"Gaining Discernment"

One of the greatest needs of our day and time is the need for discernment. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between things, choosing the best course. For many, their discernment is so lacking, they cannot distinguish between what is spiritual and what is fleshly. While at a workshop some years back, they were selling tee shirts with the Budweiser emblem on the front. In the emblem it said, "God-wiser! When you say 'God', you've said it all!" The lack of DISCERNMENT! People who claim to love the Lord cannot distinguish between things and are easily led astray because they have no discernment. It is too easy to get caught up into every one's ideas and thinking. We need to be able to recognize and analyze situations where we won't get trapped or swept off into some one's fleshliness or our own.

Where does one begin to gain spiritual discernment? You have to understand the importance of the word of God and a willingness to allow it to lead. "For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant." (Heb. 5:13)It begins with milk from the word. As a baby feeds on milk, they have little understanding of danger or directions. For those in Christ, milk is what puts one on the road. Drawing, drinking and growing in the milk of the word. It is the milk that allows one to grow into bigger things. But we need to go beyond the milk so we can grow into the word of righteousness. "But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." (Heb. 5:14) Solid food is for the mature! How does one become mature? Practice!!! One must practice the word of righteousness. Practicing the word of righteousness is how one trains their senses to discern good and evil. It is easy to be carried away by our senses. People allow their feelings or natural thinking to carry them away into things that aren't spiritual and they cannot see it. They have never learned to have their senses trained to discern because they lack practicing the word of righteousness.

The danger comes when people don't mature. People who have been in Christ for 30-40 years or longer and they think they are mature, but their thinking and actions reveals they have moved little. "Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing."(Heb. 5:11) A person dull in hearing is a person who has little practice of the word of righteousness, much less little reading of the word. A person dull in hearing is one who does not take the word to heart. For instance, you hear God's word about holding to a grudge or know what God speaks to those who hold to such. But you still hold to them. I personally had an individual share with me that they were hurt years ago by some brethren and they sat week after week, listening to sermons, classes and still holding to their hurt. They have no discernment in their life and they are dull of hearing! They will end up in the end losing their souls because they hold more to their "senses" of hurt than the word of God. They cannot discern because they will not allow the word to train them! They cannot discern between good and evil, seeing the evil they are trapped in!

When we focus on the wrong things, think with the wrong mindset, we will become dull and sluggish in our spiritual well being. We will talk like the world, think like the world because we are the world's! The only way out? God must permit!!! (Heb. 6:3) God will permit only if our hearts will take in His word, let His word lead us and teach us. Then we will begin to come into having our senses discern between good and evil.