Discernment of the spirits
The occasion of the letter is the activity of false teachers. John is asking his disciples not o follow them, They need to test the spirits.
John has written this letter to counteract it. The false prophets are known as Gnostics of some sort-those who claimed a special knowledge of wisdom. They claim the special knowledge of God and a fellowship with God superior to those of ordinary Christians. They deny that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God who had come in the flesh. John gives many reasons by which the believer can judge , discern the genuineness of his Christian life. Christian life must reflect the very qualities of God, if we are children of God, in fellowship with him, it is impossible that we should not be conformed to him. The fundamental norms of the Christian life is the acceptance of the apostolic witness, testimony of God, and the intimate word of the spirit. They must take their stand against the unbelieving world and face up resolutely to its false claims. The author give all this norms to test the spirits. Not all spirits comes from God. We need to test the spirit if it is coming form God, that it must have all this criteria.
Likewise in our lives we too need to test the spirits, discern every feelings emotions whether it is coming from God.
Discernment is the basis of our actions, so in that way of life. Something that goes in life, something essential at some special time, when important choices have to be made. In spiritual life we need too we are called to make choices. The right choice is always what is according to God’ s will.
How can we sure that we are following God’s will and not our desires.
Discernment is the essential link between prayer and the active Christian life. Meeting point between prayer and action. The discerning person must be a praying person one who takes God seriously and is genuinely concerned with god’s involvement in his or her life.
Not every “spirit” is God’s spirit. There are other voices competing with his.
We want to do God’s will. So doing God’s will imply me to do God’s will to the direction of love. Love of God and love of neighbor.
Sr. Ignatius of Loyola mentions that there are two main obstacles in finding God’s will: first is the self
He says we must free ourselves from all inordinate attachments , that is our selfish attachments. So the first basic attitude for discernment is “indifference “ , that is distancing from self, maintaining a balance and objectivity. That is keeping distance from things so that it makes true vision possible. If we want to buy a gift for a friend, we need to distance ourselves from what we like, only then can we make the choice of the present for the friend. So it is our likes and dislikes, our feelings and desires that are objects of our discernment.
The second basic attitude is awareness. We must watch the different “movements” of the spirit, we must become aware of the action of the spirit in our life.
The second obstacles to discernment is the temptations of the evil spirit, which leads us away from doing God’s will. Need to discern the action of the evil learn the action of the good spirit in contrast with that of the evil spirit. He two spirits can lead us in opposite ways. St. Ignatius evolved this methodology after his conversion experience, so that we can discern the direction in which God is leading us. Choice is not only the selection of this or that mode of acting; it requires also the identification of the “voices” one hears. One must make a discriminating judgment and that is discernment. The object of our discernment is our feelings. So it is essential for us to name, claim, tame, the feelings within us that are the main material of discernment. That is to identify the feelings , one from the other, such as anger, jealousy, sexual passion, sadness, depression, fear, worry, discouragement, joy, peace, etc.
Paul mentions in Rom 7:19,there is a struggle within us. “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” There is a tug of war, who wins, the feeling of jealousy or love. If the feeling of love wins then we can say that we have tamed the feeling of jealousy.
Our aim is to direct the feeling to a positive result. We must keep in mind that feelings happen. One does not decide how to feel.
So we can say , briefly that , that discernment is the he art of finding God’s will in the concrete life situations which confront the us.
In order to discern correctly what the Lord wants, it is necessary that the discerner be possessed of certain qualities or predispositions;
1. A desire to do God’s will.
2. Openness to God
2. A knowledge of God
3. A desire to do God’s will –a committed faith
4.Openess to God-Our intention must be simple. I must consider the ends for which I am created that is for the praise of God, for the salvation of souls. Like many choose marriage , which is a means , and secondarily though the service of God is the end. Such persons do not go directly to God, but want God to conform wholly to their inordinate attachments. Therefore my aim is to seek to serve God.
In the process of discernment of a decision to be made, marriage, faced with new challenge, new role, I pray for God’s guidance, conversion of heart, wanting to come back to God. . I place before God all the options in contemplation. Then I make a decision. Then I take it up again in prayer. If I feel peace and joy in the decision I make, then it is likely that the one the Lord wants from me. God speaks and reveals his will to us step by step. So need to understand the different moments that are produced in the soul. These concerns with spiritual consolation or spiritual desolation. St. Ignatius mentions of the two types of movements, one when we are deeply and strongly moved, like an emotional union of two lovers after long separation, or like a mother gazing on her new born baby, quietly marveling at the wonder of
life. Either case he defining quality that makes is consolation is peace. So in spiritual consolation this will be the peace of the Lord, a felt increase of faith , hope and love, of interior joy of drawing to him.
The loss of that peace will result in the desolation . It can take various forms, from emotional turmoil of spirit to a deadening tepidity and sadness. The common note of all forms of desolation is the loss of peace.
Spiritual discernment is a powerful process by which one examine through love and in the light of faith, of one’s experience: does this particular impulse or idea or plan or project or word came from the Lord or not? Is it from the spirit of Jesus or from the evil spirit? If we want to be discerning persons , we need to look for the feeling states that manifest themselves in our prayer.
In the first week of the exercises St. Ignatius invites us to meditate on our sinful situation before God In this exercise of the first we recall our sinfulness, sinful situation, turning from self to God. Here the retreatant examine his sinful inclinations, he sees the movements of his soul. The characteristic of the evil spirit is to harass with anxiety , to afflict with sadness, to raise obstacles backed but fallacious reasoning that disturb the soul.
When we are move with a interior movement inflamed by the love of God, shed tears that move to the love of God, whether it is because of sorrow for sins, because of the suffering of Christ then it is a spiritual consolation. If it is a spiritual desolation it is a feeling of darkness of the soul, inclination to what is low and earthly, restlessness that lead to want of faith, hope and love. Then we discover we have far from the Lord, soul is tepid, sloth and separated from God.
Desolation and consolation are feeling states. That is why we have to be in touch with our feelings in our prayer moments, if we want to be a discerning persons. So we have to look for the states that manifest themselves in prayer. In desolation we are not to take any decision. Desolation is never a voice of God for those who sincerely seek him. So for Ignatius in consolation the good spirit guides and counsels us, in desolation the evil spirits guides and counsels us. We should take the means to intensify our activity of against desolation, by meditation, examen of conscience prayer.
Why we suffer from desolation?
Because we may have been tepid or negligence in our spiritual exercises. It is a trial allowed by god
Enable to see our worth without consolation, and we recognize consolation is a gift of God. We do not become proud and attribute to ourselves the devotion or features of spiritual consolation.
Desolation is precisely the devil’s normal way of working on beginners. He seeks to convince us that the new venture is too difficult. It is not human, it is too costly. Whatever decision we are taking it has to be in the state of consolation. Desolation is never be God’s voice. But we must be aware of the evil spirit. He may assume the form of good spirit. We can recognize the devil’s design y observing the whole course of our thoughts. St. Ignatius calls this the tail of the serpent. I may go to pray and find joy in t, when actually I should be doing my duty to my family or when and act of charity to someone is demanded from me then the desire to pray is from the devil.
The devil can tempt us to be very orthodox in religion and in the correct in the observances of the rule and regular in the observances of the rule and regular in our exercises of piety as long he can lead us to intolerance and narrow mindedness. So we have to be careful in trusting and acting upon our inspirations. It is important to know where it is leading us.
Once the tail of the serpent has been detected and recognized by the trail of evil marking his course and the wicked end to which he leads us , it will e profitable for the ne empted , to review the whole course of the temptation. This review will enable us to guard ourselves for the future against the deceits of the enemy.
word of GOD 