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“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.” (1 John 4:1)

Have you ever mistaken desire for discernment? Have you ever allowed anger, fear, pride, or ambition to speak so loudly that you could no longer hear the warning of God? When temptation arrives dressed as opportunity, will you recognize it? When your emotions rise like a flood, will you know whether you are responding in faith or being pushed by the enemy?

Do you know what spirit you are of? Have you done any discerning today? Are your eyes open to know good and evil?

These are not questions for someone else. They are questions for you and me.

Pastor Anthony Joseph Massotti, Th.M.’s 1999 archive writing, What Spirit Are You Of?, places five biblical lives before us as solemn warnings. This expanded reflection draws out those warnings and adds a sixth from the disciples’ own misplaced zeal. Together, they show us that spiritual danger does not always appear as open rebellion. Sometimes it comes through appetite, frustration, self-confidence, religious ambition, or zeal without love.

The enemy does not always arrive carrying a weapon. Sometimes he comes as a reasonable thought, a flattering invitation, or a package that looks good enough to receive.

What Does It Mean to Discern the Spirits?

The New Testament language of discernment points to careful examination and distinction. The Greek expression diakrisis pneumaton refers to distinguishing between spirits. This is not the same as krino, which can describe condemnatory judgment. Biblical discernment is not a license to attack people. It is the God-given responsibility to test influence, teaching, motives, and impulses against the truth of Scripture.

Either the voice is leading you toward truth, humility, holiness, and love, or it is pulling you away from them. Either it magnifies Christ, or it magnifies self. Either it produces the fruit of the Spirit, or it feeds the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19–23).

Discernment is not suspicion. It is obedient clarity.

1. Eve: The Warning of Desire Blinding Discernment

Read Genesis 3:1–6.

Eve listened while the serpent questioned the goodness and clarity of God’s command. The deception was subtle. Satan did not begin with an obvious demand to abandon God. He began with a question: “Did God really say?”

The danger deepened when Eve became focused on what she wanted. The fruit appeared good for food, attractive to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. Her craving became a curtain over her spiritual vision.

Pastor Anthony’s archive observes that Eve was “wrapped up with what SHE WANTED” while blinded by what Satan was manipulating her into. That warning still searches us today. We may know what God has said, yet allow our desires to reinterpret His Word.

Ask yourself:

• Am I seeking God’s will, or asking God to approve mine?
• Has what I want become more persuasive than what Scripture says?
• Is the enemy making disobedience appear enlightened, harmless, or deserved?

The first warning is clear: desire can blind you before disobedience ever becomes visible.

2. Moses: The Warning of Anger and Emotional Pressure

Read Numbers 20:1–12.

Moses stood before a frustrated congregation. The people complained, the pressure mounted, and his emotions became a firebrand of emotional devastation. God instructed him to speak to the rock, but Moses struck it twice instead.

The outward action was brief, but it revealed an inward surrender. Moses allowed the crowd’s pressure and his own anger to push him beyond obedience. The consequence was grievous: he saw the promised land from Mount Nebo but did not enter it (Deuteronomy 34:1–4).

There is a difference between righteous concern and uncontrolled irritation. There is a difference between confronting sin and being ruled by contempt. We may say we are defending truth when we are actually defending our wounded pride.

The question is not merely, “Was I right to be upset?” The question is, “What spirit governed me while I was upset?”

Either your emotions are submitted to God, or they will begin issuing commands of their own. Feelings are real, but they are not always reliable guides. The Spirit of God produces self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). He does not require us to misrepresent God while claiming to represent Him.

3. Samson: The Warning of Presumption and Unexamined Temptation

Read Judges 13–16.

Samson was set apart for God, yet he repeatedly treated temptation as entertainment. He played near the edge of compromise until he could no longer recognize the danger standing before him.

Pastor Anthony’s archive asks whether Samson might have seen more clearly if he had been “praying instead of playing.” That sentence exposes a serious spiritual principle: prayer keeps us awake, while presumption makes us careless.

Samson did not test the spirit working through his temptation. He believed his strength would remain available whenever he needed it. But when Delilah’s betrayal finally broke through, “he did not know that the LORD had departed from him” (Judges 16:20).

When he thought he was safest, Satan struck quickest.

Have you become confident in yesterday’s victories while ignoring today’s compromise? Are you relying on a past encounter with God while refusing present obedience? Spiritual strength is not a permanent permission slip for unholy living.

The warning is sobering: you can be gifted and still be undiscerning. You can be used by God and still become careless with temptation.

4. Peter: The Warning of Self-Confidence and Fear

Read Luke 22:31–34, 54–62.

Peter was certain of his own heart. He believed he was ready to suffer and even die with Jesus. Yet before the night ended, he denied the Lord three times.

Peter’s problem was not a lack of affection. He loved Jesus. His problem was confidence in his own strength. He had not discerned the spiritual conflict pressing against him, nor had he received Christ’s warning with sufficient humility.

The enemy often begins by inflating self-assurance. “You would never do that.” “You are stronger than they are.” “You know your heart.” Such thoughts can become a trap. Scripture says, “Let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Peter’s story also reminds us that fear can make a believer compromise. We may confess Christ in private and become silent in public. We may know the truth and yet soften it to avoid rejection.

A humble prayer is safer than a boastful promise: “Lord, keep me. Search me. Strengthen me. Do not let me trust myself more than I trust You.”

5. Balaam: The Warning of Greed Wearing Religious Clothing

Read Numbers 22–24; 31:16; 2 Peter 2:15.

Balaam could hear from God. He had prophetic knowledge and spiritual experience. Yet he was drawn toward the rewards offered by Balak. His downfall illustrates one of the most common temptations: trying to serve God while remaining attached to mammon.

Evil sometimes comes in good packages. An opportunity may look respectable while concealing greed. A spiritual platform may appear fruitful while quietly feeding the desire for money, influence, or recognition. Religious vocabulary does not make an unholy motive holy.

Balaam’s life warns us to examine not only what we are doing but why we are doing it.

Are you using spiritual language to gain control? Are you calling personal ambition “calling”? Are you willing to bend conviction when the price is attractive?

Either God is Lord over your gifts and opportunities, or those opportunities will become a lord over you. “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

6. James and John: The Warning of Zeal Without Love

Read Luke 9:51–56.

When a Samaritan village rejected Jesus, James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven. Their zeal sounded religious. Their reasoning had biblical precedent. Yet Jesus rebuked them because their desire for destruction did not reflect His mission to save.

This is the sixth warning: you can defend truth with the wrong spirit.

A harsh spirit can hide behind doctrinal accuracy. Anger can disguise itself as courage. Superiority can dress itself in theological language. But the Spirit of Christ does not make us eager to destroy those whom God calls us to reach.

Ask yourself:

• Does my defense of truth lead me to pray for people or despise them?
• Am I correcting someone to restore them or to humiliate them?
• Does my conviction contain humility and love?

Truth without love becomes a sword in the hands of pride. We must never confuse a loud voice with spiritual authority.

How Can We Practice Discernment Today?

Discernment grows through prayer, Scripture, humility, and obedience. Before accepting a thought, teaching, opportunity, or emotional impulse, bring it into the Light of God.

Ask:

1. Does this agree with Scripture?
   We must be like the Bereans, examining the Scriptures to see whether what we hear is true (Acts 17:11).

2. What fruit does it produce?
   Does it cultivate love, peace, patience, holiness, and self-control, or envy, rage, lust, confusion, and pride?

3. Who is being magnified?
   Does this influence exalt Christ, or does it quietly place self, money, reputation, or personal power at the center?

4. Am I willing to repent?
   There is a difference between saying, “I’m sorry,” as a passing expression of regret and saying, “Please forgive me,” as a request for restored relationship. True repentance faces holy truth, admits personal wrong, and turns the will back toward God.

In my own prayer, I have had to say: “Lord, expose every motive in me that I have dressed in spiritual language. Enlighten my eyes. Show me where desire, fear, anger, pride, or ambition is speaking louder than Your Word.”

That prayer is uncomfortable: but it is merciful.

Pray for Enlightened Eyes

The purpose of discernment is not to make you fearful of everyone. It is to make you faithful before God. The Lord does not expose deception to crush you. He exposes it to rescue you.

Take time today to pray that your eyes may be enlightened and that your whole being may be filled with Light (Ephesians 1:17–18; Luke 11:34–36). It may save you from a decision, a relationship, a compromise, or a path that looks harmless now but ends in sorrow.

For further help with growing in faith, deepening your Bible study, and practicing biblical discernment in a noisy age, continue searching the Word and bring every influence before the Lord.

Examine your desires.
Submit your emotions.
Test every voice.
Reject the enemy’s counterfeit.
Repent without delay.
Pray for enlightened eyes.
Walk in the Light.
Choose truth.
Stay close to Christ.

This article is based on Pastor Anthony Joseph Massotti, Th.M.’s original archive writing “What Spirit Are You Of?” Copyright © Anthony J. Massotti Th.M., Th.M., December 19, 1999.