I've been writing a lot about discernment lately, and that's really all I've been wanting to write about. Is this the Holy Spirit moving in me? or is it just that I'm shocked at what I see going on about me? I think it's both.
Maybe I should I say I've been writing about our lack of discernment lately. And by 'our' I truly mean Our, Our Christian family, Our brothers and sisters in Christ, Our Church which was built by Our messiah Jesus Christ who shed His precious blood for Our salvation. And this leads to the question are we lacking in discernment or are we just terrified of the accusation of being judgmental?
If we're lacking in discernment, why are we lacking? We have been given the all the tools we need to discern properly and lovingly, we have the Scriptures which are the word of God and our top tool (Hebrews 4:12), we have the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and we have each other - brother and sisters in Christ and sharers in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 Paul lists some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit
8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.
Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, the distinguishing of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. These are all such incredible, beautiful gifts, and I wish everyone was gifted equally but we're a family and that's not how families work. Think of the older sibling who is the football star while his sister is the math wiz and the younger boy who couldn't catch a wiffle ball to save his life or do math with out counting on his fingers but can train any dog to obey any command. That's how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work - all different gifts given to different brothers and sisters at different levels and we as a family need to figure out how to work together. If we can't do the math we need to ask our sister to help us with our homework. If we can't catch the football we need to ask our brother to play catch with us, and if our dog keeps biting the mailman we depend on our younger brother to help train our dog to stop biting that poor mailman.
The Distinguishing of Spirits is an awesome gift, it's what we call Discernment, and it would be so wonderful if we all had that gift in megadoses. But we don't all have the same level of discernment so we who have discernment need to share that gift with our family, and we who don't have it need to listen to our brothers that do and follow their lead.
We as a culture lack discernment, not just in theological matters, but in just about every topic! It is because we have raised a culture to be self-focused and to just believe everything they are told by the media or false teachers rather than taking the time to do personal investigation.
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