True Biblical Discernment (Part 1)

These pictures here have nothing to do with discernment that I am aware of. I just wish to ask others for advice about what I should do as I am working with my hands in my workshop for our business and there are distractions like this? He won't let up unless I quit working and pet him.


What do I do?













On a more serious note, I am doing a prayerful study on this topic of "True Biblical Discernment". It is my prayer that I will go through and come out of this study with a greater understanding than going into it.

As God’s Word says in:

2 Peter 1:1-11
Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Who am I to think that I could speak of “True Biblical Discernment”? I understand that question for I am asking this of myself. I have no Bible degrees given to me by men. I am not ordained by any church denomination or organization. I do not have any certificate on my wall that indicates to others that I have arrived at something of which others have not. So why am I doing this? If I have no accreditations from men then why do I do anything of this nature on my blog for others to read?

1) It is my desire that my Lord and Savior is glorified and known better through those things I share here. Perhaps God will use this to cause others who haven’t met Christ Jesus yet to come to a saving knowledge of Him. Perhaps God will reveal to some hearts Truth that can set them free from some form of spiritual bondage they were not yet aware of in their life. For Christ is glorified in this way as well. (2 Tim 2:24-26)

2) For my own personal growth in the “grace and knowledge of God”. For if this doesn’t increase through my life in “the True Vine” (Jn 15) how could I edify or (as needed) correct others?

3) By doing this publicly, I am holding myself accountable to others (including you) for the things that I profess to understand and believe. This gives others in the Body of Christ, locally and globally, the opportunity to judge and correct or affirm my understanding of God’s Word and how it is to be lived out.

4) It is my desire and prayer that what I share here may help someone else to experience an effective increase in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For the “like precious faith” that the apostle Peter wrote of is directly connected with what the apostle Paul wrote of when he said:

Ephesians 4:15-16
but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The effective working of the Holy Spirit of Christ, as experienced through His Headship, is not at all limited to that which is within some specified physical radius of our bodies. Christ is on the Throne in a physical body form and yet His chosen people are seated spiritually with Him in Heavenly places. Until Christ returns and all flesh sees His glorious supernatural resurrected body, we know God and His Truth only in Spirit, as He reveals Himself to His own through the eyes of their understanding.

Ephesians 1:17-23
“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Ephesians 2:6
“and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”

So what is discernment? The dictionary says: “keenly selective judgment”. Some other related words are “discrimination, shrewdness, sensitivity”.

Ponder some of the applicable definitions of these words:

Discrimination = awareness of subtle differentiation: the ability to notice subtle differences

Shrewd = clever and probably accurate: based on good judgment and probably correct

Sensitivity = able to measure small differences: capable of detecting minute changes in levels, conditions, or amounts

Consider Philippians 1:9-11
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

The pertinent word for discernment or judgment in the Greek is:
aisthesis
1) perception, not only by the senses but by the intellect
2) cognition, discernment
2a) of moral discernment in ethical matters

I have seen people involved in cults or pseudo “Christian ministry” reveal how deeply entrenched they are by showing a clear lack of discernment in ethical standards which is the result of their great lack of spiritual discernment. The fact of their ignorance is too devastating to their pride to acknowledge. Through their misguided belief, fed by severe arrogance received in their indoctrination that they have special insight, they mentally excuse their practice of lies and perverted exaggerations through rationalizing it as "OK" because they are the "elite" in God’s eyes and God permits them to do this for the sake of what they blindly and zealously deem as "truth". It is a sad thing to witness this in people who seem so sincere.

God does reveal Himself in a special way to His own but NEVER at the expense of lying to cover up man-made deceptions simply because they are “claimed” to be “of God”. Their void of holding truth in spiritual matters is seen clearly through their void of being able to stay within the bounds of ethical and/or moral matters as they are manifested to others (Ec 10:3). And when they know you see through them they get worse and compound rather than repent of the errors to maintain their spiritual pride and status. The truly discerning will see the subtle differences in their doctrines and practices and avoid their snares.

Of course the book of Proverbs has much to say about discernment. Too much to go into here but some key verses may be:

Proverbs 1:5-7
A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 2:3-5
Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.

My prayers are being faithfully answered as I am blessed with understanding through this study. Thank you Lord Jesus!

I hope you have been blessed somehow as well. Until this is continued on another post keep asking and believing God for wisdom and discernment.

James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

And if you can shed more light on this, please feel free to do so in any comment.
Thanks!

In part 2 I hope to express how some of the lowly of this world, or the despised, can know God and His wisdom with discernment better than many of the well respected and elite of this religious or scholarly world.