"PRACTICING" Discernment

As I was reading a very intriguing article the other day on the Apprising Ministries website I ran across a quote from A.W. Tozer that grabbed my heart. He was considering the dangers of the lack of “discernment” within the church today and what the end result would be if we continued down this path. I have since done a little investigating and came across another quote that prompted me to write this commentary. Here it is;

“The red corpuscles are like faith - they carry the life giving oxygen to every part of the body. The white cells are like discernment - they pounce upon dead and toxic matter and carry it out to the drain. In a healthy heart there must be provision for keeping dead and poisonous matter out of the life stream.” A.W. Tozer

I found this article off another Blog site; The Death of Discernment In The Church, this one really caught my eye. I keep asking myself why this is and what is the root cause that so many seem to be very alarmed about. I have come to somewhat of a conclusion that is wrapped up in the word “practicing”.

The word “practice”, and all of its various forms, is used 37 times in the NT alone. It’s obvious to anyone that if you want to be good at something you must practice it on a regular basis. The enemy of our souls knows this quite well too as he tempts us to “practice” anything but what is good, just and so-on. The apostle Paul was quick to point out the need to practice the right things and the battle within the flesh to practice anything but. The writer of Hebrews said it best I believe;

Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

He points out that there is a difference between “encumbrances” and “the sin”, they are two different entities. I believe that encumbrances are the things that just eat up our time so we don’t spend it practicing what we need to practice. He also implies that there were those who were successful at this and we were to act as they acted.

This really helps us to understand why “discernment” is taking a back seat to everything else going on within the Body of Christ. The human nature part of the Body of Christ will spend its time pleasing the fleshly side. When you do that to a human body the evidence is obvious…….too many Twinkees tend to expand the portion of the body that doesn’t need any more expansion. The “Twinkees” of the Body of Christ are those things that satisfy the fleshly side and deprive the Spirit led side. Doing an evaluation of every program in your church will probably reveal just how much flesh is stroked and how much flesh is crucified……..I think you will find the numbers staggering in most assemblies. The same applies to the number of so-called Christian books being sold in the Christian book stores.....whole lotta "flesh strokin" there. This also applies to us on a personal level, how many of our waking hours are spent on things that have little or no meaning, simply time eaters. I know in my own life this is a constant battle, just trying to discern what is priority is mind numbing at times. Discernment is the life’s blood of the Church, so if the enemy wants to damage the Body he just tampers with the blood supply…….resulting in Spiritual anemia.

I believe it would behoove everyone who calls themselves a born again believer to consider learning this whole area of correct Spiritual discernment…….and then begin to “practice” it within your sphere of influence. You may not be the most “popular” one in the crowd, but you will be the most praised when you stand before Jesus and he points out the number you may have rescued from the apostasy.

Incidentally, part of the “practicing” could begin with reading the above article “The Death of Discernment in the church”, it’s quite good………and, of course, laying off the “Twinkees”!