Discerning
About a year and a half ago, I prayed a prayer that I thought God would answer instantaneously, which He did, but not in the way I had pictured. I was asking for it to be one and done; I didn’t know that he was going to take me through a process for me to develop into what I was asking. Till this day, I still pray this prayer because it is profound, and where I am in life right now, it shows that this may not be a prayer that I will stop praying until I arrive in heaven. My prayer is “Lord, teach me how to be a person.” The truth is, it's because I don’t know how. I haven’t yet accomplished learning how to be, and God knew that I needed to pray that; it’s like he deposited it into my spirit as soon as I entered a season of rest. One of the biggest key components to becoming a person is knowing how to deal with other people and different situations so that you can navigate them appropriately. It’s when what you learned from the Lord is now tested through interactions with other individuals or groups and circumstances, so that you can apply the knowledge you learned, or learn how every situation can look different and see where your weak spots are, so that you can allow the Lord to work on you to strengthen you.
My way of dealing with people was to just stay out of their way and stay to myself. I didn’t want the problems people possibly come with, nor did I want to be a burden to others. Both of these ways of thinking came from fears and past traumas, which stemmed from prior experiences with people. One of the things the Lord has revealed to me in this journey is that my God-given destiny will not be fulfilled without first developing relationships with people. I can not do this life alone. WE CAN NOT DO THIS LIFE ALONE. People and relationships exist for a reason, even the Lord God Himself functions in relationship with Himself and with us, the people. Wanting to do things alone for the sake of looking great by yourself or not giving anyone credit was something I had to surrender to the Lord and utterly destroy, kill it, and make sure it did not resurrect itself. The fear of people had to go. I had to accept the training of the Lord to cast down thoughts and behaviors that people were going to harm me. Though in life you may have experienced people who hurt you, it can be just as traumatic when you treat most people with those wounds. God is a faithful deliverer; he will teach new ways that replace the old ones. This is why discernment is needed, not paranoia, not suspicion, not false compassion, not the opinions or the advice of others. In my last blog, I spoke about an experience of mine, mistreating the gift of discerning spirits, and what that led to. Discernment is not just to discern what is good or bad but to detect where God is, what he is doing, and what he is instructing in the situation. If God is not there, then we should be either.
I’m in the process of my walls being rebuilt and the gates being restored. God is teaching me new things, renewing my mind, character, and behaviors so that I walk firmly in godliness and new levels. A huge part of this is being uncomfortable, being in unfamiliar places and situations to obtain revelation and knowledge from the Lord, which has yet to become familiar to me. Revelation that comes with the fear of God, so that I could steward it by loving Jesus well.
Something the Lord has been teaching me is being vigilant to guard my ear and eye gates by being careful of what I allow to enter them. Gossip, slander, sexual content, secular content, demonized content, etc, there is a stricter blockage that is required for them not to enter in this season.
Gossip. God has shown me how this can enter in various ways, but what gives access to all gossip is when there is no dismissal of it, being a listener is being a contributor, and I have found that many Christians actually fall into this category out of passivity, fear of people, or because they want to be helpful by lending a listening ear. However, we are a Holy people, a royal priesthood set apart to God, our ears are far too Holy and precious to just lend them out to whoever and whatever. Remaining silent is permitting things like this to continue, not just in the person but the spirit(s) operating through them, in your bloodline, and for the covenant made with the spirit to continue. You must break them; however, I do believe that before we can break them, we must be able to discern when it is gossip, a person sharing a story, a testimony, or when a person is seeking counsel on a matter.
How to discern Gossip.
If information is being shared to you that has nothing to do with you, does not edify you, and has you looking at another individual or group negatively.
If one party is spreading rumors, slander, and making accusations against a particular individual or another party.
If accusations are being made, and there’s no legitimate evidence of what is being said. In addition to this, if the information being shared is not for the sake of bringing awareness to a problem that needs a resolution, or trying to point fingers at a person instead of the spirits behind them, it is not helpful.
(It is quite interesting because in the midst of writing this blog post, I was tested.)
We must be so considerate about how the Lord views gossip that when a situation like it approaches, we hate it enough to immediately shut it down and direct the person to the Lord and show them what the right thing to do is. We must think, “How dare a person be comfortable to tear another individual down that is made in the image of God, whether they are Christian or not?”. We must love and fear God so much that we get grieved by what he gets grieved by.
Something else I would like to mention, we must stop participating in what I call “Christian gossip”, masquerading as gossip with prayer and even saying things surrounded by scripture. I have fallen for this before because it seemed innocent, and it took the mercies of God to show me that not everything that looks sincere from the hearts of men is really true, and from there, I needed to repent from agreeing. We must be careful with what we agree with in conversation because we are really agreeing with the spirits and not necessarily the person.
Lord, please help us to do the right thing and not be intimidated by people. Strengthen our abilities to discern and the boldness to obey the Holy Spirit when he shows us what spirit is operating behind a person, good or bad, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Also, If you would like to accept the love of God and His son, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, or even if you have backslidden and want to return to the Lord, here’s a prayer to guide you.
“ God almighty, I come before you to accept your love, to no longer reject you and what you have done for me. I choose to stop running from you and to finally stop rejecting myself of your love. Thank you for dying for me Lord Jesus, thank you for taking on my sins and shame. Thank you Lord that you became a curse for me so that I would no longer be bound by them but set free by your blood that was shed for me. Thank You for making yourself available to me, as friend, father, Lord, God, helper, comforter, savior, and all the good things I need in my life. Jesus I love you and ask you to help me keep loving you like how you want me to. I accept you completely as my Lord and savior, not what this world and demons have presented to me. Now I declare in the both spiritual and physical realm, that I not longer belong to Satan nor his Kingdom but according to Colossians 1:13, God has delivered me from the kingdom of darkness and has placed me in the Kingdom of light, where Jesus Christ is, I declare I belong to Jesus Christ and I now seat with Him In heavenly places. I rebuke all demonic retaliation in me making this decision and come into agreement with a sound mind in Jesus’ name. I repent, renounce, denounce, and divorce myself from all the sins I’ve committed (list what you can remember) and break the evil covenants associated with them, and I declare once again I am a part of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray and seal this prayer in His blood, Amen.”
Hallelujah! Congratulations if you made this decision. I pray that you prevail in your walk in the Lord, that forces of darkness continue to fail concerning you, and that the forces of light continue to persevere and propel you in the name of Jesus.
And if you have not yet, get yourself a Bible. Please, it’s a lot of ghetto foolishness concerning Christianity and religion. The Bible is the only way to protect you from it and will show you how to be a Christian and have a real relationship with Jesus Christ.
