THE DISCERNING OF SPIRITS

 Great quotes and words of wisdom:

“Who can drag into daylight and develop the hidden mysteries of the false spirits that so frequently are made manifest among the Latter-day Saints?  We answer that no man can do this without the Priesthood, and having a knowledge of the laws by which spirits are governed…. A man must have the discerning of spirits, before he can drag into daylight this hellish influence and unfold it unto the world in all its soul destroying, diabolical, and horrid colors: for nothing is a greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influence of a false spirit, when they think they have the spirit of God.” (Times and Seasons, Vol 3, No 11, Apr 1, 1842, p 744; HC4:573; TPJS 205)

This quote is from Joseph Smith’s treatise on false spirits (D&C 50:2) titled, Try the Spirits. A false spirit is an evil spirit whose entire existence is devoted to deception. The job given the false spirit by Satan is to use any conceivable method or tool to lead everyone astray. It doesn’t have to get you to sin; all it has to do is get you to believe in some form of untruth – a lie – however small just enough to keep you from gaining your exaltation. That’s because anything short of exaltation is damnation. The Bible dictionary says this about damnation. “Damnation is the opposite of salvation and exists in varying degrees.  All who do not obtain the fullness of celestial exaltation will to some degree be limited in their progress and privileges and hence be damned to that extent.”

Joseph was deeply concerned about the problem of false spirits within the Church. He was so concerned about this that it was his number one subject to teach. His cousin, the apostle George A. Smith said, “There was no point upon which the Prophet Joseph dwelt more than the discerning of Spirits” (Words of Joseph Smith, p 21). Joseph would conduct weekend fireside chats in his home that taught nothing more than the discerning of spirits. These chats would focus on the nature of evil spirits, their power, laws, government, intelligence, and the signs by which they may be known.

The discerning of spirits was the first thing Joseph was taught by the angel Moroni. “The morning after the visitations from the angel Moroni (21-22 September 1823), Joseph Smith went to the side of the hill Cumorah to unearth the plates he had seen in his vision. As he later told Oliver Cowdery, on the road to Cumorah he became fixed and determined to obtain the plates for wealth and prestige and not for the glory of God. Only after attempting unsuccessfully three times to remove the plates from the stone box in which they were enclosed did he become aware that Moroni was present. The angel indicated that he was permitted by God to be led by this evil spirit so that from that time forth he would always know the difference between a true spirit and an evil spirit. This was only a beginning of his instructions in the gift of discerning spirits (D&C 46:15-16, 23, 27).”

The Lord considered the discerning of spirits to be so vital that it was included in the original temple endowment as revealed to Joseph Smith. “There were ‘keys of the kingdom,’ [Joseph] said to a Sunday audience of the saints in the Grove, ‘certain signs and words by which false spirits and personages may be detected from true, which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed.... There are signs...the Elders must know...to be endowed with the power, to finish their work and prevent imposition’ (1 May 1842 discourse). Three days later Joseph Smith revealed these sacred keys to nine men…. To these men he taught the keys of prayer and detection whereby all false documents, revelations, or manifestations could be tested” (Words of Joseph Smith, pp 20-21).

The last time the discerning of spirits was correctly taught in general conference was in 1918 by acting Patriarch Elder Hyrum M. Smith. For unknown reasons, its teaching was discontinued and it morphed into the “discernment” that is taught today and contains no mention that discernment is for the discerning of evil spirits.