How to Train Your Spiritual Discernment to Grow

We explore the challenging question of discerning authentic Christians in a world where everyone from politicians to pastors claims the label. With limited visibility into others' private lives, appearances can be deceiving, making it difficult to know who to trust for spiritual guidance.

• Prayer is essential for spiritual discernment, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal truth even when painful
• Divine protection shields us from the worst consequences of our inevitable mistakes in judgment
• Seeking wise counsel provides multiple perspectives that complement our individual discernment
• Pay attention to gut feelings as potential spiritual insights when evaluating someone's character
• Ask practical questions: Would you trust this person with your children, finances, or spiritual growth?
• Living by these principles doesn't guarantee perfect judgment but minimizes trouble and helps us learn faster

Remember that discernment is a spiritual skill that develops over time with practice and divine assistance.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How do you really know if someone who's
identifying themselves as aChristian is legit?
Everybody's cashing in on theChristian label Mega church
pastors, politicians.
There's so many cases where wewant to know what somebody's
character is and what theirvalue system is, but that's so
easily manipulated because wejust hear and see some portion

(00:23):
of their lives.
That's all we got, whether it'sleadership in the church, in
the community, on the politicalstage.
Wouldn't it be nice to have aninstruction manual on how to go
about determining who's who?
I'm going to give you someconcrete, biblically-based tools
for you to walk much moreeffectively in terms of your
ability to judge people inwisdom, and then I'm going to

(00:46):
wrap up the video by giving youa couple questions you can
always ask yourself right offthe top of your head.
Jimmy James Johnson, guilt-freefaith.
If you're looking for guilt,you're in the wrong spot.
We don't get down like thathere.
I'm going to get you feelingbetter about yourself and
walking in victory today.
Let's get into it.

(01:07):
For most of us, if someone asksus if a person is a Christian,
we'd have pretty strong feelingsabout them, particularly if
they're a public figure.
But can we really know ifsomebody's a Christian just by
the words they're saying or whatwe hear reported about them.
People can be Christians whilestill looking in every way as if

(01:31):
they're not saved, right?
The truth is, you really don'tknow, because whatever their
relationship is with Christ isprivate.
They can tell you something, oryou can even see them go
through a ritual or a service ora baptism, but really, how
would you really know?
You know what they say, theyare, you can observe some of

(01:54):
their actions, but you're at aloss because you end up trying
to evaluate them by their deedsright, and the downfall of that
is us.
Being able to call ourselvesChristians and avail ourselves
of Christ's salvation,thankfully, isn't conditioned
upon our actions.
We will never be sinless.

(02:16):
Depending on what day you catchme, I may look better or worse
as a Christian.
I might be really great atvolunteering, but I treat people
terribly in my family.
Or I might be very generous,and then you find out behind the
scenes that I'm actually veryarrogant and that generosity is
really just a front.

(02:37):
Every day, we're faced with thechallenge of how to discern
who's who around us, whetherthose are people at work, people
in the church, people inpositions of leadership.
It could be politicians,managers.
It could be people in ourfriends group, in our family.

(02:57):
When you're someone that'strying to live the Christian
life, when you're trying tofollow Christ or find Christ,
you naturally have to try toevaluate who are the people that
I want to associate with or whoare the people that I want to
take Christian advice from.

(03:18):
I want to know who's who right.
I don't want someone pullingthe wool over my eyes.
I don't want to be looking upto someone or trusting someone
or following someone'sleadership, thinking they're a
Christian.
I don't want to be takingChristian advice from somebody
that's not a Christian.
Obviously, christ doesn't wantus to be deceived.

(03:41):
He doesn't want us to be ledastray.
He says some pretty harshthings about people that do
deliberately lead Christiansastray that it would be better
that there was a millstone tiedaround their neck.
He knew there would be wolvesin sheep's clothing, right?
What tools does God give us?
Number one thing we can do iswe have to pray.
We have to pray that the HolySpirit guides us to open our

(04:04):
eyes to the truth of thesituation, even if that truth is
painful, even if that truth isnot something we want to believe
.
We know that when we inviteChrist and the Holy Spirit into
our hearts, that some amount ofspiritual discernment comes
along with that.
We are praying for that type ofdiscernment.

(04:25):
God, please show me the truth.
I know there are things that Idon't see.
There are things that I don'tunderstand.
There are people operating inunderhanded ways.
I know there are spiritsplotting on my downfall.
Is that a false prophet?
Is the enemy trying to comeagainst me through this person?

(04:46):
As opposed to?
Oh, I think God's reaching outto me.
Through this person, I thinkyou can feel Christ's spirit,
love and patience coming through, and they've been a blessing to
me.
They've been a good friend,partner, parent or pastor.
Because in all my imperfectionand idiocy and ignorance and

(05:06):
greed, lust or my desire toelevate or enjoy, support or
promote this person, I'm goingto make mistakes and I need your
protection so that I don't gettoo hurt by those situations.
We need Christ's arms around usas we walk through a fallen
world.

(05:27):
We need discernment and we needprotection Because many times
we will misjudge situationsright.
We misjudge people, leaders,business partners and spouses
all the time, because whateverimperfections we have in our
spiritual vision of who's whoand what is what, we're going to

(05:47):
make mistakes.
So we're dependent upon God'sprotection to shield us from too
much blowback, from putting ourtrust in the wrong people.
Thirdly, we have wise counsel.
The Bible talks a lot aboutseeking out wise counsel.
In the modern age, using wordslike wisdom seem kind of

(06:10):
outdated.
You know who walks aroundpraying for wisdom.
The thing is we really need topray for wisdom and oftentimes
wisdom comes through those withwhom we're breaking bread or
surrounding ourselves with.
So we have to pray that Godsurrounds us with people that
will feed that wisdom into us,because they love us, because

(06:31):
they want the best for us, andthey're able to see something
from another angle.
It's wonderful and it'sencouraged that we would have
wise counselors around us.
I mean, you're blessed If youhave wise counselors around you
and you're willing to takecounsel, you're willing to be
honest, you're willing to bringsomething to those people and

(06:52):
allow them to share their wisdom.
What the Spirit is guiding themto reveal to you, man, like
that's worth its weight in gold.
There's no position that's highenough, unless you're God
himself.
No one is above needing counsel.
Even kings need wise counselors.
When we rely just on ourselvesin the flesh, as human beings,

(07:17):
we're stumbling through the fogof could be anything Could be
pain, it could be fear orsadness, it could be desperation
.
When we're stumbling throughthe fog, we need the wisdom of
the Holy Spirit and the wisdomof wise counselors, and when you
combine all these together,when you combine the Holy Spirit
giving you the power ofdiscernment, giving you the

(07:39):
protection from your ownmistakes, and wise counselors
around you, that's a reallypowerful cocktail for walking
through the world much moreeffectively and much more wisely
.
And all of those are biblical.
Those are all things that we'reencouraged to do and that are
modeled for us.
Let's wrap it up with this.

(08:00):
Now that you have those tools,what are some specific questions
you can ask yourself when, say,you meet somebody who's
claiming to be a Christian?
One question is how do you feelwhen you're around that person?
People will say well, you can'tjust go by your feelings and
you can be swayed.
You could be conned.
Yes, you can be.

(08:20):
As we all know, our gutfeelings aren't to be ignored,
and I would say that the gutfeeling may be our imperfect
understanding of what God or theHoly Spirit is trying to reveal
to us.
What seems dangerous andfrequently leads destruction is
when we identify people as goodfellow Christians just because

(08:42):
they said so, and yet the alarmbells are going off when we hear
them talk or when we're aroundthem or we see how they treat
people.
What's another question we canask ourselves in this evaluation
process Is this the type ofperson I would trust myself to?
Now, granted, usually in lifeyou don't just have to meet
someone on the spot anddetermine whether you'll trust

(09:04):
your life to them.
You don't just meet someone andgive them your life savings or
jump off a cliff because theypromised they were going to
throw you a lifeline, but justasking yourself the simple
question like do I trust thisperson?
What would I trust this personwith?
Would you trust them as abusiness partner?
Would you trust them as adeacon?
Would you trust them as adeacon?
Would you trust them as anytype of spiritual counselor?

(09:28):
Would you trust your childrenwith them?
Would you recommend them toyour friends?
We have that saying.
I don't trust them farther thanI can throw them.
That's not very far, but as weevaluate somebody, we tend to
form an opinion about whetherthey're trustworthy or not.

(09:49):
Those are just two questions.
You can't tuck away in yourpocket to begin that
consideration Now you're walkingaround much more aware, your
eyes are open because, on thehuman and the spiritual level,
you're really tuned in, you'revigilant.
And again, will that preventyou from being swindled, cheated

(10:10):
on, fooled, being taken for aride?
No, not 100%, it won't.
But I can promise you thispeople that live according to
these principles avoid a lot oftrouble.
Principles avoid a lot oftrouble and when they run into
trouble, people that live bythese principles minimize the
impact, the damage of thattrouble and they tend to learn

(10:32):
from it and not repeat runninginto that same trouble.