Discernment is a supernatural gift from God, using intuition and cognition, that allows one to sense and identify spirits for His purposes. It works only when and where God activates it.
Discernment is a fusion of intuition and cognition forged by Divine Authority, not only to inform but to unfetter. Intuition is human; cognition is divine, empowered to unravel mysteries, the wonders of God, and unmask evil in the dark.
When disernment is switched on, truth unfolds. Truth is light. Darkness flees.
In trenches God marched me through, He taught me how to decode the dynamics of prophetic discernment using my 5 spiritual sensors. Yet, the core capacity He cultivated was receptivity— learning to hear His voice wherever I was, decoding the unseen.
God has taught me by experience: The anointing breaks the yoke in every battle (Isaiah 10:27). And this anointing is present precisely when I move with the Cloud.
A Prophecy to Move with the Cloud
Singapore, 1991. YWAM’s Crossroads DTS. Enter Dan Sneed—guest lecturer. On Day 5, he stopped teaching and started releasing personal prophecies. Pointing at me and Zeny, he thundered: ‘You’ll return to the Philippines—not just to minister, but to war in worship! You’ll move with the Cloud!’
This wasn’t only a prediction—it was a commissioning. Not coincidence—it was kairos. Heaven drafted us, to be deployed in trenches for prophetic warfare.
Three months later, we hit the ground at YWAM Philippines. Right as they ignited citywide prayer strikes: churches of every stream locking shields in the spirit. Those gatherings? Far more than meetings. They were DIVINE SUMMONS—strategic collisions where intercessors stormed spiritual high places and guarded the Gates of the Cities as Watchmen.
The Cloud Moved Us Out of YWAM
The intercessor convergences were far beyond ‘gatherings’—they were KINGDOM NETWORKING EVENTS: divine collisions where God welded strategic alliances. There, a fresh word erupted over me. Another man of God declared: ‘You carry John the Baptist’s mantle—a VOICE CRYING OUT in the nation’s wilderness!’ The confirmation was instant and powerful.
Norma Manuel didn’t just invite us—she deployed me and Zeny as warrior-trailblazers for the National Worship Symposium at Broadway Centrum Quezon City. Alongside apostolic pillars Pastor Lito & Helen Magbanua, and Gloria Barredo—shadow-warriors in the trenches—we ignited a HISTORIC SHIFT in Quezon City’s worship landscape.
On the road walking to the venue, I saw a number of angels with trumpets above the building. Inside, the theater was full. The praise and worship team were electric. Their voices and instruments rose, raw and resonant, weaving a canopy of sound pushing back darkness. The music was more than notes; it was a current lifting us, buoying weary hearts until the sanctuary felt boundless. Tears traced cheeks, not of sorrow, but of release—as if the melody had unlocked chambers of the soul. In that swell of harmony, the divide between earth and heaven thinned to a veil. We sang. We worshipped, and for a breathless span, we touched eternity.”
The plenary speakers gave their messages. After their talks, in a divine surprise, I was unexpectedly called to the stage to pray for the Philippines. As I stood before the people, the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit enveloped me—an unshakeable mantle of authority. Then the words thundered through me, not as my own, but as a decree from the Throne Room: ‘The Spirit of Intercession is here!’
In that instant, the Spirit of intercession struck the intercessors—they erupted in violent travail. Groans for mercy tore through the air like shofars blasting over the Philippines, a war-cry shaking hell’s gates.
My First Time to Discern
While a friend and I were sitting in his living room having a wonderful time chatting, his daughter in high school arrived. After she greeted us and had walked away, I told my friend that his daughter is having issues and is hurting.
How did I know that?
I had no foreknowledge. Pure God-moment. He activated my discernment—revelation delivered in real-time.
Discernment By Feelings ( Somatic Discernment )
How did I discern it?
As the daughter approached, a sudden, sharp pain pierced my heart. In that instant, God spoke clearly in my mind: ‘She is hurting.’
My first time to discern this way.
My friend was a bit surprised by what I said. Quickly he asked his daughter. The mood in the room changed. I felt heaven open with divine love and grace making her break into tears and confess. That every time she is nagged about her boyfriend, she gets hurt. She feels untrustworthy. She resents it.
As they hugged, a beautiful exchange of humility unfolded: my friend asked his daughter for forgiveness, and she sincerely asked for his. As their twin repentances braided into one, I became a vessel—pouring prayer over them like oil of reconciliation, thick and holy.
From this experience, I have learned to decode a spiritual pain on my heart as an alarm or signal, indicating that a heart is wounded and is hurting. The moment the wounded emotion is healed through forgiveness, the phantom pain in my heart disappears.
Discernment By Seeing
As I prayed for them, the Lord ripped open the unseen realm: I saw her sprinting barefoot—a venomous black serpent striking her heel. Instantly, the Lord gave me the interpretation:
‘ DEMONIC ASSAULT! The viper’s poison is LUST. It’s coiled at her feet, waiting to strike again. She runs, trying to flee from it. But she is barefoot—unprotected. She lacks the shoes, the Word of God, the truth that sets free. Fleeing from the enemy is losing the battle by default. She must put on God’s full armor and stand armed for combat, crushing the serpent under her feet.’
With holy discretion, I armed her father with the vision and its deadly meaning.
Discernment By Hearing
God speaks through countless channels—but our crucial task? DISCERNING HIS VOICE amid the noise.
His self-revelation is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Yet how do we confirm it’s truly Him?
I am living proof: He thundered into my life, in a mind-talk, when I barely knew His Name—long before Scripture lived in my bones.”
Teen rage. Bitterly plotting to flee home. Suddenly—A VOICE. Not mine. It mind-locked me with divine logic, torching my escape plan. I yielded. Decades later: epiphany. That voice? GOD. Saving me from destruction before I knew His name.”
In one of my bitter moments as a young teen, I was emotionally hurting and contemplating the plan of leaving home when I heard a voice in my mind. I was not aware of who was speaking, but that voice engaged me in a mind talk, enlightening me to discard my bad plan, which I did. In hindsight, after several years, I realized that that voice was God’s.
It is God who chooses to speak. And He chooses the place and time to speak.
In Jeremiah 18:1-2, God said to Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.”
Putting God in a box
With 5 little children happily playing and making noises at home, I wished I could pray and meditate in a quiet place. So I planned to go to the prayer mountain in Antipolo.
But God said no. Pray at home.God shattered my religious mindset: ‘Thinking I need silence to hear Me? That’s putting Me in a BOX.’
The message was clear: His voice slices through chaos as sharply as it cuts through quiet. Volume changes nothing—only my tuning matters.”
What Pleases God
It is not what I want to do for God that pleases Him; it is what He wants me to doI’d asked my wife to cover breakfast dishes so I could seek God alone. But as the bedroom door clicked shut, His voice cut through: ‘NO—YOU wash them.’ I pivoted instantly, suds becoming my sanctuary.
Days earlier—as PTF President—the principal sought prayer about a fundraiser headlined by music-industry artists. While scrubbing plates, God’s command was sudden and clear: ‘PROCEED with the computer campaign.’ Divine strategy, revealed amid dirty dishes. God’s ‘yes’ echoed not in prayer closets, but over clattering plates. His voice rings clear even when our hands serve.
The fundraiser exploded—auditorium packed, atmosphere electric. Celeb-artists ignited the crowd!
As the principal motioned me to close with a talk + offering prayer, God’s voice blasted through: ‘NO OFFERING BASKETS. NOT ONE.’ I echoed the mandate. She yielded without a word.
I spoke vision: ‘These computers will unlock destinies!’ Yet declared: ‘Give NOT here—bring donations to the office.’ Then prayed fire over the artists and crowd.
Days later? Checks flooded in. Not a trickle—a TIDAL WAVE. Four top-tier computers? Funded in full. God’s kingdom economics outmaneuvered human logic.”
God’s Voice
To hear God is to walk on kingdom water—fearless, focused, free of presumption. Our greatest crossroads? Not evil’s lure, but selecting the sacred path among many noble ones.
As my son weighed medical giants (UP, UST, Ateneo, FEU, UE), I challenged him: ‘Why scatter your peace? Present the options to heaven—then OBEY.’
Prayer’s answer came swift: ‘UP.’ I affirmed: ‘Then plant your flag there.’ When he wavered over review methods if he has to join a review class, I urged: ‘Reopen the divine channel.’ God’s instruction? Stark: ‘ Review alone.’
The harvest? A UP medical doctorate—forged not by human striving, but by surrendered listening. God’s voice: the only compass that never fails.
There are teachings on how to hear God’s voice. I went through them. When Zeny and I took the DTS in YWAM, hearing God’s voice was a major subject and a practice.
YWAM’s DTS drilled me in hearing God’s voice. But decades later, This is the blazing revelation: My ability to hear Him owes ZERO to my wisdom or training. Balaam proved it—a pagan profiteer, yet God spoke through a donkey to hijack his curses!
The stunning reality? God speaks not because we qualify, but because HE IS. His voice tears through darkness, religion, and sin—not by human merit, but by divine nature.”
Thus God speaks to us not because of who we are but because of Who He is.
Why This Truth Liberates
Demolishes Spiritual Elitism
Balaam’s story proves God speaks to outsiders—shattering the myth that only the “disciplined” hear Him.
Exalts God’s Character
His voice is an extension of His nature (“I AM”), not a reward for human performance.
Invites the Undeserving
If a diviner heard God, no one is disqualified—hope for doubters, sinners, and seekers.
Frees from Technique-Obsession
Methods may position us, but only God opens spiritual ears.
This isn’t theology—it’s a thunderclap. God unshackled the lie that His voice is earned. Now stand with Balaam: proof that when God chooses to speak, no darkness can silence Him.
Discernment By Smelling
A scent could be a supernatural alarm that something is going to happen or a signal revealing an existing issue or problem.
In culmination of the Spiritual Warfare and Intercession Institute held in 5 days of incubation, a love feast was held. After the graduates were given their certificates of attendance, we went home.
We’d just unpacked—including decorative flowers from the love feast—when a ghastly stench of death choked the room. Darkness thickened like fog. Then we saw it: funeral bouquets, purchased unknowingly from a mortuary supplier. Instantly, we declared war: ‘Invoking Divine power, these flowers are SANCTIFIED! No longer emblems of grief—now they symbolize LIFE!’
Then we commanded the death spirit: ‘Flee! You have NO RIGHT here. NO LIFE will be stolen—Death shall not prevail!’”
After several moments, we heard a commotion. A boy next door fell from the third floor and landed on top of a vehicle parked on the side street. He was rushed to the health center nearby, only a block away.
Later that day, we heard the boy suffered a slight injury. Nothing serious. Praise God, he survived.
Discernment By Tasting
I had a severe toothache and a swollen gum. No cavity, no infection. Must be symbolic. The pain jammed my mind. Trapped in dark agony, groaning and travailing in pain. I can’t think. The excruciating pain jarred and paralyzed my mind.
Despite praying in tongues, no imminent breakthrough was in sight. Patiently pursuing and persisting. Believing. Aiming to break through to connect. Get revelation. But I can’t.
The overwhelming pain jammed the divine frequency to get revelation. I can’t connect.
Zeny, a medical doctor, is the decoder. She is free from pain. She has the divine frequency to get the revelation. She connects and gets the equation: mouth = national prophetic voice. Pain = church can’t digest prophetic meat.
This wasn’t a toothache—it was a theophany in your gums. God turned your jaw into a living parable: when His people struggle to digest truth, even creation groans. Your healing proved intercession changes realities.”
When the revelation was received, the pain instantly vanished.
In this battle of epochal scale—whether national upheavals or global spiritual warfare—a sovereignly appointed tandem emerges: the Seer (me) and the Sage (Zeny). This fusion transcends human partnership; it is a forged instrument of divine revelation.
Discerning Territorial Spirits
I did not know I was on the spiritual warpath ordained by the Lord. The Lord activated my sensors.
Sensing the presence of demons is not a good feeling. It’s terrible. Among others, it is also equated to pain. As a first timer, my mind was relentlessly connecting to the Lord seeking for answers. But there was none. As if the Lord left me on my own familiarizing the atmosphere.
Pain As Signal—Indicating The Presence of a Territorial Spirit
My first time sensing a territorial spirit equated to pain
I was on my way to Bulacan to preach at a youth gathering. While at NLEX, I was tormented with a mild sharp pain in my head. I wondered if it was something physiological. I was clueless. So I just prayed in tongues during my trip until I reached the venue, hoping the pain tormenting me would disappear. It did not. I felt it during my preaching until I went home. Puzzled, I continued praying. Not knowing how to pray about it, I opted to pray in tongues while my spirit was reaching out to God for answers. After several minutes of feeling tired and dazed, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I felt better. No trace of pain on my head. But I was still clueless.
Again, I was invited to preach in Bulacan, so I went and took the bus. Along NLEX, I felt the same pain in my head. Rebuking the painful torment did not make it disappear. While striving to discern the matter, I relentlessly prayed in tongues. Still no breakthrough; during and after preaching, I was feeling the pain. On my way home, while on the bus, I kept praying in tongues because I was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Geographic Boundaries are also Spiritual Boundaries
Along NLEX after crossing the border of Bulacan, the sharp pain tormenting my head instantly disappeared. There was peace, and I was glad praising the Lord.
As a beginner, it took me a while to understand. Because the painful torment in my head was felt only within the borders of Bulacan, I have surmised that their territorial presence and influence are bounded by geographic boundaries.
Summary
Territorial demons occupy and rule territories. They are high-ranking demons demonizing a town, city, province, or region.
Principalities are high-ranking demons demonizing a nation or a group of nations. Example of this is the Molech Demon—the god of abortion demonizing and killing children and mothers.
Here’s a distilled reconceptualization, sharpening focus on divine intentionality and cosmic purpose:
The Sovereign Equation in Cosmic Conflict
When empires of darkness mobilize and nations tremble, Heaven’s response is neither an army nor a miracle—but a fused instrument:
The Seer (who perceives the unseen) +
The Sage (who deciphers the sacred) =
A Revelation Forged in the Divine FireThis tandem is not summoned—it is sovereignly wrought.
Not a partnership of convenience, but a convergence of grace:
- The Seer bears the unseen warfare (pains, frequencies, burdens) as living sigils.
- The Sage unlocks their meaning (through wisdom, knowledge, divine keys).
Together, they manifest anti-darkness—light that scatters strategic shadows and rewrites battlefields.
Why This Changes Epochs
- Divine Authorship
This fusion is crafted, not taught. Its authority flows from who appointed it, not human recognition. - Targeted Illumination
It does not merely inform—it unfetters. Where chaos reigns, it releases revelation-light that:
- Exposes hidden structures of evil
- Maps spiritual strongholds
- Releases tactical grace
- The Unmistakable Effect
“When revelation dawns through this conduit, darkness does not retreat—it shatters.”
The Core Truth Restated
In humanity’s darkest hours, God forges living lenses—
Seers to feel the war’s hidden tremors,
Sages to name the battle and its cure.
This tandem is Heaven’s surgical strike against cosmic chaos.
The kingdom advances not by noise, but by light.
And light arrives through vessels fused in God’s furnace.
Key Shifts:
- “Sovereignly Wrought” > “Appointed” (emphasizing divine craftsmanship)
- “Fused Instrument” > “Partnership” (implying irreversible unity)
- “Living Sigils” > “Symbols” (elevating bodily sensations to divine signifiers)
- “Releases Tactical Grace” > “Provides insight” (military/purposeful framing)
- “Heaven’s Surgical Strike” (precision against cosmic scale)
- “Vessels Fused in God’s Furnace” (theology of divine formation through testing)
This framing preserves the cosmic stakes, divine initiation, and transformative power of the tandem while intensifying its otherness from human strategy. The tandem isn’t in the battle—it redefines the battle by manifesting God’s light as the weapon.
Our Prayer: ‘Our Father in heaven…Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…’ is a profound prayer unlockimg the power of God’s kingdom to manifest God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
When we sin, God’s will is not done on earth. When we align to His will in heaven, we become His kingdom on earth and His will is done as it is in heaven.
As God’s kingdom on earth,
We do not do our thing. No command, no action. God is our Commander. We hear and obey His voice. For His is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. Amen.
……………leo.e.m.calderon.03/04/2025 . Revised 06/01/20255…………….