Spiritual Discernment

Dear Brethren,

One of our daughters has two dogs, Piper and Taxi.  These family pets watch television with our granddaughters.  When Taxi sees another dog on TV, she begins to bark, as though another dog posed a threat to the home.  Piper, on the other hand, does not recognize the image on TV as a real dog, and becomes confused when the barking begins.  Why is one dog able to perceive something that the other dog is oblivious to?  The jury is out on which dog possesses the better discernment – Taxi who recognizes the image to be a dog, or Piper who is correct in her assessment that that no real threat exists.  People are like that, too.  Some possess a discernment that others lack.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I love you with all my heart and soul?  When they say, “soul,” they mean that they love you with all of their being.  When they say, “heart,” they mean from the seat of their deepest emotions.  Have you noticed how words sometimes fail us when we speak about the higher aspects of our lives?

When we speak of the “spiritual” realm, let’s understand that the spiritual transcends this earthly world of ours.  So much of what we deal with in religion has to do with concepts that are not physical, but spiritual.  If we are to understand the will of God, it is imperative that we distinguish the difference between the things of this present evil world and the things of God.  That is called in the Bible, spiritual discernment.  Those without spiritual discernment deny that it even exists.  It is there – but they cannot see it.

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul had to explain that it was necessary for true Christians to differentiate between the two concepts – physical and spiritual.  He described how the spiritual domain of God the Father and Jesus Christ superseded the physical things of the world.  Paul had to enlighten them to the fact that the spiritual presence of God is more real than the visible world that human beings live in.  Paul wrote it this way:

“As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.  For what man knows the things of a man, except by the spirit of man which is in him?  Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing Spiritual things with spiritual.

“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.  But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?  But we have the mind of Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9-16)

Paul introduces this concept of spiritual discernment.  People in the unconverted world are thoroughly confused about the Spiritual nature of God, and deny that anyone could have something so obscure as spiritual discernment.   Christians are to grow from their initial unconverted carnal state to the point of having greater spiritual discernment as their conversion increases.

Just before He died, Jesus explained how it was that Christians would be able to begin to have spiritual discernment by having God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in them.  Jesus said, “Even the Spirit of truth; [God’s Holy Spirit] which the world cannot receive, because it cannot see it, neither knows of it: but ye know it; for it dwells with you, and shall be in you.”  (John 14:17)

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Sermon:  "Spiritual Discernment"