Developing God Given Discernment for Spiritual Growth

Developing God-given discernment is crucial for spiritual growth.

God's people often lack discernment, leading to rebellion and neglect of His laws.

Apostle Paul prayed for the Philippians to abound in knowledge and discernment.

Lack of discernment is a major problem in the church today, hindering growth and maturity.

In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 8, verse 7, God's word declares even the migratory birds are punctual to their seasons yes the stork excelling in the great heights of her flight in the heaven and the turtle dove, the swallow and the crane observe the time of their return but my people do not know the law of the Lord the word of the Lord through the prophet was not a gentle reminder to God's people that he was displeased with them for the rebellion and neglect of his laws. In fact, the word of the Lord is saying they do not discern the signs of the time and are not aware of how God is dealing with them in their rebellion. They had not God's laws written upon their hearts, even though it was written in the books that they carried around with them. They were guilty of carelessly laying these laws aside and picked up the customs of the people around them and began to worship their idols and devoted things. The stork in heaven knows her appointed times of coming and going by the natural instincts that God had planted within them. They knew the times and seasons for migration and the season to repopulate. The latter part of the verse says, But my people do not know my law. In this verse, we see instinct contrasted with reason in its discernment of times. While the birds followed their God-given instincts, God's people failed to heed and obey His laws. So therefore, God had no choice but to punish their rebellion. In reading further in the same chapter, in Jeremiah 8, verse 10, we see the punishment for these people being decreed. I will give their wives and their farms to others, for all of them great and small, prophet and priest, have one purpose in mind, to get what isn't theirs. They give useless medicine for my people, grievous wounds, for they assure them that all is well, saying, Peace, peace. when it isn't so at all. Are they ashamed because they worship idols? No, no, not in the least. They don't even know how to blush. And that is why I will see to it that they lie among the fallen. I will visit them with death. Their figs and grapes will disappear. Their fruit trees will die. And all the good things I have prepared for them will soon be gone. When the people began to fear God's judgment, The false prophet comforted them by flatteries, saying that God would send peace and not war. Did you hear that? When the people began to fear God's judgment, the false prophets and leaders stepped in and said, Ah, don't worry. We serve a loving God. He loves us too much to hurt us with his wrath. Don't worry. God is a God of peace. Ah, you don't have to fear a thing. rather than saying, repent now, and possibly God will forgive you for your grievous and odious sins against him. You see, in America, we are guilty in the church of breaking a whole lot of God's mandates and dictates that are required of believers in the faith. The people were not even ashamed of their own sin. Their hearts had become so calloused and hard, They could not even blush over the guilt of their sins of perversion and lewdness. They could not make righteous decisions anymore because they lacked discernment. And this is why God would bring great shame upon them. They would be overrun by their enemies. My subject today is called God-Given Discernment vs. Natural Instinct. There are several prayers prayed by Apostle Paul where we can grasp a deep sense of the Holy Spirit's heart, his will, and his mind in regards to the concerns and love that he has for his precious people as he prays through this faithful man of God. Looking in Philippians 1.9, one of those prayers that Paul prayed begins this way. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more, and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight, that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment, so that you may surely learn to sense what is vital and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value, recognizing the highest and best and distinguishing the moral differences, that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless, so that with heart sincere and certain and unsolid, you may approach the day of Christ not stumbling or causing others to stumble, May you abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness, of right standing with God, of right doing, which come through Jesus Christ, the anointed one, to the honor, the praise of God, that his glory may both be manifested and recognized. well not only is this prayer showing God's heart but also it is Paul's heart through these words that are showing the deep affection for this particular group of people who had been such a great help to him so many times over his prayer is that they would grow in knowledge in wisdom and righteousness he desired above all that their love would abound more and more and display itself in a greater depth of discernment. Listen again to verse 9. Paul says, And this I pray, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment. Well, how can we define discernment in light of the biblical meaning that our scripture uses in this particular verse? Discernment is taken from a Greek word that means perceive, apprehend, or to discern or use judgment. Lack of discernment in the church today is one of the main problems and downfall of the church in growing up into the fullness of stature that Apostle Paul spoke of in Ephesians 4, verse 11, when he said that he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body, how we all come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. the perfect man speaks of one who is fully instructed in the ways of God and holds these ways in high esteem and lives according to them in unwavering compromise because this is the measure of love and knowledge and holiness that Jesus Christ and God the Father require the measure of the stature of the fullness is seldom seen where instead a stature of littleness, dwarfism, and emptiness is seen more often in the church today. And this is because the place in God called union with the Father and the Son has never taken place or root. Jesus Christ is seldom ever known as master in the lives of most Christians today because they lack this measure of fullness or better known in scripture as the perfect man, which is nonetheless than living a life walking in the spirit, or said in another way, one who eats strong meat or belongs to the hundredfold casting in the parable of the sower. These are those who walk in the spirit and live in the spirit. Mark chapter 4 verse 8 says, And other seed of the same kind fell into good, well-adapted soil, and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding up to 30 times as much, and 60 times as much, and even 100 times as much as had been sown. Well, the hundredfold group again is in Christ, and the body of Christ should be worthy of the head, who is Jesus Christ, the perfect one. Should not then we have it in our hearts to obey what our Heavenly Father spoke from the mountain on the day of Christ's transfiguration, saying, In Luke 9.35, there came a voice out of the cloud saying, This is my Son, my Chosen One, or my Beloved. Listen to and yield to and obey Him. Because of so much confusion and mix in the doctrines of the Church today, It is apparent that the church is not listening, nor is it obeying the pure, unadulterated word of God. You know, lack of discernment in the lives of multitudes in the church makes it almost impossible to talk to people about something that belongs to those who are growing in maturity. So many atrocious things are happening in the church today it seems to get more and more ridiculous in what is being tolerated as the norm with so much foolishness and false erroneous teaching The more people who are involved in it, the more they seem to give credibility to it because they have mistakenly and deceptively bought the lie that if so many people believe it, it must be right. Or if it works and brings some results, it must be right. Well, this is how the doctrines and the word of God become watered down. We have a double standard in the church today based on the logic of truth and what I am saying. Listen, thesis means truth. Antithesis means untruths. And synthesis means a mix or combination. And this is what we have in the church today. We have a mix of truth and error. and because of this, we have a great lack of discernment as a result. People begin to do and make decisions based on what they believe is right and good to do, regardless of what God's word says we ought to do. Christians have grown insensitive to the pure, unadulterated word of God, and that is supposed to be a light unto their feet. When I hear terms such as, oh, you just have to eat the meat and spit out the bone, or another is, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I just want to cringe because it's nothing more than compromising truth with air. It is amazing. But we would expect this from the world because they do not understand the truth. But we do not expect this from believers in the church who purport to belong to the family of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The world has an excuse for its error, but we have no excuse, dear church. We have God's word. We have been given his Holy Spirit who leads and guides and teaches us in the way of all truth. So, then, what is our excuse for all of the air, all of the foolishness, the apostasy, and chasing and running around to and fro with every wind of doctrine, acting like little children who have made and knighted themselves as king of the hill? You see, lack of true godly discernment as Christians makes us vulnerable victims, and we fall prey to every new thing that comes along. Lack of discernment in Christian lives comes basically from lack of growth or maturity as we have discussed earlier. The Laodicean church, spoken of in Revelation 3.14, was a prime example of this lack of growth or dwarfism and was openly guilty of the mix of error and apostasy in the church at the time God had sent a messenger to proclaim the state of the church and to pronounce judgment on it. In Revelation 3.14, the word declares, wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold in the fire so you can become rich, and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Those whom I love, I rebuke. Mark this, dear listener. This is the same word to the modern church of Jesus Christ today. And this is speaking of the lack of discernment, saying that they could not even recognize the general state of their existence. And the word says, You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. But you say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth, I do not need a thing. My point here is that without discernment, discernment. You cannot and will not be able to recognize that you lack discernment or even understand that you have need of it. In verse 15, the angel of the Lord declares, I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. So you see in the natural, with natural discernment. If you run a business or whatever your career or occupation may be, if you see a problem and perceive that you are doing something wrong or that something is causing a problem, and once that problem is pointed out to you, you know that you have several options to consider. You have a choice or a decision to listen. This means that you will gain discernment to see that there is a problem. And you can choose to solve it or you can ignore it. But if you ignore it, then you won't solve the problem. But it will grow even bigger and possibly you will go bankrupt and will go out of business or lose your job. This means that you lack discernment because you refuse to see the problem and chose rather to ignore it. So we have the same issue in the church with the average Christian when we speak about discernment in God's truths. Some people, when a problem is pointed out to them, they say, oh, you're not supposed to judge others or make judgmental statements about these issues. Others say, you are wrong. You are just being divisive or legalistic because the majority of us believe differently. You see, these defenses will all arise out of biblical ignorance and immaturity. Lack of discernment causes people to believe things are okay even when they are not. And they will not even give consideration to the possibility that what they believe or what they are doing is wrong. Others say, you dare not touch God's anointed. Don't go against what God is doing or what he is saying here. And when you try to present the truth, people throw up the terms like, You are stereotyping or labeling or name-calling or you're just a heresy hunter. They say we just need to love people into the kingdom and not condemn them. We can't always look for the wrong in people, but we have to see the good. You see, lack of discernment is very dangerous, especially in these end times in which we live. It has brought the church today into a state of great deception. and she is dwelling in a very dangerous place at this time. Multitudes of thousands of Christians sincerely believe what they are doing and the way that they are living is right, when in fact they are dead wrong. And I must say, it is so dangerously wrong to the point that their eternal life is at stake. The lack of discernment is not necessarily a lack of sincerity or a lack of conviction. And this is why most people do not even see this topic in which I'm speaking to you about as an issue to consider or even a point of interest. Sincerity today in the church or even the world is governed by feelings and emotions and self-esteem. And if you really want to believe something is true and right, then it must be so. It must be true and right because you believe it to be so. And this is a direct result of the natural instinct to do that which is right, like in the days of the judges. As scripture says, the people did what was right in their own eyes because there was no king in the land. And it's like little school children deciding for themselves the rules and conduct in their classroom rather than all the children obeying and submitting to a set of rules set forth by mature adults for the good of all. It is like a society, which we see today, especially in America, that makes up its own laws based on the ruling majority. And these laws are governed by what feels right and good according to their heads. The implementation of these new corrupt laws have individual selfish motives to benefit these thieves and crooks personally, despite what it does to hurt society as a whole. These laws allow the natural instinct within to do something evil because it is easier and more convenient than doing what is right according to the laws that were originally set forth in the Constitution in this nation. Millions and millions of babies are aborted out of selfish decisions and convenience of what millions call a right to choose. Well, why didn't they originally choose to do what was right from the onset before they crawled into bed to fornicate and commit adultery and satisfy that ungodly urge or passion? And this too, they say, is a right of an individual to choose to do what they want to do, even in this decision. In America, we encourage and cultivate entire segments of society who do not take responsibility for their own actions, but say instead, the majority of the people are doing it and therefore it is the norm and becomes acceptable. Therefore, shut your mouth and keep your opinions to yourself Well Proverbs 28 verse 2 declares when there is moral rot within a nation its government topples easily But with honest sensible leaders there is stability You see, when we look to ourselves for the truth, we can be sincere. But we can be sincerely wrong, and often are. And this is devastating to a society. and even more devastating for a Christian who has felt and grown comfortable with mixing the truths with untruths. To address the lack of discernment in a person's life who lives in the mix infringes and encroaches upon their human pride, which is most stubborn and severely entrenched above all other human flaws. Pride is what caused the almighty creator to cast Lucifer, the light bringer, out of heaven. His name is now called Satan the devil, and he is the one who governs the minds and the decisions of carnally minded people today. Yes, even people in the church who have not grown into mature adulthood, but instead are dwarf little children sitting in the pews of church today just doing their duty. Shame on leaders who are in the same boat that they are. They too are like little children leading little children. Not too long ago, the Lord gave me a profound, frightening, and very real dream. And it came on the heels of hearing a seemingly mature pastor in the church say that when Jesus Christ returns or calls us upward to take us home, If we have a little sin in our lives, this would not cause God to pass us by because he is bigger than that. This dream came on the heels of hearing those words. In the dream, I saw a woman with her children. The children were young people in their teens. They were not little children. They reported to the mother about something that was happening down the street, and evidently it was pretty serious because she immediately set out with something in her arms like a bed filled with something pertinent to address the critical situation at hand. She was a properly matronly looking woman, and I saw her walking briskly along a sidewalk next to a well-built brick wall that you might see around a huge estate or mansion. And as she was walking, I was like a seer in the dream. as she was approaching the area of her destination, she began to walk up an incline, and it seemed that as she came to the top of the hill, I suddenly saw a sight that was truly a sight to behold. I saw a huge, gigantic ship that you might see in the early days. It may have been a Spanish ship, but it had large sails. There were many sails, so many sails that it would blow your mind, especially if you were a sailor. As I was following this woman, I suddenly began to rise above her and felt like I was taken up in the spirit. I slowly went up higher in the air. I rose higher and higher and could see clearly the full view of the ship now. and I can tell you that this ship was so large and so big and so massive that it took my breath away even in the dream and I'm thinking in the dream, what is this all about? Well, only in a dream could something possibly be as large as this except possibly the ark that Noah had built. I don't know. As I was taken up in the spirit above the ship, I could hear the sound of little children playing on the ship And somehow in this dream, I knew that this was a children's plaything. It belonged to the little children. In the next scene, I was taken up and above the ship and rose higher into the atmosphere above what seemed like the Earth's orbit. I saw a massive cloud that was almost indescribable in its vastness and size. And this cloud was like something that you might see in the graphic of one of the layers of the earth. This cloud was like that. It was like a cutout of seeing something specific. And suddenly I was taken alongside this layer of angry, massive formation that was unbelievable and very frightening to see. The cloud was living and vibrant and it was ever changing in its formation and power. that it was contained within it and it was unbelievable. I saw these things coming out of this angry formation, like being spewed out. I saw so many things being spewed out like you might see in the eruption of a volcano. Only the things coming out of this mass was not lava, but the power it contained was powerful as a volcano or even likened to the sun that we have seen in videos that show up-close action of the mighty, indescribable power contained within the sun. It shows the sun spewing out energy and masses of what looks like molten lava, but we know that in the intense heat that bursts beyond the circumference of the body of the sun, this intense, indescribable heat and power comes from the core of the sun's interior. What I saw being spewed out of this angry, massive cloud formation were bodies. Yes, I said I saw bodies being spewed out. And as these bodies were being spit out, I saw that the force of their being spewed caused their limbs to go flying in all directions opposite of their bodies. And the belongings of the people were being spit out as well. I gasped in agony and horror after being taken parallel along this cloud for a long distance to see and be shown a sight that I am sure might have dwarfed what Daniel saw as he grew faint and weak at the horror of what he was shown in the last days of what was to come well if that was not enough then I found myself as though I were below the surface of the earth I was down and looking up at what appeared to be an opening of a large and vast chasm. And this sight was equally as terrifying. I saw bodies falling into the chasm and the noise and the screams and shrieking in this horrible sight was blood-chilling. I felt like I might have been seeing how it could possibly have looked when the ground opened up and Korah and his family fell into the grave of hell that they had won for themselves by lying and rebelling against God and his authoritative standards. In the dream, I shook myself to wake up because of what I was seeing was so terrifying and awful. And as I shook myself to wake up, I did wake up in the natural. And I said, oh God, forgive me if this dream is from you and you had more to show me. But Lord, if this dream was not from you, then I have just had a nightmare. I was sharing the dream. with my husband Lee and telling him what I shared with you just now. I said, Lee, it is like the scripture says in Revelation 3.15, I know the record of your works and what you are doing. You are neither hot nor cold. Would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spill you out of my mouth. as I spoke that to Lee the spirit of the Lord spoke clearly to me and witnessed his presence to both of us the Holy Spirit said even if you were to tell them the truth of what I have shown you the majority will still not believe you and what the Lord had shown in his righteous justice and judgment in being spewed out of his presence were multiple, multiple millions of Christians who did not take him nor his way serious while they had the opportunity on this earth. The large ship represents the church in her generations of time, and even today, the leaders and captains who are called apostles and prophets and evangelists, pastors and teachers, are acting like little children, making up their own rules based on their natural instinct and not upon the God-given discernment that comes and arises out of growing into the fullness of maturity in the place of union and fellowship with God. We talk about life in the Spirit, or walking in the Spirit, but for most, this is all talk, and the fruit does not back up the conversation. A hundredfold group are a part of the priesthood that is not made with human hands or human doctrines or customs, that seem to sound or look good and bring some kind of good results. But the mature ones know clearly what God says, and they will hold it in high esteem and will not compromise it or water it down to make people feel good about themselves. And this is why they are called the faithful ones. The upright, matronly woman in this dream represented the segment of the righteous leadership in the church. She the woman does not represent feminine gender only, but represents both male and female leadership who will step out to address and correct the error in the church. Her teenage children represent those members of the church who are 60-fold in spiritual understanding and growth in their maturity spoken about in Jesus' parable in Matthew 13. Mark 4 26 speaks about the parable of this growing seed Jesus said The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground and should sleep by night and rise by day and the seed should sprout and grow and he himself does not know how for the earth yields crops by itself first the blade then the stock, and after that the full grain in the head, which is the ear. Well, the teenagers are the stocks, or the sixtyfold. They have been given God's Holy Spirit, and know the difference between right and wrong. They are not the little children who are represented as the blade in this parable. The mature ones again are those who represent the ear, having corn or fruit to share with others. They discern clearly the difference between the holy from the profane, and they live in divine union with their God and his son Jesus Christ. And this dream is a serious warning to the church. God is getting ready to spew many out of his mouth because they have been living like Cora and his family. When a member of Christ's body choose to vote for a candidate whose agenda promotes abortion, he or she is guilty of murder right alongside the one who boasts of the numbers of 53 million aborted babies saying how proud he is of this accomplishment in America. God will spew you out of his mouth. His judgment is on the way. Make no mistake about it. And those who vote for candidates who promote homosexual lifestyles and the sick and nauseating introduction of bestiality taught in the kindergarten classrooms, God will spew you out of his mouth. Thousands and thousands of professing Christians voted in the last election for candidates who promote this kind of evil because their pastor said it was okay. To tell people who knowingly live in sin that when Jesus returns, he will not pass them by or exclude them because he is a loving God. Well, how dare we, as leaders in God's church, treat sin like a common thing in the house of God. Even if this is said in ignorance, it is still a lie. So no wonder people lack discernment and go about making up their rules to do and live by instead of being exhorted by the holy word of God that demands that we flee from evil. Is this not the same as addressing the wounds of the people? The wounds represent the spiritual hurts and destruction in their lives due to sin. Scripture says they dress the wounds of my people as though it were not serious. and these leaders say oh be at peace with sin in your lives God will have mercy on you and you will not lose out on eternal life so just keep doing what you're doing and just have peace in your sin you see it is really mocking or making trifle of the issue of sin when the people begin to fear God's judgment or impending wrath to come the false prophets comforted them by flattering them, saying, Oh, God will send you peace and not war? Dear church, there is only one source of discernment. Since discernment is foundational to the ability to know and grow and recognize truth versus non-truths, then it is only logical that we have one source of truth and objective that transcends any one person or group of persons. And of course that only one source of truth is the Bible. God's supernatural inspired revelation to mankind is outside of human authority, outside of our time, and outside the curse of sin. The Bible itself is the sole book in human history that claims for itself and stands up to all criticism of that claim that it is the single and the only source of unchanging and infallible truth. The Bible is as it says it is. It is the truth of God. It is God's word and direction to humankind in the way that they should live and the way that they should govern their lives. And to live and walk in discernment, we need a source of truth that is beyond man's ability to corrupt, beyond our changing human standards, beyond the curse of sin. And this keeps mankind from his own source of reliable truth. God claims in his book of truth in Psalms 19 verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. and the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever, and the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Real problems throughout the church today caused by a lack of discernment are that we seek after and continue chasing new and more exciting spiritual experiences along with a decreased amount in diligent personal Bible study and prayer, which are the fundamental ways in which we attain holiness and sanctification. We are guilty in the church because of the reliance upon the elevation of extra-biblical sources of truth that come in the way of self-helps and pop psychology. We see as a result the decline of the sufficiency of God's word as our absolute source and the measurement of truth and godly standards take the back seat. We are guilty in the church of relying and being dependent upon our feelings and sincerity, our group consensus and our herd mentality and own biases to determine what is right and good and useful and profitable and acceptable in our Christian way of life and experience. But Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, and who could know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Dear church, this is exactly what I saw happening in the dream that I shared with you. All people who did not obey God were getting exactly what they had coming in accordance to the way they lived, and more so to those who purport to be Christians. We are guilty in the church and lack discernment because we have adopted and accepted practices and standards and beliefs that are not biblically based or supported. First Thessalonians 5.21 tells us, test all things, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. And we are guilty in the church of having an increased value of image over substance, prayer, and due diligence to scripture are replaced with what is popular, with what works and feels good, and with what looks good, and the other senses or natural instincts rather than what scripture tells us is right and acceptable and good. Dear believer, I leave you with the words of the angel of the church of Ephesus when he said in Revelation 2, 4, Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love. Remember the heights from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things that you did at first. If you have truly had a salvation experience after you had repented of your sins and you came to Christ knowing that he had forgiven you of your sins, you felt such joy and all the love that you felt for him and the thankfulness of feeling that heavy burden of sin lifted off your back brought you such peace. You told him you would do anything for him. You gave him permission to change you and make you new. And this is what God is looking for in your heart. And if you know that you lack discernment, seek the Lord while he may be found. You and I are living in the end days. And Christ is close to coming for those who belong to him. The faithful ones will be raptured off the face of the earth while remaining multitudes will suffer in the great and horrible tribulation. to be spewed out of the Lord's mouth as he showed in the book of Revelation and in my recent dreams is very real. It is very real. . Thank you. Thank you.

Playlist coming soon.