The Continual Practice of Discernment
I recently visited a church that challenged me in a way I had never been challenged before. Everything was business as usual for the first part of the service. As I found a seat near the back, a woman prayed, and there was a time of worship that was intimate with the Father. However, as the speaker for the morning began, I felt a shift in the atmosphere. The church leader began to speak about demons whispering words of confusion in our ears. I had difficulty understanding his approach to the topics he covered. He spoke with a lot of passion, and did not use many scriptural references to support his premise. I found myself gazing around the room, wondering what others were feeling. I was uncomfortable and desperately wanted to leave.
I felt bad for having such a negative reaction to this service. For a moment, I found myself shrugging it off. It was my first time at this church and I didn’t know the leadership or the church’s culture. But I couldn’t shake what I felt I was perceiving from the environment. I didn’t know how to articulate what I was sensing spiritually.
In the New Testament we are consistently commanded to watch out, stand firm, stay alert, be of a sober mind, and to test everything (Matthew 7:15, Ephesians 6:11, 1 Peter 5:8, 1 John 4:1). All of these scriptures point to discernment. But what does it mean to discern? How do we do that practically?
Discernment is the ability to know what is the Spirit of God versus what is not. In 1 John 4 we are told how to test these spirits,
“2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
This seems simple enough. Yet I wonder how often we actually practice this. Whether we are listening to a politician or a preacher, we should be discerning. Whether we are scrolling on social media or seeking advice, we should be discerning. In Hebrews 5 we learn that to be spiritually mature is to have our powers of discernment trained by constant practice in distinguishing good from evil.
A mentor of mine once told me that discerning is like eating a chicken wing. “Eat the meat and spit out the bones,” she would say over and over again. We should long to participate in how the Spirit of God is working. We must learn in moments of discernment to separate the meat from the bone.
Practically, discernment begins with asking questions. When I was listening to the preacher I describe above I didn’t know what questions to ask right away, but I knew something was not sitting right in my spirit. PRMI (Presbyterian-Reformed Ministries International) has a wonderful discernment tool that asks four questions. (https://www.prmi.org/four-discernment-tests/)
Does it give glory to Jesus Christ?
Is it consistent with scripture?
Do other people who are filled with the Holy Spirit have a confirming witness?
Is there confirmation in objectively verifiable events or facts?
Asking these four questions with spiritual mentors helped me to break down not only the service but my perception of it as well. I was able to recognize God’s lordship over every moment. I was able to celebrate the ways God moved in worship. I could identify what was biblically accurate and what gave Jesus the glory. This act of discerning, separating what was of God and what was not- allowed me to praise God for His presence there with us, while also laying down the parts of the service that seemed off track. It is easy in these situations to fall into destructive heart postures of skepticism, criticism, or resentment. When discerning, we must remember that Jesus holds the victory. We do not discern to harden our hearts towards specific leaders, churches, etc. We discern to see what the Spirit of God is doing, then praise Him for it. We are not fighting a battle against flesh and blood, but one with the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12). This means we must make it a constant practice to release forgiveness, and walk in humility even when we are hurt by church leaders.
My prayer is that the Body of Christ would become spiritually mature in the practice of discernment, that we would learn to ask questions, and that we would eat the meat while spitting out the bones.