Spiritual Gifts part 158: Discernment is ultimately about thoughts.

Spiritual Gifts Part 158: Discernment is ultimately about thoughts.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

Point 3: What is a “Spiritual Gift”?

A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability graciously given by God the Holy Spirit to each believer ( without regard to merit) at the moment of salvation …

…so that the Holy Spirit might manifest Himself in effective service for the benefit of the Royal Family, ending up with God the Father being glorified through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your spiritual gift becomes operational as you grow spiritually.

Discernment from spiritual growth is part of being equipped to function effectively in your spiritual gift.

What is discernment?

Discernment is the skill in separating divine truth from error and half truth.

Discernment is the ability to consistently and successfully identify thoughts, teachings, teachers, situations and people…

… according to whether they are sent from God or from the kingdom of darkness (the sin nature, the world system, or fallen angels).

There is a wisdom that is earthly, natural, and demonic.

And there is another wisdom that comes down from above.

Jam 3:14
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

The first place to look for clues is in your OWN heart!

We are to let the Holy Spirit train us to be able to recognize what is going on inside our own soul.

The first discernment skill is to have the Spirit deploy the word of God to consistently and reliably read the situation in our soul.

There is an order to how the word of God trains us to be discerning, and the first order of business is to let the word of God discern our own souls.

When it comes to human beings, we tend to notice appearances, but the Bible tells us that the Lord looks at the heart.

1Sa 16:7b
for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We know that, by birth and by nature , every human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

The plan of God after salvation is to renovate the hearts of the believers, clearing out the garbage and replacing it with the mind or thinking of Jesus Christ.

Discernment is being able to determine what is coming from the thinking of Christ and what is coming from doctrines of demons.

So discernment is ultimately a soul thing, a thought thing.