Learning Discerning

A Church without discernment is a dangerous thing. As followers of Christ, we must come to the point of maturity where discernment and righteous judgement are continually in operation. We’ve been conditioned to listen for these things coming from the mouths of church leaders, but have largely forsaken the responsibility to allow these areas to develop in ourselves. This creates a body that almost fully relies on leadership to hear from the Lord and accurately convey His heart, plans, and will, without adding their own understanding or agenda

When it’s only the pastoral staff that are the ones who hear, anyone outside of church payroll are made to look like they’re off on a tangent. This is debilitating to the body of Christ, as we’re ALL given these gifts and should be encouraged to develop in them for the strengthening and maturing of the body.

We become comfortable with and overly confident in people/ministries that we trust, and we let our guard down. We have to examine everything by what the Spirit of the Lord is doing and communicating directly to us, judging any discrepancies between what we’re hearing & seeing from the pulpit and what we’re hearing & seeing by the Spirit of God.

  Love your congregation’s leaders. Pray for them. Don’t abuse them by allowing your devotion to them to derail them from their rightful positions — servants of God to the body — not lifelines to the throne of Heaven. Let Jesus be the life line and allow your pastors be the servant-leaders that they’re called to be.

Like it or not, no matter who they are or what their legacy may be, they’re fallible and corruptible just like we are. With righteous judgement and discernment by the Holy Spirit, we can be led into all truth, even if there are discrepancies in the direction that the church’s servant-leaders are leading.