The Power of a Discerning Spirit - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, November tenth. Have you ever just known there was something wrong with what you were hearing? Sharpen your spiritual intuition as you learn to develop the power of a discerning spirit. Isn't it strange that sometimes we have difficulty determining the difference between good and evil? And sometimes we find ourselves being deceived by what we hear and what we see. And sometimes we have difficulty in discerning whether God is speaking to us or not. And then oftentimes in our conversations with other people, we don't get it.

They're saying to us in their own way, in their own words, their own expressions, I'm hurting, I need help, and we just go right by it. Well, one of the reasons all of those things are true is because we do not have a discerning spirit. Somewhere along the way, nobody's ever taught us what it means to be discerning. We just take things as they are, take them at face value.

And living in the day in which you and I live, you cannot afford to do that. In fact, this whole nation, as a nation of people, we cannot afford to make decisions without a discerning spirit. We're in trouble, big time trouble, because we have not made decisions based on wise discernment, but on what appears to be something that'll pass for the moment without thinking about the future consequences. Could that be true of your life?

That you've made a lot of decisions without thinking about the future consequences? Well, David prayed a prayer to the Father that all of us should pray for ourselves. Now, I want you to turn, if you will, to the hundred-nineteenth Psalm and the sixty-sixth verse in that Psalm. The whole Psalm is about the Word of God. And once in a while, about every few months or so, I just read that whole Psalm just for myself, because it's all about God's Word and what He does in our life.

And if you'll notice in this hundred-nineteenth Psalm, it's the long one, down to the sixty-sixth verse, look at the sixty-fifth verse, and here's what he says, You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your Word. Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments. Teach me good discernment. So, if you'll think about the day in which you and I live and the things that are happening today and the fact that we live in a world that's full of counterfeit, lies, half-truths mixed with truth.

You turn on the television and you hear one person say one thing and somebody else comes on next and says something absolutely opposite. So, what do you believe? So, what I want to talk about in this message is simply this, and that is the power of a discerning spirit. It is the will of God that all of His children have a spiritually discerning spirit. That is, when you think about what discernment is, discernment is all about making judgments. It's about right judgment. It's about looking beneath the surface of things to see what's really there. It's being able to hear what the person says and also hearing what they don't say. It's investigating something and not taking it for granted. It's evaluating.

It's distinguishing. It's looking deep down inside to find out what is the truth. And God intends that every single one of His children have a discerning spirit. Because if you'll think about it, many people do not have an idea, no idea of how to listen to God.

They go to church for years and years and years and years. And if you say, well, have you asked the Lord about it? Well, I did ask Him about it. What did He say? Well, I, God just hadn't said anything.

Yes, He does. Well, how can I distinguish between whether what He's saying or what I'm saying? And so, there are lots of questions that you and I have to face. And if you'll think about the explosion of information, you can get it from any direction, anywhere, anytime.

And so, we're overwhelmed with information. But oftentimes information is not true and sometimes it's very, very destructive. And when I think about the fact that when a person can't distinguish between whether God is saying something or they're thinking of themselves or whether they know how to get God's viewpoint about something, real true discernment says, I think I have God's viewpoint about what this issue is all about. So, what I'd like for us to do is I'd like to think about it in this light. And that is, first of all, what's the real need for discernment?

We talk about lots of information. Well, think about it from this perspective. If you're going to live in the will of God, you've got to have a discerning spirit. Because discernment says, I'm able to understand truthfully and in reality what God is saying to me. He has a will and a purpose and a plan for every single one of us. It's extremely important we learn to judge rightly. And God helps us to do it and enables us to do that, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But the fact that you cannot live in the will of God, let's take for example, let's say marriage. You're going to marry somebody.

Is it the will of God or is it not? You say, well, I think so. Oops. You're heading for trouble if you're just going to marry somebody because you think so. Well, how would I ever know? I've looked at how they're beautiful or handsome.

They're wealthy or they're poor. He's got this. She's got that. And on and on and on we go. We name all these things that we think are important.

Do you know what the only real important issue is? Is it the will of God or is it not? And when you make decisions that affect every single aspect of your life and will affect them till you die and you do not know how to discern the mind of God, to know His mind, to know His will, to know His purpose, then you make decisions that are disastrous. And that's why so many people do just that. They make disastrous decisions that affect them all their life and they will say, well, I thought I was doing the right thing. Well, why did you make that choice?

Well, my mother, my father, my friends, I felt they had, I wanted, I saw, you know, I projected, I dreamed. Well, none of that will work because all of it can be very deceiving. Because if you make decisions based on what you see and not what you judge intimately and discern on the inside of that person, you're going to make unwise decisions. And secondly, it's essential to distinguishing truth from error. And we're going to get to how in a few moments, but if you can't distinguish truth from error, you're going to make decisions that are going to be costly.

They can be financially costly decisions, relationally costly, whatever it might be. This is why you cannot afford to send your children to a college, I don't care which one it is, or to a seminary without a discerning spirit because they're going to oftentimes be totally confused and frustrated and affect them the rest of their life. You say, well, are you saying there are no Christian colleges you can trust? I'd never say that.

There are some, but there are very few comparatively. And when you think about what's happening in children's schools, and when they go to elementary school, and all the things that they hear about evolution and ignore the very idea of God. And now, for example, we have the whole issue, let's don't talk about Jesus. What do you expect? How do we expect them to grow up having a discerning spirit unless somebody teaches them? And the truth is, it's the parent's responsibility. You say, how do I teach my children to be discerning? To be discerning yourself. Suppose I don't know how.

Then you're in trouble and your kids are in trouble. And the truth is, it's the will of God that His children follow His will, which means I must be able to learn to listen to Him, what He's saying, and to be able to discern what is truth and what is error. So, it's very important we have a discerning spirit to be able to judge rightly, to know the truth. And oftentimes, as we said before, you can have a conversation with somebody. And if you don't have a discerning spirit, you think, well, everything is just wonderful in their life. And they walk away absolutely miserable, hoping that somehow you might say something to them that would have been encouragement. You don't know who you're sitting around this morning close to, who's going through a terrible time in their life, you just think they're the happiest people in the world and praise God and they're just, everything's just fine.

And they're desperately aching on the inside. That's why when we listen to someone, we should listen to what they say, what they don't say. A discerning spirit can hear the words but grasp the emotion behind those words and understand when somebody is really and truly hurting. Also, I think about it in this light. And that is, it's essential for us to be able to avoid being deceived by sin.

Sin is a very, very convincing, persuading thing. Many things that are pleasurable in life that are the will of God, there are many things that appear to be pleasurable in life but only pleasurable for the moment. And one of the things that discernment helps us to do is ask this question. What are the consequences of this action?

When the world talks about pleasure, it only talks about pleasure for the moment or promises of the future that it cannot really fulfill. And so, a discerning person asks the question, what are the consequences of this action? What are the consequences of this purchase?

What follows after this? A discerning spirit doesn't just stop with what they see and what they hear or what they feel at the moment. And as you think about decisions you make in life, we make decisions that affect us for a short period of time.

We make decisions that affect us for a very, very long period of time. Would you say that you have a discerning spirit? That you judge rightly, not only in your relationships, but in your purchases, in decisions about where you go, how you work out your life, in your vocation, whatever it might be. Do you have a discerning spirit about the people you work around? They're hurting, they're grieved, they are living in sin, disobeying God, wishing that somebody would help them.

And you'll walk right by. A discerning spirit, you have your antennas out. It's not a matter of making judgments on people in a condemning sort of way, but being sensitive to where they are in life and what's going on in their life. And I think about, for example, let's take music alone. When you think about music and you hear so much of it today, and when you start analyzing and discerning and looking at oftentimes the words in the music, they are as immoral as they can be, as anti-Christ as they can be. And listen, if you just sit and listen because you say, it sounds good and I just love this music.

Well, look what's happened in this world of ours today. And a lot of it because of music. And listen, think about the people, they just stand in crowds and clap and you just name it with no sense of discernment of the effect that that kind of music is having in their life.

They say, oh, I love it, it sounds good, makes me feel good. But what's the message it's sending? It is a dangerous thing to live today with no discerning spirit. And it is a spirit that God offers His children. It's essential to distinguish in between what's good and what's best. Now, a lot of folks say, you know, as long as I just sort of get along, I'm fine. That's not in the Word of God. Because you're now followers of Jesus Christ and because He lives on the inside of us and because we have the Holy Spirit within us, listen, He expects us to do our best and to be our best at whatever we do, not better than somebody else necessarily, but to be our best.

And here's what happens. If I sort of like good, I'll never strive for the best. What we have to ask is, Lord, is this as far as you want me to go?

Or do you have something else out here that I'm not even aware of? And when a person has a discerning spirit, they don't make quick judgments when unnecessary. Sometimes you have to make a fast judgment. If you have a discerning spirit, you're protected. But the truth is, unless a person has a discerning spirit, it's like going to battle with no shield and no weapon. You're wide open for defeat because we're being confronted continuously with decisions we have to make that affect all kinds of things in our life that are very important.

So, think about yourself. When you come to make a decision, do you ask the question, What's the will of the Father? What would God have me to do about this? Or do you ask the question merely, How much does it cost?

Can I afford it? You say, Well, you mean to tell me that you'd go to the shopping malls asking God what you ought to do? Well, let me ask you this, when you get your bill at the end of the month, don't you wish you had?

Sure you do. The time to practice discernment is not after you're in trouble, but before you get in trouble. And oftentimes we fail, somehow we just live our lives and don't think that God intends to be involved in every single thing we do. Somebody says, Well, everything, everything.

Well, like, give me an example. You say, Well, surely there are some decisions I don't have to ask God about. Well, some decisions are reasons you don't have to ask God about you, you've already asked Him about and you know. In other words, some things are crystal clear right and wrong. And yet, there are many things that in people's minds are in the gray area. But in God's mind, it's not gray. You say, Well, is everything so black and white? Not necessarily. That's why we have to have a discerning spirit to know, Lord, what is Your will?

In this particular situation, what would You have me to do? And so, likewise, it's essential to distinguishing between legalism and liberty. And I want to give you a definition. And I hope you'll write this down because somebody will say to you, Well, you're just legalistic.

They don't even know what that means. Here's what legalism is. It's the pressure of personal preferences that we impose upon other people as moral mandates from God. We're not being legalistic by having a discerning spirit. We just want to do the right thing in the right way to please and honor God, whatever that requires of us. And so, usually when somebody insists that you interpret Scripture a certain way, you have to ask yourself the question, Lord, what's the will of the Father?

What are you saying to me? And what people don't realize, I think, is having the Word of God we have the foundation and the basis for wise, truly wise discernment. But I think likewise, it's essential to recognizing when God's speaking to us. Now, if I ask you, Do you know how to listen to God?

What would you say? Do you know how to listen to God? You say, Well, I don't know that God's speaking.

Yes, He is. Listen, He created you with a plan and a purpose and a will for your life. It would be unlike God in His very character not to be willing to speak to you to give you direction and clear guidance in every aspect of your life. So, He does speak. The question is, Do you know how to listen to Him? Because you see, when you learn to listen to God, you have a discerning spirit, and He will enable you to distinguish between what I want, what I feel, and what is the will and purpose and plan of God in this situation.

It's our greatest protection, not only for our children as they leave home, but for our daily life. He does speak. He does give discernment because it's His will that you and I make wise decisions. Therefore, I must be able to look beyond what I see, beyond what I feel, beyond what I hear, and be able to see how is it that God looks at it. And then, of course, it's essential to godly counsel. When people say, I'm going to counsel, one of the first things I say is, what kind of counsel is this? Well, he or she is a Christian counselor.

And so, I knew I could trust him. Mm-mm-mm, not necessarily. Just because a person hangs out their sign that says Christian counseling doesn't mean that you are having godly counsel. It may mean that that person is a Christian. But here's the issue about counseling. If a person counsels you in any fashion and that person does not believe the Word of God, or only believes part of it, or is not living a godly life themselves, and is not discerning in their spirit, they have no business counseling you. Because apart from the Spirit of God, they cannot counsel you wisely. But so, when somebody says, I'm going for counsel, what you need to find out before you talk to that person is, I want to find out what kind of life are they living. Because here's what people do who are counselors oftentimes. I'm not opposed to counseling, godly counseling. But here's what they'll do oftentimes.

And I've heard this from people. Well, here's what they told me to do. That's totally ungodly. Oftentimes, they will project upon the person they're counseling their own personal feelings and instead of saying what is best for that person, what's the will of God and purpose and plan in this particular situation, they just project their own feelings on them. You want somebody to give you godly counsel. How does God see this? And this is the issue we have to keep asking. How does God see this situation that I'm in?

What would He have me to do in light of where I am at this point in my life? And so, it's our protection to be able to discern rightly. Thank you for listening to The Power of a Discerning Spirit. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.