Anthony Delgado has a wonderful wife and three children. Anthony directs Youth Ministry at The spiritual gift of discernment is the divinely ordained ability to discern; that is, to mentally separate a situation so that you can clearly see the motives which drive decisions. 1 Corinthians 12.10 refers to this gift as “distinguish between spirits.”
This verse is not only talking about the spirit world, but also about our motives. It has to do with what ‘spirit’ you act according to. The person with the spiritual gift of discernment will be able to identify the spirit by which actions are done, decisions are made and even what spirits (literally or figuratively) might be influencing a situation.
If you took the spiritual gifts test and you came up with this gift, you are probably asking how it applies to you. Many times as a youth, you will be faced with pressure to do things, either at school or other places. Not everyone you encounter has your best intentions in mind. The person with this gift should be able to identify when someone is trustworthy.
Another area that discernment is valuable is within the youth group. Often times sin can seem like a gray area. Billy does XYZ and he calls himself a Christian so is XYZ really sin? The person with the gift of discernment will be able to identify the motive behind XYZ in order to identify if it is truly sin or not.
The youth with the gift of discernment should be first looking at their own life and their own motives behind their actions in order to remove the sin that they hold onto. Second, the youth with the spiritual gift of discernment should be aware of the actions of their brothers and sisters in the youth group. As a group, you should be readily available to challenge each other to righteousness. The spiritual discerner will be able to identify areas of unrighteousness in order to exhort others to follow more closely to Christ.