MATURITY
Discernment – Attaining Christian maturity in the knowledge of Christ.
Joel 2:28
“And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.
As the Spirit speaks in dreams, visions and prophetic words in these last days, much of what will be revealed must be perceived both correctly and accurately.
If we are to move in divine discernment, our view of life must be pure and freed of all human thoughts and reactions. We will be focusing our message today on ‘The Gift of Discernment’.
Discernment is the ability to judge well, it is enlightenment, sensitivity…
(in Christian contexts) it is a perception minus the judgmental attitude with the desire to obtain spiritual guidance and understanding.
Discernment is a decision making process in which an individual makes a discovery that can lead to future action.
In the process God guides the individual to help them arrive at the best decision.
But in the Bible, Spiritual discernment is the grace to see into the unseen, it is a gift of the Spirit to perceive what is in the spirit. Its purpose is to see into the nature of that which is veiled – but the first veil that must be removed is the veil over our own hearts.
If we want to see what is unseen in the hearts of others, Christ needs to reveal first what is inside yours. If there be unforgiveness or bitterness, or resentment, this has to be dealt with first. These thoughts and reactions as bitterness, serve as jamming stations that inhibit our powers of discernment, they block us from hearing God.
Phil 1:9-10 NKJV
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ…
These thoughts and reactions as bitterness, serve as jamming stations that inhibit our powers of discernment, they block us from hearing God.
Phil 1:9-10
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ…NKJV
Abounding love brings discernment with it and releases us from all offense!
Matt 24:10-12
And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. NKJV
A major area of spiritual attack that has come against the church is in the sphere of church relationships, because Satan knows that a church divided against itself cannot stand! This is the influence of the spirit of this age which is represented in the Laodicean church – the lukewarm church (Rev 3:14), it is the last church in the book of Revelation, this is our generation!
Laodicea means ‘the right of the people’, it is ‘the lovers of themselves people’!
2 Tim 3:1-2
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money;
Perilous means high or increased demonic activity.
1 Tim 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
When people become lovers of themselves, that means there is less love for others as all the love is centered only to self which is purely selfishness. The love for money becomes very evident because love for self means self indulgence and self-gratification.
Love for self is the evidence that a ‘stronghold of cold love’ has developed within you. To preserve the quality of love in your heart, you must forgive those who have caused you to stumble – even if they don’t confess or ask for your forgiveness.
Every time you refuse to forgive a sin or weakness in another, though they may deserve your negative feelings, your heart not only hardens towards them, it hardens towards God. A hardened heart is a bitter heart, it will spring up and defile many – bitterness means unfulfilled revenge.
The beginning of true discernment will not come until we crucify our instinct to judge – that may take many months, it may even take years for others. There is a false discernment that is based on mistrust, suspicion and fear – you can recognize false discernment by the coldness around it.
False discernment may disguise itself as love, but if it does not originate in love – it comes out as criticism. True discernment is rooted deeply in love.
Every bitterness in our hearts only strengthen our instinct to judge the other person, and when we judge, we invite judgement to ourselves as well, Mat 7:1-2
This is the main reason why people have lost their ability to discern correctly in the spirit. When people who are bitter say that they have discernment, it is mostly a judgmental attitude that is based on suspicion, unforgiveness, and distrust.
Jesus demands that we understand our own need for His mercy, so that out of the grace which we have received, we can compassionately minister to others. We must always be conscious that the goal of Jesus is to save and not to judge.
The foundation must be laid correctly – if you will discern, you cannot react, no matter what they may have done to you. You must always remain forgiving in nature. If we do not move in divine forgiveness, we will walk in much deception. We will presume we have discernment when in truth, we are seeing through the veil of a critical spirit. We must know our weaknesses, for if we are blind to our sins, what we assume we discern in men is merely a reflection of ourselves. If we don’t move in love, we will become a menace to the body of Christ.
Matt 7:1-2
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Matt 7:3-5
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Repentance is the removal of logs within our vision, it is the beginning of seeing clearly and truthfully. When God said “do not judge”, it is the same to the laws of the 10 commandments He gave us. The judgmental, carnal mind always sees the image of itself in others – without realizing it, he is actually seeing himself!
Jesus calls the person who judges as a hypocrite – a deceiver, a fake, impostor, liar, pretender, a story teller.
5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
The only way we can help is not by judging but by seeing clearly. We won’t see clearly until we have been through a deep and thorough repentance, until the instinct to judge is totally uprooted. When we point out the sins of others, we are taking the specks out of their own eyes – the eyes are the most tender, most sensitive part of the human body.
How do you take the speck out of someone’s eyes? Very carefully! You must win their trust which means you must consistently demonstrate an attitude that does not judge or condemn.
To help people, we must first see clearly! When we can see clearly, we can see where a persons vision is obstructed – develop trust between you and remove their speck without judging or condemning them. If you seek to have a heart that does not condemn, if you truly crucify your instinct to judge, then you have laid the true foundation for the gift of discernment.
You will be unstained by human corruption and you will be ready for the visions and insights from God. Life, as we know it, is based upon the condition of our hearts.
This is very important because the gifts of the Spirit must pass through our hearts before they are presented to the world.
In other words, if the hearts are not right, the gifts will not be right either.
When the heart has unrest, it cannot hear clearly from God – learn to mistrust our judgment when your heart is bitter, angry, ambitious, or harboring a strife – ask God to clean you…
Through a clean heart, the true gift of discernment is revealed. That’s when we truly begin to mature!