Spiritual Gifts part 183: Sometimes you have to check whether that god inside your head is the Real One.

Spiritual Gifts Part 183: Sometimes you have to check to make sure the god inside your head is the Real One.

What is discernment?

Discernment is being able to determine what is coming from the thinking of Christ and what is coming from doctrines of demons, 1Ti 4:1.

When it comes to spiritual discernment, the Lord tells us that the way to know the real source of things is by examining the fruit.

Mat 7:16
“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?”

“I am truly the source of all your spiritual privileges. All of the promises and their fulfillment will be accomplished in and through Me.”

The vine metaphor refers to the humanity of Jesus Christ.
 

Isa 11:1
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

Joh 15:2
“Every branch [believer] in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away [discipline]; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it [suffering for blessing] so that it may bear more fruit.”

Fruit through the branch is a metaphor for the divine good production of the Church age believer.

The branch in Christ that does not bear fruit refers to the believer who does not produce divine good.

First, he cuts off fruitless branches, which take away sap from the fruit-bearing branches.

Second, he constantly trims shoots from the fruit-bearing branches so that all the sap is concentrated on fruit bearing.

Sometimes He uses the gentle knife of conviction through God’s word.

So He has a second knife, the knife of affliction.

The problem that many Christians have is that they are seeking to “do things” for God rather than discovering who they are “in Christ”.

God is actually causing this shattering revelation of self!

Rom 7:18
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

Dechaunac – first frost

“After winter exposure, this dead wood can be easily recognized as dark, brittle, and sapless, and can be removed.”

Dechaunac – Unpruned.

Winter is when trees have lost all of their leaves.

There is less of the day, and more of the night. Night season.

Winter is also when we start to look at life MORE REALISTICALLY.

Dechaunac – Pruned

Our spiritual life is a life that is designed to be alive and active.
 
Sometimes, though, we live in the dead wood.

Adversity is a reminder that our true life is not caught up in earthly things that are fading away .

February 17, 1989:

Sometimes you have to check whether that god inside your head is the Real One.

A shoot can be a concept of Christ that is small and limited and still very far away from the heart of who He is.