Not long ago, we were talking about how discernment is
becoming more important in the lives of believers. It’s my opinion that the western
church has generally not done a great job of teaching discernment. Somebody asked,
“How can you grow in discernment?” Made me think.
There is a secret to begin with: If you want to learn
discernment, practice discerning. Hebrews 5.14 points out that “But solid food
is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish
good from evil..” Discerning is part of maturing, of growing up, but it’s developed
by “constant use” and “train[ing] themselves.”
It’s work.
Somebody has asked, “Wait! If it’s a gift (1Corinthians
12:10), then why do we need to practice? The gift covers that!”
Yeah, tell that to someone who is a gifted musician, a
gifted teacher, a gifted athlete. They still need to practice, to study, to
exercise. The gift is the raw material that’s capable of becoming a
masterpiece. The skill to make it into that masterpiece includes our own responsibility.
Any skill we practice many, many times, we're likely to with
more excellence and less uncertainty than things we only do when we're backed
into a corner.
The second is this: provision the gift. If we don't give our
"discerner" the material it needs, it cannot function well. Hebrews
4:12 reveals that this is the Word of God, which includes, but is not limited
to, the Bible. We need to be fueled up for discernment to work right. For me,
that’s ongoing conversation with the second person of the Trinity, many hours
of listening to the Scriptures, and fewer hours studying the scriptures. Your regimen
will likely be different.
Then there’s the question of how does the data from the
discerning process reach your conscious mind? Yeah, that's an interesting one too.
First, don't assume that it actually needs to reach your
conscious mind. Don't assume that unless you can put it into logical words,
it's not valid: that's discerning by the soul (the mind), not by the Spirit. Do
not dismiss the subconscious “nudges” that you get. Listen to them, learn their
language, recognize their voice and learn to distinguish it from your own voice,
from Father’s voice, from the accuser’s voice.
Second, learn God's language, learn how he speaks to you in
this area. Discernment is a gift from God (1Cor 12:10). Since God gives gifts
for use (not for decorating our mantel), he will also give to make best use of
the gift if you ask him for it. If he speaks to you in dreams, learn the
language there. If he speaks to you through physical sensation, learn that
language. Learn the nudges, the hesitations in your spirit or in your soul. For
me, it came down to the spiritual sense of smell. It likely will come down to
something else for you.
But don't ask until you're ready to be stretched. It’s very
likely that God will move you outside of the box that you think you’re already
out of. I suspect that when he begins to school you, it will be an unsettling
season for you, and that you’ll have difficult assignments: embarrassing
choices, awkward conversations, unexplained changes to your lifestyle.
But continue past the stumbling blocks. This is part of your
becoming mature. The Body of Christ needs you mature, needs you operating in
full potential, all of us working together.
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