of languages and of divers kinds of tongues. (Moroni 10:9-16)
Shortly after I turned nine years old, the Holy Ghost began manifesting in my life. The second manifestation, prior to me becoming a member of the LDS church via baptism, was of the discerning of spirits. A short time later I had two other manifestations and then the Holy Ghost ceased manifesting anything to me for about five years. At around age 14, the Holy Ghost again started to manifest in my life, and since then there has never been a “dry time.”
At some point during my teenage years, the topic of spiritual gifts came up. I think it may have been during some church class. The understanding I and everyone around me had was that everyone in the church got one of these listed best gifts. The question was asked, “Which gift do you have?” I looked over my life from age nine to whatever age I was at that time, and came to the conclusion that I had the discerning of spirits.
In truth, I had more than one best gift, but I had been taught that we typically only have one, and to have more than one was unusual, and that you had to be a “special” person to have multiple gifts, such as one of the living apostles and prophets, and in my humility I didn’t want to think I was anyone “special,” so I just assumed that I only had one. As a result, every prophecy I received was called, by me, a “revelation.” My revelations, of which I had very many, were all of a personal nature, and as “the receiving of revelations” was not listed in the scriptures as a best gift, I didn’t consider my revelations as gifts; thus, I was still technically “un-special” in my young mind. Also, as I didn’t have any special calling or prophetic title or anything like that, I didn’t feel I should be claiming to have more than one gift. So, for many years I only claimed to have the discerning of spirits.
Nevertheless, as time went on, and I became an adult, with an adult mind, I could no longer deny that I had quite a few of these gifts, and as I began to explore this or that gift manifesting in my life, the gift of the discerning of spirits kind of moved from the center of my attention, to the side of my mind.
Recently I had this idea in my head about a certain something, which I will explain later on below, and I began performing an experiment of sorts, and as I performed this “action” I was taken aback by the experiment, for I was using my gift of the discerning of spirits in a way I had never before attempted, and the ease with which it operated in me put it right back into the center of my attention.
Intrigued by the curious operation of this gift, I did what I always do: I began to review my life experiences with the Holy Ghost, from age nine onward, this time paying especial attention to the manifestations of the discerning of spirits in my life, and how I had used this gift. The review caused an “ah-hah” moment in me, in which I finally understood what was going on in my life during certain times, and also the as-yet untapped full potential of this gift in my life.
So, I thought I’d expound upon the discerning of spirits, how it operates, what it can do, others’ reactions to it and so forth. I will draw upon my own personal experiences with it, as I have used it more than any other gift, and thus I have a wealth of knowledge about it.
My first manifestation
The first time the Holy Ghost manifested in my life, I didn’t recognize that it was the Holy Ghost. Nor did the missionaries teaching me recognize it, or at least they didn’t tell me what was going on, if they were themselves feeling it. Or it may be that they weren’t feeling the Spirit. But I was. Nevertheless, as this was a new experience for me, I didn’t know that what I was feeling was the Holy Ghost. This lack of discernment on my part was a huge deficiency, which the Lord in His infinite mercy corrected by giving me a second manifestation—for it wouldn’t do to give me the many revelations of God I would end up receiving unless I was able to recognize them as both revelations and as proceeding from God.
My second manifestation
During the discussions, I could feel something different. I still didn’t know what it was, but it was real. Now, as I learned these lessons from the missionaries, a peculiar thing happened. My brothers were also taking the lessons with me, and thus they were present in the discussion room with me. At some point I turned to them, gazing upon them, and was somehow able to perceive that whatever I was feeling, they weren’t. I perceived that there was a spiritual void of some sort in them, as if the message wasn’t getting through to them. I didn’t know how I knew this, but I recognized that I did, indeed, know it.
(Now, my brothers later were baptized, but they fell away about six months into their membership and have never returned to the fold of God since.)
My perception of their spiritual state in the discussions was a manifestation of the discerning of spirits. I could discern two things: I could discern my own spirit, that something was operating upon it, and I could discern their spirits, that this operation that was upon me was not operating upon them.
Prepared for the third manifestation
My use of the discerning of spirits allowed me to finally recognize the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the spirits of men. This key allowed me forever afterward to be able to detect when the Holy Ghost spoke to me, and also when the Holy Ghost spoke to others. It also allowed me to detect when the Holy Ghost was not upon another person. This prepared me for my third manifestation, which was a huge one, a baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, with an accompanying revelation of the truthfulness of the Lord’s church.
Getting me into trouble
The ability to discern when the Holy Ghost was upon a person, or was not upon a person, has gotten me into a ton of trouble in my life. There have been many times a person has said to me, or declared in my presence, “I feel the Spirit!” Only to have me look at them, discern their spirit and the lack of any manifestation of the Holy Ghost upon them, and then contradict them by saying, “No, you don’t.” “How dare you say I am not feeling the Spirit!” was always the inevitable retort. “You are not God! You cannot know what I feel!” “It’s true that I am not God, but I’ve got this gift, see, and it allows me to discern your spirit and tell if you are really feeling the Holy Ghost or not. So, yes, I can know what you feel!” So many pissed people have left off telling me any of their “revelations” and “manifestations” as a result of me using this gift, or even altogether ceased having anything more to do with me. I once had a companion who refused to tell me anything, at all, because he knew of my propensity to call BS on anyone’s claimed revelations.
But I digress.
My third manifestation
The third time the Holy Ghost manifested to me, still at age nine and still before I was ever baptized, I learned that the Holy Ghost “shook” a spirit when it manifested. I could feel or discern that shake when the Spirit was upon me, and thus, I possessed a permanent key to know what was of the Spirit, and what was not. The gift of discerning of spirits allowed me to, essentially, never be deceived by false spirits or by false revelations, prophecies and manifestations.
The first time I told someone about the third manifestation, I was faced with an intense hatred and spirit of persecution by that person, who accused me of not knowing it was of God. “How can you know? How can anyone know? It is impossible to know for sure!” was the logic used by this and all other doubters that would come afterward. Well, I could know for sure through this gift of discerning of spirits. I never doubted that manifestation because the discerning of spirits was already in full operation in me, and I could discern these Godly things quite easily and instantly.
My fourth manifestation
The fourth time the Spirit manifested in me, it was the spirit of prophecy, in which I uttered a prophecy by the power of the Holy Ghost. Again, I was fully confident because I could discern that the Holy Ghost was upon me, by this discerning of spirits gift.
Confused by others’ doubt
From age nine onward, I have ever been confused by others’ inability to determine what was, and what was not, of God. I’d hear and see people hem and haw and wonder whether what they “received” was a revelation of God or if it were their own imagination. They would deliberate and ponder for days, weeks, months and sometimes even years, never able to come to any final conclusion whether what they felt was the Spirit or not. They often went by their “feelings,” therefore if they were in a church meeting and started crying or felt some other strong emotion, they would just assign that as the Spirit manifesting.
For my own part, I’d get something and immediately make the announcement that it was of God. There never was any lag time or deliberation or doubt. My spirit resonated when the Holy Ghost spoke, and I could discern this resonance immediately, but others could not. People would feel the Spirit in my presence, and I would be able to discern that the Spirit was upon them, but they couldn’t recognize that it was upon them and they needed me to tell them that the Spirit was upon them. Then, and only then, could they start to recognize the Spirit, yet they always ended up using bodily senses. In other words, they never could discern, as I could discern, that their spirit body resonated when the Spirit spoke. Apparently only I could detect this.
Not being the most humble of people, I used to think these people were spiritually retarded. They were deficient in some way. “Why can’t they ever recognize the Spirit in their lives? Why can’t they recognize when the Spirit is not speaking? Why all this confusion? Why is it so easy for me?” I thought it was because my heart was more turned towards God than theirs was. And perhaps this was part of the case. But the other reason, the main reason, was because I had this particular best gift of the discerning of spirits, and they didn’t.
Thus, my harsh criticism of them was unjustified. To each is given a different gift. Not everyone is going to have the same gift, nor is everyone going to have this particular gift. Those who have this gift have an easier time discerning truth from error. Those who don’t, don’t.
My five year “dry spell”
It turns out that my five year “dry spell,” in which the Spirit didn’t speak to me, was a blessing in disguise, for I got the chance to experience what life is like without the discernment of spirits operating. For that brief period in my life, I could look upon other people and not discern their spirits. In other words, I got to see or perceive others as others perceive others, just looking upon the flesh.
I loved my friends during that time, and they loved me. They were all equal in my view. We were all equal. That all changed at age 14.
The Holy Ghost again comes upon me
When the revelations began coming again, they never stopped. One after another after another, seemingly endlessly. I could tell that they all were of God. It was totally apparent to me, because of this gift. I thought all this revelation was normal for a latter-day saint, but learned later that it wasn’t. It also wasn’t normal for a latter-day saint to be so instantaneously certain of the truthfulness of all their personal revelations.
I continued to use the discerning of spirits to determine the manifestations of the Spirit upon me, and upon others, or the lack of such upon me or others, but as I began to be of the age of noticing the opposite sex, a new use of the gift became manifest.
Detecting kindred spirits
At age 14 and afterward, I began using the gift to discern the spirits of other people, to see whether they were like me. I was appalled to find that just about nobody around me was similar to me in spirit: neither male nor female. I gazed upon the friends I had at that time, and didn’t just see flesh, but also perceived their spirits. I began to notice certain things about their spirits, in particular the “brightness” of their spirits. Some spirits seemed to glow brighter than others, and began to correspond to the three degrees of glory model, as an aggregate. In other words, some glowed brightly, like the Sun, others less so, like the moon, and others were quite dim, like stars. I didn’t “see” these spirits, but somehow I was able to discern this aggregate brightness.
I figured that the “Sun” spirits would be kindred spirits, like mine, for I thought that I was headed for the celestial kingdom, so any celestial kingdom spirit would be a match for me. But I was disappointed in this thought, as I found that although there were many such spirits around me, they still weren’t like me. Also, my former friends, whom I loved with all my heart, were neither celestial spirits nor like me. I began hanging around the spirits which were celestials, but remained dissatisfied that none of these people around me were similar to me. How could this be possible? Surely all celestial spirits are alike, right?
Then one day I met a girl, a latter-day saint, and something new happened. (At the time I didn’t know what was going on, but now I do. So I will put the whole thing into my current perspective, to actually explain it.) My discerning of spirits gift went off like a freaking bell. This girl was a celestial spirit, like the others, but her spirit had a resonating frequency that exactly corresponded to my own spirit’s resonating frequency. In other words, when she came into my presence so that I saw her, and she began to speak, sympathetic resonance occurred and both out spirit bodies began to vibrate at the same resonant frequencies. She couldn’t detect it, but I could, through this gift of the discerning of spirits. Our spirits were alike.
Peace at last
My search for a like (kindred) spirit had finally born fruit. She and I became friends, but we hardly ever saw one another. Every once in awhile we would meet again in passing, say, “Hi. How’s life?” and then go on our way, never once having any more engagement than that. Unbeknownst to her, though, I put her aside in my heart, in a special place, different than my friends, on a sort of elevated level, as a memorial of sorts, to always keep her in remembrance, for she was not like the others. My other friends I hung out with, doing many activities, but with her I never did anything. Yet, because of this unique resonance, that always occurred whenever she came back into my presence, or whenever I spoke with her on the telephone afterwards, she took a prominent place in my heart.
Two levels of resonance
I learned from this, and from other similar experiences later, that there appeared to be two levels of frequency that each spirit body has. One is the normal frequency level, and the other is the level at which the Holy Ghost operates. When the Holy Ghost speaks, our spirits vibrate like bells, but at a much higher amplitude and frequency. When we come into contact with one another, each person’s spirit vibrates at the normal level, and if the frequency is the same as the other person’s spirit, sympathetic resonance occurs. Unfortunately, unless you have the gift of the discerning of spirits, you cannot detect the sympathetic resonance. Thus, the rest of the world, that does not possess this gift, must use flesh and other cues to try to figure out whether one is compatible with another.
In my case, though, as I had and still have this gift, I could instantly detect sympathetic resonance when it occurred, and so I needed no time, whatsoever, “to get to know a person.” For example, I used to have a friend when I was single who would take women out all the time and would have a great many dates, trying to figure out if she was his eternal mate. It would piss him off when I’d tell him that all I needed was no more than five minutes time with a woman, all she needed to do was be in my presence so that I saw her, and speak, and in less than five minutes I could discern whether we were a perfect match or not. He called it all hogwash, for how could I come to know her in such a short amount of time? But I wouldn’t “know” her in the sense of what she had done in life up to that point, but would “know” her in the sense that her spirit and mine were kindred. He had to use flesh, which took lots of time, but I could peel back the flesh instantly and perceive the spirit beneath, which required hardly no time, at all.
Other women
After meeting this girl, I became interested in other women, for I, like all men, like the flesh. Flesh can be quite attractive, after all. But I could not be satisfied with mere flesh. What I wanted, what I needed and desired, was that spiritual connection with a kindred spirit, in which sympathetic resonance would occur. So, any and all women I dated after that were just to pass the time, for I could discern their spirits, and none of them were like this girl.
In my later teen years and early 20’s, I found and met other women, five in total, who also caused sympathetic resonance in me. Of the six, I had to make a choice as to which to marry, for I would not marry any woman who was not a kindred spirit. At the time, I was a monogamist, because of my upbringing in the church, and thought that I could only have one, so I had to make a choice. In truth I wanted all of them.
Interestingly enough, two of the six women were not members of the church when my gift started ringing out, “Kindred spirit!” I ended up baptizing one, but the other to this day remains unbaptized. Two are lifelong members of the LDS church and the final two are converts to the church. The two converts have fallen away from the church, while the one I baptized has also fallen away. Only the two lifelong members remain active. This shows that kindred spirits need not be those who glow with the same kingdom glory.
Discerning false spirits
It has been my unfortunate experience to have to use my gift to discern evil spirits in people. This has, like every other manifestation I have claimed, caused me lots of grief, for no one likes to hear, “You are possessed of the spirit of the devil.” And no one likes to hear, “So and so is acting under the influence of a whoring/lying/murderous,/cheating, etc., spirit.” I have had many occasions in which I had to detect lies using the discerning of spirits and when the truth came out, and those who balked at my claims found that they were not unfounded, when they said, “But how did you know that so-and-so was lying?” and I answered that it was through the gift of the discerning of spirits, they still refused to believe. To give some examples, I have been at one end of the world, working, and another person at the opposite end of the world, and the discerning of spirits has gone off, so that I could perceive an immediate darkening of the spirit of the other person, who was a world away, and when I ended my job and called and grilled the other person on what they did, which thing was unknown to me, but I knew they had done something pretty damn bad for the Spirit to manifest the darkening of their spirit to me, and every time an excuse was verbally given, I’d analyze it by the discerning of spirits and then call BS, until finally the confession would come out as to the vile deed. And so forth. This has happened more times than I’d like to remember.
Those who I am familiar with cannot hide their deeds from me when this gift is manifesting. Although the gift doesn’t show what the deeds are, I can detect any darkening of anyone’s spirit I am familiar with. If you are a celestial soul, glowing bright, and I know it, and I see you the next day and you are glowing with terrestrial or telestial brightness, you’ve done something. If your spirit is full-on dark, you are possessed by an evil spirit. And when I discern that there is an evil spirit upon you, I also have power to discern what kind of temptation the spirit is giving you, or what kind of power it is operating under.
I’ve had devils verbally try to dissuade me from my testimony. This also was a manifestation of the discerning of spirits. I’ve had devils actually appear to me, in person, so that I literally saw them, and then proceed to try to bind me and destroy me. That was also a manifestation of this gift, of a higher order, for I saw them.
All these things are operations of the discerning of spirits.
Higher order discernment
I once had a dream, an inspired dream, in which I saw a recently departed family member in the spirit world, with his wife by his side, who also was dead, and I spoke to the man. This was a higher manifestation of the discerning gift. On another occasion I saw the pre-mortal spirit body of the woman who would become my wife in open vision, along with two angels by her side. (And yes, she was HOT. This is one of the reason why I married her.) I have also heard the Holy Ghost audibly speaking to me on one occasion. But typically such dreams and visions, in which I see spirits, or hear spirits speaking to me, does not occur. For the most part, I discern by some other form of perception.
My new experiment
I have written at length on this blog about plural marriage. I am no longer a believer in monogamy. I have always believed in plural marriage, but was taught that it shouldn’t be practiced, and I conformed to that narrative for much of my life. Nevertheless, I always believed in plural marriage theologically and expected it to come back one day.
During the night vision I had in which I saw my departed relative in the spirit world, I learned in the vision that I would have two wives. I was about 16 years old at that time. I figured that it must mean that I would marry a girl, she would die, leaving me a widower, and then I’d marry another, for a I never considered plural marriage a possibility. This widower scenario was not appealing to me.
Later on, I met the woman I am currently married to, and pursued her hand vigorously, but came up empty. Yet, as is my way, I sent up so many dang prayers for my Heavenly Father to give her to me that I think the heavens must have been back-logged for years in the heavenly prayer-mail post office. I truly believed she would be mine. But then she wasn’t. So my attention was turned away and lo! and behold, another kindred female spirit came my way, who I vigorously pursued. This too, came to naught, but I was smitten by her and, as usual, sent up an enormous number of prayers. So, what did my Heavenly Father do? Well, He decided to finally answer my barrage of prayers and gave me a revelatory prophecy in which I was told I would marry the one first, and then the other second. Apparently I had prayed in faith. Both times.
Once again the prospect didn’t sound too appealing, for I still conformed to the monogamy viewpoint. One would die and then the other would take her place. I didn’t like that, at all. So, again, as is my way, I prayed that it wouldn’t be. “The first must not die! Make it so, Heavenly Father!” And so an unlimited number of petitions were sent up.
After I started this blog in 2007, I began to put up my understandings of plural marriage. But I still hadn’t received any permission from Heavenly Father to take a second wife. To this day, I am still a monogamous man, with only one wife. Some who believed my writings felt that this was not a good example to set, considering all the writing that I’ve done about this subject. But I follow the Spirit, and whatever the Spirit says to me, that is what I do. No permission is no permission.
Then one day, a few years back, the Spirit came upon me and gave me yet another revelation. In this one, I was green-lighted for plural marriage. I could marry any woman that I wanted (provided she wanted the same, of course), whenever I wanted. I could take the second lady to wife and it wasn’t necessary that the first one die for the prophecy to be fulfilled. I could also take the third one to wife if I wanted. (I had previously received a promise of the Lord concerning a third wife, many years ago.) But the time is not yet, because of certain circumstances, and so I remain monogamous.
Over the past few months, as I pondered again over this “green light” revelation, my mind was cast back upon these three promised women, for they were all kindred spirits, detected via the discerning of spirits. A thought then occurred to me that these were not the only women who I had detected as kindred spirits. And so I cast my mind back and remembered that there were three others who were my kindred, making six in total of all the people and women I had met.
This brings me to my new experiment, for I was not done with my detection of kindred spirits. It was true that there have been only 6 people detected of all the people I have personally met, but there have been others that I have been drawn to, who I had never met, actors on television and in movies that I had seen, whose attraction, perhaps, was not merely a flesh attraction, but a sympathetic resonance. “Could the discerning of spirits operate via a recorded image and sound capture?,” I wondered.
Going over the footage
So I proceeded to watch footage of movies or television shows of women that I have found attractive for any reason, whatsoever, to try to determine if I could discern their spirits while they acted. Acting is pretending, therefore I wasn’t sure it could be done. For my gift to operate, I usually need to see the person and also hear them speak, but if they are not speaking naturally, because they are acting, it may throw off the process. As I went over the footage, I found that I could not make the determination. I could not discern their spirits. Acting tripped me up. Nevertheless, three actresses stood out of the bunch that I looked at, but because I was uncertain about it, it wouldn’t work.
It then occurred to me that if I could see these people in interviews, talking without a script, that might allow me to make the discernment. Sure enough, when I went over interview footage, I kept getting a “non-kindred” response from all of them. The discernment of spirits works even through film! The last three, the ones that stood out to me, I saved for last on purpose, for my curiosity was piqued as to why these three did, indeed, seem to stand out from the rest. Had I discerned their spirits even while acting? I would only know by looking at the interviews.
The first one I looked at came back with a “kindred” response. I thought, “Let me just be absolutely sure,” and continued to look at more interviews. Each time I got a sympathetic resonance. “Holy freaking cow!” I thought. “Let me see if the other two prove to also be sympathetic.” Sure enough, when I looked at all the interview footage I could find, the other two also proved to be kindred. That was sufficient to convince me that the gift of discerning of spirits has power to discern kindred spirits even when they are acting, though it is not an easy task, being a more subtle response than when unscripted during an interview.
Full use of discerning of spirits in relationships
For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things. (D&C 88:40)
According to the above principle, kindred spirits also cleave unto one another, but only if they know they are kindred. One kindred spirit must recognize the other kindred spirit, otherwise there can be no spiritual attraction, only flesh attraction. In my case, I have sympathetic resonance with nine women, one of which I am married to, but as none of these nine, not even my wife, have the gift of the discerning of spirits, they can only see flesh. I, on the other hand, have the flesh peeled away, in a sense, both from my spirit and from theirs, and I can discern the vibration happening between us. They cannot. The attraction I feel for these women, then, is, and must ever be, greater than the attraction they feel for me, because my attraction is spirit+flesh, whereas theirs is just flesh.
To maximize the unity between kindred spirits, both sexes need to have this gift. If such were the case, both individuals would feel their souls vibrate when coming into the presence of the other person. The sympathetic resonance of a spirit is a feeling of joy, just as the resonance created by the Spirit is also a feeling of joy, (although a much greater amount of joy).
The outpouring of the gift of discerning of spirits upon the people can only create peace and harmony among the masses. Use of this gift in relationships takes away all the guesswork. “Is she right for me?” or “Is he right for me?” are questions that have no meaning to those who have this gift. It becomes plain who is right (or kindred) and who is wrong (non-kindred). It also becomes plain what is and is not the voice of the Spirit. Kingdom level glories can be perceived. Sinful behavior (darkening of the spirit) can be detected. Evil spirits also come into clarity and discernment. In short, this gift that I have been in the habit of using nearly all of my life, is indeed worthy of being called a “best gift,” and I thank my God for it.
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More stuff on this topic
Okay, so all of this stuff written here are examples of the gift of the discerning of spirits in action. This gift allows a person to know the degree to which a person’s mind is darkening or blind, and the degree to which a person’s mind is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and to also know what their thoughts are, and their plans and intentions, and also to know the degree in which a person’s heart is hard, and the degree in which a person’s heart is soft, and also to know what they are feeling. It also unveils the plans and intentions and temptations of evil spirits upon a person. It lays everything out in plainness so that there can be no deception. It can also tell whether the word of God is having an effect or not, seeing or perceiving the effect upon the mind and heart, whether the mind is becoming enlightened from moment to moment, and the heart softened by the word. It can also perceive whether a mind is becoming blind and darkened and a heart hardened, by the doctrines of devils or commandments of men working their effect upon the listener.
To give a personal example: as a missionary, my companion and I entered into an evangelical church one day and I asked to address the congregation. The pastor gave me permission, but said they would speak first. The first guy got up and spoke using an evil gift. I couldn’t freaking believe it. This evil spirit’s power filled the room and I gazed upon the audience and perceived, by this discerning gift, that the people thought that what they were feeling was the power of God. They were absolutely mesmerized as this devilish power came upon everyone. Then he sat down and I hoped that that was the end of evil gifts, but then the real pastor (the first guy was the deacon) got up and spoke using another evil spirit, this time using devilish sophistry and flattery and power of speech. Once again I was totally blown away. I had never seen anyone use evil gifts before and I gazed, again, upon the congregation and freaked out by what I perceived, for I discerned that their hearts were becoming hardened from moment to moment by his speech and their minds darker and darker, in blindness. I realized that the manifestation of power shown by the first guy, using the first evil gift, was preferable to the devilish speech employed by the pastor. These guys were making this about as difficult as could be for me when it was to come my time to speak.
The rest of that story doesn’t matter, as that is not the topic. The point is that discerning of spirits can detect spiritual states in real time, in one person or even in a large group, such as in that congregation.
Nevertheless, my experience is that nobody ever believes you can actually perceive their thoughts and plans. Any time I have perceived thoughts or feelings or plans of others, and it has come out that I was right, people always think that “someone must have blabbed to him.” In other words, they cannot accept that I got the information via the Holy Ghost, but can only accept that I must have gotten the information in secret, from some secret human source.
The detection of iniquity, or of an evil spirit upon a person, is particularly egregious to people. “What an awful thing to say!” is the response whenever I point out that so-and-so is operating via an evil spirit. And any declaration such as, “If so-and-so were to die this moment, it looks to me like they would inherit the terrestrial (or telestial) glory, based upon what I’m discerning right now,” must be made while running away, so as to avoid a stoning. So, although I love the discerning of spirits, the use of it has gotten me into lots of trouble by those who do not believe in it or are unfamiliar with it and who don’t have it, but also, interestingly enough, it has gotten me out of lots of trouble, caused by plans and lies which have been employed against me, which have been foiled through the use of this gift.
I might also say that the Nephites appear to have had this and all the gifts fully empowered, for there are many ways these gifts are administered, and they appear to have used them in all of the ways, with as much ease and skill as a heart surgeon uses his scalpel.
There are other ways to administer the discerning of spirits, not mentioned by this post, which I have yet to try. But I’ll leave those thoughts in my head for now.
Some speculations
Sometimes it is fun to speculate, so here I go…
I don’t expect anyone to believe what I wrote in the OP about detecting kindred spirits. I suppose that people will think that it is merely animal attraction. “Some people are attracted to this person, some to that person, and that is all. No spiritual gift needed. You are just inventing a spiritual fantasy.” And so on. I am perfectly used to the daily “wall of unbelief” in my life. But I will continue on just the same in this vein and build upon my spiritual perceptions with the gift of discerning of spirits, and the detection of kindred spirits, and speculate on some things. The doubters can just think of all this as additional fantasy and delusions.
The three actresses that I discerned through recorded media as kindred spirits did not come back with the same intensity of kindred response. One, in particular, was a very strong kindred response, while another was a weak kindred response. I am going to speculate as to why there was this difference between the two women.
Adaptability of spiritual resonance
Taking the female as my model, we know that the female flesh is designed for conformity, the vaginal cavity conforming to the male sexual organ (which is non-forming), from moment to moment, during the sex act, the cavity enveloping and changing shape instantaneously and continuously to conform to the constantly changing sexual circumstances (the thrusting action.) Were the vagina rigid and non-giving, the male organ would never be able to penetrate. The male, then, takes the rigid, non-conforming role while the female takes the conforming role, conforming to the male.
The gospel (and also often society) keeps male and female roles the same, in their interactions with one another, the female expected to conform to her husband, his ways and his laws. Should she do this (and not all females, or even many females, these days, do conform) there may be a corresponding spiritual conformity that takes place, in her spirit body.
A body with all its ribs conforming and sunken in the flesh, so that they are not even seen, is considered more attractive than a body with even a single rib either sticking out, sunken too much in (creating a depression) or noticeable. When we look at a body, we don’t want to notice the ribs. Even a single rib out of place will draw attention to itself and the body symmetry and beauty is diminished. Only when every single rib is in its proper place and conforming shape, and not exposed by excessive skinniness so that the eye is drawn to the rib, is the body symmetry preserved.
Eve is the prototypical woman, and she was created from Adam’s rib. Women, then, are like ribs, and are expected to act like proper body ribs, conforming to the body, not drawing attention to themselves and breaking the beautiful body symmetry. Likewise, as church members of the body of Christ, we are also expected to conform to the body and not draw undue attention to ourselves, thus breaking the symmetry.
Every male and female spirit has a natural resonant frequency, which, according to my use of the gift of discerning of spirits, comes in families or groups or sets. For example, just as fine silverware comes in a set, each piece of a set having the same design on the handle, so human spirits appear to be grouped or bundled together into similarly designed sets. A knife might be the man, a fork the woman and a spoon the children. A person without the discerning of spirits, for example, let’s say a man, when he looks upon a woman (a fork), he can’t see the design on her handle, nor the design on his own handle. He just sees a nice-looking, shiny fork and wants to be with her. Perhaps he has a square-ish handle with a square design and she has a rounded handle with an oval design. And they end up together. And she conforms to him, his ways, and his law.
The female spirit, at this point, may start to attune itself to the man she is conforming to, so that her natural resonant frequency is left off and altered to match his. Now they both have the same resonant frequency. His handle design hasn’t changed, but hers has. She now has morphed into a square-ish handle with a square design, just like his. They now have a harmonious existence together because they both have the same spiritual resonant frequency. Nevertheless, neither one of them have the gift of discerning of spirits, therefore, they cannot perceive the sympathetic resonance that takes place. But their lives are harmonious, nonetheless.
Now they live for a long time and then the man dies. The woman is suddenly left alone, without the steady influence of her male partner. What happens to her spirit? It gradually starts to return to its natural state, to the natural resonant frequency she originally had before being with him. If she finds another man to be with, and conforms to him, again her spirit will start to alter its frequency to match his, so that there is harmony between them.
For the man’s part, his spirit also has this adaptability capacity, for he is commanded to conform to Christ. Christ and the Father and the Holy Ghost resonate at higher frequencies, meaning divine frequencies. When the Holy Ghost speaks to a human, the human’s spirit (man or woman) resonates at a divine frequency, which makes the voice of the Holy Ghost unmistakable, for there is no earthly thing that can imitate the voice of the Spirit. A human spirit could not resonate at such frequencies unless it was, by nature, adaptable. So, a man has the same capability as a woman, to adapt, though he is commanded to adapt to God alone and not to the woman, whereas she is commanded to adapt to him. (His adaptation or conformity to Christ, and her adaptation or conformity to him, allows both him and her to conform to Christ.)
Back to the actresses
Okay, so one of these actresses gave off a very strong kindred response, while another gave off a weak kindred response. Now, both of these woman are currently single, but one of them was married when she was very young, in her early twenties, and then divorced two years later, and has been single ever since. And she is fiercely independent, to boot. This woman gave off a strong kindred response. The other woman, on the other hand, was also married very young, at age nineteen, and she stayed married for 32 years, having a “lovely marriage,” which indicates a harmonious relationship, which indicates that she conformed to her man. But then the man contracted a terminal illness and she cared for him until he passed away. She has been a widow for about nine years now.
Now, let’s say that I have a natural resonant frequency of “x.” And let’s say that these two actresses likewise have this natural frequency. And let’s say that the widowed actress’ former husband had a resonant frequency of “Z.” When she married him, her spirit adapted to his, going from “x” to “x-y” to “x-y-Z” to “y-Z” and finally settling into “Z” for 32 years. Once he died, her spirit began to transition back to its natural frequency, going from “Z” back to “y-Z” back to “x-y-Z” back to “x-y” and finally settling back into the original “x.” However, when I discerned her, her kindred response was weak, thus it must not be pure “x” but must still be in some transitional state, either “x-y-Z” or “x-y.”
The other actress, though, is a very vibrant “x” because she has not adapted to any man.
If adaptability is the norm, then what good is discerning of spirits?
The discerning of spirits can be useful in any relationship, not just relationships in which both sexes are at the same natural frequency. As long as there is conformity by the woman to the man, so that her spirit matches his resonance, she becomes “like unto” his kindred spirit, for as long as she continues to conform to him. The outpouring of the gift of discerning of spirits, then, upon these two non-kindred spirits (who are now resonating at identical frequencies) would have the same result as two kindred spirits receiving the discerning of spirits: the joy of sympathetic resonance would be felt by all parties.
Polygyny considerations
A man having multiple wives, and they all conform to him, would end up with multiple women who are “like unto” kindred spirits to him, regardless of their natural resonant frequency. If he and his wives had this gift of discerning of spirits, he would feel the joy of sympathetic resonance when in their presence, and they would feel it when in his. Additionally, since they (the wives) also are resonating at identical frequencies, they (the wives) become “like unto” kindred spirits, and they would feel the joy of sympathetic resonance when in each other’s presence. This can only make for an even greater measure of marital enjoyment for all parties.
Sin changes the resonant frequency
Sin creates disharmony between the sexes because it changes the resonant frequency of the offending party, to match that of the devil. To a man that does not possess the discerning of spirits, when a woman sins, he can’t perceive the immediate frequency change. She can hide the sin from him and go on pretending to match him and conform to him, and he may never know it. But to a man who has the discerning of spirits, any sin on her part will cause an immediate reaction in him, for he can see or perceive the frequency alteration instantly. The devil’s frequency is dark and alien and is repulsive to those who possess the Spirit. So it is impossible to hide the act from him. She may refuse to tell him the details, and refuse to admit guilt, but as he can discern her spirit at will and instantly, she is fully exposed to him and his spiritual gaze, so that it becomes impossible for such a man to continue to have a harmonious relationship with her. Regardless of the fact that they are both naturally kindred spirits, to him it is like she is with another man and has spiritually adapted to him, conforming to this other man’s resonant frequency. In other words, it is like the devil becomes her new husband. So, the discerning of spirits is a two-edged sword, blessing when there is conformity to the commandments of God, and cursing when there is conformity to the devil.
LDSA, you wrote that
People would feel the Spirit in my presence, and I would be able to discern that the Spirit was upon them, but they couldn’t recognize that it was upon them and they needed me to tell them that the Spirit was upon them.
Does this mean that the Holy Ghost can be on the person an the person will be speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost without realizing it? I always thought that when the Holy Ghost is on a person, the person will know it as there will be a sensation like being filled or being carried away or overwhelming joy.
Another question is:
I always was skeptical about the pentacostals invoking the gift of tongues on demand. I always thought that the true gift has to come down spontaneously. But now, seeing how you had your gift always at your disposal, Im wondering if it how it should be – once the person obtains the gift, he can use it when he wants. Do you have any thoughts on this on-demand aspect and what do you think specifically about the gift of tongues (or rather the gift of speaking with tongues as per Mormon 9:7 ) which seems to be very prevalent among non-LDS.
Jeez, that is a lot of “it was upon them”s! I definitely gotta get me an editor or a proofreader or something…
I meant that a person who is unfamiliar with the Holy Ghost can have the Spirit upon them, feel it, but not know that what they are feeling is the Holy Ghost, having never felt it before, or having never recognized what it was before. Thus, they don’t know that the Holy Ghost is upon them and they need someone to tell them that what they are feeling is the Holy Ghost.
In the Missionary Training Center (MTC) we were taught that we had to recognize the Spirit during the discussions and then we had to make sure that we told the investigators that what they were feeling was the Holy Ghost, so that they would be able, from that time forth, to be able to recognize when they were feeling the Holy Ghost. We were taught to use the fruits of the Spirit scripture to determine when the Spirit was there, etc. The problem with all of that is that that is not quite evidence that you are feeling the Spirit. Just because you feel joy or whatever, doesn’t mean that that is the Holy Ghost working on you. Some elders went pretty far in the “discernment” of the Spirit and called just about everything the Spirit. If the window was open and the wind was blowing outside and a gust came in during the discussion and blew a piece of paper off the table, these elders would go, “See!? That’s the Spirit witnessing that our message is true!” LOL.
I think generally, the elders didn’t really know when they felt the Spirit. From my experience with my companions, they were good men, almost all of them, and wanted to do a good job, etc., but as far as recognizing the Spirit, well…, I wouldn’t go that far as to say they could do that. Some elders just assumed that the Holy Ghost would provide a witness to their testimony and so would testify and then say that “what you are feeling right now is the Holy Ghost testifying to the truth of what I just said.” There would be no lag time. They would just assume it was happening and exercise the faith that it occurred. I couldn’t do that. I would testify and then I would discern. If I discerned the Spirit present in them, I’d state it. If I didn’t discern it present in them, I’d say go pray for the Spirit or whatever, to get the Spirit. I didn’t always notice that the Spirit was upon others. It wasn’t like I had the convincing power back then, or even now, but some elders just assumed that they did (even though they didn’t.)
I don’t think it is possible to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost without knowing it. At least for me. But then I can discern the Spirit upon me. Perhaps for others they can speak by this power and not know it. That is actually a good question and I am not sure of the answer.
I’ve always had discerning of spirits on demand. This is one of the reasons why when it came to thinking about which gift I had, back when I was a teenager, when the question was asked, “What gift do you have?”, the only thing I could think of that I had used on-demand was discerning, so that is the one I said I had. The revelations I got came either unexpectedly, or after much prayer, or immediately after one prayer, or even while praying, or when I was pondering, or whatever. There was no rhyme or reason to when they came. They came when they came. I couldn’t just go to the Lord and presto! get a revelation from Him like Joseph did. (Although I could eventually squeeze one out of Him by a lot of prayer.) Same with prophecy. Sometimes I felt prophetic, and sometimes I did not. However, prophecy was a little different, in that I could work it a bit like discerning and cast my mind into the future and sometimes force the prophecy out, by just trying to perceive it. But other times I got nothing from the effort. So it was hit or miss, or just a manifestation that came when it came. Healing never worked for me, except once. Only once did I ever heal anyone by my faith and only once did I ever get healed by my faith. But these were minor healings. And all other attempts I made at the healing gifts have failed. So revelation, prophecy and healing were never on demand, thus I always considered them manifestations or pseudo gifts, like gifts-in-training or something.
Diversities of operations is surely a gift that I have because I have used that on demand and find it quite easy to use. I remember one day with a companion of mine coming across some investigators we had been teaching and they had related some bizarre manifestations to my companion and he couldn’t tell whether they were of God or not. (I liked this comp more than any other because there was nothing fake about him, whatsoever. He didn’t pretend to know something he didn’t know.) So he asked me to hear their story and make an assessment. I listened and sure enough, they were bizarre, but I could totally tell that they were of God. There have been many other occasions in which things had happened and there was a question whether God was behind it or not, and I was able to instantly say yes or no.
Differences of administration also seems to be a gift I have, since this seems to come quite easily and instantly to me and on demand. But I haven’t used it much.
Wisdom and knowledge have only come by manifestations, not on demand. But I have been able to instantly detect or determine what is the spirit of wisdom or the spirit of knowledge, when I hear it. But that might be the discerning of spirits operating in me. Or perhaps the discerning of gifts. To be honest, I have used just about all the gifts or had manifestations of them of some sort at one time or another, and they are all just jumbled together and mixed up. Half the time I don’t know what the heck I’m using.
I’ve never worked miracles, but I’ve had the Lord intervene on my behalf on many occasions to make His promises and prophesies come to pass by changing conditions suddenly. These I consider miracles because they have no explanation for the suddenness of the change. For example, to cause a promise or a prophecy that the Spirit uttered to me via revelation, the laws of the land, this land and others, or policies, have suddenly changed for no apparent reason. Once changed, the prophecy or promise has been fulfilled, and then the laws have gone back to what they were before. Or people who have said they won’t do such-and-such a thing ever, suddenly decide to do it, causing a sudden change in conditions, which allows the fulfillment of one of my prophecies, etc. These I consider miracles, but not miracles of power. There have been a good many “unalterable decrees” (unconditional prophecies) that the Lord has given and from my perspective, they all appear impossible, requiring a sudden change of conditions for fulfillment (speaking of the ones still unfulfilled.) But I certainly didn’t make these things happen by my faith, except maybe to have perfect faith and confidence that these promises and prophecies would be fulfilled and that the change in conditions would come. Perhaps these things are working of miracles-lite. I don’t know.
Tongues also have not been on demand, and as far as I know, perhaps I never got this. But then, perhaps I did. I went on a foreign speaking mission and couldn’t speak anything until my second area. One day I couldn’t understand a dang thing, nor speak the language, then I got transferred to the new area and as soon as I stepped foot off the bus in the new area, I could understand the people and speak to them. I didn’t speak perfectly, nor understand perfectly, but it was night and day. Sure, I had prayed my heart out in the first area for this gift, but to this day I don’t know if that was an answer to my prayer or something else, for the first area was a place in which the people could speak two languages, and it may be that they were just tormenting us missionaries by speaking the one language we weren’t taught. So I am unsure about that.
Anyway, my opinion is that all true gifts are on-demand gifts. My problem with all these gifts and manifestations has been my incredible laziness. I suppose if I had applied myself to prayer and also to trying to use them more often, perhaps I would have them all on-demand this very day. I am actually surprised I have gotten as many manifestations as I have so far, considering how lazy I am.
Thanks for replying. Yeah, man, you’ve got to get yourself in shape. I mean, if you so strongly believe that the Lord can bestow upon you all those gifts whereby you’ll be able to be a mighty instrument in His hands, then start praying more earnestly for them. (I’m saying these words to both you and myself and all those who have faith but have not been diligent enough)
Lol. I appreciate the admonition. It is the Spirit that always gives me my thrashings, always telling me to “get up and do it right this time;” it is kind of a new experience to have someone else try to slap me out of my lazy stupors. Lol.
Now for some more thoughts:
Male kindred spirits
Other than my sons, I’ve never met any. No one in my family has ever “pinged” as a male kindred spirit to me, nor any of my male friends or associates or anyone else. I suppose that they exist, but I’m not exactly sure. I’ve come across only one man who had a great many interests in common to me, (which is a total rarity), and you’d think that that guy was a kindred, but no such luck. Also, you’d think that a person with a lot of the same gifts would be a kindred, but again, it doesn’t work that way. I once met a lady who had as many manifestations as I did, and perhaps even more, and I “tested” her claims for about an hour, and was thrilled to find that she was the real deal, but she wasn’t a kindred spirit. Nevertheless, so pleased was I to find someone with multiple gifts and manifestations, so great an impression did she make on me, that I ended up deciding to name a child after one of her own.
So, I don’t look for, or expect to find any, male kindred spirits. If one crosses my path, I’ll put him on that same “heart shelf” where I keep the other nine individuals and perhaps try to make him my best friend, or have him marry one of my daughters or something…
When god or his saints speak up they do it according to their will and pleasure and the privilege to enjoy argumentum ad hominem.
And the maxim to “Judge not …”Matthew 7:1-2..KJV do not apply to them or in other word, a non-saint(Lol) cannot point a finger to a saint and tell him , “Do not be judgmental! & etc…”-at least in a saint’s point of view but not usually in reality…
And if a non-saint(Lol, once more) fall short from a righteous judgment he/she might miss the joy of the saints and barely escape the paradox of that injunction which Jesus said: “Do not judge that you be not judged…”
Clarification
When I stated that I could tell the brightness of a spirit, I don’t mean to say that I can detect such visually. Sometimes I have seen spirits, but most times I perceive this brightness differently. Having pondered exactly how I do this, and how best to explain it, I think the best way to state it is in terms of FM and AM.
FM – Frequency Modulation
Every spirit has its own natural frequency. I can discern this frequency, as well as, in spirits that I am already familiar with, any change in that frequency. Devilish spirits which possess or operate upon a person cause a change in that spirit’s frequency, to an alien frequency (the frequency of the evil spirit.) I can detect this alteration, even when I don’t know a person personally, because I am already familiar with this alien (evil) frequency, so if I detect an alien frequency, it means that some evil spirit is operating upon the person.
AM – Amplitude Modulation
I can detect the amplitude (signal strength) of a person’s spirit. You can “ring” (vibrate) a spirit softly, normally and loudly. Celestial spirits are vibrant and strong, meaning that they resonate loudly, whereas the terrestrial spirits resonate with a normal strength. The telestial spirits are faint, of little strength. Whenever someone sins, the signal strength decreases, and I can note that if I am familiar with the person. Whenever a person repents and receives forgiveness of sins, the signal strength increases. Again, I can notice that.
Sin causes both a decrease of resonant amplitude in the host spirit, as well as an alteration of the spirit’s frequency, to match the possessing evil spirit. If sin is left unchecked, the natural process is to continue to decrease in resonant amplitude until the spirit altogether ceases to resonate. In other words, it becomes a dead spirit, unable to vibrate anymore.
The Holy Ghost has a different frequency than human spirits and also causes a huge amplification (signal strengthening) when speaking or manifesting upon a person. Thus, the voice of the Holy Ghost is unmistakable. And it is a voice, for the resonance caused surely has a sound. We can’t hear it, but surely God can.
When the scriptures speak of us going to heaven and joining the choirs above in singing ceaseless praises to God, this doesn’t mean that all we do up there is engage in choir practice. No, it merely means that once we get up there, our spirits will resonate at the frequency and amplitude of the divine, ceaselessly, regardless of what we are doing. God can hear all this “singing” as the infinite number of spirits He has created all resonate in one mighty Universal chorus. We, also, when we get there, and have this gift of discerning of spirits poured into us in fullness, will be able to hear these harmonies.
The evil spirit I detected in that one deacon of that one church, was a spirit of power. By this I mean that I, and really everybody in that room, felt or noticed the room fill up with a very real demonstration of power. The power was an amplitude strengthening at the evil spirit’s resonant frequency, (which was altogether alien.) The people there in that audience could detect that this wasn’t an earthly force in the room, and that there was a demonstration or manifestation of power. The power wasn’t seen, but it was felt. They all were deceived by it because they figured it must be the power of God. It surely wasn’t the power of man, and as they were in church, it must be of God, right? This was what they were thinking.
But they were off because the frequency was wrong. The power was surely intense. That I will admit. (Although the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, even the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, that I received when a kid, was infinitely more powerful, the amplitude being so great that I thought I had freaking died.) But to someone who isn’t experienced with the Holy Ghost, and all you have to compare is the measly power of man, that evil spirit felt like the power of God. To me, though, it felt like just an evil spirit trying to fool people, and succeeding, I might add. I already had experience with the Holy Ghost and knew that that wasn’t no holy ghost! More like an unholy ghost. But sure, it was powerful. But not as powerful as the Holy Spirit. So, even the amplitude was off by orders of magnitude. It was too dang low in strength to be the actual divine Spirit.
The ability to discern thoughts and feelings is accomplished in much the same manner as discerning the general or whole-body frequency and amplitude, only on a more refined and subtle level. The spirit vibrates for each thing we do, or think, or feel, and these minor vibrations can be detected, if one is really good at using this gift. So, if a person altogether sanctifies himself, and applies himself to this gift, there can be no miscommunication between him and any other person. He will fully have that person open and exposed, like a book that he can read at will. They would not be able to deceive him in the least. Not even if they spoke a language foreign to him, because he won’t be “reading their thoughts” in their language, but detecting or discerning the subtle frequency and amplitude modulations in their spirit, as they think and feel, which are the same regardless of what language you speak. Thus, one fully possessed of this gift could, by this gift alone, be sent to any land, whatsoever, and understand the people of any foreign tongue. He might not be able to communicate to them, but he would understand all their thoughts and feelings, and this, perhaps, would be enough for him to learn their language, for those thoughts and feelings, coupled with what they say through their lips, might allow him to match the words to the thoughts and feelings he discerns, so that eventually, or quite quickly, the man has learned their tongue. Anyway, this is yet another possible application of this gift.
Last Saturday I remembered that I had received a revelation about two years ago, that I had forgotten all about, that was received in conjunction with the use of the gift of discerning of spirits, so I thought I’d mention it here.
The circumstances were that I was engaged in something, I don’t remember what, and people around me were talking about a member of my extended family who was dating a young man, and they were talking about how the two of them were likely going to be married. This kept going on and on, incessantly, until it finally interrupted my thoughts and I looked up from what I was doing and paid attention to the conversation. After listening a bit, I wondered whether anything would come of the couple, so I cast my eyes back upon the young man in question, who wasn’t present, but who I had met on several occasions and had heard him speak. Now, I wasn’t too impressed with the man, but I hadn’t consciously performed a discernment of his spirit. I think I had unconsciously performed one, which is why I wasn’t impressed by him. So, momentarily distracted by all the chatter around me, I cast my mind back to a memory of him, of his person (visual) and of him speaking (audio), because I need to both see and hear a person to discern his spirit. Immediately (for it works instantly) I got a response and uttered, “I don’t feel anything in him. He’s not right for her.”
Now this announcement was not well received. First of all, no one knew that I was using a gift of the Spirit. All they saw was that I was judging him prematurely and that I could not know what is in anyone’s heart. “Who do you think you are? God?” And so forth went the arguments. No one believed that he was not right for her and all thought I was from another planet, thinking that somehow I could see the man had not received of the Holy Ghost, but was still in his wickedness.
When I performed the discernment, I actually used two gifts, not just one, gazing upon the man’s spirit, and also into the future. The future gaze came up blank. “I see nothing in him. He is nobody; of no consequence to her life.” This declaration was not taken lightly. After receiving a fair amount of verbal abuse from the party around me for daring to know someone’s future, it was said that it didn’t matter what I thought, that the woman would end up marrying the man anyway, for her mind was made up. Now, a woman’s mind is “made up” very much like my brother uses paper napkins at the dinner table: one bite, one wipe, napkin gets crumpled up, another bite is taken, a new napkin is used for one new wipe, another crumple and so forth, endlessly. Nevertheless, I realized that a negative response didn’t indicate that the man wouldn’t be in her life, only that I didn’t see him in her life. The possibility existed that she, being as wicked and devoid of the Spirit as him, for so she was, would settle for him, regardless of his lack of spiritual gifts. I then decided to consult with the Lord and seek a revelation on the matter.
So I retired to my room and offered up a prayer, asking if this guy was going to be in her life as her husband, and got an immediate response, in which the Spirit said, “The Lord has selected another man for her.” Delighted that this relative of mine would have the honor of getting the Lord Himself to select a husband for her, for not everyone gets that honor, I took the revelation to the aforementioned group of persons discussing the issue, and told them. It was promptly rejected by them, of course. But my mind was calmed by the revelation, for I understood by it that she would not marry this man, but would marry some other man. (The revelation didn’t explicitly say that, of course, but that was the understanding I got, based upon the question that I asked that prompted the response.)
Now fast forward to today, two years later. I learned Saturday that the woman has now gotten engaged to the man and they plan to be married in the temple. Everyone had forgotten about the revelation. Including me. But then I remembered it on Saturday and, well, this is how these things work in my life.
If I remind people of the revelation, they will say, “See, this was a false revelation. You said this marriage would never happen, but now they are engaged and now it is going to happen, proving that your revelations are bogus and your prophecies are all pretended.” When the revelation was received, no one believed it could be true because of the conditions of that time. Now, two years later, conditions are even more solid against the revelation coming to pass. And so it always goes. But then, at some point, for this is how it always happens in my life, conditions, even perhaps at the last moment, will change, and this man will not be able to marry her. Perhaps he will lose his job, or fall sick, or become injured, or be taken out of the country or die or whatever. Something will happen that will prevent the marriage from taking place. Then some other guy will enter the picture and the revelatory prophecy will be fulfilled every whit. This has happened before, and it will happen again. But this is why no one ever believes this stuff, because these prophecies and revelations are always given when the conditions are never ripe for their fulfillment.
Anyway, my purpose wasn’t to talk about this revelation, but about the discerning of spirits that I did two years ago, that it can be used even with the memory of a person. That was my point. And also to show that I discern habitually, without even know that I’m doing it. And lastly to show that, since discerning of spirits is not a “visible” gift, that people can “see” in action, but an invisible gift, it is never believed, nor understood, nor even recognized, when it is used. Even if a person believes you actually have the discerning of spirits, when you use the gift they will still doubt that your assessment is accurate. Se la vie.
Here is another scriptural example of the discerning of spirits in action:
Also, another personal example which may or may not be an example of the discerning of spirits in action. I once had a long-time friend that I had met at the age of 21 or 22 or thereabouts. A few years back he visited me and I noticed a change had come upon him. It was a short visit, but “red flags” went off in me like crazy and I made an immediate (instantaneous) assessment that something in him had “snapped” and he was afflicted with some sort of mental disorder, and I truly believed that he now posed a danger to me and my family, so I broke off the relationship at once, without alerting him as to my observation concerning his condition, for I did not wish to put him in an agitated state and have him look upon me as an enemy. I wanted a clean, “friendly” break, without any incidents. Had I thought there was no danger, I would have told him to seek medical attention immediately, but I didn’t want to alarm him, because I was thinking principally about my family’s safety. Now, my wife did not notice anything different about him, and she thought I was the crazy one, for he was an upstanding and spiritual Mormon man. Anyway, a couple years after that last meeting with him, I learned that he had killed a man. Later, after he had gone to trial, he was convicted on a murder one charge and sentenced to life in prison. A family member of his visited him while he was in jail awaiting his trial, and her assessment was that he was schizophrenic and thought he was some kind of prophet. So he had delusions of spiritual grandeur, even though in all the years I had known this man, he was almost completely devoid of any gift of revelation, from my point of view, according to my gift of discerning spirits. (This information, once again, was turned and used against me, as now people made me guilty of “crazy” by association with a crazy man that claimed that God was with him. For everyone uses any excuse they can get their hands on to accuse me of being loco, because of the many revelations I receive. If they had any wit about them, they would have said that it was me and my ideas that “broke” his mind. Lol.) Anyway, the whole situation is quite sad, but I’m glad of my decision to break with him. At the time, I wasn’t aware that I was using the gift of discerning of spirits upon him when I assessed him as dangerous and mentally unhinged, but in hindsight, that is likely what happened, for I use this particular gift habitually, without even being consciously aware of it. The point is that this may be yet another use for the gift, to discern spirits (individuals) that pose a physical danger to you.
Correction: I wrote in the above comment:
That was not the gift of discerning of spirits in action, but the gift of discerning of gifts. I always get all this stuff totally jumbled up. Also, I neglected to mention the first two gifts in my list of gifts above: to know of the divinity of Christ and to believe on the words of those who have such a testimony. I definitely have those two gifts, also.
LDSA, would it be possible for you to discern the following 2 instances of “praying in tongues” aka “praying in the Spirit” (as it is called among Bible Christians) and discern whether it is a genuine gift of God being invoked or something else.
The links below take you directly to the time where the supposed gift is being invoked.
Zac Dinsmore
https://youtu.be/_QKrnmtB4-I?t=2843 (1 minute long)
Rachel Faagutu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEopDiTq8Ps&?t=1320 (1,5 minute long)
The first link took me to a point in the middle of the video and the man sang in English and then sang in (whatever), and then back in English, back and forth. It sounded good, meaning that it went along with the tone of the music, just as Jazz singers can make sounds up when they sing, but that ain’t tongues. As for the second video, it took me to the very beginning of the video, which was an hour long, and I didn’t hear her use anything other than English. (I only listened for a couple of minutes. I wasn’t going to listen for the whole hour.) If she sang in “tongues” like the other guy, then that also ain’t tongues. The protocols established by Paul in 1 Corinthians for tongues and interpretation still apply, but the evangelist churches routinely discard them.
Some more examples of the gift of the discerning of spirits in full-blown, fully-empowered action
Abinadi
Ammon
Alma
Moroni
LDSA, could you employ your gifts by looking at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98wApfGvLI (6 min long) where a person is pronouncing a prophecy over another in the name of the Lord. Is there a genuine gift of the Lord employed, or a lesser gift, or is this a pretended gift?
LDSA, could you also check this video for me. Here a person claims to have received a prophetic message for a person in the audience. He correctly names the name, last name, children’s name, birth date of the person without ever knowing them.
Again, is this a genuine gift of God?
Neither of the “gifts” in these videos appear genuine to me.
This reminds me of an article I read about some guy who used to work for a magician, and after the magician died the man who worked for him said some things about how the magician was able to do some of his tricks. One of these tricks was guessing stuff about people in the audience. And he would tell how the trick worked. It was pretty interesting how clever these guys were, but who knows if the man telling the story was truthful or not. It was printed in a local paper as a reprint of material gathered from many years ago (from the 1930’s) and gathered together and published as some historical project. (I cannot remember the name of the project, but I think it was a government release.) Anyway, the man telling the stories claimed that he worked for a magician named Harry Houdini. And the point he was trying to make was that some people believed the magician did real magic, but the magician thought they were all fools, ’cause they were just tricks to pull the wool over people’s eyes. And others, the scientific types, would invent all sorts of schemes to figure out how Houdini pulled off his tricks, not realizing that it was planned far in advance. For example, for the trick of pulling a card out of someone’s shoe sole, the magician had the card planted in the man’s shoe two weeks in advance, unbeknownst to the owner, when the owner went to have his shoes re-soled. And so on.
These charismatic evangelicals work on either the “trick” level of magicians, or they use real evil spirits to trick the people into believing the “gift of God” they are witnessing is real. Some of it is also just plain wishful thinking. The Lord said,
Among the Christians there are certainly found those who are seeking to love God and keep all of His commandments, but these souls are pointed by the Spirit into the true church and fold of God, which is the Mormon church. The Spirit doesn’t try to keep these souls in their Christian congregations, apart from God’s church. The manifestation of the Spirit to these people will point them to the church and fold of God. The Spirit doesn’t manifest for show. Both of these men were performing “shows” for their audience. What are “shows” for except for “consuming it upon our lusts?” So, there is no need to look to the Christian congregational preachers for the gifts. Whatever the Lord blesses them with will lead them to the LDS church, and if they aren’t led into it, the Spirit doesn’t keep giving them gifts and manifestations. Why not? Because they aren’t seeking to keep God’s commandments and be baptized into the Lord’s church.
That said, this doesn’t mean that all of these men are willful deceivers. Some are, some are not. Some are using false spirits without knowing it. Some are tricksters. And some are trying to use their faith and putting forth “faith prophecies,” which may just end up being wishful thinking, believing that what they say will come true. “Faith prophecy” is a true use of the gift to prophesy (there are many ways to administer this gift), but it requires the gift of faith. It is the use of the gift of faith to utter a prophecy. I’ve done this many times. But, like I said, you’ve got to have the gift of faith. You can’t just utter a “faith prophecy” and have it come true unless you’ve got the gift of faith. A “wishful thinking prophecy” ain’t a prophecy, at all. It’s just a hope which may or may not happen, whereas a bona fide “faith prophecy” will happen because the individual has faith it will happen, just as stated.
Anyway, I wouldn’t keep looking at the Christian evangelicals and charismatics for gifts. The gifts are given to the saints and to those who are desirous and trying to become saints. So, I’d just get myself into the church of God and seek the gifts that are desired.
Thanks, when you say “neither appear genuine to me”, was this detected by your gift of discerning?
I got no confirming manifestation when watching those videos, jackdale76, as I have on other occasions when looking at genuine gifts. That’s one way this gift manifests. Another way, is things “appear” real or fake to me. Sometimes things don’t appear like anything to me and I can’t tell one way or another. In this case, they didn’t “appear” genuine. This “appear” way of using the gift happens also with other gifts. The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, for instance, sometimes work this way. Sometimes I’ll hear or read something that just “appears true” or “appears wise.” Etc.
LDSA, if you find time to give an opinion or discourse about people, persons or children who might appear to have special gifts like ones you claim to have, I would love to read and know, I believe children are more likely attuned to spiritual gifts, but I guess as persons these are scarce, but I guess there were, even if they are not LDS (some are LDS) nor they were aware of the restored gospel, I mean in the real world they call it the sixth sense or a special gift or the third eye and psychics claim that we are all psychics and its just the degree of advancement that their third eye were opened and those who don’t have the gift need to practice and meditate to be attuned. Maybe my thoughts are jumbled here, since I’m no researcher.
But what I would like to know if you believe that we are all psychics? Just to confirm. Since some of your write-ups “sounds” that you have special claim of spiritual gifts being an LDS and would tend to rule the others who are not into occult and magick, I mean an ordinary neighbor who has a gift of premonition or a friend who can see spirits or heal some body pains because she inherited a gift from her shamanic ancestry. I mean how do you classify other gifts(non-lds) from yours? Or I might mean how pure? But I guess you have somewhat describe something about it somewhere. Anyway because of writing limits text forms can be misinterpreted.
I just googled, servant from book of mormon, and right there it was Abish. I faintly recall whatever the details in the scenes but Abish was a herald. She was a great example of an ordinary Mormon who did not ask for a sign but she became a witness. And she did was only to declare great things she believed that they are true which I think of being short from spectacular from an ordinary eye. I would like to believe that there are great things in stored for those humble servants who just did their duty and not complain, but only believed.
Apology because I used not to proof read my wordings and statements.
skyglynn, I’ve never met a psychic before, but I tend to be skeptical of that. But everyone has experienced, I suppose, premonitions, at one time or another. Not all spiritual senses are dull in people. Some people are more sensitive to their spiritual environment, I must suppose. But the best gifts of the Spirit aren’t in the classification of spiritual sensitivity. They come of the Spirit, not of the individual’s spirit body. And they all point people to Christ:
Many of the gifts that people claim to have (those not of the church) do not point to Christ. There are plenty of people who believe in metaphysical theories that claim this or that gift, but these people do not come to Christ, nor persuade anyone else to come to Christ. The psychics also don’t point people to Christ. My gifts are Christ-centered. They enhance faith in Christ and cause people to believe in Him and come into His church. These others professing gifts often do not fall into that category. But there are others that do fall into that category (those professed by the Christians), yet, although they profess Christ, they do not lead the person into His church. Why is that? Coming into the fold of God, the true church and fold of God, is a central message of the gospel. There is no salvation offered to individuals who refuse to enter into the Good Shepherd’s fold. Everybody has got to be baptized with the baptism of John, otherwise their belief in Christ is in vain. So, those claiming to have the best spiritual gifts, the ones that come of the Holy Ghost, but who do not produce the fruits of those gifts by coming into the fold of God and obeying the commandment to be baptized, do not pass Mormon’s testing standard (given in Moroni 7.)
LDSA, more than a year ago you wrote
So, any updates on that saga?
LDSA, can you also discern if two other people are kindred spirits for each other? Or can you only discern whether someone is your kindred spirit?
There was an interesting observation here
I realize that we’re talking about God’s gifts here but can the devil also know the thoughts of humans by detecting their vibrations?
The obvious answer would be “no” mainly owing to this verse
However, I have some empirical evidence (which are outside of the scope of this post) where the devil seemed to have read precisely the thoughts of a human (a wicked person, mind you).
And so, in light of this evidence, I looked carefully at this verse. I used to read it as though the Lord speaks to all men, however, He speaks only to Oliver and “thy thoughts”. Could it be that when this revelation was given, Oliver had already been born of God and had devil’s spirit shaken off of him and so the devil had no power to know his thoughts? Does this leave the possibility open that the thoughts of the wicked people can be known by the devil with precision?
Any thoughts are welcome.
They set a date for their temple wedding but the date came and went and they weren’t sealed. I’m not sure why. Perhaps there were worthiness issues. I suppose there will be another date set, but for now nothing is set. At any rate, I now know how it will be stopped, but I won’t be saying what that is on this blog.
I’m not sure. I’ve never done that or even tried to do that. Maybe it would be possible if both people were in my presence. But I suppose it would work a little differently.
jackdale76,
Attached chains of hell certainly could be a means of accomplishing that. They are, after all, attached to our spirit where the organic brain organs are located…
Hi, LDSA, seems like this post is where I could ask you about your revelations.
How do you know that each revelation you receive comes from the Lord?
I remember that you once said that you feel certain vibrations in your
spirit and this is the “signature” assuring you that the revelation
comes from the right source.
Does the devil have such power that he could fake that signature and
send you a false revelation?
The voice of the Spirit cannot be faked by the devil. I have discerned evil spirits before. The demonic and divine signatures are completely different. That said, if someone doesn’t have the gift of the discerning of spirits, and just receives a revelation from the spiritual world, he is liable to mix up the two sources.
Thanks, do you have any tips about what to do in this situation.
I know a latter-day saint (let’s call him Shawn) who has been daily receiving revelations\manifestaion\visions from the Spirit for over 2 years. Shawn became intimately familiar with the voice and the signature.
On one certain day this voice gave Shawn commandments to do certain things which go completely against the normal commandments. Like, e.g. the voice said that the word of wisdom no longer applies to him and certain Temple covenants no longer have to be obeyed.
Shawn insists that the voice hasnt changed and over the following few weeks those “new” commandments have been re-affirmed. Moreover the voice reminds Shawn about how he prayed for certain things in his own mind while in the Celestial room of the Temple. (I wonder, can the devil read a person’s thoughts while in the Celestial room?)
To the outsider like me it looks like fake revelations but Shawn shows no signs of any possession. He is still as meek and as humble as he used to be before. He is also puzzled by this abrupt change in the commandments but he plans to obey the voice. In my mind, If this was the wrong voice, Shawn may in very deed subject himself to the devil by disobeying the Temple covenants, which keeps me worried about him.
LDSA, have you had scenarious like that in your experience? Or can you discern whether this is this the Lord subjecting the person to some kind of an Abrahamic test or is this the adversary working or is this a mental disorder?
Sounds like a mental disorder to me. The devil cannot read minds nor does the Spirit command anyone to violate covenants. However a schizophrenic mind can hallucinate all sorts of sights, sounds and feelings, all of which seem perfectly real and authoritative.
For example, I recently was around a latter-day saint who had told me he had begun seeing visions. He knew I had the gift of the discerning of spirits and wanted to know my opinion of his visions, so I listened to his accounts. Then, while in my presence, he began seeing things and receiving commandments that were contrary to the commandments of God. That told me right away that this was not the Spirit of God manifesting. But, additionally, I could perceive none of the spiritual entities with my gift, which he claimed were present, which indicated he was merely hallucinating what he was perceiving. I was able to immediately bring him out of his delusion that these were real things from the Spirit World so that he became convinced that his brain was exhibiting schizophrenia. He is now being treated for that disorder and has made great progress to the point that his hallucinations have almost entirely subsided.
Thank you, you input is very appreciated.
I contacted you directly through this website’s contact form.