Why We Need Spiritual Discernment - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November 1st. More than ever, it's important to carefully and prayerfully evaluate what you hear and see. Find help with that as today's podcast begins a series on spiritual discernment. Why do we have such a difficult time discerning between sometimes what is good and evil, but oftentimes what is good and what's best? Why is it that we are so easily deceived by what we see, what we hear, rather than what's real, what's the truth? And how is it that we can be believers and so often have to complain about, I'm not sure what I heard that was God or is that my desire? In other words, we have a very difficult time distinguishing between what we desire and what God is saying to us. And then why is it that oftentimes we're talking to people and we're listening and we're talking back and forth in our conversation and we fail to hear what they're saying. What they're saying is I'm hurting. I need encouragement. I need to pray for them. They're not saying that, but that's really what they're saying beneath all the words and somehow we don't pick it up.

How is it that we can live our lives and miss so much of the real thing in life that really matters? Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message. And the message is entitled Spiritual Discernment. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Philippians chapter one, Paul writing this letter, wonderful letter of joy and encouragement. And he says, beginning in verse eight, he says, For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and discern and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Now, here's what he says. He said, I pray that your love may abound still more and more in, he says now, in real knowledge and discernment. He says, I want you to know what real genuine love is all about. Now, most people have the idea that love is a feeling you have. But in the Scriptures, love is never seen as a feeling. It's knowing.

That is, if a person really and truly loves someone, they know them. They want to get to know them. They want to get on the inside and find out what motivates you. What turns you on? What turns you off? What is it that you love? What is it that you like? What you don't love? What you don't like? Who do you like to be with?

Who do you not like to be with? That is, you want to know the person and love in the Scripture is knowing that other person so that if we say we love God, we certainly have a desire to know him. We want to know him. And so Paul is simply saying, I want you to have discernment so that you'll understand what true, genuine love is all about. And he said, so that you may approve those things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Now, what I want to talk about is spiritual discernment. What is spiritual discernment? Well, spiritual discernment is that quality and that capability within us that every single one of us needs, no exception. It is that capacity to judge things rightly. It is the ability to be able to see things as they are, not as they appear to be. It is the capacity to be able to distinguish between right and wrong, good and best, wise and unwise.

It's the capacity to be able to see beneath the surface and analyze and expose and understand in a way that normally looking at things and seeing things would not be true. And so many people live by their feelings and by their sight and by what they hear, not what's real. They're too willing to accept what appears to be real and true as real and true. And the truth is oftentimes it is not. And so God does not want us living that way. So he has provided us the gift of discernment. Then if you move over to Hebrews chapter four and if you'll notice in this twelfth verse of this fourth chapter concerning the Scripture, here's what the Bible says about itself. For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge or discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And so there are three Greek words for discernment. Sometimes it's a praise, sometimes it's judge, sometimes it's discern.

But they all mean those things. Judging something, to judge that is to judge it rightly, to analyze it to be able to see beneath the surface, but look beyond what is on the surface, what appears to be right. That is making wise, godly judgments.

Now for a person to do that, and there are many people who think their judgment is absolutely perfect all the time, they'll tell you so. But the truth is if you're going to have a discerning spirit, a discerning spirit is the result of several things. But the discerning spirit is a gift that God gives every single believer. That is, we have the privilege and the capability and the capacity to judge rightly in every situation if we understand what's going on. That is, if we understand, that's discernment on our part, and that God has made that possible. And yet many believers do not. They get themselves in all kinds of problems and heartaches and troubles, and they say, Well, you know, I prayed and asked God. Oh, they'll say, Well, I did the best I could.

Well, I thought that was the right thing to do. And people sometimes they marry someone that they should not have married. They make unwise judgments in their purchases. They get themselves in debt.

They make all kinds of mistakes. One of the primary reasons is they have seemingly no discernment about what is good and best, what is right and wrong, what is wise and unwise, what skirts the very edge of right, and oftentimes that's where they want to live. They want to live right on the edge of right and wrong. And so the truth is God wants us to have a discerning spirit for our protection. A discernment is a protective thing that God has given to us if we're willing to exercise it and to develop it and mature as believers.

So what you have to ask yourself is this. When you face a situation or a decision in your life, do you ask for God's direction? Do you simply pray about it?

Do you wait until deep down inside you have an assurance? And so what is that assurance? God enables us to have the capacity to discern, to judge, to make a wise judgment in every single aspect of our life. So really what I want to do is to give you some examples of how important this is and then I want to talk about how to develop a discerning spirit. But I want you to think about this for a moment.

Let's look at it this way. These illustrations I want to give you, illustrations of how essential it is that you and I are able to judge rightly. We can know the difference between what is authentic and what is not authentic, what's counterfeit and what's real. We face it every single day of our life. We meet people who are not truthful with us.

We listen to advertisements that we think, no way could that possibly be that perfect. And so oftentimes people don't realize that they need to be discerning about every aspect of life. So let's begin with this one, the most simplest one of all, and that's simply this. And that is, it is absolutely essential to live in the will of God. If you don't have a discerning spirit and you cannot judge wisely of what is of God and what is not of God, then you'll never be able to live in the will of God. Living in the will of God, that's the pathway of peace. It's the pathway of fruitfulness and productivity in your life.

It's the pathway in which you're going to find happiness and joy, even in the midst of difficulties and trials. Think about all the decisions you have to make in life, the decisions with your children, the decisions with your finances, decisions with your relationships. If you don't have a discerning spirit, you know what you'll do?

You'll just take things at face value. Instead of evaluating from a biblical point of view, instead of looking at it from God's perspective, instead of uncovering what is beneath the surface, you may take off in some direction that you just know this has to be it because it seems to be right. And how many times I've heard people say, well, it seemed to be right. It looked like the right thing. It felt good. My friend, there are many things that feel good in life that are not the will of God.

A lot of things that they listen, all sin has an appeal, but how will you know the will of God for your life if you have no spiritual discernment to be able to detect and to judge rightly who's doing the talking? That's one thing. The second thing I want you to notice is how essential it is. And that is to distinguish between truth and error. Now, today, this is an information age. There's so much information. There's so much stuff being paraded on the television, the radio and the magazines and newspapers, you name it.

It is absolutely unsafe today to sit down before a television set, listen to a radio or a tape or listen carefully or to go to some churches and sit there with your mind wide open and taking in everything that you hear as truth. Now, you're wise enough certainly to notice some of the advertisements that there's absolutely no way anything can be that perfect. Now, isn't it interesting how they commercialize these pieces of athletic equipment or exercise equipment? And I exercise about five or six days a week, so I'm not knocking that.

I'm all for it. But when I watch it, here's what I notice. The only people who are at the exercise are the people who have not a scratch of fat on them, not one. Secondly, everything is absolutely perfect. If you buy this, the implication is, in other words, they don't say it, but what they're really saying is, you want to look like, you want to look like this, you buy this, this is the way you're going to look. There's no way in the world some of us would ever look like that.

No way. But you see, if you buy it, you know, it's just four easy payments. They tell you that real fast. And then what if you'll notice that the shipping charge is about 20% of the whole cost.

I mean, if you don't listen and you don't watch with a discerning spin, you think, you know, that's what I need, and then this is the kicker. You call us in the next 10 minutes. You call, you know, do you know why they do that? Have you ever thought about why they do that?

I'll tell you why. It's always cheaper if you call within the next 10 to 15 minutes, right? Always cheaper. Plus, you get these three extra gifts. Well if the thing is worth that, why are you giving me something else? So what they're saying is, is we're not worth all that much, but they get you to buy, we're going to give you three other things. Now you know why they say the first 15 minutes? Here's the reason. They know that if you have any discernment at all, you go away and think about the next 15 minutes, you're going to say, I don't need it and I'm not buying it. Those first 15 minutes, very important to selling you something. Now I'm not saying that they're necessarily doing the wrong thing.

That's the way they're commercialized. So we know that. The issue is you don't have to buy it. And if it's something that you need and something you feel free to do and you have the money to do it, that's one thing. But the issue is this. What's real and what's unreal? And this is why you don't have a discerning spirit and you walk through the malls. Why sure there are a lot of things that you'd like to have.

Do you need them? Now here's where the tragedy comes. You send your children away to college and if they have no discerning spirit, here is a teacher or professor who has a PhD and several other Ds behind his name. And so naturally you believe that he's going to tell you the truth. If you don't have a discerning spirit, you can absolutely get yourself in more intellectual, listen, and spiritual trouble by simply believing something because it sounds good and besides that it fits the kind of lifestyle you want and so therefore you say, I believe it. Well why shouldn't I believe it? And you may come up with a whole lot of reasons why you should believe it. God wants us to have a discerning spirit to discern what is good and what is evil. What appears to be good and you see many, many parents let their kids go to movies because they've watched the advertisement, everything is happy, everything is joyful, everything is oh it's just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And your kids say well you know everybody else has been, why can't I go?

And you say fine. And you never stop to ask the question, what is the subtle message of that movie? What's really going on? What are they really after? Is this pure pleasure? But is it pure pleasure or is it pleasure mixed with something else? And sometimes it's just pure error. It's just pure untruth. It is deception in a raw form. And you see not only can children, young people be deceived like that, so can adults. And when somebody is talking to you and telling you what's going on, what you have to ask is, is this the full truth?

Is this the whole truth? You need a discerning spirit to hear both messages because people send two messages. Oftentimes they send you the message verbally that's very evident. Then if you watch and listen closely, there's a message from their gestures and then there is another message. The other message is what is strangely missing, what they do not say. And so therefore it doesn't mean that you're not going to go around suspecting everybody, but if you don't have a discerning spirit, listen, you can be waylaid in so many ways.

Financially you can catch it. I mean, you can be deceived in relationships, you name it. Every single one of us needs a discerning spirit so that what we hear, we hear the truth. We hear what is not being said. We hear what is being said. And so I would say to you and anybody who listens to me, you ask God to give you a discerning spirit of whether I'm telling you the truth or not.

You go to the Word of God and find out. Now that doesn't mean that we'll always agree on interpretations about everything. And so we have the privilege of disagreeing without hating each other and without despising each other and putting somebody in some category over here.

So we can disagree at some points. But the issue is that you have a discerning spirit to note whether a thing is biblical or not biblical. And so you have to ask the Lord to give you a discerning spirit so you'll know the difference.

A third area is simply this. And that is we need to discerning spirit lest we be deceived by sin. Now sin is always by its very nature a deceiver. That is, sin always works on the basis of deception. What did Satan say to Eve?

You'll not surely die. And besides that, you eat of this fruit and you'll be like God, knowing, listening, knowing the difference between good and evil. Well, part of that was the truth. They certainly would know something.

But look at the devastating effect of it all. And so sin by nature is a deceiver. So how is sin usually colored?

Bright and glitzy. How does sin usually sound? It sounds really good. So if it sounds good and it looks good and it makes me feel good, then it must be all right. But you think about the music.

How much music may sound good, what's the message? What is the subtle message of that? And I think people do not realize how easily they are influenced by what they see on the surface, what they hear with the subtle message oftentimes. And so they're quick to bite.

And they're quick to move in that direction. And we wonder why our kids oftentimes head on the wrong direction in life because they've never been taught to be discerning about the kind of music they listen to and what they see and what they feel and what they touch. And so therefore, they get themselves in trouble and their parents want to say, well, I taught you thus and so. You may have taught them some things, but did you teach them how to judge rightly between what looks good and what is good? What is bad and what is evil?

What's wise and what's unwise? Listen, some things are not wrong. Some things are not sinful. They're just not the will of God.

They're just not best. They're just not what God wants for you. And therefore, if you make choices only on the basis of right and wrong, then you'll make some choices in life that'll come back to haunt you. Because some things may not be wrong, but they're unwise for you.

It may be wise for you at a later date, but not at this moment. You step ahead of God, you get ahead of God, you get out of His will. And so we need a discerning spirit because sin is very, very deceptive. And listen, you can't always listen to your friends because sometimes in their sincere moments of wanting to encourage you to do something or not to do something, if they don't have any spiritual discernment, how can you follow their leadership and their guidance and their suggestion if they have no spiritual discernment? So if you're listening to somebody, you have to be careful who you're listening to. Sin is very, very deceitful.

And what happens is it causes us to walk on the edge of disobedience. Because sin always has an appeal that looks good. What you have to ask is, let's take the top off and look inside.

Let's pull back the drapes and see what it's really like. Because here's what sin never indicates. Sin always gives the appeal of what's good and so forth. But it never, sin never points to the consequences. Sin never says, now, but if you do so and so, here's what you can expect. Sin is a deception.

Satan is a deceiver. We need a discerning spirit to know the difference between, I'll say it again and again, good and evil, right and wrong, what's good and what's best. What is the will of God and what is the pleasure that I desire in my own heart? So what you have to ask is this, do I have enough discernment to make wise choices in life? Do I have enough discernment to make wise choices? Am I making decisions based on how much money I have? Making decisions based on whether I'm going to have somebody's approval or not, or if I'm going to get rejected?

Or is it on the basis of wise, godly judgment that is in keeping with the living Word of God? Thank you for listening to Why We Need Spiritual Discernment. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.