It’s hard to know sometimes what the right thing is to do in any given situation. Not everything is black and white that we will face as followers of Jesus and not every conversation is the same with each person. Therefore, we need discernment. We need to be able to discern when and where the Holy Spirit is moving and what He is telling us to do, but this is incredibly difficult at times.
Left to our own strength, we will never be able to accurately discern things. We will more than likely assume “we know” the situation and will assume wrongly. There are going to be times we need to know what God is telling us to do or what decision to make, so what are we left to do? How do we get discernment? Scripture tells us what discernment is and how we can get it.
Here is what the Bible has to say with scripture on discernment:
John 16:13 – When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
1 John 4:6 – We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:1 – 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 Thessalonians 5:20-22 – Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
1 John 2:3 – And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 – 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. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Hebrews 5:14 – But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
1 John 4:2 – By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
Philippians 1:9-11 – And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
What does the Bible have to say about other topics?
Feel free to add any additional Scripture to this topic by leaving a comment.
We must remember, Jesus left us with all we need to know. There is nothing new under the sun. All that is NEW is of MAN and all that is OLD is of GOD. Jesus gave us the path or The Way , The Truth and The Light.