Discerning Doctrine T.E. clip

So, what is discernment, ladies? Let's first look at what discernment is not. We often hear quoted in relation to discernment this verse. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. First John 4 .1. Most often in American evangelicalism today, this verse is used in the context of discerning new private revelations. James W. Goll from CharismaMag .com, in a podcast he's done on discernment, teaches a series revolving around the presupposition that a believer should be receiving personal revelation from God.

And this is the very common teaching that centers on discernment, how to discern the hard impressions, thoughts, and subjective revelation one believes is from God. Quote, learning to listen with discernment means that you begin to recognize the voice of God so well that other voices sound familiar.

End quote. From Prophet Learn to Listen with Discernment by James W. Goll, CharismaMag .com. I have to lay this out because if the common teaching that Christians should be receiving personal revelations is true, then yes, we should be taught how to discern those hard impressions, thoughts, dreams, and subjective experiences, as we would have to learn how to differentiate between our own thoughts, demonic influence, or God's voice.

But what if that presupposition is false? If God has already spoken, and we have all we need in the scriptures for godliness and good works, then there's no need to discern those subjective experiences.

Now, I've gone through how scripture contradicts this very popular teaching on hearing the voice of God. This topic is dealt with in the Let's Talk About Lysa Turker's book, Is God Speaking to Me series, and the Two Opposing Doctrines, Sola Scriptura vs. Discerning God's Voice episode.

There are also some very good resources which helped me on this topic that I would highly recommend to you, such as Jim Osmond's God Doesn't Whisper, Greg Kugel's Decision Making and the Will of God lectures, and Justin Peter's lectures titled Clouds Without Water.

These men have gone into this topic in much more detail and do a much better job arguing for the sufficiency of scripture than I do. So, if there's no need to discern hard impressions, experiences, dreams, and personal revelations, well then, what is this verse talking about?

What is it that we are discerning? Let's take a little time to look at this verse in context.