Discern It Before It Destroys | 11/09/2025

I feel the presence of God.

I've been feeling them all the time lately.

And I love it.

Anyone with me, you know, you just wake up and you're like, there you are.

And then sometimes you're like, where are you?

We've all had days, ups and downs, amen.

But we're going to be talking on discernment today.

This is going to be a very, this is going to be a big message.

Message for our day in the church.

Okay?

There's a season for everything.

And also with different seasons, there's different enemies.

But if you look at our world today, the critical spirit is an enemy of our day.

A critical spirit can be our own worst enemy.

What I'm saying is that we can be our own worst enemy.

But you know what?

When we're talking about warfare, Paul tells us, you know, hey, we're in warfare.

What is common in warfare?

Weapons.

Everyone say, weapons.

Weapons is what brings us together.

Where's my princess bride fan?

Come on, y'all.

Y'all need to wake up this morning.

Discernment is a weapon.

Discernment is a tool.

It is a gift of God.

But when it is used improperly, the weapon can hurt others that it was not intended to hurt.

And sometimes we don't mean to hurt people, but when we don't know what we're doing and we're wielding a weapon, we can accidentally hurt people.

Sometimes we can hurt ourselves.

Do I have any guys who's ever used a hammer before and you were learning how to use a hammer and you hit your finger?

And you said, ouchie.

How many guys have, when they're alone and they've hurt themselves with a hammer, have cried a little bit, but no one knew about it?

Guys cry.

You don't realize that.

Guys cry.

We had our men's bonfire.

Who was here Friday?

All the men.

Everyone's like, hoorah! Yeah, we had a big fire.

Listen.

Brother Mark Falk and Phil are pyromaniacs.

I don't know who put them over the fire.

They brought in the thing, it was the size of a mountain.

We could not get close enough to the fire to do s'mores.

Everyone was 30 feet away, like Mark's around there with a you know a hose from the fire department, like it was awesome.

It was a great time in the Lord.

I don't know why I was where I was going with that.

But y'all need to know about it, okay?

Guys just want to have fun.

But we're gonna talk about discernment today, okay?

I'm gonna I'm gonna split this message up into two messages.

So my wife and I, we've just celebrated our 11-year anniversary on Friday.

I love you.

I love you so much.

I'm grateful for you.

11 years.

So we're gonna be going to San Diego next week.

And leave, you know, so we won't be here next Sunday, okay?

And I think we deserve it.

But Rod and Janet are okay, so I'll give you a little bit more details.

It's a ministry trip, but we're also treating it as a vacation.

Okay, so we're gonna do both.

But yes, our dear, our dear brothers and sisters, Rod and Janet, are coming with us.

We're excited also, and so thank you, Jesus.

God is good.

But Pastor Apostle Pete is gonna be bringing the word next Sunday.

I'm excited for the message.

Whatever the Lord has given him, I'm excited for it.

I'm sad I won't be here, but come, you know, ready to hear something.

Amen.

Okay.

Let's dive into this.

Last thing, I don't want to make sure I don't want to forget this.

I want to go ahead.

If you are currently serving in the military, or you have served in the military, or you have a close relative, a spouse, a child, a father or mother serving in the military, please stand.

It's Veterans Day, we're going to honor our veterans.

So let's just go ahead and give them a hand.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you for the service of the loved ones.

Thank you.

There is so many freedoms that we experience at our when we were starting our men's hangout Friday.

We we started, Mark had a Vietnam veteran hat on, and I didn't realize he was a Vietnam veteran.

My dad was a Vietnam veteran, and I just said, you know, I was sitting and I was asking about stuff.

Like, we don't realize all the things that we experience today that are good, the freedoms that we have, because people have been willing to serve and sacrifice.

And some people say, oh, military, that's a job.

I'm like, okay, that's way more than a job.

And it's not like they're paying millions of dollars.

There's an aspect in the heart of service.

I'm going to give more than what's expected so that other people can enjoy freedom.

So thank you.

We love our military.

We honor you today.

Okay.

Thank you, Jesus.

And now remind me again, so Pastors Pete and Sharon both serve in the military.

Who they would jump out of planes, okay, believe it or not, with parachutes.

Who actually jumped out of planes more?

Was it who I believe, yeah.

It's it's that Pastor Sharon actually has jumped out of planes more than Pastor Pete.

Apparently, he was afraid of heights.

You know, anyways, I'm just kidding.

He'll listen, he's gonna explain a lot of stuff next week.

He's gonna set the record straight.

But it's really good to see you, even if you're new here.

Welcome.

Listen, we're a church on a mission, okay?

This is not just about, you know, church as usual, just another service, but we're going somewhere.

We're saying, God, bring revival.

Lord, bring a harvest.

We we we want to people see, we want to see them saved.

Let's just be honest.

We want to see them saved.

And when they get saved, we want to see them set free, equipped, empowered to be who they're called to be.

Okay?

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violence takes it by forth.

We're willing to be spiritually violent.

Okay?

The enemy's going to be.

So it's time for the church, you know, to get tough.

It's time for the church to get real.

It's time for the church to recognize, you know, we don't fight against flesh and blood.

Well, go ahead, get on social media, waste your time face fighting flesh and blood.

What we're doing though is we're coming against principalities, we're coming against civil spirits, we're contending for freedom over our families, our marriages, right?

All right.

So let's dive into discernment.

Paul is writing a letter to the Corinthian church.

And he says this in verse 1.

This now we all know the original letters weren't necessarily written in chapters.

This is something that we've done through our translations to help, you know, bring more of a clear understanding.

Okay, but I'm gonna say this.

He starts off chapter 12 and he says this.

He says, regarding your questions about the special abilities abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't think we understand this.

Why does he say that?

Because we can misunderstand the church in Corinth is found in southern Greece and Greek Greek, Greece.

Sorry.

Yeah.

I'm gonna figure out how to talk.

It's in southern Greece area, the pagan city, and but it's a very wealthy city.

This is a place where a lot of trade happens, the economy's good there, but it's also a place where there's a hybrid of a lot of different people.

It's a melting pot.

There's Romans, Greeks, Gentiles, Jews, people from surrounding nations coming there to make some money.

And with that, they bring all their religious practices, okay?

They have all these different religions.

So this is a place that is wealthy, but it's also spiritually confused, and it's very immoral, okay?

There's there's worship of Aphrodite, and one of the things that they would do is that they would there's a lot of prostitution.

So this is a very immoral place.

There was actually a phrase coined from Corinth called to be Corinthianized, and actually meant to be immoral.

Okay, so Jesus Christ has died on the cross, he started a started a he started a Christian religion, okay, a faith.

It's it's it's already been a religion, but there's a new covenant, there's a refresh, okay?

And now we have Christianity that's sweeping the world, and Paul is one of these apostles, a sent one to start churches, okay?

We need to get some believers in this area, and these believers are meant to do what?

Multiply.

We're gonna take over.

So there's a church in Corinth that has been started, okay, and Paul as the sent one is fathering this church.

Now, a lot of these converts in the church in Corinth has already come from spiritual backgrounds.

So they're already spiritually aware.

Their struggle is not doubt of the spiritual.

Now, here's the thing in the church today, not this church, but I'm saying the church at large, especially in America, our issue is that we don't actually believe this stuff.

Wow, wow, it just is.

Church has gotten so boring, it's like, to me, it's like it's like we just treat this, you know, if I can see it, then I believe it.

If I don't see it, then maybe we should avoid it.

I'm like, that's not how the kingdom of God works.

And the enemy that we don't see is stealing our lunch every day, and we're just unaware of it because we have churches not teaching people how to be spiritually aware and equipping people.

We're not gonna do that.

We're gonna talk about these things.

But Paul is talking to a church, that is not their problem.

They're very spiritually aware, and so they become Christians and all of a sudden they started operating the spiritual gifts.

I mean, they're going hogwild with it.

They're like bring it on, we'll do it all, okay?

So this is beautiful.

But Paul's writing a letter because also what he recognizes isn't just because you're operating these gifts does not mean you're handling this correctly.

So, as a father, he's going to write to them, and this is what he says.

I don't want you to misunderstand this.

Because we even if we and we can have good intentions and we can have these wonderful gifts and blessings and power that God gives us, but we can misunderstand it.

And what was intended to build up can tear down.

What was intended to restore can make a mess.

The Corinthian church is very spiritual, but they're very immature.

In the world of misunderstanding, as a Christian, there's things that we have to grow in.

We all know this.

The idea of misunderstanding something is that something that is needed is missing.

Did y'all get that?

There's something that needs to be in my life, but it's lacking.

Okay?

That's the idea of misunderstanding here.

I want to talk about three concepts of what we can lack in our lives pertaining to the spiritual gifts, and that is knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

These are three terms that we have that we use interchangeably.

Okay.

There's times I'll say wisdom when I mean knowledge.

There's times I'll say wisdom when I mean knowledge or wisdom.

We can use these interchangeably, but they actually are three different things.

Let me go ahead and read to Colossians 1, 9 through 10.

It says, So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Knowledge of his will, spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Three different things.

And check out what it says in verse 10.

This is the byproduct as we grow in our knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

This is the byproduct.

It says, then you will always honor and please the Lord.

I just simply want to honor and please the Lord.

I know you want to honor and please the Lord, right?

And he's saying, Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom help us honor and please the Lord.

So the idea if something is lacking, then maybe we're not going to honor and please the Lord, even if we're wanting to.

And then it says this and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.

God doesn't want us just to be busy Christians, He wants us to be productive Christians.

Sometimes, listen, I've busied myself and I've had to stop and say, What am I actually doing?

And then it says, all the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

Look at this, all the while you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

So we have this idea of knowledge.

What is knowledge?

It's information.

It's understanding, it's learning the Bible, it's having the right information, okay?

The enemy comes to give us wrong information.

God came to bring us the truth and his revelation of what is actual the right information.

Okay, that matters.

You can have good intentions and you could be busy doing stuff, but if you don't have the right truth, then what you may be doing may be making a mess.

Understanding is the why.

Understanding gives meaning to the information of knowledge.

Okay, if knowledge is, I know this information, let's take a tomato, okay?

We all know a tomato is a fruit.

Did you know that?

Tomato is classified as a fruit.

That is information, that is knowledge.

Understanding takes it another step.

It provides meaning, it provides why.

It answers the question of why something.

Okay, so if tomato is a fruit is knowledge, then why a tomato is classified as a fruit is understanding.

A tomato is a fruit because of the way it's developed.

It is developed from the ovary of a flower and has seeds in it.

That is the scientific classification of a fruit, and that's a tomato.

But wisdom takes it one more step.

Knowledge is the what, understanding is the why, wisdom is the how.

And wisdom would tell us to not use a tomato and a fruit salad.

Wisdom would tell us there's only a few ways to prepare and consume a tomato.

That is pizza sauce, BLTs, deli sandwiches, hamburgers, and occasionally tomato soup, in which you dip a grilled cheese into.

So technically still a sandwich.

And wisdom also tells us that when you're making a grilled cheese, there's only a few cheeses to use that you need in a grilled cheese.

Come on, I'm about to say something here.

Let every eye see ear hear.

You need mozzarella, you need Swiss, you need cheddar, and monster cheese.

Anything else, you're just overdoing it.

And especially not goat cheese.

Goat cheese is demonic.

What did Jesus say?

When I come back to judge the world, I'm gonna separate the sheep from the let it be written, let it be said.

Our women, every time they get together, they have charcuterie trays.

You know what they have on those charcuterie trays?

They have goat cheese.

I every time they come together, I go to my prayer closet and I'm interceding and I'm like, God forgive them.

They do not know what they do right now.

I'm getting the women back, okay?

We got a competition, men's and women's events.

I think the men are women.

I mean the women That's the Lord getting me.

I'm trying to talk trash.

I think the men are women.

Oh Lord.

No, we do not believe in that.

We do.

The Lord does that.

He loves to humble you.

It's like I'll be sassy to my wife.

Not sassy, that's too feminine sounding.

I'll be I'll be like, I don't know, snarky, and then I'll turn around and stub my toe, and she's like, God's getting you.

He does that.

He works in mysterious ways.

Anyways, man, this this I need to get some discernment and get this message back in.

It's time to be serious.

Okay, focus.

James 3.13 says, if you're a wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life.

This thing of knowledge is we can have information as church, okay?

The Bible tells us if you have knowledge alone, that's gonna puff you up with pride.

But a lot of times as Christians, what we can do is we can fall short.

We just, you know, we get information of the Bible and we think I'm adequate, I've got everything I need.

We've been talking about a critical spirit.

You see, a critical spirit a lot of times is gonna have the right knowledge.

They're gonna be head smart, they're gonna be sat in a thousand you know, sermons, they know everything.

What they lack is understanding and wisdom.

They lack when they see this is approach the Lord with humility, they they forget they they lack understanding of how it applies to them, the importance, the why behind it.

You know, you see, have you ever asked anyone to do something and they say why?

Everyone with kids, you know, you understand, yeah, of course.

I need motivation to do this.

The Bible says, do not sin.

Why?

Because you'll get demon-infested and die.

That's good motivation.

I think I'll stop sinning.

A lot of times our Christian walk is not struggling because we lack knowledge, it's like because we lack motivation.

We lack the understanding.

But then if we have the understanding and we're properly motivated, we want to please God, what we need next is wisdom.

How do we properly do this?

And this is something that I want to say this, okay?

We are a charismatic church, okay?

Fire breathing, Holy Spirit seeking, you know, let the wave of God's presence come in, whatever it looks like, whatever it sounds like, we're not gonna be ashamed, and we're not gonna care what the religious spirit in this region thinks, okay?

We're gonna let God come and be God.

But in charismatic environments, there is a call to order and maturity.

And what is hurting the American church, the few that are willing to operate as charismatic, a lot of times what is lacking is the understanding that I have to grow in this.

Just because I operate in it, and just because my intentions are good, doesn't mean that everything I do is amazing.

And a lot of people come to charismatic environments, and because they don't know what they're doing, they're tell they're they're playing with fire, and people are getting hurt, and they're leaving charismatic churches and going to non-charismatic because they don't want to get hurt again.

And when they go to the non-charismatic churches, they're telling the non-charismatics how crazy the charismatics are, and then all of a sudden it's spreading, and then you have all of a sudden a region where no one's actually being charismatic.

And it's not because God does not want his church to be charismatic, it's because charismatics haven't humbled themselves in their approach to the gifts.

Paul's writing to the church of Corinth says, I don't want you to misunderstand this.

And we can misunderstand it from not learning how to properly do this.

Lord, we humble ourselves in your presence and we we say, Let your word pierce us where it needs to pierce us.

We put our pride on the altar in the name of Jesus, and we say, Lord, whatever we have, whatever wrong motivations that we have in our heart, whatever wrong ideologies, and also whatever wrong practices that we have that may be hurting people that we care about.

I pray that you expose those today, Father, and help us grow in maturity in the mighty name of Jesus, Father.

Make us powerful, but make us effective.

Amen.

He goes on in verses four through six.

He says, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them all.

There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.

God works in different ways, but is the same God who does this work in all of us.

Okay, that's a lot, that's a mouthful.

What I did was is I took the three verses of these and I put it in a way where I could fit it all in one slide, but I wanted to make it clear and make it practical, the point I'd like to make with this.

Let's go ahead and read this.

It says the Holy Spirit gives us different abilities.

We choose to use them to serve the Lord, and God is the one who produces the results.

This is the digit translation.

Dave's incredible Dave's incredibly good interpretation today.

Can you dig it?

That was cute, wasn't it?

Thank you.

Thank you for acknowledging that.

How cute that was.

Oh, yeah, let's go ahead and give a hand for my interpretation.

I'm humbled.

I want to catch this.

This is very this is very encouraging to me personally, okay?

One of the things how we can abuse the gifts is that we try to force the results.

You give a prophetic word, you feel you some of us have prophetically in the person we're ministering to, we're like, they don't care, they're not really taking us seriously, they don't want to hear it.

Try to force it upon them.

Do what I say.

We try to present the prophetic word to make them fearful, so they'll take us seriously.

Understand what Paul is saying is that the spiritual gifts are abilities that God gives us.

I'm not able to do something, okay?

And God makes it so I can do something that I'm not able to do on my own.

That's an ability.

You can have an ability, just because you have the ability doesn't mean you're using the ability.

You can give me a hammer, and now I have the ability to hammer in a nail.

But until I actually make the decision to hammer the nail, all I have is an ability.

So check this out.

The Spirit gives us all abilities.

Do you know that you're here today, if you're a Christian, you have abilities given from God, whether you know it or not?

You know what this tells me?

The word gifts here that's used in these verses is talking about favor, it's something freely given.

God gives us all gifts.

It's free, it's grace.

That means you don't have to earn it.

That doesn't mean you do you understand that the the your level of your spiritual maturity does not determine whether you're gifted right now from God.

This is incredibly encouraging, but this is also incredibly sobering.

It does not matter your maturity level, it does not matter your character behind the scenes.

You could be you can go off being crazy, being evil, but you're still gifted.

You know what?

You know what?

Let me go ahead and read this verse real quick.

This is amazing.

It says, Romans 11 29 says, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Oh, thank you, Jesus, but that's scary.

We can see people operating in mighty gifts, healing signs and wonders, and yet be evil behind the scenes.

We've had a lot of that.

God's been purifying the church.

This is part of him bringing revival.

You know, he's been doing he's been exposing stuff.

Purifying his bride.

Romans 12 16 says, in his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.

In his grace, it's not something that we can do.

We didn't do anything to earn it, and therefore we can't do anything to lose it.

I mean, there's some days that I don't feel qualified to operate in a gift, but that's not what it's about.

So this is what this should this this is what this should tell us, church, because this is a problem.

The American church, and I am going to be biased against the American church because I see it all around me, they are very spiritually prideful.

They are very spiritually proud.

And so when you try as a pastor and someone that's called to help the body mature, you're trying to speak to people that are being charismatic, that are either operating in gifts, but they're so spiritually prideful the moment you try to speak in and address something, they get offended and they leave your church.

And then they start going making messes other places.

That is not how the body of Christ was called to be.

And I'm not saying I Have all the answers, but I'm saying I'm the one responsible before the Lord, along with the rest of our fivefold ministry, along with the rest of our pastors, along with the rest of our elders.

That's our responsibility before the Lord.

And you know what he does when he calls someone?

He anoints them.

I'm not saying that to be prideful, I'm saying that is the reality of the church.

But here's our problem.

We're too prideful.

I'm saying this in general.

I know you all are amazing, humble.

I love our church.

The spiritual atmosphere here is amazing.

But I want to say this is that if we're going to grow and be ineffective, we have to be humble in our approach of this.

It's very prideful.

They're self-righteous, they think they have all the answers, and no one can tell them otherwise.

They're very blind to themselves.

The gift is free.

A critical spirit they're operating a spiritual gifting.

They're dangerous again because you have a weapon, but you're wielding it wrong.

Something meant to build is bringing destruction.

A rebel is very dangerous because they provide willful resistance.

I know what I'm doing.

I'm purposely resisting.

I'm a rebel.

A critical spirit is not a rebel.

They're deceived.

They think they're doing a good job.

They think they're doing the right thing.

It's harder to reach a critical spirit because they're personally think I'm what I'm doing is right.

And you try to tell them, no, it's not.

And they can't hear it.

I'm guilty of this.

The reason I know this so well is because how guilty I am of it.

Next is service.

This is beautiful.

Who do we serve?

What is this?

Look at the language you use here.

We choose to use the use our gifts, the ability.

We make a personal decision, Lord, I'm going to actually apply what you've given me.

You know many people don't apply it.

That's you know, that's our decision.

God's not going to force you to do that.

You're going to stand before him one day and he's going to say, Hey, how well did you use what I gave you?

I called you.

Did you answer?

I gifted you.

Did you use the gifts?

The parable of the talents comes to mind.

What does the master do?

He leaves them talents.

We could say the master left his servants' abilities.

Expecting them to use them.

And you know what?

Some of them did.

And the master was happy, and the master even rewarded them.

But there was a servant who what did he do?

He buried his.

Sometimes, hey, church, we could be gifted and be burying our talents all day long.

Well, I'm just not ready to serve.

I'm like, is it really your option?

Is it really your choice?

Listen, this the terminology Paul uses here is Lord.

What do we do to get saved in Romans 10, 9.10?

We confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Lord means master.

Lord means I'm a slave to you.

Lord means I don't have the freedom to choose on my own.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to pick up my cross.

I'm going to diker myself.

I'm going to be Jesus Christ is going to be my Lord.

But we have a spiritually proud church in America today that says, you know what?

I don't have Jesus Christ as the Lord.

I'm going to place my belief in him, but I'm going to govern myself.

Do you know what we say confirms our belief?

But do you know that our behavior confirms his Lordship?

Oh, I could confess all day long, Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Do you know that the demons know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

Do you know that Jesus would approach someone and a demon would start speaking through someone and saying, You are the most high, you are the Son of God.

Jesus would tell them, shut up.

We could say it all day, our behavior confirms it.

It serves Sunday.

Do you know God wants his body serving, all the parts of his body operating?

You know, you can have a body missing a hand, and when you're missing a hand, you can't function the way you're intended to function because maybe the hand is too proud and selfish with their own time and their own energy to serve.

God says, I've given you abilities and I've called you.

Are you going to answer the call and use the abilities I gave you?

That's up to you, and you're going to stand before God one day.

I know that sounds intense, and I'm not saying this out of mean heart out of a mean heart.

I'm trying to give us the reality of the spiritual perspective of what God is looking at.

We are slaves to Christ.

We are bought and prayed for with a price.

Our lives are not our own.

This is not a decision, what do I feel, what do I think?

It's saying, Lord, what do you think?

What do you feel?

What do you want?

Here is my life.

Take it all.

Well, I don't have enough time because I've got my kids and all the programs.

Well, you know what?

Maybe God wants you to cancel some of your kids' programs so you can actually be at church and serve.

Your kids' programs are your idols.

You can't actually operate in the body of Christ, and your kids are watching you putting church on the on the back the back end of everything.

You know what they're learning?

Church doesn't matter.

Because ballerina practice is more important.

I told my parents, don't ever put me in ballerina.

I won't do it.

Are y'all okay?

I'm fired up.

Fired up.

We're gonna we're gonna get the devil, y'all.

But we gotta be equipped.

We gotta know what we're doing.

Okay.

So we make the choice to serve God.

Galatians 5, 3 says, For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love to serve one another.

And finally, the results.

This is beautiful to me.

Proverbs 16, 3 says, Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.

I can lack joy and peace in my life because I'm I'm I'm I'm trying to be obedient.

You know, I I want to step out, I want to serve, I want to be faithful to the Lord.

But there's some things outside of my control, but I'll still feel responsible to make results happen.

You know what I'm talking about?

It's like when we contend and pray for healing, it's like I feel personally responsible that to make the healing happen.

And if they don't get healed, I take it personally like I failed.

God's trying to tell us, hey, let me be God.

That's my area to make it happen.

All I want you to do is be obedient, step faith.

It's very relieving for me personally.

That's what Paul's trying to say.

Hey, God's giving you abilities.

Simply serve, give, say yes, God, I'm a willing vessel, and trust Him with the rest.

Oh man, it takes a burden off.

That's why Jesus says, My yoke is easy, my burden is light.

There's lots of things outside of your control.

Just let me handle it.

Some of you are continuing praying, you know, for a job, for open doors.

That's all you could do.

Let God handle it.

He's good at it.

I've watched him do it in my life countless times.

I'm just simply going to be obedient.

I'm going to trust you, Lord.

I'm going to walk in your ways.

Okay.

Love this too.

What we're doing is being on the foundation, by the way, before we go into discernment.

1 Corinthians 12, 7, it says to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

I purposely use this translation because it says instead of gift, it says manifestation.

The term gift in verse 4 versus verse 7 are different words.

Manifestation is something being able to see.

Something that is seen.

All of a sudden, like something that's hidden is seen.

I want to ask you today, as believers in Christ, called and gifted by God, how are we manifesting the spiritual in our life?

It looks like something.

Can I just be practical here?

This is what religious people like to do.

They like to judge believers who contend for miracles.

Well, I don't need miracles.

I'm just going to love and serve Jesus.

I'm like, listen, miracles prove the kingdom.

Let's just be honest here.

Someone that's struggling in their faith, the moment they see someone come out of a wheelchair, they're not struggling their faith anymore.

I mean, we're not, we're not just sitting there like, oh, miracles, miracles, miracles, that's all we want.

No, our eyes are on him.

And the posture is whether you do it or not, I'm still gonna love and serve you.

But listen, I want your power displayed.

Because Jesus says, go out into the world, okay?

People that are going sent out by my name, what they're gonna do is they're gonna heal the sick, they're gonna raise the dead, they're gonna cast out demons, they're gonna preach the kingdom, okay?

Power confirms that.

Everyone has a good argument today.

You listen, we are the we are the smartest generation that's ever lived.

When I say smart, we have the most information.

And what the problem is is the church is trying to fight the enemy on their playing field.

Let's just debate, let's just throw our ideas back and forth.

People don't care.

People are founded in their own ideologies, their stubborn will in their stubborn ways.

But you know what breaks that?

Power.

Power.

Thank you, Lord.

I watch these evangelists, I watch these evangelists who go out on the streets, and it's incredibly encouraging, is that they'll go out into these areas that are just evil.

They'll go to like to these secular events and everyone's listening to bad music, people are drunk, and all this stuff, and and they go and they don't all of a sudden just get a microphone and start telling everyone they're gonna go to hell.

The ones that do all of a sudden have a mob cause a big ruckus.

And I appreciate if you want to do that, but understand, that's not how, that's how they used to do it.

In the past, that's how they communicated.

They went into the market square, they would talk, and even Paul would go to the synagogues, synagogues, and he would reason with them.

Follow me on this.

But today, when you do this, you're you're just going to step into hostility.

You're gonna create a scene, follow me on this, okay?

And the cops are gonna get involved and all this stuff, and it's not gonna be very fruitful.

Maybe one or two people will all of a sudden get the message, okay?

What does Jesus say?

I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves.

So be as shrewd as serpents as innocent as devil.

What is he saying?

Use your wits about you.

And I want to say this is that we can operate these evangelists that go out, they don't go and they're just like, hey, you're going to hell and just cause a big scene to ruck.

It's what they do is they go secretly.

And they'll go to these events and they'll see someone all of a sudden and they'll move prophetically.

It's like, hey, real quick, I'm not trying to be weird, but I saw, do you struggle with fear?

And all of a sudden, it's like this person sitting there and they're like, How'd you know that?

Well, and all of a sudden that those gently tell them, Well, actually, God knows that.

And he and he wants to show you how much he loves you.

He wants to reveal himself.

Have you ever felt God before?

No.

Would you like to?

And he'll take them by the hand, they'll stand up and say, Lord, show them your love.

Show them how real you are, let them feel your presence.

And you'll watch this person all of a sudden be like, and they'll start crying.

He'll operate, they'll be there'll be someone in a wheelchair and stuff, you know.

Hey, let me, can I pray for you?

This may seem weird, but I can I just Okay, and they'll pray for them, and all of a sudden their legs will start moving.

Legs have been paralyzed for years, okay?

Follow me, this stuff is happening, and all of a sudden, this person starts making a scene, but in a good way.

And all of a sudden, people around are like, what's going on?

This person starts crying, starts screaming, oh my gosh, I was in a wheelchair and now I'm walking, and all of a sudden there's a scene, but people are engaged because there's a demonstration of power.

They're not coming in to debate because that's the weapon of the warfare today, okay?

That's what everyone's wanting to do.

Let's debate, let's just get hostile towards one another.

But you can't be hostile towards power.

And that's why Paul says this it's not a lot of talk, it's a demonstration of power.

This is what we need today, church, in our stubborn world, in our cold-hearted world of offense.

We need demonstrations of power.

But, church, we're called to mature and grow in it.

Just cutting up everybody.

They may take our land, but they'll never say okay.

My wife's telling me, chill, David.

God wants us.

Listen, I've been asking the Lord this.

I know I went on a tangent and stuff, but the outreach, we're gonna be kicking off outreach in 2026, and things might look a little bit different.

I appreciate what has happened in the past, but listen, God gives the strategy.

He's the general.

We need demonstrations of power.

We need spies going into the enemy's camp where there's a bunch of wolves.

Listen, sheep don't stand a chance against wolves, so when you're a sheep, you have to be sneaky when going into the wolves' camp.

That's right.

That was a sheep right there.

The point of the spiritual gifts is to helping people, it's for the common good.

My translation, uh the NLT also says the point of spiritual gifts is to help, to give an advantage and a benefit.

An advantage and a benefit.

It's not to harp help ourselves.

People try to domineer, people try to establish their own reputation, people try to get personal benefit from operating from spiritual abilities.

That's not what they're intended for.

It's for the sake of others.

Alright, now let's get into discerning spirits.

In verse 10, he says this.

He goes through a bunch of lists of bunch words of wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, miracles, healing.

But then he comes to this, and it says he gives some the ability to discern spirits.

What I did is I changed the words of my translation, and the NLT says he gives some the ability to discern whether a message is from God or another spirit.

That is true, but I do think that if we take that at face value, that can limit what is actually meant here.

I put discerned spirits because the original text actually uses two words to describe what this is.

It's everyone say that.

Diacrisis pneumaton, okay.

If you were here for the first message on a critical spirit, we talked about the term that is derived from Matthew 7 where it says judge.

That's creano.

Everyone say that.

Y'all have been working on it.

I can tell.

That's where we get our word judge.

Judge can have several meanings, okay?

Crisis is derived from creo.

Diacrisis means to make make a distinction.

Discern, distinguish between something.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you didn't know what to do?

You had two, you had two choices, but you couldn't tell.

They both looked right.

Like which one's actually right, which is wrong.

Okay.

There's distortion, there's confusion.

I can't really decide.

Diacrisis or discern would be able to make a distinction and actually separate the two.

This is wrong, this is right.

Okay?

So that's the first word, but it uses the second word, pneumaton.

Pneuma is where we get spirit, air, breath, holy spirit, but pneumaton is specifically an activating spirit.

Activating means something that is influencing me.

What is the thing behind whatever we're doing that is actually influencing what we're doing?

Pneumaton.

We're breaking this down in the original language because the this topic of discerning spirits is heavily debated in the world of scholarship.

Not everyone agrees, not everyone fully, you know, can decide what this actually means.

I believe there's an element where they're making it more complicated than what it actually needs to be, because a lot of scholarship comes from denominations that have doctrines that don't actually support the idea of the demonstration of power in the church today.

So when they're looking at the original text, they're having to force it to come into alignment with their doctrinal beliefs, but their doctrinal beliefs are simply wrong.

And it's caused a big issue.

I don't think it's that big of a deal.

I don't think it's that big of an issue.

I don't think it's confusing.

I think what it means is that God gives us the ability to be able to tell and look into the unseen and distinctly know and see things that the unseen could pertaining to spirits.

What kind of spirits do we have?

Holy Spirit, human spirit, demonic spirit.

Three.

Very easy.

We this is God giving us the ability to see what is actually called going on.

What is the influence of what's going on?

Is it God?

Is it their humanity, their flesh, or is it a demon?

That's what Paul means there.

Don't overcomplicate it.

Discerning spirits, the ecrises, nobotan.

This is a gift that God gives his church and is very much needed today.

We can have things that look right, but it's not right.

We can have things that feel uncomfortable or may seem wrong, but it's not wrong, it's God.

There's times I feel that something's wrong and I feel uncomfortable, it's because God's convicting me.

Not because something's wrong.

There's times that things feel amazing, but things are not amazing.

God helps us.

Okay, Hebrews 4.3 says that nothing in creation is hidden from God.

Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

You know what's beautiful about discerning spirits is that God shares this quality and attribute about himself.

Nothing's hidden from him.

Lots of things are hidden from us.

But God wants to help his church, he wants to give us an advantage.

Okay, let's move on.

This term diacreses is used also.

This is there's only another place it's used in the New Testament.

This is here in Hebrews 5 4.

It says, But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

The tur okay, let me just be technical here, just in case I have any scholars that will be like, that's not true, David.

Diocreses is used four times in the New Testament.

It's also used in Acts and Romans, but it's used with a different meaning.

It means to argue about, you know, our ideas about something, differing views, okay?

But the meaning of being able to discern, to be able to differentiate, to be able to recognize when something's different, is only used two times.

1 Corinthians 12 and Hebrews 5 14, in here where it says the ability to discern good and evil.

But I want us to pay attention to what this verse is saying.

Look closely at this, just pay attention to the actual information here.

Solid food.

Paul is talking about things that are like a like a higher.

Actually, I don't fully, I can't really explain that right now.

I will solid feud is for the mature.

This is what we're seeking, okay?

We have to grow into maturity.

Who, because of practice?

Practice is training, practice is discipline, discipline in a good sense.

God is disciplining us.

Sometimes, you know, one of the best ways to learn something is simply to do it.

You make mistakes and then you get up and keep going.

Do you know the church?

This is meant to be a place where we have grace with one another, but this is meant to be a place where we operate in the gifts of the Spirit, but we don't expect perfection.

And the moment we start expecting perfection, we're going to start quenching the spirit.

We're supposed to feel safe.

Hey, I'm feeling faithful this.

I feel like God wants to use me in this.

I'm going to step out and try it.

And we're going to cheer you on.

If you don't get it perfect, that's fine.

We're not going to cancel you.

But it's hard.

I mean, that's the hearts of our pastors who started this church.

We want a place, we want the church to be a safe place where the church can actually grow in these things.

But it gets messy sometimes.

Do you know I've operated in prophetic ministry for many years, and I've given many prophetic words that are very profound and have affected people's lives.

They've been very specific of things that I could not know anything about, and I said something very specific to them, and it changed their life.

It was beautiful.

And then I've also given prophetic words that were completely wrong.

It was not beautiful.

What's the point?

You can get it right a hundred times, but we're never meant to stop being humble in our approach to this stuff.

We never are meant to act like we fully arrived.

We don't have all the answers.

Amen.

That's the point.

Okay.

We're discerning this.

Okay, we're growing, we're being trained to discern this.

Discernment is a very powerful weapon, and it's very destructive when we're immature and trying to wield it with confidence like we know what we're doing.

We need to be humble in our approach to this of discerning of spirits.

Because people who are mature at it have spent lots of time making mistakes, if we're going to be honest.

And people that have written books on it to help teach us and train us of sharing their personal experiences, mistakes.

I have made lots of mistakes trying to thinking I was discerning spirits.

I have put judgments on people that were not true, thinking I'm operating discernment.

A critical spirit operating discernment can become a threat to the church.

In their mind, they think they're doing good and they're bringing destruction.

This is not to be taken lightly.

Okay.

So what is discernment?

We just went over that.

Let me go ahead and tell you something.

What discernment is not, and this is something that critical spirits love to do.

People with critical spirits are very observant a lot of times.

They're looking for faults.

They're judging every I'm they're right up here judging me.

Every little mannerism.

Oh, I wonder what David, Baba, Baed.

He probably doesn't really mean that.

They got all these thoughts.

We're always observant, watching, trying to look between the lines, trying to look at people's tones, faces, or how they present themselves.

There is a there's a validity to this where we have wisdom and observe things.

Okay?

I'm not discounting that, but when we're doing that and making judgments, that's not discernment.

Discernment is when we have no evidence.

Do you catch that?

I have operated from a critical spirit and I want to find fault in someone.

Maybe they rub me the wrong way.

Maybe I just simply just don't really like them that much, and I'm trying to find something at fault, so I'm like watching, and then all of a sudden I find something that I think is wrong with them, and then I think, oh, I'm operating from discernment.

No, I'm operating from a critical spirit.

I'm looking for faults.

That's not discernment.

A lot of times when discernment has happened in my life, I wasn't I wasn't expecting it.

I was surprised by it.

Something seemed fine, and all of a sudden I didn't feel comfortable.

And I even tell my wife, I don't know why everything seems good about this, but something, I'll just feel weird.

Do y'all catch that?

Discement's going to surprise us because we don't have evidence for it.

And that's why we need it.

So being able to observe people is not discernment.

I appreciate that you're very observant, but that does not mean you operate in discernment.

We don't own spiritual gifts.

Spiritual gifts are not our identity.

Just because you prophesy a lot does not make you a prophet.

People mistake the two, and they come into they come into churches, no one knows them, and they start demanding everyone call them prophet.

No, that's not how this works.

Okay.

Okay, let's see here.

Where are we at?

We've talked about what is understanding, and now let's real quick.

I'm gonna hit these pretty quick.

This is why we need discernment.

We've talked about what it is.

It's simply being able to see what is influencing someone.

Is it their human, their carnal nature?

Is it their flesh?

This is real true.

We can we can do spiritual things, and it's our flesh.

Do you know?

Listen, uh, people that operate in discernment, you know, in this building will probably know there's some Sundays where I'm saying the right thing, but there's part of my flesh that's motivating me because I'm maybe walking through something.

That's a real thing.

And I'm guilty.

I've gotten home from Sundays and felt convinced.

And I was like, oh sorry, Lord, I did that.

That's something we have to be aware of, and some people operate in discernment can pick that.

Okay, that's good what he said, but I think that's probably his flesh coming out a little bit.

I don't think there's ever been demons motivating me, but if you discern that just don't tell anybody.

I'm joking, by the way, if you're new here.

Discernment is not to criticize.

That's not the point of it.

It's given to protect, guide, and restore.

God gives discernment so we can see what's what's really happening spiritually and respond with his heart, not our reactions.

This is a big thing.

This is our understanding of discernment.

This is the why discernment exists.

And this is where critical spirit gets a misunderstanding, the point of it.

Okay, y'all are y'all with me so far?

They lack understanding.

Why am I feeling this?

There's also something I forgot to say.

Do you notice how Hebrews 5, 4 says sense is there?

That's that's the idea.

That's like our senses, like our taste, touch, see, smell, hearing, but also our emotions, how we feel.

Have y'all ever been in an atmosphere and all of a sudden you just feel the presence of God?

You just feel it.

It's like chills, goosebumps.

That's discernment.

That's a physical manifestation of realizing this is his presence.

A lot of times when we're flowing in our services and we're changing the plan, we'll have someone give a prophetic word and I'll feel the Holy Spirit manifest the moment they're talking.

I'm like, ooh, we need to press into that.

Okay?

When we're coming for pre-service prayer, and also if you're able to come to pre-service prayer, what we're doing is we're praying over our service and continuing for the spiritual atmosphere.

Do you know that we can discern the atmospheres?

Have you ever gone all of a sudden into a building and something felt weird and off and heavy?

You're getting discernment.

Do you know?

Let me go ahead and say this, and I'm gonna say this boldly.

God is probably actually putting discernment on us a lot, and we don't realize it because we're not paying attention.

We don't think, oh, God's never gonna use me that way.

He probably is.

Because it's involved in our sense been around someone, and all of a sudden, like you felt angry.

I have no like, why do I feel angry?

It that could be discerning to realize maybe they're struggling with anger, maybe they're struggling with unforgiveness.

It's there's people that operate in healing that they'll get around them, they'll shake hands with someone, and then they'll get a pain like in their liver or something.

And that will that's how the Lord is telling them they've got an issue that's demonic in nature that's causing them to have disease, illness, and pain.

When Jesus goes, okay, Jesus operated in discernment, there's a woman that's hunched over, she's like almost like kind of paralyzed, hunched over, and he goes and heals her.

Do you know how he healed her?

He cast out a demon.

It said there was a demon that was causing this physical ailment, okay?

Jesus had discernment.

He recognized this is not a physical problem.

This is not something the doctor is going to be able to fix.

And he dealt with it.

That required discernment, realizing what is influencing this physical ailment.

Church, this is what we can be operating in today.

I am 100% pro-doctors, but listen, if your problem's spiritual, your doctor's not going to be able to help you.

And the problem is, is the church doctor is out of practice.

The church doctor needs to go back to school.

Y'all following?

This is what we need.

Okay, the world is going to need this.

That's why what we're doing is we're preparing the ground.

I'm not saying I have all the answers.

There are people here that that know this stuff way better than I do.

I just want us to do this.

I want us to press in.

I want us to realize that God loves every single one of you and has gifted you.

And there's gonna be times that you're gonna be able to be able to see what is going on behind the scenes.

What are the things I don't have evidence for that I need to be guarded from?

Okay.

Y'all okay?

I want to give us three reasons why we have discernment.

I'm gonna break this down and make it very simple.

There's three primary reasons to answer why.

If you're feeling something, now I've never really felt experienced taste before, but people have.

Like they'll get a taste, like the presence of God will show up and they'll get a sweet taste in their mouth.

It's cool.

They'll hear things, they'll sense things.

You know, I I hear, I have hearing, internal hearing.

I'll hear a voice sometimes say, stop.

I'll have, I'll have, I'll, a lot of times I'll see red, red or green light, like a street light.

And like that's how I'll know.

I'll just see all of a sudden a blinking, like all of a sudden, a little picture of a red light in my mind's eye.

And I'm like, okay, Lord.

Or a green light.

Okay.

He can talk to us in many different ways.

I want us to be aware of this.

God may be speaking to you and giving you discernment.

Maybe in your life and there's hard circumstances because you weren't aware and listening when he was trying to give you discernment.

You just have to decide, you know, I went, I went to this, I went to this place and something fell off.

I wasn't actually supposed to do this business deal.

I felt weird about it, but I still did it, and now all of a sudden I'm in a big mess.

God was trying to guard you from that, but you weren't, you weren't, you didn't have your antennas up to hear him.

You didn't realize what you were sensing, okay?

Again, the gifts is free.

Are free.

Okay.

There are three reasons to restore, protect, and guide.

Restore, protect, guide.

A lot of times a critical spirit, when they have discernment, they're always going to default to I need to avoid whoever this is.

I need to expose whoever this is.

The next message we do on this, we're going to cover the wisdom of discernment.

How do we use this?

That's not for today.

Okay?

But it does matter, and it's not a one-size-fits-all.

Following, it is definitely not a one-size-fits-all.

There's times God shows us something and He does not want us to expose it or say it to anybody.

A critical spirit, the first thing they're going to do is go tell their friends about it.

Oh, I discern pride and so-and-so.

You know what they're doing?

They're actually trying to establish their own self.

They're trying to establish their pride, willing to devour someone else.

Sometimes God's showing you that because he wants you to pray and cover somebody.

Not do this.

I will say this.

If you're new to discernment or you're not really sure, if you get discernment, take it to prayer first and don't tell anybody.

Not even your spouse.

Because maybe you're good at not gossiping, but maybe your spouse is not.

Keep it to yourself and pray for them.

Okay.

But that's next message.

To restore.

God will show us and give us discernment to identify a prisoner.

In Luke 4 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.

This is Jesus.

This is part of his heart.

Why does he give us spiritual gifts?

To help.

And you know what?

God's going to show to us what is going on behind the scenes in someone's life because maybe they're a prisoner and he wants to use us to help get them free.

But if we default to we need to avoid them, we're going to miss the mission and the purpose and the point of discernment in that moment.

The Spirit gives discernment so we can recognize bondage and bring truth, prayer, or help.

Check this out.

I already said this.

Jesus discerned an evil spirit that caused a woman to be crippled.

Now Jesus could have discerned the demon in her and be like, hey, disciples, stay away from that woman.

She's got a demon.

That wasn't the point of his discernment.

The point of his discernment was to release a captive.

Okay?

And sometimes God's going to use us to do that.

Sometimes God's not wanting to avoid them, He's wanting us to press in and engage in their life.

He wants us to have a heart of mercy and redemption.

Y'all follow me?

It's important we understand the why.

Am I feeling this?

The next is protection.

This is a big deal to identify a predator.

Protection.

Predator is a trigger term.

I'm not just talking about sexual predators.

I'm talking about the predator is going to be someone that is willing to bring destruction upon someone else for their own gain.

2 Corinthians 11 14.

But I am not surprised, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Matthew 7 15, beware of false prophets who come as harmless sheep, but are really vicious wolves.

1 Peter 5 8, stay alert, watch out.

Your great enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, is looking for someone to devour.

Do you notice a theme here?

Have you ever seen a cat or a lion hunt?

They sneak up on their prey.

Their prey does not see them or know that they're.

When a wolf is dressed like a sheep, what is the idea behind this?

I look like you, I talk like one of you, I am one of you, but all of a sudden the wolf is going to devour the sheep for its own gain.

I'm going to nourish myself through your destruction, through your affection, through your commitment, through your trust, through your resources, through your time, through your devotion.

I'm going to absorb something from you.

This is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

You know, Paul tells them.

He tells the Church of Ephesus, he says, listen, you're going as he establishes elders, he says, you're going to protect the flock from predators, from wolves.

And wolves are going to try to come from the outside, but he says wolves are also going to come up from with the inside.

This is why we need discernment.

Witches will break into churches, they'll sneak into churches disguised as Christians and churchgoers, and what they'll do is they'll sow drama, discord, and division from within.

But when a church leadership is operating through discernment, when the body of Christ, it's not just church leadership, sometimes the God may give you a discernment about something.

And you'll come and tell church leadership about it.

Hey, and make them aware.

Again, this is gonna be the how message.

Again, one size doesn't fit all.

The moment you have a belly ache, it may not be discernment.

Maybe you just shouldn't eat pizza and ice cream together like that.

Talking from experience.

Matthew 24, 24.

For false prophets and false false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders.

We see 2 Thessalonians, it says this man, the Antichrist, will come and do the work of Satan with counterfeit power, signs and miracles.

I want us to catch this, is that we're living a time where there's gonna be a lot of deception.

Okay?

Some of the deception is demonstrations of signs and wonders.

Spiritual things.

Do you really think that witches are not actually experiencing spiritual things?

Do you think that witches and warlocks in our world today are actually not having any type of power?

They do have power.

They do operate with putting on curses.

When Moses comes with his staff before Pharaoh, drops the staff, it becomes a snake.

You know, Pharaoh's priests come and drop their staffs and they turn into snakes too.

The enemy's always trying to bring a counterfeit of what God has offered.

In Acts 16, Paul is going, he's going to pray.

And a woman who's filled with the spirit of divination, divination is the ability to see that which is not seen, also.

Okay?

But it's not the Holy Spirit, it's a spirit of divination.

Paul's trying to go, and you know what she's doing?

She's doing a spiritual act.

Behold, here are these men of God, they're representatives of the one most high God to come here to bring you and show you the way to life.

Amen.

She's prophesying.

No, she's operating from a demon because she's trying to distract and deter the mission.

You know, you could be loud and proud and actually be working against what try God's trying to do in the moment.

I've had I'm guilty of that.

Paul discerns the spirit and casts it out.

He discerns the spirit and casts it out.

It can look right, it can sound right, something doesn't feel right.

We use this language all the time.

I don't feel peace on that.

What you're talking about is I'm experiencing discernment.

Amen?

I've had times, and I'll say that in a second.

The last, the the uh the third thing is guide.

Everyone say guide.

God loves us so much that he's guiding us.

And sometimes the way he speaks to us, and sometimes the way he leads us is simply through discernment.

I'm going to have you experience something within your senses that's going to alarm you.

It's going to make you more aware so you don't make a bad decision.

There's times that God doesn't want us in certain relationships.

There's times that God may not want us working at a job, and everything seems right on paper, and we think we want the job, and the moment that we go for that interview, all of a sudden we start feeling a lack of peace.

Something's off here.

God's giving you discernment because even though it looks good, it's not for you.

I find it interesting that Catherine was saying during the service today, she was saying, some of us we have good things in our life, but what we're contending for is the God things.

Sometimes we have discernment not because everyone's evil, but God's simply saying that's not for you.

That's a good thing, but that's not the God thing.

Amen?

We're contending for the God things in our life.

He knows the plans and purposes that he has for us.

Amen.

To God.

1 Timothy 4 1.

Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last time some will turn away from the true faith.

The last time some will turn away from the true faith.

This is not people rebelling against God.

This is people that are once in God.

Do you know that's one of the signs?

Do you know that we're seeing more than ever that happening?

This this verse is being fulfilled in our time right now.

More people now than ever are turning away from the faith.

Who were once in it, who experienced the presence of God, the wonderful gift and salvation, are now rejecting turning away from Him.

They will follow deceptive spirits.

Last days, many turn away.

What does the church need?

Discernment.

So that when deceptive spirits come to get us to turn away, we won't be led astray.

In verse 2 of 2 Corinthians 12, you know what Paul tells them?

He goes, I you were once led astray into worshiping spiritual speechless idols.

You were once led astray.

What are you listening to?

What are you letting in your home?

You know, God will sometimes all of a sudden we'll feel a tension.

It's like it's in my home.

I'll notice this.

If I feel something's off in the atmosphere, there's a heaviness or something, or like there's like, or there's anger, or there's like a sense of anger or a sense of this, a sense of fear.

I'll I'll pray against it.

I speak to the atmosphere right now in the name of Jesus.

I say, be cleansed.

I speak the authority and the blood of Jesus over our household.

God's called us to clear atmospheres.

That's what we do on pre-service prayer.

We're contending over the atmosphere.

There'll be some days I'll feel heaviness and I'll speak against the heaviness.

There'll be some days I'll hear anger, I'll speak against anger.

There'll be some days I'll sense and discern division.

Speak against that.

There's some days I'll experience this has actually been happening a lot.

I've been hearing a spirit of slumber.

And do you know that sometimes there's such things as a spirit of slumber?

And it's the time that you need to hear something, you'll get tired or distracted.

Like focus.

When you need to read something, when you need to do something, you'll all of a sudden physically it'll be the last thing you want to do.

We have to have discernment.

You're saying, wait a second, why am I feeling this?

What's going on?

Oh, it's spiritual warfare.

It's spiritual warfare.

Men, do you know, you do you know, do you notice that sometimes when you want to pray over your family, it's the last thing you want to do?

Because the enemy does not want you praying over your families.

Some of the biggest breakthroughs I've had in church was the services that I did not want to go at all.

It was the last thing I wanted to do.

Pay attention to that.

Oh man, everyone, the whole family's so tired.

We just don't really want to go to church today.

Maybe that's the time you need to go.

Discernment.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we're gonna wrestle.

But are we gonna let the enemy put us in a chokehold?

Are you gonna let the enemy win when you're wrestling, or are you gonna wrestle back?

Are you gonna fight for your family?

Are you gonna fight for your purposes?

Are you gonna contend for these things or just take it?

I I cannot do that for you.

You're going to have to choose.

You're gifted, you've got power.

Use it.

I know, I know what activating discernment in this body does.

I know this puts me in check.

I'm not gonna be able to hide things.

But a lot of pastors wouldn't wouldn't have the guts to say this.

They'd rather you just say dumb and unaware and don't care.

Because that's too dangerous.

But that's what God's called us to do because God wants us aware, God wants us caring, God wants us protected.

And God can give any one of you that gift.

And and how how good you are, how talented you are has nothing to do with it.

Let me make this point too.

None of us own a spiritual gift, and you cannot make it happen when you want it.

This is all, we're all at the mercy of God.

And what he does is he gives the gift that's needed for the occasion.

So you may say, I hear people say this all the time, why does no one operate in healing?

What you're doing is quenching the Holy Spirit.

Because what if he wants to use you for healing?

We're meant to be willing vessels that say, Lord, here I am, use me however you want to use me, in whatever way you want to use me at any time.

If you're at Walmart and maybe you've never prayed for healing over someone, but all of a sudden you discern that someone needs healing, you go and pray and minister healing to them, and they get set free, healed, delivered.

Don't say that.

It's not your place, it's not legal.

God can never use me in this way.

That's not true at all.

God can't use me in this way.

He can do whatever and he gives all these special abilities, he gives them to us when we need them.

There's gonna be times every single one of you are gonna need discernment because the enemy has a trap and the enemy's trying to deceive you, and he's trying to make you trick and make you think, ah, this is good.

It's like Hansel and Gretel.

Hansel and Gretel.

Hansel and Gratel.

They go to the house, the whole house is candy.

It looks good, it looks right.

They're like, oh, I really want to go in the house.

You know what's inside, a witch is gonna eat them.

If they have discernment, they'll recognize, oh, I don't think this is a good idea.

I don't think we need to go in there.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

The thief, okay, you never see thieves show up and be like, hey, I'm a thief here.

I am gonna do some destruction.

Hey police office.

I just want to let you know I'm about to go rob this place.

So get your men.

No, they sneak in.

Okay.

I'm gonna keep going, y'all.

We need this.

Jesus and Peter, Matthew 16.

We had this beautiful thing happen between Jesus and Peter.

Jesus says, Who do people say that I am?

You know what Peter does?

Peter has a supernatural moment.

He gets a supernatural revelation.

He says, You are the Son of God.

He says, I know who revealed this to you.

My father did.

I know the source, the influence of that revelation you got.

You just said something amazing.

That wasn't you.

That wasn't a human that told you that.

That was my God, that was my father.

And then all of a sudden, a few verses later, Peter's like Jesus.

He reprimands Jesus for Jesus says he's gonna die.

You know what Jesus discerns?

He discerns that's not Peter, that's Satan.

Get behind me, Satan.

I want us to catch the firm, stark reality of it as we operate in spiritual gifts.

It does not matter who you are, it does not matter how long you've been a Christian, it does not matter how many times you've operated and how effective you've been in the spiritual gifts.

Every single one of us can miss it, and we have to remain multiple, teachable, and humble at all times.

Peter gets it amazing, Peter fails amazing.

My father's giving me the revelation, Satan is motivating me into action.

We need discernment.

You know why we need discernment?

Most importantly, the most dangerous thing of all, our self.

God will give us discernment when it's our self that's the problem.

I'll go ahead and read this to you.

Jeremiah 17, 9 through 10.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.

Our hearts are deceptive.

What does Paul say in Galatians 5?

He says, Listen, your sinful nature is actually going to be want what's opposite of the spirit.

Your sinful nature wants what's opposite.

It's working against God in your life.

And sometimes we need discernment.

This is why David says, Lord, here's my heart.

Search my heart.

Paul says, Listen, my conscience is clear.

That does not mean I'm right.

I don't know myself.

I don't know enough.

I can literally have wrong motives that I'm unaware of.

You see, a critical spirit is completely wrong and they're unaware.

Lord, give me discernment to recognize when I'm the problem.

Because I don't have the ability to see it.

This is what I've been asking.

I've just been saying, Lord, I was like, I'm aware that I probably have a lot of issues that I'm even aware of.

That's scary.

Lord, help me discern.

Help me to actually be able to see good from evil in my own heart.

Please stand.

Forgive me for going so long.

But I just discerned that we should.

Church, I love you.

And but God loves you more.

And God has called you and equip you.

And I don't want any of you thinking that you're never qualified to operate in the spiritual gifts and power of God.

Any one of them.

Any one of them.

You hearing me?

I wanted you to read this.

This is what I felt for today.

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

The point, every good and perfect gift comes from God.

Discernment is a good and perfect gift.

I want you to hear this.

I understand when I tell you this message is that sometimes this can make people fearful.

I'm afraid to go to church because I've got issues in my life right now, and I don't want anyone to know about it and discern it on me.

Let's go ahead and set the record straight.

All of us are sinners.

All of us were saved by grace.

All of us were once enemies of God.

All of us as Christians continue to be sinners.

John tells you if you say you don't have sins, you're a liar.

We are all trying, we are all being sanctified, but the work is not complete.

All of us at times have difficult seasons.

All of us have sins at times that we struggle with.

All of us that have sins at times that we're unrepentant.

Every single one of us have issues.

So let's go ahead.

No one is more holy than anyone else.

Everyone is saved by the mercy of God.

What we need is discernment because sometimes there's gonna be a brother or sister that's gonna discern, hey, the demonic is trying to mess with them or their own nature is messing against them.

I'm going to contend and pray for them so that they'll be okay and set free.

We want that.

Sometimes people are gonna come come in with wrong agendas.

There's gonna be predators, and we're gonna be able to recognize them so they don't bring destruction.

And maybe God wants to use you to recognize that.

But God did not do this to make us critical of one another, to demand perfection, to make this place stale and cold.

We're meant to be affectionate, loving, hospitable towards another at all times.

Gracious, not demanding perfection, but we're pursuing it together, church.

Every good and perfect gift comes from God comes from God.

But I want you to hear this.

When you hear this message of discernment, we can have fear in our heart, always always worried.

I'm gonna be deceived.

I'm gonna be deceived.

Oh my gosh, am I watching?

The enemy's gonna get me.

You know what?

Listen, I want to tell you this God has not given us a spirit of fear.

I want you to be able to breathe and live your life.

I want you to be able to enjoy the relationships and the wonderful people that God has placed in your life and not be fearful.

Oh my gosh, they have an agenda.

They I can't trust them.

Some of us we don't trust people because we think we operate from desires.

We can't actually have friends, we can't actually have spiritual family because we just don't trust anybody.

God wants you to know this.

I'm your refuge.

If you need to be protected, I'll protect you.

Y'all hear that?

When the threats come, I'll alert you of it.

But until then, live your life.

Don't live in fear.

Don't don't mistrust everybody.

Well, I would you don't see what happened in my past.

These people hurt me.

Don't put the sins of other people on the people in your life right now.

Don't make them try to make up for it.

That's not fair.

Love them.

Enjoy life.

Honey, is there anything you want to say?

Um, with that, I have this picture, you know, of Superman.

I don't know if you've you've seen this, where it's like he's young and he's starting to awaken to these senses that he has, and it's they're kind of just going crazy, and he has to learn how to wield his power.

And I sometimes think about that when it comes to the spiritual gifts and discernment.

And um, and he was very destructive again, like you said that multiple times, um, because he didn't know how to handle the gift that he had.

And I think sometimes as Christians, I just I wanted to just put this caveat in there is it is very important, like he's saying, of how we wield spiritual discernment because it can be so destructive.

And so I want to encourage you in a couple weeks, obviously, we're not gonna be here this coming week, but but when he is here, he's gonna talk about how the wisdom behind how we handle discernment because it is so important, and I feel like I just felt like this check.

Um, don't let the enemy keep you from church a couple weeks from now because we need this full story.

It's not all of a sudden it's like, man, I knew I was sensing this about somebody.

And you know, it's that's not the gift at all.

He said it multiple times.

He said the whole point of this in discernment is for restoration.

There's reasons for this, it's for protection.

You know, so so I want thank you for for doing this message, David, because I think it's so important.

But I just want to encourage you guys that we need this full story.

So, so again, can we just can we just can I just pray over all of us?

Lord, we thank you that you are leading us and you're guiding us and you're growing us.

And so, just as Pastor David said, we want to respond to this to what you're calling us to do and be in humility, and we say, teach us, Holy Spirit, in this season.

Let us live unoffendable in this season as not only you call us to activation, but you also call us to growth.

And so I thank you, Lord, that there is an accountability of how we are called to wield this, that this is not for the destruction of people, that this is not for our own edification, but this is for the glory of God and for loving people.

And so we say, Holy Spirit, help us, and we say yes to your growth process and your growth track in Jesus' name in this season.

Amen.

Amen.

We love you.

Listen, the serve team lunch, we're providing lunch.

If you're not serving the church, we would love to have you join our serve teams.

We need help.

We have some people that are serving every week in certain areas, and we want them to be able to be able to sit in services and be fed as well.

Please give your time.

And one more thing with that.

So obviously, in the lunch is gonna be amazing.

Um next week, we will miss you guys.

I'm gonna be so bummed that we're we're not here, so our hearts are gonna be with you guys.

I'm just gonna ask you guys to show up.

I know that you guys are probably all gonna do that, but but we also have a guest worship leader, um, uh Tamara and Andrew Dixon, who are related to Dr.

Randy.

They're amazing, amazing people.

We've traveled together, done ministry together.

But I just I'm asking, can you guys help us hold the fort down?

Everybody show up, everybody engage, everybody um just you know, release that anointing that you carry, and let's maintain this atmosphere of just honoring the presence.