Look Past the flesh

We Judge the Man, But Never Name the Spirit

I woke up one morning with this weighing on me, and I have to talk to you specifically  because I believe many of us are doing this without even realizing it.

Every time we watch the news, we do the same thing. Someone commits a crime, an act of violence, even murder and we look at the person. We form our opinion, we judge, we write them off. We call them evil, monster, criminal. And we move on to the next headline.

But we never stop to ask the question that actually matters: what spirit was operating behind that action?

1 Corinthians 2:11 (KJV)

"For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."

No one wakes up one day and simply decides to rob, steal, or kill. That's not how the demonic works. There is a principality empowering a spirit, and that spirit came through a gate, a legal entry point that was opened, often long before the act itself. Somewhere, a door got opened. Trauma, rejection, unforgiveness, generational sin, exposure to darkness  something gave that spirit legal access.

But God. We don't have to stay blind to this. The Spirit of God in us can discern what the natural eye cannot. That's exactly what 1 Corinthians 2:11 is telling us that man cannot know the things of man by looking at behavior alone. Only the Spirit of God reveals what's really happening underneath.

Here's the danger: as long as we keep judging the behavior and never naming the spirit, we will never know how to actually intercede. We'll keep writing people off instead of going to war for them in prayer. We'll keep forming opinions from a news clip instead of asking God to show us the gate that got opened in that person's life.

The Measure

Stop and ask before you judge. Before you form an opinion on someone's actions, pause and ask the Holy Spirit: what's really behind this?

Name the spirit, not just the sin. Rage isn't just rage — ask if it's rejection, trauma, or a spirit of murder operating through unhealed pain.

 Naming it is the first step to praying against it correctly.

Identify the open gate. Ask God to reveal what door was opened — in that person's life, family line, or environment — that gave the enemy legal entry.

Intercede instead of write off. Once you see the spirit and the gate, pray specifically — for deliverance, for the gate to be shut, for God to reach the heart, not just judgment on the act.

Guard your own gates. Use this same discernment on yourself. What have you opened that's given a spirit access in your own life?

WAKE UP, CHURCH. Stop judging the man. Start discerning the spirit.