"Spiritually
Discerned"
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here has been and will continue to be
much confusion concerning the teaching of the Word of God. We have spoken
before of the overabundance of ministries purporting to be of God. Since there
are so many different ones, obviously
not all could be of God. As opposed to "choice" being a blessing for
the one seeking the Lord, such a "hodgepodge" leads to understandable
confusion. The problem becomes one of the seeking man
being able to identify what is sanctioned by God—and what is not.
"Things" never should have
come to this being a problem in a man's spiritual life. You see, those feeling that
they are called of God largely fail to follow the instruction of the One Whom
they claim to represent. How so? By failing to
"wait" until they receive their Power.
Now, weeks ago, we were enlightened as
to the way that the Lord dealt with His disciples about their responsibility to
teach. What did He tell them? He made it crystal clear that they were unqualified to represent Him until they
were willing to accept Him (in the form of the Holy Spirit) for themselves. Besides,
as we have frequently pointed out, how can one know , much less, preach, the
philosophy of a man without identifying oneself with the Spirit of the Man?
Once the disciples had received their
instructions to wait on the anointing (and had received it), they were ready to
take on their "mission." You see, it was, and is, necessary that Man
be so totally "divorced" from himself because of the mentality that
he possesses. It is the same mentality of the "world," for he is from whom it emanates. What Man,
the inhabitant of the World, always looks to do is to find the
"easiest" way to live in this life. This
means "existence" with as little sacrifice as possible. As much as
Man deplores sacrifice, he would
quite comfortably live as fleshly as possible, yet call himself
"saved."
In the most elementary, practical
sense, those without the Holy Ghost are "blind," and therefore, those
that follow them will end up in the proverbial "ditch" right
alongside them. Those not "anointed" (enlightened) by the Holy Spirit
are incapable of neither understanding nor accessing the principles or truth of
the Spirit of God. Now, since one in this position is without what he needs,
what will he be able to impart to you? So, you think that you've been called? Find
someone with Something to impart to you, get "endued,"
and then help others!
What is one of the most telling ways
that the people of God show their selfishness? By the fact
that most of us seem to be perfectly content to have our "chance" at
heaven--and little concern about anyone else.
By practical definition, having
"discernment" involves being able to receive information from another
source. This "ability" is essential to being able to be
"led" (directed). The only thing worse than not possessing this ability, is possessing it,
yet being unwilling to be directed.
Now, we do realize that many of our
"species" consider themselves to be quite "gifted" in
"humanness." In fact, to hear most tell it and act it, there is,
frequently, no one better. We can look at our present "decay," the
failures of our relatives, our own "miseries," yet not seem to come
to the conclusion that it would be beneficial to us to access the One Who
created Time, itself. Not that we all have not been given an adequate trial. You
see, God has allowed Man 4000 years to make the only "sane" decision.
He even allowed them the privilege of living with the Law directly in front of
them. Why a privilege? Because they were blessed to be able to see that they
were unable to meet the standard of God and therefore, needed Jesus. The same
opportunity has stayed with Man, yet, it is easy to see that as the whole, he
has neglected to make that "choice."
What fact are we all called to face? That
no matter our face, no matter our race, our "upbringing," our
education, our "morals" or anything else, it is not in us to do the right thing ! We can know without a doubt what
is correct for us to do, but without the Spirit of God leading us, we will fail
every time.
How is it that the Lord blesses us to
be "spiritually discern(ing)?"
One of the ways is by allowing us to be approached by potentially destructive
situations—then, leading us around them!
What is one of the greatest benefits of spiritual discernment? Through it, we
can come to know that God has a purpose for all that He allows in our lives and
we can know the specific purpose of
each test.
Utilizing this "gift" and
accepting this "truth" would keep many of our problems (if not all)
from ever happening. We say this because the majority of our problems are
caused by our habit of not "agreeing" with God and therefore,
conducting ourselves "in the flesh." Our personal, human judgment
views what He sees as necessary for us as too severe; too harsh. As long as we
look at anything through these eyes
we will never understand it, for the
natural man is not "equipped" to comprehend the move of the Spirit of
God.
We will keep reiterating that how we
act in and react to, situations reveals where we really "live." The
fact that our flesh gets "hurt" tells us that we are, essentially,
fleshly. It's like this: If one comes across an animal that acts like a snake,
chances are, it is a snake and then,
you can pretty much surmise how it lives. So, for us, it's not like we could be
"dwelling in heavenly places" and then, the spirit of a snake just
"overtake" us.
For too long, once salvation has gotten
"old" to us, we revert to our old "ways" and begin to deal
with salvation as something that we have "done," rather than it being
who we have "become." Will we never learn that we have not been saved
by God so that we can remain the same, but rather, that we have a
"starting point" for a new life?
In that we have been given the Spirit
of Wisdom, Revelation, New Life and whatever else we need, if we remain the
same after salvation, we do so because of our own mentality rather than any
lack in the Spirit.
So, finally, how is this
"spiritual discernment" to be used? The Lord allows us access to this
aspect of Himself that we might have a "tool" by which to
"interpret" all that
concerns us. Once saved, this is our only
reality with which we need to be concerned. Despite the appearance of anything that happens, it is the Spirit Who shapes
and interprets all reality. Outside
of Him, there is no
"reality." If we can ever come to accept this and only if we do, will we ever be able to
live "the spiritual life which God requires." n