As we enter the final week of our 40 Days of Prayer, there is one more power that I want us to explore. We have looked at desperation, community, confession, calling, and covenant. And today I want us to just briefly scratch the surface, and begin an exploration of the power of discernment.
Over the past two weeks, we have explored two large specific passages documenting the lives of Gideon and Hezekiah, and these passages have helped us unwrap our prevailing prayer power. Today, we are going to jump around a bit more, as we explore this topic of discernment throughout God’s Word. So grab a Bible, and prepare for the journey.
Let’s start in I Corinthians 12, and begin with an effort to describe or define what discernment is. I Corinthians 12. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth regarding the topic of spiritual gifts, and he writes in I Corinthians 12:7 (READ THROUGH VERSE 11).
In this context Paul describes the ability to discern spirits as a spiritual gift. Something that some people have been gifted with by the Holy Spirit, and others haven’t. At least not in equal degrees. In fact, throughout a large portion of the history of the church, discernment has been viewed, categorized, seen as a spiritual gift.
But let’s explore a bit further. Turn further back in your bibles to Hebrews 5. In Hebrews 5, the discussion turns to the maturity level of believers, and we find these words in Hebrews 5:12 (READ THROUGH VERSE 14).
We have this spiritual gift that enables some to discern spirits, though we know that spiritual gifts are not equally given to all of us, but we also have this truth and awareness that the more we grow in our Christian walk, the greater our ability to discern both good and evil should be. There is this analogy of solid food. The solid spiritual food of the mature Christian belongs to those who have developed, and exercised through use their ability to discern good from evil. Right from wrong.
So discernment is a spiritual gift, but it is also a spiritual characteristic. It varies by gifting, but it also varies by maturity. We can see this in another passage. Turn to Romans 14. Romans 14:1 (READ).
Now your translation may lack the English word discernment, but the same Greek word is there, it is just translated with a different English variation. In dealing with these individuals who are in disputes and debates over what can be eaten and what can’t be eaten, Paul says, “Don’t take those who are weak in the faith, and give them to these doubtful debates. These places of questionable discernment.”
Why does Paul say that? Because they are weak in the faith. They have not matured to the point of being able to discern the Holy Spirit’s direction and leading in these debates. It isn’t in our translations, but the Greek used there is the same.
And in this passage there is a correlation between not only spiritual maturity and faith, but faith and discernment. We will see a bit later the role faith plays in discernment.
What do we have so far? Discernment is a spiritual gift, a characteristic of spiritual character and maturity, and also an out flowing of faith. But what does it mean to discern? What is the actual definition of that word we have been looking at. . .diakrisis?
Two English words that might help us better understand it: distinguishing and judging. Discernment is the ability to examine something, and determine the good and/or evil in it. The ability to look at the evidence, and determine where God fits into the picture.
But there is a difference between those definitions at their surface level, and what we are looking at for empowering our prayer life. You see, it is one thing to be able to discern, to be able to distinguish and between good and evil in the physical world.
Most people, godly or not, Christian or not, spiritually mature or not, are able to watch the evening news, and with a fair degree of accuracy discern, distinguish, judge between what is happening in our world that is good, and what is happening that is evil.
Is it a great struggle to look at an Amish school shooting or a roadside terrorist bomb and discern whether that is good or evil? Most people can get that. Not all, but most without any spiritual gifting, maturity or faith.
However, it is an entirely different thing to be able to discern good and evil in the spiritual world. And there are at least a few reasons why that is true. You see, there are things that are a part of our lives, and our experiences that block our ability to experience Godly discernment in the spiritual realm, and in our prayer life. For example. . .
A SPIRIT OF JUDGMENTALISM
A spirit of judgmentalism can keep us from being able to exercise Godly, spiritual discernment. If our spirit is wired, prone, leans towards jumping to judgments about people and situations, it will be difficult to discern God’s hand and movement in those situations and lives.
For example. If I am prone to believe that the Christian walk is one of intellect, and knowledge, and can be logically rationalized. And I combine that with being someone with a spirit of judgmentalism. Then when I see someone who is highly emotional, maybe even charismatic, I will begin thinking things such as, “That’s kind of weird.” Or, “What’s with them. That seems pretty fake.”
I won’t be able to discern God’s movement and hand because I will have already allowed a spirit of judgmentalism to step in front of Holy Spirit discernment and decide what is going on. It may or may not be fake. But a spirit of judgmentalism will block Godly discernment.
(Personal Example regarding medications/prescriptions.)
Can you see how a spirit of judgmentalism can block us from exercising sound spiritual discernment? Another block, or grouping of blocks to discernment is. . .
MISTRUST, SUSPICION AND FEAR
Mistrust, suspicion and fear can keep us from being able to experience Godly, spiritual discernment.
Picture, if you will, an African-American young man. His clothes are unkempt, he has tattoos on his neck, and legs. It is night, after dark, in the vicinity of Alabama and Martin Luther King Blvd., and he is walking toward you on an otherwise empty street. He is making eye contact with you, and has his hands inside an oversized coat. It is easy to judge such a person after the obvious and superficial look over. And you may be right.
But now look at this young man in the same setting, but as his mother. You can still see his outer appearance, but when you look at him you have insight into his life and hope for his future. You see a little boy growing up without a father, a child rejected often by his friends. You have a commitment towards this man that runs deep, that has been sustained by love that you have carried since you suffered in giving him birth.
The same man. The same appearance. But when the mistrust, suspicion and fear are eliminated, a totally different picture emerges for discerning what is happening in his life.
A more common example. I had an occasion in my life where someone felt that they had been called to speak as the voice of God into my life. They felt that they were discerning some things that God was directing them to tell me, as if they were words from God.
However, as this person met with me, and shared with me, they also very directly advised me that they didn’t trust me. They informed me that they were suspect of my motives, and my actions.
Well, I’m not so sure the two can go together. I’m not sure we can be operating out of emotions of fear and suspicion and mistrust, and yet be able to discern and speak as the voice of God into someone’s life. We are just too human, and the fear, suspicion and mistrust will often lead to a spirit of judgmentalism that will keep us from true spiritual discernment.
In fact, my antenna was raised further in listening to this particular individual, because I knew they were also struggling with a third common blockage to Godly discernment.
A HEART OF UNREST OR ANXIETY
Often when you find false discernment. Discernment that is not seeing things accurately in the spiritual world, you will find an individual experiencing pressure to make up their mind. To make a decision. Someone operating with a heart of unrest or anxiety.
They are living in unrest, so they jump to a judgment. They are anxious about the situation, so they jump to a decision that they may label as discernment, but is often one of false discernment.
(Example of my advisement for seminarians looking for ministry positions.)
Now, truth be told. When we look back over these blocks to discernment, don’t they tie right back to our earlier verses which described the degree of discernment as a coefficient of spiritual maturity. Think about that for a moment.
A person that is maturing spiritually is experiencing a less judgmental spirit in their life. A person that is growing in their dependence on God is seeing a diminishment of suspicion, mistrust, and fear in their lives. A heart that is becoming more like Christ is a heart that is experiencing increasing peace, and is settled.
So if we can eliminate some of these blocks to spiritual discernment in our hearts and prayer lives, what would be some keys to Godly discernment? How about. . .
SEEING THE UNSEEN THROUGH THE SPIRIT
Look at Jesus words in John 12. Turn there with me. John 12:47 (READ THROUGH VERSE 50).
There are at least two really important statements that Jesus makes here. First, “I didn’t come to judge the world, but to save the world.” What a great check at moments of spiritual discernment. Are we sharing what we are discerning to pass judgment on someone, or to help them? To save them?
Most of American society knows the positions, the judgments of the religious right. . .but do they know we desire to see them saved? Are we looking at them through the eyes of physical judgment, or the eyes of a Spirit that wants that all men be saved?
But secondly, whatever Jesus spoke, He said was of the Father. By speaking with this eternal perspective. This command for everlasting life. This desire that all men would be saved. Jesus was able to see, and speak through the unseen lens of the Father.
For us today, that is the unseen lens of the Holy Spirit. When we want to pray with discernment, we pray, “God, help me to see the unseen through Your eyes. Help me to look at Your plan, Your purpose, and filter my discernment through that.”
What does this look like practically? Do you see homosexuals as abominable reprobates, or as lost people? Do you see black teenage moms as out of control sexually, or as young girls, children, searching for something of value in all the wrong places? Do you see post-abortive women as murderers, or as scarred and broken individuals in need of God’s healing touch?
It is one thing to eliminate judgmentalism from our lives. It is another to replace that physical lens of the seen with the spiritual lens of the Holy Spirit and the unseen so that we can begin discerning and seeing things the way God sees them.
Another key to Godly discernment in our prayer lives. . .
ABOUNDING LOVE
Turn with me to Matthew 7. Probably a familiar passage to many of us. But it really can help us open our eyes, no pun intended as you will see in a moment, and it can help us see the difference between judgment and discernment. Between seeing things in the physical world, and seeing things in the spiritual world. Matthew 7 (READ THROUGH VERSE 5).
Have you ever confused the command of the first verse with the truth of the fifth verse? Many people have. They love to jump on Matthew 7:1 and say, “See. Who are you to judge me? The Bible says you should not judge.”
But that isn’t what Jesus taught. In fact, we see in verse 5, that the removal of the speck is still needed. The difference is, when we are operating in the Spirit. Having already acknowledged our own spiritual handicap and having allowed God to cleanse our heart. Cleanse our motives. When we are ministering as spiritually mature Christians. That same effort to remove the speck is no longer an act of judgment, it is an act of spiritual discernment.
But think about this for a second. If you have a speck in your eye, who are you going to have remove it? Are you going to walk up to any old stranger on the street and say, “Hey, can you reach into my eye and get out whatever is in there?” Are you going to walk up to someone at your work place who you know is less than fond of you, and ask them to stick their finger in your eye?
Not me. If anyone is going to reach into my eye. Into one of the most sensitive parts of my entire body. I’m going to find Debbie (assuming I haven’t recently irritated her as I am prone to do). Maybe Jamie or Allie. Someone I know is going to be very careful. Is maybe even going to be hesitant to even do it because they don’t want to hurt me. Someone who loves me.
How about you? Do you like for someone who has been less than friendly to you. Someone who has not shown you any love or support. Do you like that person to walk up to you and say, “I’ve discerned jealousy in your life. God has told me to address your anger with you. I’m discerning that you aren’t living the way you should.” How well would you receive that?
I don’t know about you, but I just might tell that person to take a hike. At the very least, I might look at that person and say, “I don’t receive that as being from God.” Because I believe God’s Word speaks of godly discernment flowing from a heart of abounding love.
Now, love can be tough. When through love and prayer we are able to discern areas in people’s lives that God would have us talk to them about. . .we need to be willing to do it. Jesus doesn’t describe pulling out the plank, and then walking around watching people with specks in their eyes blinking, tearing up, struggling to see, and not doing anything to help them.
But it starts by purifying our heart, getting out our planks, and building relationships that allow us to speak into the person’s life in love.
One more important key.
PEACE FOR PERCEPTION
We talked about anxiety and unrest being a block to spiritual discernment. Conversely, being in a state of peace to perceive and discern what God is saying can unlock great power in our prayer lives.
Look at one more passage with me. Colossians 3. Colossians 3:12 (READ THROUGH VERSE 15).
In talking about this abounding love which should rule in our hearts, Paul also says to let the peace of God rule in our hearts. That word for rule is a word that describes acting as an arbitrator. What does an arbitrator do? He judges. He discerns the situation, and renders a decision. That arbitrator, judge, discernment empower for our hearts is the peace of God.
Solomon wrote, “One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after the wind.” Often, in our lives, there is too much labor and toil. Even in our minds as we evaluate, and rationalize, and determine all that is going on around us. We strive after the wind wondering what so and so must have been thinking, saying, or doing.
If want to learn to spiritually discern what is going on around us, we need to become aggressively calm. Focused on God. Purposefully waiting on Him. Ruled by the peace of God.
The older I get, the less I am willing to act on a situation or scenario that I am not yet at peace with. If I am uneasy. If my spirit, which I work diligently to keep in line with the Holy Spirit, is not at rest about a given decision. Then I’m not going to act on it. Not until I can be at peace with knowing that what I am discerning in my spirit is from God.
I Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
The things of God are spiritually discerned. But the process of spiritual discernment is contrary to the natural man. So we need to face our spirit of judgmentalism, and put it to death. We need to ask God to remove mistrust, suspicion, and fear from our thoughts towards others. We need to acknowledge our heart of unrest and anxiety.
And then we can allow the Holy Spirit to begin showing us the unseen. To begin speaking through our lives to others out of the Father’s abounding love. And we can live at peace as we truly discern the things of God in our relationships, community and prayer life.
Let me close with a warning and an admonishment. You can put down your Bibles, and your outlines, and look up here for a moment.
The warning. Reach very cautiously for the holster when you are pulling out the “discernment card.” Many a believer, even one’s gifted with discernment, have pulled the “discernment trigger” on someone, and shot them dead.
I speak from experience when I tell you that when someone sits across from you and tells you that God has told them to communicate something that they discern is amiss in your life, it can be a very devastating event. Especially if you are not convinced the person loves you or has your best interest in mind. And especially if you have been seeking God’s will, and have never sensed anything similar to what they are sharing in your spirit.
I believe this is why God reserves discernment for the spiritually mature. Because false discernment can be a deadly weapon.
The admonishment? When you are sensing a movement in your spirit to communicate something that you feel you have discerned from God. Make sure you have built the relationship of love, invested the time and energy, demonstrated a concern for God’s best for the person before you move in with “Thus saith the Lord.” It will make a world of difference in your effectiveness as a messenger for the Holy Spirit.
There is a time and a place. The specks need to be removed. May God grant us great grace and wisdom as we discern those necessary times and places in our lives, and the life of our church family. And as we unleash the power of discernment in our prayer walks.
Let’s pray together.
