Originally posted on [url=http://www.xanga.com/Prayer_Warrior83/606025440/growing-in-discernment.html]My Blog
[size=medium]Growing in Discernment[/size]
I've been blessed in the past fortnight by the messages from the [url=http://www.newattitude.org/downloads/]2007 New Attitude (Na) Conference
Discernment.
Even as we continue to open our hearts to God, let's also be mindful and discerning towards what we experience so that we do not fall into deception. When people find themselves growing in eagerness for spiritual depth and demonstrations of power, it is very easy to let down the guard of discernment and simply take whatever passes before us without first determining whether it is from God, Satan and the flesh.
How do we grow in discernment?
First of us, we must spend time with God, earnestly desiring him above all things. Giving our time in prayer, hungering for his glory, his righteousness, his holiness, his majesty. When we long for God, we also long for the truth. A lot of people try to say "Things like doctrine and theology aren't important, it's about having a relationship with God!" Yes, Christianity is about having a relationship with God, yet to say that we can love him without the intention of actually knowing him for who he is can't really be considered a genuine relationship. What would the purpose of it have to be if you genuinely have no interest at all in discovering who he really is? It would just be something you do for your own spiritual gratification and satisfaction. If someone approached you and said they wanted to enter into a relationship, yet over time it became obvious that they were just using you to satisfy their own emotion and physical urges without even caring about you as a person, you would naturally feel used and exploited.
Now why on Earth would you want to treat God in the same manner, much less also encourage others to do so as well?
Secondly, we must know his Word. In every situation and circumstance we face, every question we're asked, we must ask ourselves "What has God already said about it?" As Spirit-led believers, we believe that everything we will need to know regarding how we are to know, serve and worship god can already be found within the testimony of Scripture. We do not need to be looking elsewhere for direction, teaching and guidance because we are 100% certain that the Bible represents the first and last revelation from God to man with regards to our relationship with Him.
Knowing what the Bible says also means that we understand how to read the Bible properly; that when reading and applying the scriptures we do so with an understanding of the grammatical, historical and cultural contexts as opposed to just interpreting it according to our fallen emotions, feelings and biases. If we base our reading of the Bible purely upon "Reader-response" rather than "Authorial-Intent", we find that when it comes to hearing God speak to us through His Word, the only voice we hear is none other than our own rather than that of the Holy Spirit. Hermeneutics and Exegesis aren't just for the church's intellectual elite, they're for anyone who lays their hands on a Bible.
Thirdly, though we may live in an increasingly postmodern generation that embraces relativism and the notion that it is no longer which truth you hold to, but whether truth actually exists, we must uphold, defend, testify and live out the Supreme sovereignty of Jesus Christ as Lord, savior and Absolute Truth wherein all things in heaven and creation must submit to.
We ask ourselves completely irreverent questions like:
"How can we contextualize our message?"
"How can we be more relevant?"
"What can we do to make our churches seem more acceptable?"
If we are to dictate our convictions purely on the basis of what the world considers to be "relevant" and "acceptable", the eventual outcome the church will have to face is that it will have no other choice but to abandon the Biblical Gospel, and hence abandon God, as Christ made it fully clear when he said in John 15:18-25:
18“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
It is tragically becoming more and more common - even in your own immediate fellowships - to see professing, supposedly spirit-filled "Christians" respond to exhortations, key scripture passages and even words of encouragement, correction, rebuke and instruction with a pathetic "...I don't think God is like that."
When it comes to talking about the things of God in either your discipleship with fellow Christians or evangelism to non-believers, what is your focus? Is it the actual teaching and impartation of God's word, or is it dialogue, discussion and sharing of ideas? Do you let the scriptures - and thus God - have the final say in all topics, or have you instead chosen to lower the message of the Gospel down to be on an equal level to man-made philosophies and worldviews on the grounds that no one can have a right or wrong answer despite you actually having experienced the Truth personally?
There could be no greater tragedy then for the World to discover that the deceptions of postmodernism and relativism will only lead to a dead-end for humanity, yet still have Christ's bride running around blinded by the same deception without knowing what to do. "Unity" of conviction and "union" of ideas are two completely different things, yet only one can be expected to grow the church and advance the kingdom, much less bring you into it.
