Having a Spirit of Discernment

We’ll start by looking at what the Bible says about discernment

Hebrews 4:12–13 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

?What does that mean to you?

We start verse 12 with an emphasis that the word of God is living and active in our day-to-day lives

Because of this, we are always seeing new ways in which the Bible was perfectly and wonderfully made

It could be that we need to be in a different stage of life to see the new things that God has to show us in the same passage that we have already read

?Can you know everything in the Bible?

?Why?

If the word is living and active, there is never a reason to stop reading it

We then see later in verse 12 that the word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword and it pierces our heart to help us discern our thoughts and intentions

This living and active text helps us to discern what is good and evil

The Bible also helps us to discern our intentions

?Why do we do nice things for other people?

The Lord slowly works on our hearts as we live and grow closer to Him

So we may have a conviction that someone else may not have right now or they may have a conviction that we may not have right now because the Lord slowly works on our hearts

We must be patient in the Lord and allow Him to work through us what He is trying to show us at the time