Discernment.

Recently talked about spiritual discernment in discipleship. Hopefully Jordan Maroon doesn't read this and wonder if I was listening.


My main question for Jordan when we talked was just "How do we discern God's will for certain situations?"


God speaks to us in various ways. The notable ones are:

- The Bible

- Relationships

- Circumstances

The Bible is the priamary source. There is no other way God will speak that would contradict the Bible. Which is pretty significant. It tells us that if we're really trying to discern God's will in some specific situation, it's not just about praying and sitting there till you hear a voice from the clouds. It's actively pursuing and trying to figure out what God has already told us.

A second way is through our relationships. God is working in our friends, and hopefully our Christian friends are seeking God's will. Which, if they are, then they'll have been in God's word and know which direction to point you.

Lastly, there's circumstances. This is the least important, but we make it out to be the most important. We pray about whether we should do something and wait to see how the circumstance turn out. We wait to see if a door is going to be opened or closed. And it's not to say that God doesn't work through this, but it's not as common. Blindly walking through whatever door is open doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be doing God's will. Neither is it as glorifying to God as actively seeking Him out is.

Now, things can get sticky at times. So here's a couple "add-ons" that we discussed too:

Sometimes, there can be multiple right answers and it's less about choosing what is 'more right' and seeking God and following where you think he's leading. For instance, if spring break is coming up, you've got multiple mission trip opportunities, and you don't know which one you should go on. Is going on any mission trip going to be 'wrong'? No. Is one mission trip 'more right'? Maybe. But if you seek God's will and end up making a choice for the 'less right' option, that's going to glorify God more than just arbitrarily picking the option that's 'more right'.

Sometimes you just need to decide on something and if it's wrong, let God correct you. Waiting for an answer could be the wrong thing to do. If all of the sudden, you've got a free hour and you know of multiple things you could do, it'd be wrong to wait for that hour to try to decide what to do. Cause then you've missed your opportunity.

God can redeem any situation. Making a wrong choice that you'll have to live with doesn't mean God can't work through you where you're at. God is all about redemption. So, don't let a bad decision distract you from discern where God wants to take you from there.