The Israelites came out of the land of Egypt. Things did not go as they had expected. Even though signs and wonders were being done on a daily basis--the crossing of the Red sea, the cloud by day and the fire by night, the manna--they still became skeptical of Moses' ministry. They found no water, and the people murmured against Moses (Ex.15.22-24). They found fault with Moses because of a deficiency they were seeing or experiencing under his ministry.
    Here is the key to skepticism. Moses was only given as a leader, to lead the people into the things of God--each person is to personally do their own believing of God and ministering and moving in God. When people are looking to a man instead of to God, they will inevitably be disappointed, disallusioned, distracted, be overwhelmed with doubt, and if they don't repent of their unbelief, they will die in the wilderness, and, take all their friends who listen to them with them to their doubting death. Skepticism is unbelief, and it is deadly. Discernment is entirely different. Discernment operates from a basis of personal faith in the Word of God.
    The function of all ministry is to point people to God, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, so that each person does their own hearing, believing, and obeying of God. This is how the promised land is taken. But when a person is looking at the minister instead of to God personally, then there will be faultfinding, doubt, skepticism, and death. And the really bad thing about it is, that this spirit of skepticism/unbelief is like a rotten apple--it spreads and affects all those around it.
A whole generation of Israelites missed the promised land because of this spirit of skepticism.
     A person who is bound by unbelief in this way will boldly be confessing that unbelief so that all who are around them will have their attention taken off of looking to God Himself, and their attention will be on the minister, and they too, will fall in unbelief by hearing the "doctrine" of skepticism.
    We don't look at the minister. We look at and follow the God who lives through the minister. We are commanded to test the spirit (1 Jn.4.1-6), and examine the fruit (Matt.), but keep our personal focus on Jesus Christ. The Pharisees were good at keeping their focus on things about Jesus Christ that did not fit their personal opinions. They missed the blessing because they stayed bound to their way of seeing and doing things.
    Skepticism can appear very good and spiritual, complete with tears and scriptural quotations. You can just hear the impassioned cries of the Mommas crying out to Moses, "We were better off in Egypt! At least there, my little babies had water to drink!" The mothers cried this, and there was no good water to drink. There was deficiency. Yet, God called this unbelief. Why?
    Because, we are each responsible to add to the solution with our own faith and obedience, rather than just criticizing the problem with our unbelief. If we are not adding our faith to the solution, then God calls it unbelief. If we see deficiency, we are to look to God for the solution. We are to never look to man.
    Skepticism will always be looking at man, judging man by one's own concepts,  understanding, or experience of what is right and wrong, good or bad.
    The results of skepticism is always division. It is division within oneself, it is being divided against the faithfulness of God, and it causes division among the Body of Christ.
    As it did with Moses, it always comes against the minister, with the focus on the minister, instead of personally believing God to contribute to the solution, the healing, the deliverance, or whatever is in operation.
    Now, contrast the operation of faith.
    Faith keeps it's focus on the Word of God--period. If a ministry does not measure up to the Word, that is between the minister and God. Each person is to be allegiant to the Word of God, regardless of what the minister is doing. If the minister lines up with the Word, the minister is accepted of God. If the minister does not line up with the Word, the minister is not accepted of God. The focus is on the Word.
    When things don't add up to what we understand God to be, then we seek God's face through His Word. It's a personal walk with God, with His Word.
    If anybody has a right to be skeptical, it was the Israelites coming out of Egypt. When Moses came on the scene in Egypt, things got worse for them. When Moses led them across the Red Sea, they didn't have any water to drink. They had some negative expericnces with Moses. I'm sure many were "troubled" by Moses' ministry, and their spirit didn't "bear witness" with Moses. But Moses was of God. Those who opposed God's man through skepticism suffered loss.
    What do we do when we find ourselves bound by skepticism? Repent, and turn all our life and trust to God Himself. Renounce our skepticism toward God. The Word says that even the civil authorities are His ministers, and many of those certainly are not godly nor are they to be trusted. We look to God's Word--not to the man. Trust God through submission to and total committal to Him. He will give godly discernment by the Holy Spirit, through our yieldedness to Him.
    Discernment is not gullibility. Discernment is that faculty based on what the Word says, that gives us wisdom on how to handle things by faith in God, in order to find a solution. Gullibility is just mindless, blind following of something or somebody just because it looks good or sounds good according to our own understanding of or feeling about the matter. Also, gullibility is refusing to be open to a ministry just because we or some others don't understand some things.
    What do we do when we find a brother or sister bound by skepticism? Pray for them and apply 2 Timothy 2.23-26. Avoid "foolish and unlearned questions", and do not be partakers of their strife. Gently and patiently teach them the truth in all meekness, trusting God to give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and so they can receive deliverance from the snare of the devil.
    Remember, just because things are not going perfectly at the time, does not mean the man or ministry is not of God. And, the other way around; just because things are going smoothly doesn't mean a man or ministry is of God. Dead people don't cause trouble, they have a perfect personality, and they never make mistakes. God works through the living, who are dead in Christ. Jesus and Paul caused an uproar everywhere they went, they had their own personalities, and they did get angry (but we know Jesus never sinned).
    The way we follow the Lord through people's ministries is to know that the operation of the Spirit of God will correspond with what is written in the Word in the Spirit of the love of God that brings deliverance to people's lives.
    We can be discerning without being skeptical.