In this episode of “The Journey”, we discover more about the concept of spiritual discernment and how it helps us to grow as Christians. You'll learn some tips to help you develop and practice spiritual discernment in your daily life. Whether you’re seeking guidance, clarity, or confirmation, this episode will equip you to listen to God and follow His leading in your life.

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OC Church of Christ

Welcome to the Deeper Dive Podcast brought to you by the OC Church of Christ.

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The Deeper Dive Podcast is about going

deeper into God's word, learning new

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insight and taking a fresh look at the

verses that impact our daily lives.

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Today's episode is part four from

The Journey by Robert Carrillo.

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So get your scuba gear and

let's dive deep into God's word.

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Here's Robert Carrillo.

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Robert: So spiritual discernment,

you know, it's what it's one of

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the spiritual disciplines, right?

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It's it's understanding God's will and

I'll give some definitions of the many

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spiritual disciplines and they're all They

all exist just to help us walk with God,

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and that's really important to understand.

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They're not a magic pill, they're not a

magic potion, they're not a silver bullet

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to fix the church, but they are helpful

to walk, to help everyone in their walk

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with God, in their spiritual journey.

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There are internal

disciplines, Bible study.

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prayer, meditation, contemplation,

fasting, and discernment.

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There are external practices,

service, solitude, submission,

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simplicity, for example, uh,

things that we can do that help us

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connect with God and walk with God.

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There are corporate practices, things

that we do in a group that help our

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walk with God, worship, celebration.

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Confession, even, and discernment.

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Really, discernment, uh, obviously you

see it in both categories as an internal

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discipline, but also a corporate practice

where we make decisions together.

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Um, several of us shared about

how, um, how God is showing

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us things in the church.

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And, and in as leaders, we are seeing

things are going through things that

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God is clearly trying to lead us in a

direction or when we're going through

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difficulties of anything from sickness

to hurt, or somebody does something or

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something happens and we look for what

is God showing me in this, this is all

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discernment and even as we, you know,

we're entering the fall, uh, and, and lots

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of churches are Starting to talk about

what's going to be our focus next year.

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What's going to be on our calendar?

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What are we going to do as leaders?

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You know, what are we what's

going to be the theme?

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We have a work.

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We have a planning time this weekend where

we're going to discuss all these things

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and that is That should be a process

of discernment that we do together as a

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group in chapter 10 of your book There's

a great chapter about discernment.

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Some of the things I talk about today

are going to be in there and some other

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things that aren't necessarily in there.

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Um, I had to study it in a couple

of my classes and read about it, but

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also got to practice it as a group.

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There's a, the Quakers are

very well known for this.

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They have a group.

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Discernment practice.

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It's called a clearance committee, a

Quaker clearance committee, and they

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did a Quaker clearance committee.

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My class did it on me, which was really

cool because I told them, you know,

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some of the decisions I got to make

some of the things in front of me.

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And we did a clearance committee, which

is a group discernment project, right?

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Um, and it was, it was fantastic.

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Um, so Ruth Haley Barton's, um,

definition is or the statement she

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makes about she's at the heart of

spiritual leadership is discernment.

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The capacity to recognize and

respond to God's will both

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personally and in community.

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It requires moving beyond our reliance

on cognition and hard work to a

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place of deep listening and response.

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To the spirit of god within us and among

us Um, it's a really good definition.

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It's when we reach that point.

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How do I know god's will?

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What am I supposed to do?

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What direction do I go?

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What are my options?

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How do I know what which one is god's

will or even if god cares which way I go?

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Sometimes I think he doesn't it doesn't

really matter as long as you walk with

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him He's fine with going left or right and

then there's other times that we clearly

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can sense Uh god pulling us in a direction

or trying to show us something, right?

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In Romans 12, 2, and this is a Greek

translation, uh, it says, do not conform

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to the world, to this world, but be

transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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We've read the scripture

many times in this.

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I think every class we've

been, we've read the scripture.

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He says, so that So that you may

discern the will of God, what is good,

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pleasing, and acceptable, and mature.

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So, you know, he talks about

don't, don't give in to the world.

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Don't try to let the, don't let

the world over influence you.

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Do not try to conform to it.

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We all have a, a nature that

responds to social pressure, right?

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Um, I remember in, in, um, in high

school, we did this thing, no, actually

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it was in college where, you know,

you've all seen it where, you know,

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three or four of you get on an elevator

and face the back and see what happens

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when people get on the elevator.

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And invariably, they

always face the back too.

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They give, they immediately give in

to social pressure and, and face the

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back just like the rest of the group.

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Um, and this is a warning not to conform

to the world, not to give in to that,

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but, but to be transformed by the renewing

of our minds, right, of, of focusing

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our minds on God and, and letting God

guide us along and focusing on God so

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that we can discern the will of God so

we can figure out what is good, what is

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pleasing, what is acceptable, what is

mature, what is, you know, we all want

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to be, mature in God, mature in Jesus.

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Um, she makes a statement

in, in that same chapter.

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I think it's very significant.

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She says, discernment presents

unique challenge in Western culture

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because it requires a mood to move

us beyond our reliance on cognition.

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and intellectual hard work to a place

of deep listening and response to the

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Spirit of God within us and among us.

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I think this is one of the big

challenges for us, especially

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with our Church of Christ roots.

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We have a Church of Christ ecclesiology.

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We have a Church of Christ theology.

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of God is rational.

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God is logical.

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It should all make sense.

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The Bible is kind of like a manual

of what to do, what not to do.

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And certainly there's a lot

of truth in that, but there's

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a lot more to it than that.

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And if that's the only way you approach

God is through the logic and rationality

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of scripture, you will miss a lot.

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And, you know, she warns about

reliance on cognition, how we think and

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intellectual hard work, how we ration.

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rationalize and logically,

scientifically approach Scripture,

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and instead of the, the, the, the

deeper listening and responding to the

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Spirit of God within us and among us.

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And I think it's one of the reasons

why We, as a fellowship, tend to be

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woefully ignorant of the Holy Spirit,

because we just don't really, it's,

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the Holy Spirit's not very rational,

the Holy Spirit's not very logical.

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In fact, Jesus even said, you don't

know when he comes, you don't know

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when he goes, he's like the wind.

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I mean, the wind, it's the same

word, the pneuma, the pneuma, right,

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in Greek, or the ruach in God, the

Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.

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We you can't control him.

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You can't box him.

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You can't analyze and rationalize his

presence or what he does So it's kind

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of scary for us and we've certainly

seen a lot of weirdos out there where?

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that people just claim everything's the

holy spirit and And people say oh, yeah,

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the holy spirit told me to do this and I

mean you think about it I mean some of the

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most the worst things that have happened

in history were done by people Who

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thought god was telling them to do this?

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Who thought that god

wanted this to happen?

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I mean in many ways that's behind

What's happening in this war right now

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in the middle east is people believing

god wants me to wipe out those people

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Or to hurt those people in romans 8

6 He says, the mind governed by the

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flesh is death, but the mind governed

by the spirit is life and peace.

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You know, how do we let

our minds be governed?

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I like the way Muncy translates it

from the Greek, to set the mind on

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the flesh leads to death, but to set

the mind on the spirit brings life.

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and peace.

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These are the things that

God brings us to life.

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And of course, life is not bios.

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It's not, it's, there's

two words in Greek.

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I think I've already talked about that.

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There's bios and there's psoe.

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Bios is what plants, animals,

everything breathing, everything

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that has cells and grows has bios.

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We get the word biography, biology.

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But he uses the word soe.

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Soe is life to the full.

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I have come that you may have life.

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You may have soe.

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And that's, that's the good life.

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What we think of the good life.

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Life as it should be.

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The rich with relationships

and love and peace and joy.

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Uh, life in shalom, which is

literally the, the concept here.

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Um, that's, by being governed by the

spirit, by allowing the spirit to

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guide our thoughts and our thinking.

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And, and really even the

practice of discernment, it's

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really a practice of faith.

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You've got to believe, right?

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Uh, and without faith, it's impossible

to please God because anyone who comes to

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him must believe that he exists and that

he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

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You have to believe that if I

ask God, he's going to help me.

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You know, it requires faith

to believe that God is good.

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That God cares, that He loves us enough

to help us, that He is present and

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active in our lives, and that the Holy

Spirit is real, active, and present.

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And that may sound like, well,

that's incredibly basic, Robert.

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Of course we all believe that.

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No, not necessarily.

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Not necessarily.

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I find in teaching spiritual formation

that a lot of people don't trust God.

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Or are not sure if God is really

good, not, or insecure about

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does God really care about me?

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Does he really love me?

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And that's unfortunate.

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And of course, that is the work of Satan.

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He's trying to always sow doubt and

fear of God, but not love of God.

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And, and, or even a lot of Christians

just don't really believe God is present.

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We're practical atheists.

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We say we believe in God, but we

live as though there were no God.

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What, how are we living our

lives that shows a dependence

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on God, a reliance on God?

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Many Christians and even leaders

can live as though there is no

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God, even though intellectually

we believe and we ascribe to Him.

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But practically speaking, we

live as though He doesn't exist.

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That saying, pray as though it

all depends on God, and work as

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though it all depends on you.

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That is solid evidence of that.

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That, what do you mean work as

though it all depends on you?

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That's the opposite of what Jesus said.

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That's the opposite of what He invited

us to share the yoke with Him, right?

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Um, and even and I think probably even

the bigger one of that the holy spirit

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is real I think that's really hard for

us as christians because we just don't

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know him And we don't know how to rely

on them We don't want we don't want to

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be pentecostals who who you know who

are laughing in the spirit or barking

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like dogs or or You know doing strange

things that you know snake you got

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the snake holders and all that kind

of stuff And so we look at that, you

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know, and and that was That was an early

decision in the roots of the churches

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of Christ and restoration history

Alexander Campbell was very strong

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about we're not going in that direction.

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These people are strange.

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They're weird you know, they don't know

the difference between Holy Spirit and

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indigestion and So so that was a conscious

decision because it's not something

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quantifiable He's not someone we can

study in a lab, you know, at least with

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scripture we could look at the word and

try to figure out what it means and The

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other aspect I think really particularly

important for us is leadership

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group as a community of discernment.

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That our leadership groups should

be a community of discernment where

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we figure out God's will together.

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Where we discover the course and

the direction of God together.

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In Deuteronomy, when God was forming

His people, His holy nation, He

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said, Choose wise and discerning and

experienced men from your tribes, and

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I will appoint them as your heads.

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I mean, God, this is a requirement for

God, that you have to be discerning.

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You have to be spiritual enough that

you focus on God, that you listen to

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God, and that you make your decisions

based on God and, and, you know,

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and, and have been practicing this.

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So you have experience living this way.

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I mean, that's his criteria for

leadership, uh, but not just the

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leaders, it's also the people of God.

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He says, see, in Deuteronomy 4, 5

through 7, he says, see, I taught The

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statues and the ordinances, just as the

Lord commanded, therefore observe them.

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This is Moses talking

to his people, right?

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When you enter the land you are about

to possess, observe them carefully,

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because this will show your wisdom and

discernment in the eyes of the people

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who will listen to all these decrees.

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Then they'll say, surely this great

nation is a wise and discerning people.

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For what great nation has a God

so near, like the Lord our God?

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whenever we call on Him.

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That, that, that, that the people of

God should be a discerning people.

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The church should all be

practicing discernment.

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This is how we should be living our lives.

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So much so that everybody

knows us for that.

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Oh yeah, you can ask so and so

because so and so is going to

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do whatever God wants him to do.

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We, we should go to this church

because they truly follow God.

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They are close to God.

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They walk with God.

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He's available whenever they call on Him.

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He's right there.

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I mean, that's.

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I mean, think about it, that's

what God wanted them to be

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known for, God's people, right?

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The people who walk with God.

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This totally applies to us, right?

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So, here are some of the keys

of discernment that I think

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are important, um, and we'll

just kind of walk through them.

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Number one, you've got

to clarify your goal.

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What is your goal in discernment?

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When you, when you ask God, what

are you really trying to achieve?

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Typically, and oftentimes we think,

what do we, what do we think needs

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to happen in my life or my group?

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What do we think we need to change?

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What do I think needs to change?

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What do we think is the best structure

or organization or leadership model?

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Or way of making decisions.

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And what do I think about this?

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And that oftentimes occupies a lot

of our time and space in our heads.

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Uh, what is my view of it?

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You know, we're pounding that out.

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Maybe a more important

question is what is God's will?

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That needs to be our goal.

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What is He calling us to?

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What is He saying to us?

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What is He showing us?

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And it can sound like a, a subtle shift.

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And maybe even a, you know, no, duh,

you know, kind of shift like, of

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course that's obvious, but you can

see how easy it is to think this way.

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What do I think?

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What, here's what I want us to do.

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And I think that this is a huge

problem in the kingdom of God in

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our church is too many leaders

trying to do things their way.

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Everybody's suddenly an expert on

church growth and how it's going to turn

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around and how we're going to do this

instead of really seeking God's will.

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What is it that God is

trying to show us right now?

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And, and through the many

different things that happened in

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a week, what is God showing me?

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What is He teaching me?

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Um, Jesus said, this

is how you should pray.

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Our Father in heaven, holy is your name,

your kingdom come, your will be done.

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That was very intentional.

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Not, my kingdom come, my will be done.

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It's yours.

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And that's even having to say that

I think this is what's so good about

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saying that prayer is Having to say that

prayer and in your heart do it right?

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Okay God.

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I'm giving you the church I'm

giving you my responsibilities.

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I want your kingdom to come I

want your will be done not mine.

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You know the longer we're around

the more Opinions we have, the more

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views we have, and those are good.

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It's good to have experience, it's

good to have education, it's good

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to have training, it's good to have

victories on your belt, but that is

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not enough to carry out God's will.

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That's important, but we need

God to carry out God's will.

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We need the Spirit to be

spiritual leaders, right?

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We, we need the king to build the kingdom.

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We, it's not enough just to have

a lot of educational experience,

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victories under your belt.

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In fact, if anything, those can

actually get in the way those can

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actually, uh, uh, uh, cause problems

because we become so self reliant.

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Stephen carried in an excellent.

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Uh sunday morning communion in this

retreat about how our strengths can

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actually be our weaknesses our Failings

and our failings can actually be a

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strength actually be a win for us And

sometimes that you know, like as paul

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considered, you know, all his gains a

loss and his loss a gain sometimes our

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experience our training our education

Really can feed our pride and that's

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actually a detriment to discernment

instead of allowing that to just

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enhance our discernment, but having very

clearly the goal is to do God's will.

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God's will is the best thing that could

happen to us under any circumstance.

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That's one of the quotes

that RHB has in her book.

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You know, I love that.

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God's will is the best thing that could

happen to us under any circumstance.

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No matter what happens, if you do God's

will, It's going to be best, and it'll

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be better than anything we come up with.

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You know, um, the other, the other

key of discernment is turning

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to the Lord, practicing shuv.

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Shuv is the Hebrew concept that

oftentimes translated as repentance,

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that we turn around and face God.

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We have to turn to Him for discernment.

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We must be facing God, physically,

Symbolically, emotionally, spiritually,

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and every E we can come up with, that

we are facing God, asking God, and I

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say even physically, I mean that, like

getting on the floor and, and, and

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facing God, or standing and putting our

hands up and looking up to the heavens,

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and asking God, for what, for wisdom?

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Making ourself be still so that we calm

and can hear him being silent so that

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we hear his voice Listening carefully to

God James said, you know If any of you

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lacks wisdom you should ask God who gives

generously to all without finding fault

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and it will be given to you I love the the

Living Bible He says is how he translates

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it if you want to know what God wants you

to do ask him And He will gladly tell you,

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for He is always ready to give a bountiful

supply of wisdom to all who ask Him.

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He will not resent it.

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I mean, that's, I love that.

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You know, you know how sometimes you

want to ask somebody for help, but you

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don't, you don't want to bother them.

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You're afraid they're going to

get mad at you or something, or

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you're bugging them too much.

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Say, look, God's not going

to get bugged by you asking.

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In fact, quite the opposite.

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He will gladly tell you.

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But we have to be a people

who rely on Him, right?

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And of course, you, you, you know,

the, the, the, I've, I've used this

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illustration a few times of just the

importance of, of being still, right?

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The mud, the jar that's dipped

in the river and swirling with

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mud that sits, everything slowly

settles and the water becomes clear.

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And this is what happens in our minds.

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And this is what happens in our soul.

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When we.

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learn to be still, which

for some of us, we love it.

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It just, we, it's like fish in water.

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We just, it's so natural.

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Others, boy, this is hard.

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This is really tough because we're

like, we're, you know, we got as

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the monks call it monkey mind.

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Our minds are jumping all over.

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We're thinking of different stuff

and we have to learn to be still

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and allow ourselves to clear up.

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Being silent is so important.

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He says, he says in Psalm

4, Tremble and do not sin.

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When you are on your bed, search

your hearts and be silent.

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You know, just be silent.

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Uh, somebody once said it's, uh,

when our mouths are silenced, are,

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are silent, our souls will speak.

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As long as we're talking, as long

as we're, we're allowing noise to

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play in our head, we're not going to

hear what our souls are telling us.

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Um, Jesus in the Gospels, over 75 times,

He talks about listening and hearing.

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And He says, His classic line,

Whoever has ears, let them hear.

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I mean, what a line.

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Think about that.

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I mean, what a statement He makes here.

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Like, that's just an interesting

thing to say, you know.

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Whoever has ears, let them hear.

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Obviously, he's drawing attention

to, are you paying attention?

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Are you really listening?

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Are you getting it?

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Um, 46 times in the book of Revelation,

it talks about, listen to, it says to the

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churches, listen to what the Spirit says.

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492 times in the New Testament.

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Jesus called the crowd to him and

he said, listen and understand.

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It's not just listening.

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He was concerned with not just listening.

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But understand, take the time to think

this through, to get it, to understand.

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Of course, Jesus gave many warnings

from the book of Isaiah about ever

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hearing, but never understanding,

ever seeing, but never perceiving.

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Therefore, consider

carefully how you listen.

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Whoever has will be given more.

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Whoever does not have, even what they

think they have, will be taken from them.

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I mean, this is, this is really

intense that you can lose everything

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just because you're not listening.

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And, and you can gain more

because you are listening.

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Um, it, it's incredibly important.

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And of course, this is really

hard in our world today.

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I think this is one of

the great challenges.

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Uh, John Mark Comer talks about

this in Ruthless Elimination

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of how distracted we are.

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He's got some great.

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Quotes in there about the level

of distraction, how, you know,

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attention is the currency of today.

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If a commercial can grab your

attention, if a, if an advertisement

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on your phone can just get your

attention for two seconds, that's

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worth lots of money to them.

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And, and here in the midst of all this,

God is trying to get our attention.

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And the question is, are we

giving him our attention?

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So lastly, some of the keys of

discernment, um, being self aware.

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When we seek to know God's

will so that we can do God's

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will, we have to be self aware.

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We have to understand where

we're at because that is going to

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affect what we hear or don't hear.

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You know, we've all joked about selective

hearing and anybody can fall into that.

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Everybody will fall into

it if we're not self aware.

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This is one of the many benefits

of confessing our sins is be

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confessing our sins daily.

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You get up every morning, confess

your sin to God, regularly, when you

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fall into something major, talking

to a brother or sister, so that your

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heart will be healed, it says, right?

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And the prayers of a

righteous person help us.

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But it keeps our feet grounded.

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It keeps us aware of who

we are, where we are.

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It helps our self awareness.

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And it actually literally

changes our hearts.

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We're more humble.

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We're more open when we're not self

aware and we lose touch with our sin.

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We become more prideful, more

resistant to outside input.

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We become more defensive.

424

Um, and it just, it's way

harder to be self aware.

425

You're not self aware.

426

We lose self awareness and our blind spot.

427

You know, it goes from one little

spot to a huge wall, where we're

428

just not aware of what's going on, or

how our, you know, why we're making

429

decisions that bother other people,

and we're like, what's your problem?

430

So, that self awareness is very

important, and part of that is

431

knowing what are your fears?

432

What am I afraid of?

433

Because our fears Affect our decision

making, affect what we hear and how we

434

act, right, if we're afraid of failure, if

we're afraid of looking bad, we're afraid

435

of criticism, or we're afraid of being

labelled old school, or being labelled

436

progressive Christian, or being labelled,

you know, conservative or liberal,

437

whatever, those fears affect Our decision

making and we'll, and if we're not

438

aware of it, we'll lean in a direction.

439

It's not really what we wanted to

do, but it's because of our fear.

440

We get pushed in that direction.

441

Likewise with hurts, things

that have hurt us in the past.

442

You know, we, we, we, we got hurt

by an over controlling leader.

443

And so now we don't want

to control anything.

444

And we just, and we're maybe too

liberal, you know, because it's, we're

445

living in a reaction to our hurt.

446

So just good to be aware.

447

What are my fears in this?

448

What is my hurt?

449

Be aware of vanity, you know, all of

us and some more than others really

450

are, can get very afraid of how's

this going to make me look, you know,

451

afraid, what will people think of me and

our ego gets very wrapped up in this.

452

You know, and we can get prideful, we

can get selfishly ambitious, and as

453

leaders especially, it's easy to go

in and want to build our own kingdom,

454

our own little empire, you know, and

this is what I think we should do.

455

There's a level of surrender

that's very important.

456

Not my will.

457

but yours, God.

458

Not my kingdom, your kingdom.

459

And even being able to have an

indifference of, well, if this is

460

what the elders think, or this is

what spiritual brothers and sisters

461

think, I'm willing to go with it.

462

I'm willing to surrender to the group.

463

A spiritual group, not a worldly group.

464

a spiritual group.

465

That's, that's group or community,

uh, uh, discernment, uh,

466

listening carefully to others.

467

Somebody shared about that,

just the different voices.

468

You know, we had a wonderful talk in

our, uh, retreat about The importance

469

and the significance of Ruth Haley

Barton being a woman, things that she

470

brings out in Moses's life, the way she

just totally unpacks all the emotions

471

in Moses's life, things that men would

probably overlook and over and not see.

472

But the importance of hearing her

voice in this is incredibly important.

473

The importance of hearing different

voices, different experiences from,

474

you know, minorities, whether they're,

They're racially minority or age

475

minority, you know, if you have an older

church listening to the young people,

476

if you have a young church listening

to the older people, the people and

477

you know, that God gives parts of his

will to, and if we don't listen to

478

him, we're going to be lacking that.

479

We're not going to hear that.

480

I mean, I always think God

can speak through a mule.

481

He can speak through anybody.

482

He can speak through me, right?

483

And understanding that discernment.

484

Always leads towards unity because God is

a God of unity some people think you know

485

Holy Spirit told me to do it different and

leave the group that's not the Holy Spirit

486

the Holy Spirit always works towards unity

and Unity with the godly not unity with

487

the worldly but unity with the godly.

488

So The you know confession is important

just being aware get get your junk out

489

there be open be honest be aware of

what's happening inside you Let's see,

490

so So kind of summarizing, you know,

when we're making big decisions, life,

491

faith, relationships, money, time,

this is more like our personal stuff.

492

Life is, what direction am I going to go?

493

Uh, what do I think about this?

494

Relationships, I have money.

495

Incredibly important that we practice

these, especially these in the second.

496

List because there are things that really

affect how we see and how we practice

497

practice practice Hebrews 5 13 Anyone who

lives on milk being still an infant is

498

not acquainted with the teachings about

righteousness But solid food is for the

499

mature who by constant use have trained

themselves to distinguish good from evil

500

Just that constant practicing discernment

helps us, we get better and better at it.

501

Uh, the person without the Spirit

does not accept the things that

502

come from the Spirit of God, but

considers them foolishness and cannot

503

understand them because they are

discerned only through the Spirit.

504

There are things that

we're only going to get.

505

In a state of spiritual

maturity in spiritual ways.

506

There are answers.

507

And a lot of this is like wrapped

and hidden in the parables that

508

only a spiritual person will

understand it, or only when we

509

so to the spirit, will we get it?

510

Um, Paul said, this is my prayer that

you love your love may abound more and

511

more knowledge and depth of insight so

that you may be able to discern what

512

is best and be pure and blameless.

513

So, how do I know, you know, and this

is, this is just kind of a practical I

514

tacked on because, I don't know about

you, I get, I run into this, Some people

515

will say, well, the Holy Spirit told me

this, the Holy Spirit told me that, how

516

do you know, if it's the Holy Spirit,

because There's more than one spirit

517

out there for, you know, and again,

uh, the, the Bible says to test things.

518

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit,

but test the spirits to see whether

519

they are from God because many false

prophets have gone out into the world.

520

And it's a little bit of my fear, even

with spiritual formation as it rolls,

521

it's, it's, it's going across our

fellowship, like a tidal wave and people.

522

getting ultra spiritual and not even

knowing, not knowing the importance of

523

practicing, the importance of testing.

524

Um, and this is kind of a little

rules book, uh, that, that,

525

that just kind of a quick test.

526

God's will is always

in sync with scripture.

527

No spirit's ever gonna, the spirit

of God is never going to tell you

528

to violate scripture or even to

do it different than scripture.

529

God's will always draws us towards unity,

does not separate, does not divide.

530

God's will all is always

a manifestation of love.

531

It's always wrapped in love.

532

It's always there's always love behind it.

533

It's not in anger.

534

It's not in bitterness.

535

It's not in frustration.

536

It's in love.

537

God's will is always good

for our souls, right?

538

And even if it means that we're

going to suffer for a little bit,

539

even if it means we're going to

suffer for a lot, ultimately it's

540

always what's best for our soul.

541

And God's will is always

what's best, period.

542

You know, no matter what,

it's always what's best.

543

So here's some things.

544

So let me conclude with this

slide, which is kind of a summary

545

of what we talked about today.

546

Um, so the practicals are this

with spiritual discernment, when

547

we have a big decision, when we,

whether it's our personal lives

548

or the church or what we're doing.

549

You know, it always should

start with turning to God.

550

Shuv, right?

551

Prayer.

552

Asking God for help.

553

And it should include a time

of silence and solitude.

554

Um, and this may take days.

555

This may, you know, we, we tackle

this a little bit every morning

556

or a few times throughout the day,

but we're, we're practicing this

557

asking the silence and solitude.

558

We're listening.

559

Uh, our eyes are open.

560

We're to see if god is showing us

something Uh identifying something Uh,

561

we we we put before him the key issues.

562

We're aware of key issues the the data

key points, you know that that Um,

563

if this then this if that then that

you know, we thought all that through

564

and we we put that before god uh, we

meet with a clearance committee or

565

a leadership team that is spiritual.

566

And that's the, that's the key.

567

Uh, team leadership is not the solution.

568

A spiritual team of, of, uh, a

spiritual team can be a huge help.

569

And that's really who should make

decisions for the church, a spiritual.

570

team leadership, not just a team

leadership, uh, spiritual friendships.

571

You know, if it's a personal decision,

maybe we're not going to get a whole

572

team together, but we have a few key

friends that will, that we can bounce

573

things off and they can help us think

through some of the key issues or the

574

data points or key points in this.

575

And sometimes if it's a group, like

if we're leading something and our

576

whole group wants to make a decision

or the leadership group's going to

577

make a decision, then you can have

what's, what's called a discern, a

578

discernmentarian, somebody who kind of

makes sure that in this process of coming

579

to terms with something, uh, that they

make sure that we're praying enough,

580

that we're letting the Holy Spirit

guide us, that we're not just relying

581

on our education or our experience.

582

Uh, or our success in the past,

but we're allowing the Holy Spirit

583

to speak into it or we're allowing

ourselves to explore ideas and not

584

just assuming we know what to do.

585

Really Acts 15 is a great, great

example of this because, you know, uh,

586

like, you know, what I talked earlier

about, about checking things with

587

scripture and does it violate scripture?

588

Is it fulfillment of what

the scripture, is it loving?

589

Is it unifying?

590

Um, Transcribed by https: otter.

591

ai And, and, you know, the Acts 15

situation is a classic example, because

592

if you remember, Acts 15 is, is where

they, they had to decide whether Gentiles

593

needed to become Jews or not, whether

they could, you know, whether they, they

594

had to go through this process, which is

what they used to have to do before Jesus.

595

If they wanted to be part of God's

people, they had to become Jews.

596

This is a major shift, but if

you something, think about it.

597

They already had

scriptures that said that.

598

I mean, Peter's lesson in Acts 2, he said,

he quoted Joel in the last days, I will

599

pour out my spirit on men and women, young

and old, and all nations from everywhere.

600

Right?

601

It's a very universal message.

602

Yet they didn't really quite get that

they were still staying in Jerusalem.

603

Even Jesus said, go to preach

this to Jerusalem, Judea,

604

Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

605

The Great Commission, Panteta Ethne, go to

all ethnicities, all peoples of the earth.

606

Yet they didn't do that.

607

And, and it becomes this big issue.

608

What about the gentiles?

609

And in Acts 15, they basically, you get to

see discernment in pro, in action, right?

610

They discuss, they listened

to the different voices.

611

They discussed it with the

elders and the apostles.

612

And then James was kind

of the discernment.

613

He's the one that says, all

right, here's what we're gonna do.

614

This is what seems right

to the Holy Spirit.

615

And that was their keys.

616

They wanted.

617

Whatever they do to make sure that

was what the Holy Spirit wanted.

618

And, you know, that's, that's

a great example, Acts 15.

619

So, and, you know, again,

identifying the paths.

620

Here's the options I have.

621

Here's the pros, the cons.

622

Being still, um, noticing, consolations

and desolations, which if you've heard my

623

other classes or you've studied out, uh,

Ignatian spirituality or the spiritual

624

formation books, you know what those are.

625

If you don't, that's basically knowing

when God is prompting you in that

626

direction or when he's holding you

back or when that direction blesses

627

you or when that direction hurts you.

628

But you have to be still to notice that.

629

Uh, test the spirits, you know, does

Don't, don't just assume this is

630

the Spirit of God, it might not be.

631

And Satan's always trying

to lay traps before us.

632

Pray more, you know, we start

out praying, pray some more,

633

stop and pray, check in with God.

634

And then lastly, by faith, implement it.

635

Go for it, you know and and and by faith

walk ahead and do what what whatever

636

it is that You've decided or the group

has decided to do and god will bless it

637

simply by faith that you're acting on

faith So those are some guides that's

638

that's really these are for both group

and group leaders and the group leadership

639

groups, but also for us as individuals

and you can fit in here whatever fits

640

in according to your situation, so

That's basically spiritual discernment.

641

I hope this helps.

642

I hope this class helps you, uh,

to get that and understand it.

643

It's, it's something that all of us

should be practicing as disciples.

644

All of us should have this as part of our

life, and we'll stop there Buen Camino.

645

Marcel: Thanks for listening to Deeper

Dive by the OC Church of Christ.

646

Our next episode will be part five titled

Power of The Spirit in a Disciple's Life.

647

If you want to get connected to us or

want to donate to the program, go to

648

our website, OCChurchofchrist.com or

through social media @TheOCchurch join

649

us next time as we conclude the journey.