Discerning the spirit

WE should be experts in discerning the spirit that animates

us. Our life principle is our soul which is spiritual. As such, we

need to know the kind of spirit that animates our soul that in turn

animates our whole life.

  

          We have to realize that there are many kinds of spirits

roaming around the world, and we have to learn how to discern them.

There is the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ as opposed to the

antichrist. There is also the evil spirit, and the spirit of the world

that is dominated by the evil one, and the spirit of the flesh.

  

           St. John was explicit as to which spirit is proper to us.

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which

does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of

antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in

the world already.” (1 Jn 4,2-3)

  

          St. Paul distinguished between the fruits of the Spirit of

God and the works of the flesh dominated by the evil spirit. The

former include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (cfr Gal 5,22-23)

  

          The latter include fornication, impurity, licentiousness,

idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness,

dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing. (cfr Gal

5,19-21)

  

          We would somehow know the kind of spirit we have by the kind

of thoughts, desires and loves we have. If we look more closely at how

our consciousness works, what its usual contents are, what we are most

aware of, we would have an idea of the kind of spirit we have. All we

have to do is to see if our thoughts, desires and loves are those of

the fruits of the spirit or the fruits of the flesh.

   

          This is also true when we examine the kind of dreams we have

in our sleep where we are supposed to be unconscious. Our state of

unconsciousness is when we disengage ourselves for a while from our

bodily mechanisms, but it is in that state where our spirit takes

over, so to speak. In a sense, it’s when we are unconscious that the

kind of spirit we have can be known.

  

          We know, of course, that with our wounded, sinful human

condition at present, our spirit is not yet totally that of the spirit

of God. In fact, it may somehow be dominated by the spirit of the

flesh, of the world, if not, God forbid, of the devil itself.

  

          That is why we need to struggle. The ascetical struggle is a

constant feature in our earthly life which will always be an arena

between the forces of good and evil. We have to get used to this fact

of life and train ourselves adequately for it.

  

          To be sure, God will always be on our side. Even if we are

lost, God will always seek us out, as dramatized in those parables of

the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son. We just have to

try our best to correspond to God’s constant interventions and

solicitude over us.

  

          The important thing to remember is that we should try our

best that the spirit that should animate us is the spirit of God, and

not any other spirit. We cannot therefore underestimate the need for

us to be always on guard. Let’s remember that we are favorite targets

of the enemies of God since we have been created in his image and

likeness.

  

          It would be good if we are transparent about this business

of identifying the kind of spirit we have at the moment. Through

constant examinations of conscience, through spiritual direction and

other spiritual means, we would know the kind of spirit we have.