Discernment

In our world today we are exposed to so much information, and we have access to so many resources for everything. We live in a society that revolves around information. There is information for finances, dietary and health, marriage, mental health, sexuality, social and religious concepts that are all around us. And our phones that we carry and look at everyday is the vehicle that carry the vast amount of information. The media and social media bombards our us everyday with new information for us to download into our minds. With Tv shows and movies, social media platforms, podcast, youtube, streaming platforms, and even a simple google search reveals so much to us just with a click of a button. They now have AI generated information everywhere you go. to where you don’t even have to do gather the research AI does it for you. Theres so much that it can cause anxiety, depression loneness, jealously and covetousness. Even teachings that oppose the Christian faith. So in a society that is drenched with information, different perspectives and opinions. How can we believers be able to understand what godly and what’s not, what’s God’s will for our lives and what not, in a world that is constantly throwing all types of information that draw a person away from Christ? This brings us to our fourth installment in a series with the Spiritual discipline of Discernment. Every believer is called by God to be discerning in their Christian life.

So what is this Spiritual discipline of Discernment.

The sound judgment which makes possible the distinguishing of good and evil, and the recognition of God’s right ways for his people.

Discernment is the ability to know if a life circumstance aligns with God’s will or not. There is a lot of things that do not align with God’s world that we hear and see in our society but the world normalize it. We see it in people sexuality, behavior, and ideologies. For example people say they speak their truth. However there is only one Absolute truth in Jesus. Or we hear people say they spoke something into existence. Those are not biblical truths and ideas, but have crept into the hearts of believers, along with many other false beliefs. Our foundational passage is

Hebrews 5, and to give some context, the author of Hebrews wrote to the Jewish Christians, to encourage them to continue to follow Jesus despite the persecution they were going through. They started to fall back to their old life in Judaism because life as Christians we too hard for them. So throughout the entire book he gives encouragement but also warnings to these believers that gave up on living for Christ.

Read v 1-5

The author is Hebrews has reminded his readers were Jewish Christians the priesthood system that God designed in the Old testament. In the temple only the priest and the High priest were allowed to make sacrifices to God on the behalf of the people. They were the mediators of God people. He explains that the High priest was the one who made the sacrifices for the people sins but also knew how to deal gently with those who became disobedient to God. This High priest had had restraint and compassion for people because he had His own sinful struggles. He understood he fell short of God’s standard and had to make sacrifices for himself.

Christ is our High priest, He is the one who offered His body for us because of our sin. He is the one who stepped in and took our punishment so we can have a relationship with God.

Read v 7-10

In Jesus’ earthly ministry he faced many challenges, stress and even temptations, but the most difficult moment He faced was when we was on His way to the cross to killed. in this moment he faced the most anguish and struggle in his life.

Luke 22:41–44 “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

In this moment Jesus understood the intense physical and spiritually suffering He was about to face. He prayed so fervently that His sweat was like drops of blood . Some scholars believer that in the mists of Him crying our to God and being in intense stress He experienced a rare medical condition called hematidrosis . He went through extreme agony in this moment, but despite everything he was going through, He yielded to the Father’s Will. As the Apostle Paul says that “Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death even death a cross”. Jesus chose to submit to God’s will even when He was the most uncomfortable. This life Jesus lived qualified Him to be our High priest, the one to God before God on our behalf. Our passage in Hebrews says that he had to learn obedience. Meaning in His humanity even though He never sinned against the Father He had to suffer by being in the environment of sin. He had to experience what we go through, dealing the struggle in this life because of sin. He had to learn to obey God when it was uncomfortable. He had to deal with people lying on Him, being hit, betrayed, left alone, talked about , misunderstood, slander against, mocked, spat on, slapped, humiliated, looked down on, beat, ridiculed, and placed on a cross. All so he can empathize with what all we humans go through. He learned what we go through so he can deal with us in our sin. He can comfort us as we struggle with the internal tension we deal with everyday. He literally understands everything we go through. Not only can he empathize with us but He is able to help us in our time of struggle.

In verse 7 of chapter 5 of Hebrews says that Jesus was heard because of His “reverent submission” Jesus chose to align Himself with the Father’s will. That’s the model all believers need to take, to surrender our lives to what God wants. Once Jesus did this, verse 9 says that “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him”. Meaning those who cry out to Christ in times of hardship and trouble Jesus saves or rescued from life challenges.

Read v. 11-14

In this passage we see that these believers stopped maturing in their faith and actually stopped trying to grow. Some translations says they have become dull. How many people in the body of Christ have became stubborn and spiritually dull and actually move backwards in their spiritual formation. We see division, increase level of pride and believers holding on to worldly perspectives rather than Spiritual perspectives. The author of Hebrews is making a connection between our growth in Spiritual discernment and our submission to the Father’s will. When we go through hard times, Jesus not only comforts us and a can empathize with us in our weakness, but in the moment of us crying out to God through prayer, Christ is helping us grow in discernment. See most of the times when we read and study the bible we get information, but its not until we go through challenging seasons and God test us to see if we respond like Jesus in the suffering and say “ Not my will, but yours be done”, or complain like Isreal did in the wilderness. Are we going to respond in faith like Abraham even when God tells us something that don’t make sense, or respond like king Saul and do what we want to do.

These believers should have been teaching people but instead needed to be re- taught the basics of the Christian faith. There have Christians that have been saved for years, but have never discipled someone, never took the time to do life with someone else to help them in their faith in Christ.

There are three practical steps we can take away from chapter 5 of Hebrews....

Point 1. To grow in Discernment, I must surrender to God’s will like Jesus.

Hebrews 5:7 “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

We must align ourselves with God known will of His word, then we must submit to the specific will He has for every believer. Give personal example

Point 2. In the moment of my life where I am uncomfortable and afraid, remember that Jesus is with me and able to help me

Hebrews 2:18 “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus understands that one of the reason why He had to suffer, so we can relate with those who follow Him. He understand more than a spouse of a friend. Call on the one who can help and trust in His deliverance.

Point 3. Train myself on “Solid food” from God's Word so I may understand deeper spiritual insight of God’s ways for my life and not adopt the ways of the world.

Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

When the verse talks about solid food its talking about the advance teaching of the Christin faith. Milk refers to basic teachings. We all start off on the basic teachings, but God expects us to start to grow up and move on to more advance teachings so we can teach other believers. We cannot be a discipling church full of Spiritually immature believers that only understand the basics of Christianity. That's why there is so many false doctrine that has entered the body of Christ because we chose to adopt the worlds perspective and live for myself and my agenda instead of God’s agenda. Spiritual discernment reveals truth from error, but of we do not yield to God’s way how do we expect to mature in it.