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Improving Your Discernment
by Mark Barnard
How to bring clarity out of confusion
Have you noticed how confusion can enter our lives and churches like a cloud on a blue sky day? It seems to appear out of nowhere. We don’t go looking for confusion. It finds us and usually has nefarious origins, especially when it snakes its way into the Body of Christ (1 Cor.14:33).
Discernment is God’s gift to the church to help us dispel confusion. In some cases discernment is a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:10) certain members of the “body” exercise. It’s also a skill that can be developed (Heb. 5:14). Whether you have the gift of discernment or want to become more discerning, I trust the following scenes will stretch your discernment muscles. They certainly did mine.
“She kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God . . .’” (Acts 16:16-18).
I was facilitating a retreat with 50-60 church folk, but one person was oversharing. She was a well-dressed, middle aged woman seated in the center of the room. I couldn’t help noticing how others squirmed in their chairs whenever she spoke, and she spoke a lot. During a break, another woman approached me and said, “That lady doing all the sharing has only been in our church for two weeks!”
The long-winded woman dominated discussion, spoke like an expert on the church, and everything she shared was true! However when I asked her to temper her sharing, she blew me off. In the next session, she said something that sent a chill through the room. I don’t remember her exact words, but the high-pitched cackle that punctuated her statement haunts me to this day.
How would you discern this woman’s behavior?
What would you have done in my shoes?
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment” (1 Cor. 14:29).
At another retreat I attended, the presenter wanted to demonstrate how one person could get a word from the Lord for another person. To do so, he led us in the following exercise. He scribbled the name of a random person in the room on a piece of paper (without telling anyone who it was). He then asked us to pray quietly and record whatever phrases, pictures or impressions we received from the Lord. After a few minutes of reflection, people shared what they thought they heard the Lord say.
The impressions they shared mostly reflected Christian advice you’ve heard all your life, “Trust the Lord,” “My grace is sufficient in weakness,” and various scriptures. Their “words from the Lord” were largely general in nature. The speaker focused on one individual who received the most detailed message. It turned out that the one with the most detailed message from the Lord was the person whose name was written on the piece of paper!
What, if anything, bothers you about this story?
Would you say the exercise was a worthy one?
“Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:19).
The third scene I witnessed focuses on a conference speaker who had written several Christian books. By all accounts many people had found his books helpful. I too had gleaned some helpful counsel from his latest work, but the book also contained teaching which did not sit well with me.
I went to hear the author in person and found myself trying to discern how such helpful content could be tainted by doctrinal error. It was as if heresy was couched in helpfulness. It didn’t help that he claimed to be an apostle and got his message directly from God. Was he using imprecise theological language that supported his experience oriented approach to the faith? Or, had he gone off the rails?
What else would you want to know to discern if this speaker was hearing from God?
How would you determine if a message is truly helpful or not?
“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character . . . and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).
The Bereans modeled discernment when they searched the scriptures to validate Paul’s gospel. (Even the Apostle Paul’s message had to be tested against Scripture!) We see the same scrutiny reflected in Jesus’ commendation of the church at Ephesus for exposing those who called themselves apostles and were not (Rev. 2:1-7).
The bible is always the place to start when it comes to discernment. It provides the basis for sound theology that protects us from error like the guard rails on a mountain road. Unfortunately, parties on both sides of an issue often use the bible to support their position. How do we know who’s right?
In addition to the scriptures themselves, here are some scriptural principles that can improve our discernment when things don’t seem so clear:
- How humble is the person presenting the message? Is he/she open to correction? Are they teachable? Or, do they set themselves up as an unassailable authority?
- Does the person sharing a message have a church home to whose leaders they submit? Or, do they claim to hear from God without being accountable to a local body of Christ?
- Does the individual balance his or her gifts with other gifts in the “body?” We know from 1 Cor. 12 that the gifts are designed to work together. Or, is their ministry largely reflective of a spiritual gift only he or she claims to possess?
- Do they exhibit the fellowship of the Spirit? Or, do they display a lack of love?
- If they are part of an organized ministry, has it gained 501C3 non-profit status? The IRS grants non-profit status and provides legal credibility to a ministry. Or, do they process their donations through some other means? (Follow the money.)
Discernment is one of the quieter gifts. Those who have it rarely speak up unless they discern it’s safe to do so. Be courageous to use the discernment God gives you. You may feel like you’re the only one who sees things as you do. But by sharing your insight, a fresh breeze of clarity can dispel the clouds of confusion and you’ll fulfill your role in the body of Christ.
Mark Barnard serves with Blessing Point Ministries which facilitates healing in churches that have been wounded by painful crises. Mark is coauthor with Dr. Kenneth Quick of The Dance of the Gifts: How Ministry Leaders Can Discern God’s Will. Learn more at blessingpoint.org.
- Posted on August 21, 2019
- 14 comments
- in Blog
- Tags : #blessingpointministries, #discernment
- by Mark Barnard
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