Growing Into the Gift of Discernment

I have always desired the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of discernment. After many years of praying for this particular gift, I am finally seeing it develop. I have yet to physically see anything in the spiritual realm but I have definitely felt things. Sometimes God just points out a spirit to me. I am growing into this gift and am getting used to differentiating between my own perception and the Holy Ghost’s radar.

A couple weeks ago I started my mental health nursing clinical. My experiences have been less than exceptional and perhaps it is not a far stretch to say the supernatural may have something to do with it. My first day of clinical was not good. I felt frustrated and found myself complaining the entire time. I went home realizing I had not even considered covering myself in prayer for this clinical experience.

The following week I came back to the clinical sight hoping for a better experience and I was more aware of the territory I was entering. I found myself feeling very frustrated again. I did not express my emotions and did not share them with my nursing peers but I could feel the frustration and irritability burning on the inside. I felt like I was swirling in a sea of negativity and no one else seemed to be experiencing it. I even found myself resenting one of my peers for no reason. I quickly realized that a spirit of anxiety was trailing me. I tried to pray against it while at the mental hospital where my clinical was taking place but I felt too weak mentally. I felt so desperate I even texted my family and asked for prayer. The enemy’s arsenal was coming at me hard. The spirit ended up following me home but thankfully I recognized it’s presence on my home and found the strength to pray against it. I also had the prayers of my family supporting me.

This week I went to clinical fully alert and ready for the spiritual activity that was going to surround me once I set foot in the hospital. I was in a fairly good mood for most of the 6 hours I was there. However, towards the end, as I sat with my peers and listened to them reflect on their experiences, it hit me. A wave of depression rushed over me and suddenly I felt like crying. I felt so heavy and fatigued as if someone had thrown a sopping wet blanket over my head. The Holy Ghost discerned the situation and I began to pray in my mind and sing a worship song. I recognized the spirit of depression. It was the first spirit God showed me. Thankfully He showed me in a dream and not real life. As I prayed the feeling of sadness lifted. The heaviness did not go away completely until I left the hospital.

As I walked out of the hospital God reminded me to brush off the dust, and so, I literally did just that. I walked to my car with my heavy school bag and brushed off both my shoulders and my head and I said out loud, “Spirits, you cannot come home with me or come into my car in Jesus’ name”. I pulled out of the parking lot that night feeling relieved.

 God has been teaching me to be more sensitive and has been helping me recognize spirits everywhere I go. It is very interesting but also very serious. I know I must be prayed up and fasted up and carry my shield of faith wherever I go. This is a very dark world we live in and the spiritual battle is at large. Sleeping soldiers cannot stand.