Discernment

By John groves, Winchester, UK

It was a break between sessions at our recent times of prayer and Fasting for UK leaders. As I stood in line for a drink, I engaged in conversation with a church leader a generation younger than myself. As the conversation developed, it was clear he was tussling with an element of confusion.

It was a break between sessions at our recent times of prayer and fasting for UK leaders. As I stood in line for a drink, I engaged in conversation with a church leader a generation younger than myself. As the conversation developed, it was clear he was tussling with an element of confusion. My friend had found that certain older members of his congregation were quite forceful on some current theological issues. With integrity and thought he had read books and listened to CDs that they had given him. Meanwhile he had his own interests and ideas stimulated by pod casts, books and conferences. What was God saying? What should he pursue and what shouldn’t he? What should he tolerate and what should he stand against?

This was a fine young leader not naturally double-minded or uncertain. We talked a little, prayed together and returned to the next prayer session. However, this set me thinking about the subject of ‘Discernment’.

We live in a day of ‘information overload’. Apart from ‘the making of books of which there is no end’, there are innumerable podcasts and blogs, God TV, TV streamed from mega churches, multiple conferences etc. Not only is all this available to us personally but, if we are leaders, we have to contend with members of our congregation equally widely ‘informed’.

In the wider context most of us live our lives and build our churches in a world that is fast becoming anti-Christian and aggressively atheistic. In the media there is a steady stream of articles and documentaries that undermine the most basic aspects of our faith and, of course, constantly promote overtly unbiblical lifestyles and values. In addition Western culture now worships ‘Tolerance’ and many people under 40 find it increasingly hard to make any judgmental comments on areas of belief, values, lifestyle or opinions.

Clash of kingdoms

To complicate things further we are not merely involved in a clash of ideas but a clash of kingdoms. We have a real spiritual enemy who endeavours to withstand the advance of God’s kingdom and tries to deceive us. Deception by its very nature is hard to discern! Some might spot the deception of a ‘power abuser’ easily but miss the deception of a ‘powerlessness’ brought on by paralysing fear of error. If the devil can’t get us to run too fast and trip over he will try to get us to stand still. In addition, to our way of thinking, God often has strange ways of working out His will and revealing His purpose. God’s ways cannot be limited to our understanding, experience and expectations!

All of this emphasises how important it is that we learn to discern good from bad in a whole range of areas. Discernment is primarily identifying what comes from God and, in particular, what He is requiring us to do about it. There are a number of important ways in which we can develop good discernment so let’s look at some of them.

A grace gift

First of all, there is a gift of discerning of spirits - a grace gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to distinguish the work of evil spirits as opposed to the Holy Spirit or mere human activity. In my opinion this gift is linked to other revelatory gifts such as words of knowledge, words of wisdom and prophecy. It is a vitally important gift and God is eager to give it to us because He doesn’t want His people led astray by the devil. However, it is important to emphasise that this is a gift to the church so it will be exercised in a corporate context. This is true of all the gifts but it is especially true with the revelatory gifts, they are not for ‘lone rangers’! Someone who claims to have the gift of discerning of spirits but won’t submit to spiritual authority can be safely ignored.

Deep relationships

This brings me to my second point; being properly engaged with the Body of Christ is important for avoiding deception and for sharpening our discernment. ‘To avoid deception everyone needs someone they can trust more than they trust themselves,’ so said a speaker I heard recently. It was a challenging statement that touched a deep truth. We need to be properly related to other Christians if we are going to discern effectively what God is saying to us. I would say a major way God has helped me to avoid shipwreck and to make correct course adjustments is relationship with other gifted men and women. This is a big subject but for a local church leader it should work at several levels:

1. A team of leaders in a local church who speak honestly to one another.

2. Good, open, provoking and encouraging relationships with other local pastors. This requires time and effort eg going to regional meetings; prayer and fasting, Together On A Mission and talking to one another long enough to go beyond the superficial.

3. Clear, committed relationships to apostles and their teams. This must include an openness to relate to members of the team not just one man. We must submit, in faith, to those God raises up among us with apostolic wisdom.

Somewhere in all this, recognise other gifted men who the risen Lord Jesus has given to help mature you and keep you on track (Eph. 4:11-16). It is in this corporate context that we will learn how to make wise discerning judgements.

Wisdom from above

Third, we all need God’s wisdom to help us discern good from bad. The good news is that you can ask God for wisdom and be confident that He will give it to you (James 1:5). God wants us to be wise. Jesus clearly placed a high priority on wisdom. In Matthew 7:24-27, he draws a sharp contrast between wisdom and folly. Jesus expects his disciples to develop a certain shrewdness in their daily living (Luke 16:1-9) and his condemnation of all forms of spiritual ineptitude is sharp! So we can be confident that God wants us to be wise and discerning, and loves it when we seek spiritual wisdom!

Growing in God

Wisdom begins with a right relationship with God (Prov. 9:10). We never gain wisdom outside of our relationship with God. The Bible teaches that Christ himself is wisdom, and wisdom itself is found only in Christ. So my fourth point is that a healthy, growing relationship with the Lord is absolutely central to developing our ability to discern wisely. Those who have a living, experiential knowledge of God are not easily deceived, instead they stand firm and take action (Dan. 11:32 ESV).

Be filled with the spirit

A closely associated fifth way to good discernment is found in Ephesians 5:15-18. The Bible exhorts us to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit as a way of ensuring we live as people who have a clear understanding of the Lord’s will. Being freshly filled with the Spirit is important when it comes to the sharp discernment required in the spiritual battles we are engaged in. We see a practical demonstration of this in Paul’s confrontation with Elymas (Acts 13:9-10). Real discernment combines the capacity to pick up unseen spiritual signals with the ability to rightly interpret them, and that cannot be divorced from the work of the Holy Spirit in us. So we must keep drinking of the Spirit!

Solid food!

The sixth and final vital truth I want to highlight is that we need the solid food of God’s Word in order to become efficient and accurate in distinguishing good from evil (Heb. 5:14). We need to be filled with the Word (Col. 3:16) as well as filled with the Spirit. The teaching of the Word of God remains a priority for which there is no substitute. The Bible is a work of the Spirit for spiritual ends; when it is expounded we are exposed to a force which is remarkably informing, transforming, convicting and inspiring. The gift of discernment feeds upon sound teaching. It is the Word of God which gives the objective standards by which we can measure the difference between right and wrong; good and bad; the good and the best; God’s will and our own ideas. Whatever wisdom we may have known we swiftly lose if it is not sustained by Bible truth.

In the concluding part of this article I would like to reflect on some personal experiences during a recent sabbatical and build in some practical advice on discernment. As I prepared for my sabbatical Julian Adams prophesied that I should ‘drink from other streams’ during this time. I was able to take this on board and attended three very different conferences which I would normally not have planned to visit. They were all interesting and God spoke to me at all of them in one way or another. However, they gave me a unique perspective on this subject. So here are some observations from my ‘drinking from other streams’ last summer:

• There is a danger of turning a dynamic experience of the Spirit-guided life into a doctrine or method that has no real Biblical support but which you feverishly try to reinforce Biblically. This can turn some perfectly valid experience in God into a teaching that becomes unhelpful or even down-right wrong.

• There is a common tendency to mix up our Covenants! The mixing up of Old and New Covenants leads to many errors, some of which are widely held. It is so important that we understand the New Covenant that Jesus introduced and how it works. We must live under the New Covenant and view Scripture from that perspective.

• We need a grasp of ‘God’s big picture’ that influences everything else. We must have a world vision. When we look at things against the larger backdrop of the church and God’s purposes in history it really helps to keep us rightly aligned.

• It is helpful to look at some weightier theological work which is relevant to something exciting or unnerving that you have seen or experienced. For example, at a recent conference on ‘Kingdom Culture’ I found it helpful to re-read GE Ladd’s The Presence of the Future. This brought me some clarity of mind and actually encouraged my reception of some of the material I had heard.

• It is a problem when good points are made by a speaker yet he uses Scripture very loosely and they do not say what he wants them to say! In these situations it is important to think through which Scriptures you think might support his point, ie do his work for him! It is a pity that some anointed men don’t do the hard work to help us, but it is important we don’t shut off because of their poor exegesis – God could be speaking to you! Give it some thought!

• When you are trying to assess teachings or movements that are outside your normal experience, ask a few basic questions: Does this lead us to glorify Jesus more and obey Him more? Is the faith founded on the Bible and not merely grounded in amazing testimonies? Is there real change towards godliness? Is there respect for Scripture? Does this promote love for fellow believers? Is there concern for the un-reached? Is this advancing the mission of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world? If the answers are positive rejoice and then learn as much as you can from these teachings!

• It is so important that we realise we are only part of the universal Body of Christ. This is first of all humbling and prevents us being too quick to dismiss others on superficial observations. However, this also reminds us that we, in our family of churches, MUST play our part in the wider Body of Christ. We have got some unusual and wonderful aspects to what God has done with us. I ended my sabbatical with a deep gratitude for Newfrontiers and all that it means but also challenged that we must receive from and give to the wider Body of Christ.

• It is vital that we learn to discern what God is saying to us for our local church at this time. We should not slavishly copy anyone. We are what we are by the grace of God and we cannot be somebody else! Each leader has a unique calling in God and each church is in a unique situation. Even in our own circles we must be careful not to be under pressure to duplicate what others are doing. We can learn from others but it must result in an authentic outworking of what God has called us to be and to do. Above all, each of us must remember God is for us and He wants us to win!