The comment was, "As I feel I do take an active role in having peace from God, I wonder how do you apply this within discernment?!?!?! I know what my spiritual gift is, but I am having a difficult time in knowing how to apply it!"
In response to the blogger, I don't mean to sound condescending with my response. If you have already considering what I am about to write, understand it's hard to know what people know and don't know in this medium. So, if I am recovering your tracks, forgive me.
In the end, I see two ways of considering the gift of discernment.
Fruit of the Spirit confirm one's walk
Looking at the fruit of the Spirit, it appears the characteristics outlined in the Galatians passage are not so much gifts since they are available to all Christians. These traits--love, joy, peace, patience, etc--do more to confirm a Christian is walking with the Holy Spirit than anything else. The presence of these gifts merely show one is truly living a holy life.
Spiritual gifts on the other hand can be possessed by people who are not in a holy, vibrant relationship with God. Jesus himself says there will come a time when some arrive in heaven to be judged and Christ himself will reject them even though the walked in power. Christ would more liekly not reject one whose life was marked by the demonstrative presence of the fruit of the Spirit.
Spiritual gifts edify the Body of Christ
All the lists of spiritual gifts I have ever seen do not include anything about any of the fruits as belonging on that list. Discernment, noted in 1 Corinthians 12:10, does fall into this list. When Paul talks about gifts in general he does mention that "to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." (1 Cor 12:7) Prior to that he outlines, what I have seen scholoars categorize, one of the the three persons of the Godhead under whose authority each gift belongs.
Discernment falls into the area of the service gifts. A good reference article I find informative is John MacArthur's The Permanent Edifying Gifts -- The Serving Gifts: Mercy, Faith, and Discernment. From this it seems reasonable to infer that serving is the basis for developing the gift of discernment. As the 12:10 verse suggests, all spiritual gifts, including discernment, are meant to edify the Church as a whole.
To me, discernment ties in very closely with the revelatory gifts and the intertwined workings of apostles and prophets. Of course, the issue of what one believes on these matters determines how applicable discernment is in today's church, but, recognizing truth from falsehood is the essence of discernment. If this recognition has no "next step", I see it as being dead in today's church. In other words, if falsehood is recognized but there is no authoritative response to this falsehood, what good is the gift of discernment? Additionally, discernment allows for powerful intercession through words of knowledge and revelation as well as an added dimension no other gift can mimic.
I know this may sound crazy, but, Googling gift of discernment offers some interesting starting points. One I liked about the true gift says,
I'm guessing that you're talking about the spiritual gift of discernment (a rare thing) rather than the Spirit-led process of day-to-day discernment. A lot of people really believe that they or their pastor or a friend have been given a special gift for discerning the Godliness of the spirit of something or someone. Very few have shown this gift when they try to put it to work. It tends to break down into an internal political thing. Gift-discernment is often sent by the Spirit for situations rather than full-time, and works like a strong intuition (but more Spiritually focused, like a laser). When it's there, it's to be used, like other gifts, to build others up, and it's always to be used in a very Christ-like manner (but you have to read the Gospels a lot to catch what that is).
Gifts are a mystery, to be lived rather than understood.
Source: http://www.spirithome.com/letters5.html
Again, I want to be clear discernment is not one of my giftings, but, a close relationship with the Spirit is key. Remembering that the edification of the Church is key as it keeps on humble and constructive in the use of this gift, like all others. And, continued development of one's character over one's gift is a surefire way to built any gift, regardless of the existing measure of a gift.
These are my first thoughts on the matter.
Lastly, an article from Paul Keith Davis, on of the few people I have actually heard and know something about. http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=8564
No comments:
Post a Comment