S3:E38 - The dire need for discernment

So we'll find this shows up through all areas of our life, but I'm going to start with some scripture around discernment so that we kind of get a footing of what the Bible tells us about this in just a few ways.

And, um, in first John four, one, this is from the ESV translation.

It says beloved did not fear or did not believe, sorry, every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

I feel like that says enough right there.

Um, you shouldn't, people shouldn't be offended that you're testing it.

Right.

It's like, um, I've seen some of this on social media right now where people are essentially like creating these ministries where they're saying like, if you test me, or if you doubt me, you're going against my anointing, my anointing, my anointing.

And it's like, no.

When Paul was tested in the New Testament, he applauded them for testing what he was saying against the word of God.

He was like, yeah, test me.

If it's from God, you are not going to be afraid of having it tested against the word of God, against the Holy Spirit.

You won't be afraid of having it tested.

And scripture actually tells us to do this.

And Paul confirms for us that this is something that we're supposed to be doing.

And if somebody has a hard time with that, implement some discernment on why they have a hard time with that, right? So that's 1 John 4, 1, telling us to test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

We encounter so many false prophets these days, so many false teachers and And a really good way to even like, look at this from something that I've kind of just discerned is, is what they're saying pointing to them or to God? right because you can be used for god and and build a brand and a page and have an offer and all of these things but if the main theme is not pointing to god it's pointing to them or pointing to like a company or an offer that's going to be like the savior that's not it there's going to be a level of manipulation there where it's like i'm going to use god so that you align with my offer that you want to come into my community but ultimately all roads point to me That's not, that's not the play.

All right.