I think the act of stinging is quite intentional for lion fish, a brush against them won't be enough to do it. I'm pretty sure to sting you they have to extend all their spines, and then actually apply some force to drive the spikes with venom in to your skin.
There's a quick video of it on yotube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3o8vw5hFUE
You can't really see it because the sting is so quick and the video quality is so bad, but you can see that the guy who's trying to get stung actually brushes the fish a few times before it finally sticks him. From what I've read there'd be no mistaking it, as both the injection site and the venom are quite painful.