discernment = to see
As an ex new-ager, I have prayed for discernment a lot. Through the process of leaving everything I knew to be ‘true’ and ‘safe’ I had to abandon it all (literally) and learn again how to move but with Christ within me. Discernment carried me through those early days, weeks and months. This discernment was God-given and not something I tried to do. All of a sudden I felt repelled by what I did in the past: decisions, work, words… This naturally took me to repentance, deep, long, painful repentance.
Besides trusting God (around the unknown), discernment is probably the #2 element that I pray for the most. I have studied discernment and through my understanding of it, it still wasn’t part of my day to day reality. Because discernment is the ability to think biblically about all areas of life, you need to go through a lot of experiences to continue ‘testing’ your discernemt, learning and growing with the Holy Spirit guidance through God’s truth. Discernment is indispensable to an uncompromising life.
A simplified way of understanding discernment is the ability to know between right and wrong, good and evil, error and truth.
In general, discernment is accurately evaluating ourselves, people, and situations. We discern things correctly by clearly perceiving what is true, right, and essential.
Truth… A word that now is used to hold up someone’s opinion as an unchangeable and innate element to themselves so no one can rebuke or correct them. Seems like the more people know, the more excuses they come up with to not act with complete integrity and accountability.
Many people use knowledge as power, but wisdom is strength (Proverbs 24:5-6) which carries us further than knowledge. Knowledge usually wants to be known, but wisdom knows when to stay quiet. knowledge wants to be seen and heard, while wisdom is meek, gentle and guiding. An important part of wisdom is discernment. Discernment is almost extinct in a world full of distractions, quarrels, anger, hurt, self-idolatry and vengeance. Discernment is confused with a ‘higher self calling’ or even a ‘my truth’. This is NOT discernment.
I won’t pretend I have everything figured out, I do not, far from it actually, that is why I count and rely on Jesus. He knows, I do not. I simply put 2 + 2 together (based on the Word of scripture) and share what has helped me, an imperfect servant to the Lord, to hopefully help others. One thing I know about discernment is that I need Jesus to help me every single day by attuning to His Will, His strength, His courage, and His eyes to I can see clearly.
I had a bizarre experience one day after coming out of being sick and alone (with Jesus) for around 5 days. Through feeling sick my vision felt like it had changed. I was mainly with my eyes closed during those days as the light bothered my eyes and gave me a big headache. as I opened my eyes as the sun went down, my glasses also seemed like they didn’t work. My visions was blurry and my limited understanding of it had made me give up on finding out the cause.
At the end of the sickness I went for a walk down to my local coffee shop. As I walked outside looking at the wonders of God’s creation I tell myself “I wonder if my vision will stay like this forever… What would be the worse case scenario of this situation?” As I thought about this a pin dropped… “I’ll have to wear glasses forever” and I God graciously came in then and said “I am you glasses”. I laughed out loud, I cried. I haven’t cried that hysterically in a very long time. Classic…! I NEED God to see properly!! He IS my glasses! I cannot discern anything without Him. I cannot see myself or others besides when I am carrying His grace, mercy and glory with me.
here are three ways to strengthen your discernment muscle
Believe
Listen
Trust
It made me question all my past “Have I been forcing ‘my vision’ this whole time to see what I wanted to see rather than what God has been wanting to show me?” In short, yes.
I had been going through life actually blind. Forcing my own will because I didn’t see the bigger picture only God can reveal at the right time.
After this discernment has been a big part of my lesson. To see how God sees other people, how God sees me, and how God sees situations.
Through discernment I am able to surrender my ow understanding(knowledge) and lean into Him for clarity (wisdom).
He is such a gracious and loving Father!
He wants us to
One thing we have that other people do not, is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit works in mysterious and beautiful ways. He guides, counsels and also works in our heart to bring change from the inside out, which then is seen externally as the fruits of the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit within us, we are just another person learning words without them going towards our soul.
Interesting aspect of the christian faith is that it is not about how much you know, how many verses you can recite, how much of the bible you have read. It is about how the Holy Spirit works within you and brings out Christ-like actions. We are not saved by these works, but by the precious blood of Jesus who died for our sins. We are saved by sheer and unmerited grace.
Even as saved believers, we sin… There is a cycle we have to pay ttention to: sin, repent, do not do it again (Holy Spirit helps by changing what attracted us to that to start with)
Discernment then leads to spiritual maturity. As you grow in discernment, you grow in spiritual maturity. It is a process and not something you wake up having.
Quotes:
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 teaches that it is the responsibility of every Christian to be discerning: "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."
"Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). According to the New Testament, discernment is not optional for the believer, it is required.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ~ Romans 12:2
Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right. - Charles Spurgeon
Let’s pray
Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit and for your Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us. Your grace saves us and your mercy keeps us alive. We confess we have trouble maintaining integrity and we fall into sin. We pray you stay close to us and be our eyes to see situations and other people how you want us to see them. We pray that your heavenly voice is with us every single day and we clearly know what is Your will so we can follow it. We give thanks for the Holy Bible, you breathed out wisdom into scripture which serves as our guide for Christian living and maturing in our faith. In Jesus name. Amen.