Daily Diary May17th, 2016

Spiritual Discernment Part 2

The second part of the “reply” I received on judgment is listed below with some more good insight on discernment and how we are to deal with our flesh as it relates to judging others. 

Mark, 

In I Thessalonians 5:21, Paul was exhorting the entire church (all believers) to “examine everything carefully.” Here Paul is urging believers to scrutinize everything they hear to determine if it is genuine, to distinguish between the true and the false, to separate the good from the evil. In other words, he wants them to examine everything critically. “Test everything.”

I Thessalonians 5:20-22 Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

I believe we live in a world that the enemy is running rampant in people’s lives.  We see different forms of ungodliness all around us.  This “evil” comes from the enemy and we MUST be careful to hold fast to the good and abstain from every form of evil as the scripture suggests. 

There are 2 key points that God revealed to me about this passage.  First of all we do not fight against flesh and blood people but the powers of darkness.  So we must look at people as what spirit is in control of their lives.

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So in confrontation of a “Spirit” of evil that we “Discern” in a person, we are actually attacking the enemy and not the person. We must conclude that God made all people in His image and they have lost their identity to the enemy in certain areas and are acting out their flesh nature.  This “spiritual” nature contradicts God’s nature.

Galatians 5:16-18 Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The revelation I gained about confronting people that are clearly in the flesh is that we are enticed to confront them in our own flesh.  This means I need to enter their playing field to battle their flesh on its terms.  I have learned painfully many times that we cannot win a spiritual battle on the enemy’s playing field.  I always end up losing when my anger, jealousy or pride is called upon to fight in this battle.  This happens every time we lose our identity of Christ by falling to our flesh and as a Christian we lose every time. 

Jesus Christ did not set us free from sin so we could fight spiritual battles on the enemies ground but rather on God’s ground.  Again, it takes the fruit of the spirit to draw the lost person over to the Lord’s playing field.  On His “Field” His love, grace and truth will set the person free from the enemy’s control. 

We must keep ourselves away from the enemies ground and stay on the Lord’s battle field.  This is difficult to do when we discern the enemy is using people to hurt people.

In my experience I have “Lost” the battle every time on the enemies ground.  My flesh is just as weak as everyone else and I am always made to look bad and to be exposed as weak in my faith when I confront in this manner.

When we stay true to God’s word and proceed in love, the Holy Spirit draws people to the Lord’s territory and God’s grace and truth wins out every time.  This is the contradiction we often see in people that bounce back and forth from each of these “fields” of battle.  We all jump over to the enemy’s camp at times and usually run back to God with our tail between our legs asking for forgiveness.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t help our brother or sister back on the path, but we must be careful to discern what spirit is operating in people.  They may not be ready to move out of the enemy’s camp and we have no power to make them.  The Holy Spirit convicts people. 

Jesus Christ brought us “redemption” and “Victory” by His blood at the cross and He has the power to set people free from the enemy.  We must truly be operating under the power of Christ Jesus to confront the enemy at any time.

2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the power of Christ to rest on me I need it to be perfect.  For this to happen I need to be walking under God’s grace.  It is in my “weakness” that God’s grace is sufficient and perfect.  This is hard for us to understand.  When I have confronted people with my “testimony” which reflect my “weakness”.  Under God’s grace, which displays Him as Lord in my life, I have found His power move in people.  He is glorified and lifted up before me. 

I believe this is the "true" position of confronting sin.  We have no power when if reflects something, or some position WE have achieved.  Only bowed before the blood of the lamb of God can His power go before us in Jesus name.

Father God, we thank you for your grace.  We humble ourselves before your mighty power.  We thank you for your finished work and may our lives reflect you as Lord in all that we do in Jesus name Amen!