The Power of a Discerning Spirit

In touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, the power of a discerning spirit. [music] 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 what the 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 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. Neither we who are parents, nor are children, nor are grandchildren. 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 will 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 119th Psalm and the 66th verse in that Psalm, the whole Psalm is about the Word of God. And it does you good in once in a while, but every few months or so, I just read that whole Psalm just for myself, because it's all about God's Word and what it does in our life. And if you'll notice in this 119th Psalm, it's the long one. Down the 66th verse, look at the 65th 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 it and 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, we live in a day when you have to ask several times, am I hearing the truth or am I not? Is this really the truth or is this some counterfeit? Is something camouflaged around what I see and what I hear?

A world of deception lies. And so we live in lots of turmoil because we don't know what to believe. You turn on the television and you hear one person say one thing and somebody else comes on next, there's something absolutely opposite. So what do you believe? You hear all about finances today and you hear about something else tomorrow and totally different. So we live in an age of being overwhelmed with information, but not necessarily the truth. And if you operate simply on the basis of information without truth, you're going to get in trouble sooner or later. 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. 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. And so the issue is, do you know what the plan is? How would I find that out? He's willing to tell you. He's willing to show you. He's willing to make it crystal clear. For the simple reason, he is the one who designed the plan. He knows exactly what's best. And so, if you can't discern when God is speaking and when it's just yourself or what you choose, how are you ever going to know that you're in the will of God or doing the will of God? It's extremely important we learn to judge rightly. Let's say, 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 the beautiful handsome. They're wealthy on their poor. He's got this. She's got that. And only, only, only we go and 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 think 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 hell 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. And when you think about what's happening in children's schools, 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 to go to a discerning spirit unless somebody teaches them? And the truth is it's the parents' responsibility. You still have to not teach them about children to be discerning, to be discerning yourself. Suppose I don't know how, then you're in trouble, 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. And a lot of folks will mix truth with error, and there are sex and cults and so forth. That's what they do. They put enough truth out there to mix it with error. So if you only hear what sounds good and what you've probably been taught and you don't get this part over here, then you got confusion. 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 in encouragement. You don't know who you're sitting around this morning close to, back and front and so forth, who's going through a terrible time in their life. When they sang, they sang smiling, and 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 overcome and to avoid being deceived by sin. Sin is a very, very convincing, persuading thing, and many things that are pleasurable in life that are other 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 purchase? In other words, what follows after this? A discerning spirit doesn't just start with what they see and what they hear or what they feel at the moment. 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, "Well, you know, as long as I just sort of get along, I'm fine." That's not in the Word of God. Because you now follow us of Jesus Christ and because He lives on the inside of us, and because we have the Holy Spirit in us,

listen, He expects us to do our best and to be our best. And 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 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. In other words, what do I want to leave God out in my life? Name any decision that you may just want to leave him out totally. You say, well, surely there's some decisions I don't have to ask out about. Well, some decision three's you don't have to ask out about, you've already asked him about it and you know. In other words, some things are crystal clear right 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 distinguish

in between legalism. Listen, legalism, and I want to put this on the board here, 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. And that is really what goes on sometimes. But 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, I have to ask yourself the question. And 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 God 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 It's our greatest protection, not only for our children as they leave home, but for our daily life. And so when you think about it in your own personal life and when he's speaking, how would you say that you know when God is speaking to you? Well, I'm going to come to that in a moment. 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. Now, what's the source of real spiritual discernment? Well, the source of real spiritual discernment. First of all, it's a gift of God. Yes, so I can be a gift of God. Here's the reason. Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room the night before he was leaving. He said, I'm going to send you a helper. He is the Holy Spirit. He'll be in you with you and upon you. He will enable you. He will give you direction. He will bring things to your remembrance. He will help you understand the truth. That's the promise that every single one of us who is a believer has. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us to enable us and direct us to have spiritual discernment. So we have a helper. And so as you think about your life and you come to make a decision, listen, you don't ever have to make a decision alone as a believer. You have the Spirit of God living within you. That's God's in the Spirit living within you. And he says, I'm sending him as your helper. So we have someone to help us. You just want to help you out in every single aspect of life. We have him. When you trusted Jesus as your Savior, he says he came to live in your life, direction, guidance, your personal helper. Naturally, he's going to help you make wise decisions. So when you think about it, we have the asset number one of the Holy Spirit to enable us to be wise in our judgments. But the second thing we have is this. We have the Word of God.

He says, the entrance of our Word gives light. Now, so when it comes to making wise decisions, and when it comes to having spiritual discernment, what is the basis of it? The basis of all discernment is the Word of God. Because every single situation and circumstance you and I are confronted with, there is an answer in the Word of God. He says, oh, I've got something. No, you don't. You don't have any spiritual moral issues in life for which there's not an answer in the Word of God. So when somebody says, well, how do I have a discerning spirit? Well, listen carefully. Think about in this light. You come to church week after week after week after week after week, or you listen or you watch. And you hear one principle after the other. One principle after the other. This is how God works. This is how God thinks. I'm just simply giving you what God says in His Word. So what have you done? You have filled your mind with what? With biblical truths. Let's just take the Ten Commandments. If you just take the Ten Commandments and you say, well, I'm going to run everything by that. That's just foundation. You think about all the truth in the Word of God, all through Paul's Epistles and how he explained things and so forth. And so when you think about that and you think about how God intends for us to work, listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians now back in this second chapter and begin, if you will, in verse 10. He says, "For to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him, even so the thoughts of God. No one knows except the Spirit of God." So that, listen, "If a person is an unbeliever, they have no spiritual discernment." Can't have it. No one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given us of God. The basis of all true genuine spiritual discernment is the Word of God. He says, "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." Now watch this. But a natural man, that's an unbeliever. A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him. And he can't understand them because they're spiritually discerned. You say, "That word is a praise. A Greek word is discerned." He says, "A lost person, You say, "Well, then how would a lost person ever get saved?" Here's how a lost person gets saved. "They hear the truth and the Spirit of God from without.

Takes the truth of God, drives into their heart, to their heart, their life, and convicts them of sin. And listen, and begins to reveal the truth, the truth of salvation. And then following that, of course, the Holy Spirit is there to give them direction. But here's what he says. He says, "The natural man does not accept the things of God because they are spiritually discerned." And he says, "Because they are foolishness to him. But he who is spiritual, appraises or discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one." Now, what he's simply saying is this, that when you and I have the Spirit of God living within us, what happens? We have the discerner. He's the one who, he's the one who enables us to discern. And so, thereby, a person who would judge us, for example, they can judge, and there was, we're not talking about condemning somebody, we're talking about discerning. We're talking about seeing what is the truth about that person. And so a lost person doesn't mean that a lost person has no discernment, doesn't mean that. But they have no spiritual discernment because, apart from the Spirit of God, it's not there. And they don't have it. Well, how do you develop a discerning spirit? You develop a discerning spirit by what? By practice, you say, "Well, suppose I fail." We all fail to begin with. We all make mistakes. But here's what happens. If I want to develop a discerning spirit, I will, first of all, have to be a Christian. I'll ask God to give me direction. And I will do what I believe He's saying is best I know at that point. It may be exactly the right thing, it may not be, because it will suppose it's not. How do we learn? We learn by making mistakes. Well, I thought that's what God said.

But here's the key. We go back to what we said in the beginning. If you have the Word of God, and we have it in our heart, the Spirit of God will do what? Decision comes. You want to be wise in what you do? He will bring back to our mind and heart the Word of God. So here's what God says. Now, if you don't have the Word of God in your heart, this is why I say read it, read it, read it, read it, read it, read it, read it, because here's what happens. When you read the Word of God, He's putting it in your heart. The more you read, the more you understand, you read it, you read it, you read it, you read it, you read it, what's happening? We program our minds and our hearts, our spirit to think the way God thinks. You neglect the Word of God, what happens? When you neglect the Word of God, you will begin to think the way the world thinks. Because think about it. Think about how much you hear from television or your job or whatever it might be. You listen to all these things, the bombarded with information, information, information. And then there's a little bit of time you spend reading the Word of God, which will naturally overpower the other. If you're not careful, you let the world's viewpoint overpower God's viewpoint, then you make wrong decisions. The Surning Spirit is the greatest protection you have in a world of information that's so full of mixture of truth and error. We all need a discerning spirit. And what do you get it? Remember, it's a gift from God through the Holy Spirit who interprets things for us as we need to be. And then we have the book, we have the teaching, and we have experience.

So you say, "Well, I don't think I've been doing too well, then here's where you start. Lord, next time I have a decision, I'm coming to you to ask for direction." And here's the big issue. What were the consequences of the last time I made that decision? And what happens is the Spirit of God will show you, look how you've suffered from doing that before. Or look how I blessed you for waiting upon me and taking my choice. You learned discernment, but you have the basis of the Word of God that's the source of all discernment we need. And it is my prayer. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you think, "Well, how does all this work with me? It really won't work because he says the natural man receiving not the things of God." When you trust Jesus as your Savior, that's when the Holy Spirit comes in. That's when he enables you. That's when you begin to see things as they really and truly are. So I ask you this question. Why would you wait to receive Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as your Savior, Lord and Master, when he is the only Savior? your greatest protection is his presence within you and the power to the certain writer what would you wait in a world of confusion and people being mixed up about so many things and not knowing which way to turn and how to make decisions and all the uncertainty that envelopes this world of that was why would you wait if you'll think you shouldn't wait because it can't get better waiting now challenge you to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and tell him that you need him in your life you receiving him as your Lord and Savior master you want what's best for you you want what's best for your family you're trusting Jesus Christ is your personal savior what would you wait frankly I'll be a little bit afraid to wait God does know how to get our attention doesn't it amen

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