Spiritual Discernment

Chuckle: What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? The saurus.

Good Quote: "The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace, humility, and love; and the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God." --J. I. Packer

DISCERNING GOOD AND EVIL

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV).

In this passage, Paul makes one thing abundantly clear -- the person who has the Holy Spirit resident within him can understand the world from God's perspective -- that is if he relies upon the Spirit in making his discernments. As Christians, we have access to the very mind of Christ through His indwelling Spirit and God's written Word. So, the question is not whether God has given us the ability to discern right from wrong or good from evil; but rather it is whether or not we listen to the Spirit in our discernments.

In Psalm 15, the psalmist asks the question: "Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?" To state the question another way; "Who will you welcome into your presence to worship you?" In the Psalm, several characteristics are listed for the person God welcomes into His presence. Verse five says, "he who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord." This requirement is one of perspective. This person must first be able to discern what is to be despised and what is to be honored -- what is good and holy in God's sight and what is vile in His sight. Such a man has a clear vision of what is good and what is evil, because he sees the world as God sees it.

As Christians, our spiritual discernment senses can become dulled so that we no longer are offended by ungodly conduct. We can find ourselves compromising our convictions and adopting some of the same moral values that God detests. I venture to say that many of us are not offended by some television programs that would have caused us to turn the TV off in disgust twenty years ago. Not only are we not offended by them, but we may have come to enjoy them. Our moral senses are no longer as keen and discerning as God wants them to be in recognizing right and wrong.

God only invites holy people into his presence for worship that pleases Him. Perhaps each of us should reevaluate our tolerance of evil, ask God's forgiveness if we have compromised our spiritual integrity, and commit ourselves anew to holy living. Then God will invite us into His holy presence for worship. As we seek to live holy lives, God will continue to sharpen our spiritual sensitivity with new abilities to discern between that of the Spirit and that of the world.

Love, Jerry & Dotse