What is Discernment?

For people who make Google their friend, a definition of discernment on Google is simply, ‘the ability to judge well!’ It is the ability to obtain sharp perception according to Wikipedia.

If I may ask, if most Christians worship one God, why is there strife among them? Why do most try to prove each other wrong. Why are they constantly participating in the game of who is wrong and who is right? Why does everyone have their ‘way’ of worshipping God?

Why do some believe in the Holy Ghost while others do not? Why do most of their places they worship have other laws incoherent with the Scripture? Why do most men justify their carnal laws and actions with the Scripture? Shouldn’t we not be under the law?

But 1 Corinthians 14:33 says that, “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,”

When Jesus was casting out a demon in Matthew 12, the Pharisees said, “This Man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons.”

But we are told that Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. Then how will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

From the scripture above can we firmly say that we cannot have multiple doctrines if we are ONE in Christ? Can we say that the kingdom of God cannot be divided and Satan cannot cast out Satan? Can we say that that one either serves God or the devil?

A Little Background

For the longest time, I studied Theology on my own, I did tons of research and puffed myself with head information enough to qualify for a doctorate.

You know those, ‘Bible in a year’ challenges? Well, I did them. I dug deep and read the book like a novel. I read books by different ‘Christian’ authors that described God so that I could get a better understanding of Him.

I got deep into studying things like Arminianism and Calvinism and I really loved the discussions, rather the unfruitful arguments I had with friends who had different views.

I fell in love with apologetics and I was vehemently fighting for the Gospel. I believed that there is no way someone will defile the Gospel of Jesus and I stood to watch. I believed that God needed valiant men like me to fight for Him and that’s why many were called and few were chosen. I believed I was among the chosen ones.

I would later come to understand that God is not found in books. That even in my youth ministry and outreach, even in my fight for the ‘Gospel’, even in my purity in ensuring that my body is a temple (I am not advocating for perversion), even in my great repository of head knowledge and the many Bible Studies or rather Bible arguments I had, my situation was still the same – stagnant or even deteriorating.

With the fake smiles and affirming fallacy that, “It is God’s plan” year after year I saw myself being stagnant, rather deteriorating in life as I was persistently advocating and advancing the devil’s Kingdom.

I would cry to God to ask Him why He is so harsh on me. Religion taught me that my infirmities are God’s will; to make me learn and I should be patient because my time will come. This is pure lie. It is not God’s will that you suffer.

1 Timothy 6:3-5 ESV
If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

I remember that the Bible Studies/arguments we always had, stirred controversy, unanswered questions and complexities that we tried to explain with our finite minds. In that world, nobody acknowledged that they did not know a subject, everyone wanted their voice to be heard, to show their masterly in the world, that their 365 day Bible journey was not in vain.

But this is what Apostle Paul described us:

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 ESV
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

In my finite mind, I sounded deep and righteous, my ways looked ordered and my speech was straight. One would say that I spoke from the mouth of God. And this is true to many Church pastors who look soaked in the Spirit.

This is also very true to the many people who serve in Church; a Church servant in choir will sing melodious praises and deeply cry in worship but the Spirit of God is not with them. And so would be that Church Leader.

This is why John 7:24 says: Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

The World Doesn’t Know Him

Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. You cannot discern without the Spirit of God who guides us in all understanding. Most people actually do not know who He is and that’s why Jesus said in John 14:15-17 that:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

The world doesn’t know the Holy Spirit, let alone see Him. And you know what? Most Church going people are of the world because they do not know Him and neither do they fellowship with Him. Some, like the person I used to be, thought that I knew Him. I thought He was guiding me in all understanding. It is sad that my carnal mind masqueraded as the Holy Spirit.

Do you know why? Jesus taught in parables and when his disciples asked Him why, he told them that:

Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. – Luke 8:10

This clearly tells us that matters of the Spirit is not for everybody. It is not for the world. You cannot expect a non-believing doctor to tell you that the Holy Spirit healed a patient. He may say, ‘It was impossible but he was lucky, the healing was miraculous, you know the body sometimes heals itself.’

This bread is for the remnants not the general public. That’s why Heads of States meetings are attended by Head of States meetings not cobblers.

The Scripture says that the devil masqueraded himself as an angel of light meaning that the devil may also be your Spiritual leader masquerading as an angel of light. This is why so many Church leaders, and a great bunch of them do not teach the word of God. They teach what is of the world, they have limited the power of God. They have been corrupted by worldly knowledge.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. – Colossians 2:8

I ask myself, “Why does a whole Church leader who has been in the ministry for years exalt Science and worldly philosophies more than God? Why does he quote Aristotle, Plato, Confucius and the like in his sermons and not the word of God? Why does He portray God to be this finite? You mean God is so limited these days that He cannot heal? You mean He just sits on the throne chatting on WhatsApp like us? You mean He can no longer part the Red Sea in my life?”

You know what I call that kind of person? A FOOL. And actually the Bible confirms it too.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. – 1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead. – Proverbs 15:21 ESV

Religion reduces you to be a natural person. It clouds your vision that you are supernatural. It makes you forget that you are an overcomer. It makes you oblivious that you are the light of the world, a town built on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Who is The Holy Spirit

Do you get sick and go to a fisherman? A normal person wouldn’t, but I would – Spiritually discern this!

Anyway, let’s say you need your computer or phone fixed, do you take it to a green grocer? Do you go a fashion store to buy apples? I guess not. But why do you try to find God where He is not? Why search the living among the dead?

Religion has taught so many people that so long as you do good, go to Church you and God are cool. That’s why so many marriages are failing now because they simply looked for a church-going partner.

Religion teaches about, sin, salvation, repentance and that’s it. After repenting one plugs into a ministry and henceforth, from the eyes of man, one is seen as holy, perfect in all ways. So many people are sustained by what they do in Church and not who they are in Christ.

This is simply because Religion never teaches about the resurrection power. You repented and got saved but your Savior is still dead. Still searching the living Christ among dead instruments and fake relationships.

A simple example; Your uncle gets you a job in the government and he becomes your godfather, he sustains you there. Shortly he dies and your job dies with him. What is sustained finitely (by man) will eventually die but what is sustained by God lives eternally.

Sadly, most churches are human institutions that die with their leaders. If Jesus was finite, His Gospel would have died with Him but He said that He will leave us a helper who searches all things even the deep things of God who would lead us in all eternity. So, if your Church doesn’t have the Holy Spirit, if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you are nothing.

So who is the Holy Spirit? Is it a person or a thing or something that possesses you? I was shocked that some believe the Holy Spirit is like a demon that possesses because people talk ‘meaningless’ things. Many are even scared of Him. Remember, you can only be scared of him who you do not know.

I need not teach you Class 4 CRE that God is a trinity; that there is God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a being who has been there since the beginning of time:

He was with Gideon – Judges 6:34 – But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him

Samson’s power was not just through human strength, it was through the Holy Spirit – Judges 14:19 – And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle.

When Saul fought and won against the Ammonites, the Spirit of God was with him – 1 Samuel 11:6 – And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.

When David was being annointed King over Israel, he was filled with the Holy Spirit – 1 Samuel 16:13 – Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

When Jesus was being baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove – Luke 3:22 – and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

We see that it is through the Holy Spirit that men of God were able to do exploits. Even Jesus Himself had the Holy Spirit. That is why apart from Him we are nothing. Geography cannot explain the origin of the world. Science cannot explain the virgin birth and neither can philosophy explain perfect way of life, that’s why they contradict each other.

In my journey of life, I have met atheists who knew the Bible cover to cover. You preach to them and they will help you finish the verse you were preaching to them. I used to ask myself, ‘Why do these people know the Word so much and it doesn’t change them?’ I thought, ‘But the Word of God is like a double aged sword? Right? But why doesn’t it part their spirits?’

It never made sense to me that someone would preach the word of God, lead people to salvation, those people acquire immense faith and prosper but they do not know who the true God is. It never made sense to me that someone who has so much studied Theology would not even know the Holy Spirit. It never made sense to me that with all the prayers and singing, one would preach the message of the devil. Now it does.

This is when I started getting revelations like, ‘The Pharisees were with Jesus. In great numbers, they walked with Him but theirs was the satisfaction of the stomach and to see signs and wonders.’ They missed everything Jesus taught even through the signs and wonders they sought after.

Their hearts of stone were so rigid that they could not accept nothing else rather than what they knew was right – philosophies, science, facts and figures, statistical data, proven history etc. They failed to realize it was not through human power Christ did all those signs and wonders. They were never in touch with the Holy Spirit.

I looked at the Book of Judges and saw how Israelites would sin over and over again despite having seen God’s mighty hand in all situations. It is said in the book of Judges how Israel turned away from God and God appointed a judge over them. I wondered how stupid they should have been but I looked into my own life.

I asked myself how many times the Lord has been good to me, how many times He has shown me signs and wonders just like the Pharisees; how many times He has done things that defied all human explanation but I was still carnal.

I was still rigid with what I consider true in my life; my truth rather than the truth of God. You know why the Pharisees never got saved? Their had their own truths that could not be replaced by the truth and love of Christ. The Bible in 1 Cor 8 says that knowledge puffs up.

Why does God tells us to abide in Him, that we should seek first His kingdom and that we should lean not on our own understanding? This is because our hearts are desperately wicked. It seeks to do what is evil and that’s why the Israelites would continuously sin by worshipping other Gods just after God delivered them.

That explains why man sins just after God has miraculously saved them.

How Do You Get The Holy Spirit?

This is the simplest question one can ever ask.

Mere fishermen, people we would now call mama mboga in our country, got it in an instant. Does it explain why Jesus went for the lowly?

Suppose Jesus went to a rich man’s house and He multiplied his $1,000,000 to $100,000,000 do you think the rich man would leave everything and follow Him? Well, I guess not. He multiplied the fish of lowly fishermen, poor people who really needed that wealth, but these fishermen saw something greater than the fish, they followed Him and they made history.

So, now that God has multiplied you, do you worship what He has multiplied or Him?

So, to be one with the Holy Spirit you simply need to forget what you know. Do you know why the world doesn’t know Him? It is because of what they know. They know of someone/something else that fills their spirits. The Spirit helps us know Him. Okay, that sounds very crazy to an intellect.

But yes, this is why the Bible says: Humble yourself before the Lord and you will be exalted for whoever exalts himself will be humbled.

Human knowledge creates its own god that masquerades as the true God.

Know why all through the Bible God worked with people we least expected? It is because most of those we expected were so full of themselves that they couldn’t be used of God.

To get the Holy Spirit, you need to ask God. Most of you know the verse of whoever lacks wisdom let him ask to God who gives freely and without reproach but have you ever come across Luke 11:13?

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

If you believe that you are the child of God and that God is your father then KNOW that He WILL give the Holy Spirit to you if you ask Him. Jesus asked the lame man, do you want to get better? I need not tell you of the many verses that He tells us to simply ask one being James 4 that says ‘You do not have, because you do not ask God.‘

Do you know that you do not even know how to pray but the Holy Spirit helps you do so? Complex stuff maybe? Okay, I will write about this sometime.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26 ESV)

You do not know anything at all; not the level of education that you cherish, your immense research nor the knowledge of books you have read. Jesus said that the Spirit will teach us ALL things.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. – John 14:26

Finally DESIRE. Earnestly pursue to be one with Him, Desire to speak in tongues and to prophesy. I tell my friends that you need to go deeper with the Holy Spirit, should you need ankle deep results then just test the waters with your heel. Knee deep? Then dip your knee. Chest deep? Submerge your torso up to your chest. But if you want to make history like the fishermen, you need to submerge yourself fully.

Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. -1 Corinthians 14:1

Conclusion

Know that Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. You cannot claim to know God but your head has things which are not of Him. Know why majority of atheists are mostly brilliant heads? It is because they live with facts, figures, economic trends, histories, philosophies, Science and proven models.

If you live in this realm you will suffer endlessly as you will be sustained by that knowledge – the tree of knowledge of good and evil. People who live in the Spirit are not worried of fuel prices, pandemics, economies nor calamities. They are sustained by the one who controls everything. Yes, some trust in chariots, some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord.

You do not belong to Christ if you do not trust in the Holy Spirit

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. – Romans 8:9

Renew that mind of yours. Learn from God and not from man.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2

Test every spirit.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. – 1 John 4:1