What Biblical Discernment IS....and What it is NOT.

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The first question would be, like, what is spiritual discernment and why is it so important for us?

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In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 10, Paul talks about discerning, distinguishing between spirits, discerning between spirits, and having the spiritual gift of the discerning of spirits.

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So each believer is endowed with different levels of expertise in different categories of discernment. Some people, some people, for example, they can discern the

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Holy Spirit, but they can't discern demons. Well, there are lots of ways you could talk about spiritual discernment.

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And when I use the word discernment, I'm always talking about spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment has to do with the

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Holy Spirit, you know, being guided by the Holy Spirit. And I think this is one of the gifts that in our day and age, we are not walking in in the way that we should.

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This sense of being able to discern by the Holy Spirit what actually is going on.

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I'm talking in every situation. You know, listen, usually when people start in discernment, they discern more demons than anything else.

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I know I did. When I started out in that gift of discerning of spirits, I was more prone to see the devil than God.

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I will talk discernment, but I mean spiritual discernment, which is by definition, being willing to be guided and finding ways to open to the guidance of the

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Holy Spirit. You and I do not learn to hone the gift of discerning of spirits that is available to all of us, according to the word of God in First Corinthians, chapter 12.

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Then you know what? We're going to have a lot more conflict in our lives than we need to have. We're going to walk into a lot of situations that we don't need to.

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And you end up going, how did I get here? And had we asked the Lord at the beginning for the gift of the discerning of spirits, we would have picked up very quickly.

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There's something off here. There's something not right there. The Holy Spirit. Here's the point. The Holy Spirit can manifest in many different ways.

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The Holy Spirit represents oil, right? There's these different representations of the Holy Spirit.

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Ignatius has a definition that I really like, finding God in all things in order that we might love and serve

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God in all. And that definition is very, very simple, very meaningful. And it has to do with alignment, really.

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And that is aligning ourselves with God's purposes and being willing to move in that way.

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If I'm discerning, there's something off. Like in that case with that victim, we ended up shutting down a whole trafficking ring simply because I stopped.

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I listened and I went, Lord, show me what is going on. There's something not right. Don't ignore that thing on the inside.

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And if we're not careful, we'll get so used to discerning the Holy Spirit's movement in one way that we fail to recognize him moving in another way.

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I learned well, I can discern Jezebel, but I had to learn then how to expand my discerning gift in order to discern the

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Spirit of God. So discernment, according to the dictionary definition, is the quality of being able to grasp or comprehend what is obscure.

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And it stresses the power to distinguish or select what is true or appropriate. So being able to sift through truth from error, right from wrong.

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Primary word in the Greek language for discernment is the word diakrisis. Diakrisis, it means distinguishing a clear discrimination, judging.

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And in the verb form of the same word as the word anachrono, it means to distinguish, to separate out, to test.

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Test the spirits. A mandate, a command from the Apostle John, test the spirits.

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Spirits meaning persons, persons. Whether they be human or whether they be angelic, test the persons.

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Dear friends, we are to test all things, right? 1 Thessalonians 5 21 says, test all things and hold fast to that which is good.

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Discernment is not an option for the Christian. It is our duty, it is our mandate to exercise discernment.

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We are reminded to do this also in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 21 and 22.

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Not despise prophesying, but to examine. And the same word is used to test what we're hearing.

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One of the things that makes false teachers so appealing and yet so dangerous at the same time is that not everything that false teachers teach is false, okay?

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Some of it is right, but there's enough error and heresy mixed in with it to corrupt the entire thing.

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This is critical. It is critical because Satan exists. And because demons exist.

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And because they operate a kingdom of lies that dominates the world.

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You know, a broken clock is right twice a day. False teachers do get some things right.

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But it is that mixture of error and heresy that corrupts the entire thing.

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It just saturates the whole thing and corrupts it. Lies coming out of the kingdom of darkness, half -truths, poison and kill.

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Stay away from any kind of instruction or teaching that is not true.

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It was the Lutheran commentator Linsky who said this, the worst form of wickedness consists of perversions of the truth. The worst form of wickedness consists of perversions of the truth.

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Although, he said, many look upon these perversions with indifference and regard them as harmless.

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Any perversion of the truth is evil. Anything evil is poisonous, destructive, damaging.

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And that is why discernment is so important for us. So, as believers, this is foundational to our

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Christian life. We must discern what is evil and what is good, what is false and what is true.

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This is a direct call for exercising spiritual critical powers. Welcome to the

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Thoroughly Equipped podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry, books, conferences,

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Bible studies, etc. to Scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, that all

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Scripture is God -breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God. Hey ladies, welcome to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped.

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If you are new to TE, welcome. So, if you are new, you are coming in the middle of a series, kind of on this kind of sidetrack.

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We took a detour off of a series I've been doing on discerning female teachers within the popular

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American evangelical sphere, looking at, assessing whether they hold to the authority of Scripture, looking at what else they think about Scripture, do they believe it is sufficient enough and efficacious enough.

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We looked at does she proclaim Christ and Him crucified, and I kind of took a sidetrack or a detour into doctrine, because my final question in learning whether to discern a female teacher will be about her own discernment, assessing or discerning whether she is a discerning woman.

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And to do that, I wanted to look very deeply at what doctrine is, good doctrine and the blessings that come from good doctrine, which

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I did an episode on that, false doctrine and false teachers, and the detriment to our spiritual walk that comes from believing false doctrine.

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And today I wanted to talk about what is discernment. In this term, discernment has taken on many meanings in evangelicalism today.

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So I'd like to talk a bit about what discernment is and what it isn't and what

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Scripture says about it. Most of you listening and watching to this podcast are women.

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I think I have like 90 % of you are women, and that's good. You know, that's the target audience

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I'm trying to reach out to. So as a woman in the Christian and evangelical sphere, you probably have read at some point

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Titus 2 and its instruction to older women to teach the younger certain godly attributes to be encouraged in and to pursue.

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But what does discernment have to do with Titus 2?

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Well, I believe it has everything to do with Titus 2. When Paul instructs

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Titus and by proxy other elders and shepherds of the church, he instructs the elders to teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

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And instruct the older women in the flock to teach what is good. So how does one come to know sound doctrine and that which is good so that they can teach it?

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This is the practice of discernment. The ability to know truth from lie, evil from good.

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And as we will see, it's an ability that one matures into. One person must exercise, practice, and train themselves in.

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We older women must learn to separate truth from lie, evil from good, so that we can teach and do that which is good to and for others.

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This is the very service of love. So what is discernment?

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Well, let's first look at what discernment is not. We often hear quoted in relation to discernment this verse.

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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.

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1 John 4. Now there's quite a bit on discernment out there. The question is, is it biblical?

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So in my research, I found that a lot of it is not. And I want to show you some of the most popular teachings surrounding discernment and why they are off.

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Now, in my mind, there are three main spheres of Christianity in evangelicalism today.

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There are many branches and denominations within these, but it's just my way of making distinctions.

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I tend to, you know, study these branches and denominations, and then I'll categorize them and place them in one of these three spheres.

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And there can be mixing of teachings and blendings of doctrine within these, but it's the foundational teachings that are found within these three spheres that help me differentiate between these.

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And it's these three spheres that I want to present to you. And then I want to look at and present to you what they teach about discernment to help you understand the falsehood within it.

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So let's dive in. The first I want to look at falls within what I identify as progressive

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Christianity. Progressive Christianity is not Christianity.

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I'm just going to flat out say it there, but it calls itself Christian for practical and moral reasons.

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The main teachings within progressive Christianity revolve around the philosophy that God is love and that God resides within his creation.

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So other popular religions can easily be imbibed within progressive

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Christianity because of this foundational belief. New Age, Unitarianism, mysticism, and other paganistic religions flow freely within progressive

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Christianity because these fundamentally believe that God resides within creation.

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That man is essentially good and love is the outflow of God and the good that is within man.

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Now, I state that to lay the groundwork for the first teaching that comes from Ruth Haley Barton on spiritual discernment.

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A little info on Barton. She is a very popular author who has written much on spiritual disciplines.

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And what is a popular teaching within New Age and progressive Christianity known as the true and false self.

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Barton and other teachers in this type of religion or this type of sphere take on certain psychological teachings that the true self is connected to the divine and the ego suppresses that divine.

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It's a battle between the true self and the false self. And the goal of religion or a relationship, as they would call it, is to rid oneself of their ego and find the true self.

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The ego is all that a person takes on to submit to social, ethical, and certain moral standards.

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So that's why you can see there's this kind of pushing out of the ego, identifying these social, ethical, and moral things that suppress our true self.

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And therefore, you know, it's a rejection of, eventually, a rejection of ethical and moral standards to be able to arrive at the true self or to self -actualize as psychological terms could be played out there.

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But where do spiritual disciplines come in? And spiritual disciplines is a very

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Christian mystic type of teaching. It's highly important in Christian mysticism.

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And that's where I would put Barton. I place her under the progressive sphere because progressive

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Christianity takes on and imbibes a lot of Christian mysticism. That is the more religious act, the spiritual act in it.

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And Christian mystics do teach and understand this true self, false self.

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It's very big. Also, you hear that talk in New Age as well. So, again, this kind of idea that things are overlapping.

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But I would put Ruth Haley Barton more in the Christian mystical section within the bigger, broader, progressive evangelical sphere.

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So she teaches a lot about spiritual disciplines. She's written several books on spiritual disciplines.

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And as you will see, specifically spiritual disciplines such as silence and solitude are where you can access the true self, how you learn to know the true self, the divine within.

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And so you'll see her bring these in as something essential to grow in discernment.

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But for today's topic, I want you to ask, as you are listening to this, what is it we are exercising discernment on or what are we discerning?

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How does one discern and why do we discern? So these are going to be three questions that I want you to keep in mind as I present these clips to you.

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And I will draw them out as I go throughout this episode.

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But those are the things that I want you to know that I'm focusing on when I'm listening to something, a teaching about discernment is what are we exercising discernment on?

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How does one discern and why do we discern? So in this first clip, we'll see what her definition of spiritual discernment is.

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So let's listen in. The first question would be like, what is spiritual discernment and why is it so important for us?

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Well, there are lots of ways you could talk about spiritual discernment. And when I use the word discernment, I'm always talking about spiritual discernment.

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Spiritual discernment has to do with the Holy Spirit, you know, being guided by the Holy Spirit. And that word means something to me.

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The word spiritual means of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. So I will talk discernment, but I mean spiritual discernment, which is by definition, being willing to be guided and finding ways to open to the guidance of the

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Holy Spirit. Ignatius has a definition that I really like, finding God in all things in order that we might love and serve

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God in all. So he's one of the fathers of the church. And that definition is very, very simple, very meaningful.

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And it has to do with alignment, really. And that is aligning ourselves with God's purposes and being willing to move in that way.

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Okay, so we can see here what Ruth believes spiritual discernment is, that it is centered.

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We are to discern on identifying where the Holy Spirit is active and moving.

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This answers the first question here. What are we discerning? The Holy Spirit. She gives us more, which is very helpful to her understanding on the deeper teaching of what and why we need discernment.

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I have another definition that's my own because it has a few more components to it. If you'd like me to offer that up.

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It's an increasing capacity, and every word makes a difference, and I'll unpack it a little bit, but an increasing capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity of God, both in the ordinary moments of our lives and in the larger decisions of our lives.

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So the word increasing capacity is my way of saying nobody gets perfect at discernment.

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Nobody is perfect at discernment, but we can increase our capacity. So that phrase really matters to me.

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Increasing our capacity, even though none of us will be perfect at this while we're on this side of heaven, and increasing capacity to recognize and respond.

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So to recognize means that I become aware of God's presence and what's happening spiritually speaking in a moment, but we all know that we can recognize it but not respond.

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And so Jonah is someone in Scripture who definitely recognized the voice of God in his life, but he actively resisted that voice, and he said, no,

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I'm not going that way. I'm going my own way. And so it's one thing to recognize it. It's another thing to respond and to align ourselves with what

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God is doing. So to recognize but also to respond and to follow whatever it is that we're hearing from God.

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So to recognize and respond to the presence and the activity. So the presence is that awareness, that consciousness of God's presence as our ultimate orienting reality, and we can grow in our capacity to experience ourselves to be in that presence, and to recognize the fact that the presence of God is here now.

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So to recognize the presence and to know that I'm always in that presence. I can never fall out of that presence.

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God's presence is the air that I breathe. It's the water that I swim in. But then also there are moments when

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God seems to be up to something, and so we're able to recognize, oh, it's not just the presence right now.

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It's that God's active, and I can recognize God's activity, and I can move with God's activity.

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I can participate in what God is doing. So there's the habit of being aware of God's presence, but then there's also the ability to recognize when

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God's up to something and to align myself with it. So, you know, the presence and the activity of God, both in the ordinary moments of my life.

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So that's the habit of discernment. That's beginning to recognize God's presence and God's activity in all the ordinary moments of my life.

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But then there are these larger decisions in our lives, too, where we say, I want to make this decision in God.

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This decision is of such magnitude. So getting married or my education or, you know, serving in a particular place and vocation, what to do with a marriage that may be struggling or not working.

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All those kinds of things are those major decisions of life where there are actual practices associated with discernment that we can enter into when the decisions are of such magnitude that we know we want to make our decisions in God, clearly guided by God.

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OK, so according to Ruth Haley Barton, spiritual discernment is increasing our capacity to identify the works of the

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Holy Spirit in the minute and major experiences of our lives. That would involve daily activities and even major decisions that one might need to make.

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And why do we need to discern? Well, in essence, so that we can respond and align ourselves with God's will.

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She wants us to understand that we can learn to not only identify God's presence, but his activity so we can participate in the presence and activity.

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She clarifies that the presence is always there, though I would differ with her on her teaching that God's presence is the air we breathe, the water we swim in, etc.

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Just so you know, ladies, this is a heretical view of God coming forth from the pantheistic teaching within Christian, within progressive

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Christianity. Or this can come from, at the very least, a panentheistic teaching on God, who is described as being in his creation.

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The Christian teaching is that God is a trinity. One God, three persons, each with an active role in creation.

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God is not creation, nor is he in creation, but is an uncreated being, wholly separate from his creation, but very active in and with his creation.

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Active in even the smallest particle to the largest form of his creation, keeping it and sustaining all of it.

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This next clip goes into our teachings on the practice of discernment.

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So speaking of practice, what does that look like, unpacked, kind of concretely? Well, first of all, the first movement in the discernment practice is the most challenging one, and it is the prayer for indifference.

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Indifference to anything but the will of God. Not apathy, but I am indifferent to anything but the will of God. And that movement right there is really challenging to us as people.

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It's very challenging to the false self to want to open up to God's will versus my own. And so when we know that we're entering into discernment, we begin to pray for the gift of discernment or the gift of indifference.

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And indifference is, you know, something that gets given. It's a gift. It's not something that we can accomplish for ourselves.

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And you might wonder, where do you get that idea biblically? And I go to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, when the angel came to her and began to describe

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God's will, she said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your will. That is by definition a prayer of indifference.

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She was indifferent to matters of personal comfort. She was indifferent to how other people would view her.

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She was indifferent to the matter of convenience. There would even be pain, you know, as God's will was revealed and unfolded in her life.

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But she was indifferent to all of that. She said, I'm passionate about God's will. And so whatever it is, let it be with me according to your will.

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She states here that one must ask for indifference to the will of God. Basically, the desire to do nothing but what

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God wills. She sees this scripturally in the life of Mary and Jesus and believes it is essential to putting discernment into practice.

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Now at this point, because I have two other teachings on discernment that I want to present to you, I'm not going to tackle the problems with her teachings here just yet.

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But I do want to make a point here. I think that every Christian is actually given this gift when

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God creates a new heart, makes one a new man, and gives the

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Holy Spirit to grow them in God's grace. That gift is one of the things that separates us from unbelievers as we, because of Christ and the gospel, now desire to do

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God's will. The question is, where do we find that will? Is it through discerning the presence of God and where he is active in our lives?

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Or is it more objective than that? Did God write down all we need to know and do in an actual book?

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That is what is clearly missing from her teachings here. She will, of course, mention scripture, but only in context to use it to quote -unquote penetrate our lives.

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Scripture being God's revealed word and will is conveniently left out of this discussion.

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This next clip is where she emphasizes the importance of silence and solitude in cultivating discernment.

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To her, true discernment starts with discerning the true self from the false self so that we can align our true self, of course, with the will of God.

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This is a mark of maturity in a person, according to Ms. Barton.

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Once you get past that, then you pray the prayer for wisdom. You enter into the place of really quietly trusting

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God for God's will in your life. If you're practicing solitude and silence in your life in an effective way, by that I mean you're practicing solitude and silence in such a way that you are able to be with God with what is and you're able to notice what's going on, spiritually speaking, and you can bring your discernment into your solitude and silence where you're accustomed to listening for the one true voice in your life.

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And that true voice, if it's true, will at times really challenge us in those false self spaces and will challenge our own agendas and will, by God's grace and through self -examination, maybe even reveal to us what parts of ourselves, and this might sound harsh, but hear it gently, where there might be something in me that needs to die in order for the will of God to come forth.

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And so the prayer for indifference takes us to that place. Is there something in me that needs to die in order for the will of God to come forth in my life?

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And that's a place of real spiritual wrestling versus just choosing what I think I want. Now, we're talking right now about a very mature kind of spirituality.

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It takes a lot of spiritual maturity to engage with God's will at this level.

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So I almost want to say don't try this at home. Don't think that this is going to be something that can come about in your life if you haven't done some of the other things that are necessary.

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So, for instance, a really healthy process of self -examination in one's life where I can actually tell the difference between my false self and my true self so that in a discernment process

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I can actually choose what's truest rather than choosing just what will make my false self feel comfortable.

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Now, there's some fine nuance in there. There's a lot of maturity that needs to be there. The first thing we have to be able to discern spiritually is between what's true and what's false within ourselves.

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Not what's true and what's false in this decision, not what's true and what's false in the world out there, but to learn to discern what's true and what's false within myself.

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That's one of the most important first steps in discernment, and that's spiritual maturity.

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You're really growing in your maturity when you're able to discern what's true and what's false within yourself. Okay, so according to Ruth Haley Barton, a popular teacher that I place within Christian mysticism because of our teachings regarding the divine within and the use of spiritual disciplines to connect with that divinity, spiritual discernment is discerning the presence of the

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Holy Spirit in our life and experiences by first implementing the prayer of indifference to first discern our true self from our false self so we can align our true self with God's act of will.

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So again, keep in mind that what or who we are discerning according to what

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I deem the Christian mystics teaching on discernment is the Holy Spirit. By the use of certain spiritual disciplines, silence, solitude, and prayers, this is the how, so that, the why, we can align ourselves with God's will.

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Now let's look at our next Christian sphere, the purpose -driven, seeker -sensitive

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Christian sphere. For a little background about this clip, it's from the popular

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TBN show, Better Together. Better Together is a show hosted by typically

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Laurie Crouch, wife of Mike Crouch, the president of TBN, and host of its own popular show,

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Praise. Mike Crouch actually hosts that show. Better Together brings in some of the most popular female speakers in Christianity today.

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It, in my opinion, is the quintessential women's ministry show that exemplifies the mass teachings of purpose -driven theology in the evangelical sphere today.

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In this specific episode, Laurie Crouch, Christine Kane, Havilah Cunnington, Stephanie Eich, and Jada Edwards are discussing the importance of discernment in achieving your calling.

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In the episode, Christine Kane tells the story of how her ministry, A21, which fights sex trafficking, how that ministry came about.

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She uses the story to explain why discernment is important for the Christian. One day, we were walking through the streets of Greece, and I just stopped, like full -on just stopped, and my husband said, like, what's wrong?

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And I went, something is off. Now, I'm not given to doing something as dramatic as that, and we had not yet totally started

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A21, but we were looking for where are we going to put an office, and I just stopped, and I went, there's something not right here.

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And he said, Christine, what do you mean? I said, there's just something not right, and it looked like just normal businesses. It was a strip mall.

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It just looked like normal kind of some food stores and just some different retail outlets.

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And as we went, I said, I think we need to go and get some help. There's just something going on here that shouldn't be here.

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Anyway, to cut a very long story short, we went, we got the authorities and found out that in that strip mall that looks so perfect, looks so good on the outside.

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Actually, there were several brothels that were operating, and there were many women that were the victims of human trafficking that were behind that.

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And you go, well, what was that, Chris? What made you just decide that? I want to say, you know, in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 10,

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Paul talks about discerning, distinguishing between spirits, discerning between spirits and having the spiritual gift of the discerning of spirits.

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And I think this is one of the gifts that in our day and age, we are not walking in in the way that we should.

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This sense of being able to discern by the Holy Spirit what actually is going on.

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I'm talking in every situation, from reading your social media to walking out in society, to things that are happening in our homes with our children, with our spouses, with our friends.

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We are so quick to react in the flesh and just kind of react to what's happening on this level, on the natural level, because in many cases, and I know there are those of you, some of you, you've been watching this every day and you've been thinking,

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I don't even know if I believe this stuff that they're talking about. Does this really, really happen? Well, this one will show you.

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You've seen so much of the chaos in the world, so much of the pain, so much of the suffering, so many things are going on.

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And there are a lot of natural causes for a lot of the pain and the suffering and the injustice that is going on.

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But if we ever forget that behind a lot of what is happening on the earth today, there are spiritual forces.

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The scripture talks about that. For we do not war against flesh and blood, but against powers, against principalities, that means whatever situation we walk in, you have to understand there are two things happening.

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There is what we see with our eyes, the natural realm, but there is a supernatural realm that is operating.

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Okay, so we're still keeping our three questions at the forefront of our mind to see how these women answer them.

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What are we discerning? How are we discerning? And why are we discerning? According to Christine Kane, discernment is used to decipher what is going on in the spiritual realm.

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She said that there is a physical realm, but there is this spiritual realm that is behind the physical.

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So what are we discerning would be the works of the spiritual realm that we come across in our day -to -day experiences.

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If you and I do not learn to hone the gift of discerning of spirits that is available to all of us according to the

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Word of God in 1 Corinthians 12, then you know what? We're going to have a lot more conflict in our lives than we need to have.

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We're going to walk into a lot of situations that we don't need to. And you end up going, how did

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I get here? And had we asked the Lord at the beginning for the gift of the discerning of spirits, we would have picked up very quickly.

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There's something off here. There's something not right there. You know, my child is not really possessed by the devil.

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There is something going on in this situation. You know, maybe. And I think we would stop a lot of our own heartache.

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I think a lot of our arguments at home would actually take a backseat if we understood how to do this.

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Now, I've had to hone this gift because if you know anything about me, I'm kind of like Joan of Arc.

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Man, I'm going to pick up a sword. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to run so far ahead of God. I haven't even asked

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God if He sent me. I haven't even asked God if I'm going into the pit of hell. I'm like, I'm going to go charge hell with a water pistol.

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Let's go. Okay, that is me. And I have had to learn in order to survive in life and not be taken out by the enemy.

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The Bible says there is an enemy and he walks around the earth seeking whom he may devour.

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May I suggest that if you and I learn to hone the gift of the discerning of spirits, you would learn to go, oh, not today,

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Satan. No, I'm not walking into that trap. I am not taking that bait. I am not going to buy into that argument.

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No, I'm not going to jump into that argument on Twitter. I am not going to jump into that argument at home. I'm not going to make that phone call.

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Or before I make that phone call, I'm actually going to ask God, what is going on here? Lord, what do

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I need to know? Now here's our why. So because the devil goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and she uses a statement from Scripture to convey that Satan wishes to trip us up or devour our purpose or accomplishments for that day, if we honed our spiritual gift of discernment, we would be able to see the spiritual side of the experience to be able to reject the devil's deceptions or misleadings.

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A side interjection here regarding this verse that she quotes, 1 Peter is all about submitting to authority and suffering, that when we

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Christians receive sufferings in this world, and we will, we are to stand firm in the faith, stand firm not in the faith that we will accomplish our purpose, but to stand firm in the gospel and the promises that God will work out even our suffering for our good and his glory, that he will save, he is faithful, and he will return to judge all in which we in Christ have escaped the wrath to come.

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So Peter in the final chapter of 1 Peter, here is encouraging the shepherds to guard the flock and the young to be sober minded and self -controlled.

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Verse 5, Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

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Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

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Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

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Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

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And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

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So the devil is not wishing to devour your purpose, but to actually devour you by taking your faith.

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And we resist him when we are firm in our faith, when we humble ourselves and become sober minded, knowing that suffering comes to all who want to follow

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Christ. Really, we know that the world hates Christ, and because of that, they will hate his disciples.

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I just want to mention this because this is a verse that I have seen used by Christine Kane and other purpose -driven teachers to teach that the devil is focused on keeping you from accomplishing your purpose.

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And therefore, if he kept God from working his will in your life, that therefore then puts a lot of power in Satan's hands.

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Anyways, back to the clip. You know, can I tell you, when I do do that, it is amazing the wisdom, the insight, the clarity that God gives me.

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I can quickly, I can learn when to close my mouth. I can learn when to open my mouth. I can learn what's going to be a waste of my time.

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I avoid a lot of unnecessary heartache, and I can quickly, if I'm discerning there's something off.

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Like in that case with that victim, we ended up shutting down a whole trafficking ring simply because I stopped.

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I listened and I went, Lord, show me what is going on. There's something not right. Don't ignore that thing on the inside.

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So the popular teaching regarding discernment within purpose -driven theology is that Christians are called to discern the spiritual realm of experiences.

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That's our what. Through inner impressions. Through the gut. That's the how.

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So that we can accomplish our purpose. That's our why. This can be big and small purposes as she describes, such things as going into a conversation as a small thing, or going into even starting a ministry to stop sex trafficking as she presented her own life experience in ministry as an example.

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I want to add here that most purpose -driven teaching on discernment, as I have researched, is entirely, well, almost entirely focused on discerning the voice of God.

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This is essential to their teaching. We must hear from God to know and receive our calling and purpose so that we can accomplish it.

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And so within purpose -driven theology, discernment centers on differentiating between God's voice, our voice, and Satan's voice.

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And we can see then how Cain's teachings here intertwines with this.

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The discerning of spirits is important so that we can continue to walk directed by God's voice and do not fall into Satan's distractions.

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So we should take this into consideration as we think about how discernment is described and implemented in these type of churches.

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Let's get at this last clip, which I would fit into the hyper -charismatic

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NAR sphere of Christianity. In this clip, you will see Jennifer LeClaire talk about the gift of discerning of spirits.

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Jennifer LeClaire was, for some time, senior editor of Charisma magazine, is senior leader of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has authored over 50 titles centered on spiritual gifts within the charismatic church, and sits on the

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Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, led by St. Cindy Jacobs.

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So she definitely is considered an apostle within the

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New Apostolic Reformation movement.

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So what is discernment according to Ms. LeClaire? Let's find out. So each believer is endowed with different levels of expertise in different categories of discernment.

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Some people, for example, they can discern the Holy Spirit, but they can't discern demons. So even the gift of discerning of spirits, sometimes people have a strength within that gift, right?

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That's why we have to continue to hone our gifts. That's why we have to continue to exercise our gifts.

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We have to keep practicing because, you know, listen, usually when people start in discernment... Oh, I didn't mean to look at you.

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Usually when people start in discernment, they discern more demons than anything else.

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So right off the bat, LeClaire connects spiritual discernment with discerning between the Holy Spirit and demons.

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Theirs are what? I know I did. When I started out in that gift of discerning of spirits, I was more prone to see the devil than God.

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It didn't help that I was in a church that all they talked about was the devil. I mean, it was all spiritual warfare all the time. Amen?

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It really was. They didn't barely ever talk about Jesus. They were the love of God. It was all about Jezebel, and I learned well.

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I can discern Jezebel, but I had to learn then how to expand my discerning gift in order to discern the

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Spirit of God. So that's the first category here, discerning the Holy Spirit. Sha -ba -ba -ba -ba -sheh.

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You'd have had to be some kind of something not to have discerned the Holy Spirit this morning. Right, Joe? Mmm. I bet you wish you came now, didn't you?

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You can watch the replay. John 1, 32 through 33, John the Baptist discerned the

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Holy Spirit on Jesus like a dove. He descended from heaven. So listen, people give

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John the Baptist a bad rap. They say, well, he was just always rebuking the Pharisees. No, man, he saw in the Spirit. Yes or no?

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He saw in the Spirit. Have you ever thought about that before? Really, he saw in the Spirit. Nobody else saw that and heard a voice from heaven as well.

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Here it is in John 1, 32, 33. John testified, saying, I have seen the

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Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven. He saw in the Spirit. I really never looked at it that way.

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I always focused on the other aspects of this verse. But he saw in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit looked like a dove, and he remained upon Jesus.

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I did not recognize Jesus, but Jesus who sent me to baptize in water said to me,

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He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him is the one who baptizes in the

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Holy Spirit. So John the Baptist discerned through seeing, through seeing in the Spirit.

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The believers in the upper room, let's just rewind to this morning.

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Amen. The upper room. The believers in the upper room discerned the Spirit as the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

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They heard the Spirit of God. So John the Baptist saw the Spirit of God, right, in the form of a dove.

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The disciples of the upper room, they heard the Spirit coming, and then they also saw the

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Spirit, but this time he didn't look like a dove. This time he looked like tongues of clove in fire. And there is our how, by seeing and hearing in the

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Spirit. Similar to Ruth Haley Barton's teachings, we see that LeClaire connects seeing and hearing in the

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Spirit to identifying the works of the Holy Spirit. The what is the same, but the how is different.

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Both want us to discern the workings of the Holy Spirit, one by looking inside ourselves, and the other by experiences outside ourselves.

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The Holy Spirit. Here's the point. The Holy Spirit can manifest in many different ways.

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The Holy Spirit represents oil, right? There's these different representations of the Holy Spirit. And if we're not careful, we'll get so used to discerning the

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Holy Spirit's movement in one way that we fail to recognize Him moving in another way.

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So we need to understand the ways of God. We have to understand the ways of God.

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I'm just reminded of something that Steve Hill told me before he went home to be with the Lord. How many of you know who Steve Hill was?

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Brownsville Revival. One of the greatest revivals ever. And he said this. He said that most of the time, the biggest enemy to the next great move of God is those who are part of the last great move of God.

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And the reason why is because they got used to the Holy Spirit moving in a certain way, and now it's a new thing.

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It's the new wine. And the Holy Spirit's moving in a new way. And they're like, that ain't God. And now there is our why.

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Why do we need to discern the spirits? To identify the new moves of the

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Holy Spirit. Within hyper -charismatic churches, there is an enormous focus to always catch the new move of God.

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So it's not surprising to me that discernment becomes centered on this. Okay, so now I presented to you the three main spheres and the popular teachings within each of these three main spheres.

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Did you notice a thread between these teachings? Discernment of spirits is a matter of deciphering the work of the

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Holy Spirit. In mysticism, connecting our true selves with the work of the Holy Spirit. In purpose -driven, connecting our life purpose with the

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Holy Spirit's work. And in hyper -charismatic, aligning ourselves with the next big move of the

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Holy Spirit. But does Scripture call us to pay attention or discern where or how the

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Holy Spirit is moving or what He is doing so that we can make sure we move with Him?

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I want to make the case that Scripture doesn't call us to discern the moves of the Spirit. That we actually don't need to learn how to hear

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God's voice or determine if our inner gut impression or intuition is from the

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Spirit or to examine experiences to see if they are spurious acts of demons or to develop some type of spiritual realm supervision to find the

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Holy Spirit working. We are told in Scripture that God does whatever

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He pleases. Psalm 115 .3 Psalm 33 .11 -15 states this,

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The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

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The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of His heart to all generations.

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So notice here, what stands forever? The counsel of the Lord and the plans of His heart.

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They stand forever to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose

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God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven.

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He sees all the children of man from where He sits enthroned. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

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He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.

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So God not only has counsel that stands forever and the plans of His own heart stand forever to all generations,

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He fashioned the hearts of all of us and He watches and observes all our deeds.

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Teaching discernment in this way, the way Ruth Haley Barton, Christine Cain or TBN and those in the

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NAR like Jennifer LeClaire, these teachings on discernment in this way makes people believe that we somehow can thwart

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God's plans if we do not align ourselves with God's works. People fear being unfruitful for God by not discerning where the

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Holy Spirit is working. And I understand this. I fell for that too.

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But deep down underneath, this is a misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God and the way

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God works in His people and in history in general. Scripture explains to us what we need to know about the works of the

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Holy Spirit. Those larger workings we do not need to know because we are to just trust that God is in control.

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So what does Scripture say about the Holy Spirit's works? That He is the author of Scripture, 2

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Peter 1 .21. That He convicts the world of sin, John 16 .8. He brings one to claim that Jesus is

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Lord, 1 Corinthians 12 .3. He dwells in the sons of God, 1 Corinthians 3 .16

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and Romans 8 .9 to cause them to walk in Him and produce

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His fruits, Galatians 5 .22 -23. This is where we can know that the

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Holy Spirit has worked. So we don't see in Scripture instructions on discerning the

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Holy Spirit or where He is moving because Scripture not only tells us where He works but that He is working in all things and works in all things for our good,

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Romans 8 .28. We learn from Scripture that God is in such control that Scripture doesn't present any instructions on how to discern a move of the

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Holy Spirit. Why is that? Because everything is done in His power and will.

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The sinful deeds of the sex traffickers did not go unnoticed by God. Did God use

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Christine Cain? If that story is true, then of course. And if that story is true, did

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God use her intuition? Yes. But do we need to determine if that intuition was the

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Holy Spirit? No. Because even unbelievers have inner impressions and intuitions.

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They may be true or false. But regardless, God is at work in everything. He's at work in the intuition and He's at work in those who do not follow intuition or inner impressions but work on research, facts, investigations, etc.

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So if we do not need to be discerning moves of God to align ourselves with Him so that we may be fruitful in accomplishing

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God's plans, what should we be focusing on to be fruitful? That's a good question.

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And I'm glad you asked because Scripture equips us with this and what we need regarding this.

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2 Peter 1, 3 -11 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who calls us to His own glory and excellence by which

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He has granted to us His precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

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These women and other teachers within these spheres would claim that it is necessary to discern the

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Holy Spirit and life experiences because in so doing they will receive life and godliness through experiencing

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God in these ways either experiencing God in solitude, inner knowledge, meditations as Christian mysticism would teach or experiencing

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God in the walking in our purpose, the daily discerning of God's voice to perform

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His will on a day -by -day basis as purpose -driven doctrine teaches or experiencing

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God through receiving of prophecy, working miraculous signs and wonders, speaking in tongues or being involved in whatever new move

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God is doing. But notice what the Holy Spirit is saying to us here in 2 Peter that His divine power is given to us through the knowledge of Christ.

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We become partakers of the divine nature through God's promises. Discerning the

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Holy Spirit so we can experience the Holy Spirit doesn't grant us life and godliness. The knowledge of Christ which we find in God's word is what grants us these things.

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Through the promises that we find in Christ, we partake of the divine nature and escape corruption.

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And then Peter tells us what we need to do to make sure we are effective for Christ. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self -control and self -control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.

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For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

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Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

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For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

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For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He doesn't say here that we need to discern the

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Holy Spirit so we may be effective for God. No, but we are to supplement our faith with virtue, our virtue with knowledge, our knowledge with self -control, our self -control with steadfastness, our steadfastness with godliness, our godliness with brotherly affection, and our brotherly affection with love.

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If we focus on developing these qualities on top of our faith, then we will be effective disciples of Christ.

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And notice what must be supplemented. Our faith, our belief and trust in the work and promises of God, not new extra -biblical revelations and promises perceived through heart nudges, experiences, supposed move of God's or new prophecies, but the promises we have in Christ, the knowledge and revelation given in Scripture about our

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Lord Jesus Christ. These are sufficient to be the foundation of our faith and then we build off of it with our knowledge and virtue and steadfastness and brotherly affection and love.

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Now, Peter will go on in this epistle to teach just how important it is to remain in the knowledge of Jesus Christ so that we remain fruitful and do not fall.

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He will go on in the remaining passages to warn the readers of false doctrine and false teachers, those who bring in destructive heresies and who trust their own senses.

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They trust what they hear, taste, see and touch and follow their own sinful desires more than what they have received through the prophecy of Scripture.

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And here is where we start to see discernment. So, if there's no need to discern the presence of the

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Holy Spirit, to discern moves of God, works of demons or angels, discern dreams and personal revelations, then what does

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Scripture mean by discerning the spirits? What is it that we are discerning?

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Let's look at the main verse on testing or discerning the spirits. 1

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John 3, 24 to 4, 6 states this, Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

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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.

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By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess

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Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

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Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

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They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

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We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.

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Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

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So let's first take notice of how John states that those who keep

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God's commandments abide in God. We can know that we abide in God because the spirit of the living

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God abides in us, causing us to obey his commands. It doesn't say we know we abide in God by coming to our true self or accomplishing some nebulous purpose or having an extraordinary and even some type of miraculous experience, but that our obedience to Christ's word is how we know we have the spirit.

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I'm just stating this because that's a lot of what's behind the motivation to discern the

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Holy Spirit. This is then where John contrasts the living spirit with false spirits, urging us to test these spirits.

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What are these spirits tied to? False prophets. Did you notice that?

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The reason we are to test the spirits is because false prophets have gone out into the world.

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Prophets are people who claim to know God and receive his words. They proclaim the word of God that we are to trust and believe in and obey.

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True prophets have God's revealed word, while false prophets claim to have

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God's revealed words, but actually have their own words. Jeremiah 23, 16, leading people astray.

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So these spirits we are to test are teachings, doctrines, words that come outside of ourselves, words that come from people who claim to hear from God or to know

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God and to wish to proclaim his teachings, not subjective hard impressions or personal revelations that we believe could be from God meant to guide us day by day or give us personal vision for our lives.

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Scripture is clear in regards to our calling and how we should walk. It does not give instructions on how to discern what

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God wants us to accomplish for the day because Scripture talks about God being sovereign and in complete control providentially overall.

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And this is why I think this is the biggest argument for why Scripture doesn't talk about discerning the

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Holy Spirit. It doesn't describe discernment in trying to determine where the Holy Spirit moves because, like I said,

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I made the argument for, and we'll restate here, the Holy Spirit is moving and is active in everything.

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God is active and his hands are everywhere. He holds it all together.

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God does not need us to discern God's voice so we can know where the Holy Spirit will be moving that day.

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The goal of discernment as described in Scripture is to arrive at truth, to grow in knowledge and understanding about Christ and the gospel so that we may believe the good doctrine and walk as God instructs us to walk.

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A woman needs discernment to separate truth from error and so be sanctified in the truth,

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John 17, 17. These people give teachings that John states either confess

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Christ has come in the flesh from God or deny that Jesus is from God. These people are teachers that present doctrine that contradict in some way the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They speak from the world because they come from the world, not from God.

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And then John clarifies and gives a very practical way of testing these spirits, and that's this, that those who know

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God will listen to the apostles. Whoever knows

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God listens to us, he says. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us, the apostles.

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By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. This is discernment.

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Discernment is examining everything carefully, holding fast to that which is good and abstaining from every form of evil, 1

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Thessalonians 5, 21 -22. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 -15 states this,

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But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the

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Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

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Discernment is comparing that which we hear, read, and are taught to Scripture, where we find the words of God given by the

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Holy Spirit through the prophets and apostles. We have the law and the prophets of the

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Old Testament that witness to the pre -incarnate Christ, the proclamation of His coming and the new covenant,

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Luke 24 -27, and we have the apostles in the New Testament who proclaim Christ's come in flesh as from God, who were chosen by Christ to be eyewitnesses to His life, death, and resurrection.

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Discernment is holding fast to the word of God received by these prophets and apostles, holding fast to these teachings, and contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to us, the saints,

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Jude 3. In the Old Testament, those who discern are described as acquiring knowledge and understanding,

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Proverbs 15 -14, Proverbs 18 -5, Psalm 119 -125. God even described discernment in Deuteronomy for the

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Israelites, Deuteronomy 12 -32 -13 -5. Everything that I commanded you, you should be careful to do.

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You shall not add to it or take from it. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

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For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

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You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve

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Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the

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Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the

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Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

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This was discernment for the Israelites. That which is good is knowledge and understanding that centers around the statutes of God.

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With this knowledge and understanding, one then exercises discernment in differentiating between that which is true,

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God's words and statutes, and that which is false, that which is good and that which is evil.

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In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul reminds the Corinthians that he imparted the wisdom of God, the gospel, to them which they received from the

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Spirit and makes clear that the natural person does not accept the things of the

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Spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

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The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

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For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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The spiritual discernment, again, is in relation to the teaching they received from Paul. They spiritually discerned that what he was teaching was from God, was good, and therefore believed it.

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These teachings involved the mind, discerning what is God's word from that which is man's word, is our spiritual act of worship.

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Romans 12 too sums this up beautifully. Once you understand what scripture means by discernment, and that it is testing what you hear, are being told, and what you are being taught, you will see that the

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Holy Spirit constantly talks about discernment. He constantly instructs us to keep in guard what

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God has revealed about himself and to walk in his instructions and ways. It then makes sense why

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Paul describes the Bereans as noble people who received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

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Acts 17 11 They are commended because they examined what Paul and Silas taught and compared it to their scripture, the

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Old Testament. In their examination, they saw the truth and believed. And we are called to be like them, to examine and test all teachings, from Christian teaching to non -Christian teaching, to place it against scripture and discern what is taught to be either in line with God's commands and promises or out of line with it, to determine what is true and what is false so that we may walk in God's word and walk in the truth.

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So in conclusion today, ladies, hopefully I have shown you the very popular teachings within the broader evangelical sphere centered on discernment and then contrasted it with what scripture says about discernment.

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We see here then why discernment would be so important to Titus 2 and should be so important to older women to teach to younger women so that we can understand what is good and reject what is evil, to hold fast to God's word and reject man's word and to then therefore walk in the fruits of the

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Holy Spirit that come from the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then as we walk in that knowledge, we will exercise more and more discernment and be mature women who can guide the younger into the same maturity and to be more like Christ.

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So next episode is the final episode of our Discerning the

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Female Teacher series and we're going to look at the importance of a female teacher having discernment and how that moves one on to maturity.

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We want to place ourselves under mature women already and the way to discern that is to discern her discernment.

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Yeah. Anyway, I pray this for all of God's people that we all learn about discernment and we grow in it and mature into it, but especially for you and God's women.

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I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comforts your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

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That's where the discernment comes in ladies. We are established and not only in our good works, but are established and comforted in our hearts by the word.

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May God grow you in all discernment and establish you in Christ. I pray ladies that you are in God's word.

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Ladies, thanks for listening or watching this episode of Thoroughly Equipped. If this episode blessed you, would you give it a rating or a thumbs up?

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If you are interested to know more about Thoroughly Equipped, check out the blog or just find some other great

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Christian resources, you can go to my website at ttew .org.

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You can connect with me on Facebook and Instagram. Links in the description below or email me at melbatost at ttew .org.

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Thoroughly Equipped is part of Striving for Eternity's Christian Podcast Community, a one -stop resource for solid podcasts that can assist you in your

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Christian walk. Check that out at christianpodcastcommunity .org. I pray the

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God of all grace grants you more and more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ as the

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Holy Spirit thoroughly equips you through His written word for every good work.