Discerning Things That Differ
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| In loving memory of my father Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023 |
In several of our previous messages we have mentioned very briefly the great need for Christian believers at all levels to be able to discern between soul and spirit. From my experience, the gift of discernment is one of the two greatest needs in the Church today. The other great need is to walk in the scriptural fear of God. We will share more about the fear of God in a later message. Both are totally impossible for the natural man. But nothing is impossible with God.
Before we continue, I have a question for you. How many times in your Christian walk have you heard a message about discernment or a message about the scriptural fear of God?
In 2002 I self-published through a commercial book printer a book titled "Discerning Things That Differ." That book is now out of print but I can email the text to anyone.
Perhaps a better translation of the above is:
These next few messages are entirely about discerning things that differ, or more specifically the LACK of discernment within the Church. Although the word, "discernment," does not literally appear in the Bible, the words "discern" and "discerning" certainly do.
Note: There is another aspect of discernment which is called discerning of spirits, which is one of the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. If you are interested in discerning of spirits for use in deliverance ministry, we suggest a book by Ken Bennett called "In A Pig's Eye," which we can easily arrange to send to you, free of charge.
On one of the many times that the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus to tempt Him, Jesus said:
We STRONGLY believe that one of the greatest needs at all levels within the body of Christ in our lifetime has been a lack of discernment on the part of Christians. Almost every charismatic Christian believes that he/she has discernment. The past does NOT bear that out as being true. The future will reveal some startling awakenings for many Christian "leaders" (in the eyes of Christian men).
One specific example of lack of discernment within the church ... Around 1974 one of my Aunts, who was born again and baptized with the Holy Spirit, called me on the telephone. She was all excited. She had been watching the PTL Club on TV and heard that Jim Bakker wanted to hire someone to help in their computer software division. She knew that I had been working in the computer field for a number of years so she strongly encouraged me to apply to work at PTL, just outside Charlotte, NC. She told me, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to work all day with other Christians?" Well, I never had any witness of the Spirit to move in that direction but I did not want to close a possible door prematurely. So I flew to Charlotte and was picked up and taken to PTL headquarters. They gave me the grand tour at their plush site and showed me the insides of how they operate. Among other things they told me that they received about 12 million dollars each month in donations from Christians. Then Jim Bakker asked me to sit in his huge office to listen to a proposal from some IBM folks. Presumably he wanted my advice about what IBM proposed. After that, someone took me back to the airport and I flew back home. As soon as I boarded the plane I wrote four pages on legal-size paper, as fast as I could write and mailed that letter to Jim Bakker when I got back home. The essence of what I wrote was that I could not work for him if he paid me $100,000 a year. Now $100,000 a year in 1974 was pretty good money. And I explained in quite some detail why I could not work for him. What I discerned was that PTL was primarily just a money-making scheme. A few years later Jim Bakker went to prison because of financial mismanagement. I really felt sorry for the tens of thousands of professing Christians, like my Aunt, who had given them so many millions of dollars for so many years.
But that same type of money-making fraud still goes on with many so-called TV evangelists today. And unsuspecting, shall I dare say ignorant, believers still contribute millions of dollars to the emotional and intellectual pleas of TV evangelists. Most of them are multi-millionaires.
Spiritual discernment is a gift from God which needs to be exercised. Discernment belongs to those who are mature.
As we stated in a previous message, the word "both" cannot be translated as between. We must be able to discern the difference between what is good as contrasted with the will of God. Let us look at some prophecy of scripture in 1 Chronicles 12. Verses 23-37 lists the number of men from each of the tribes of Israel who came to David to help him while he was being hunted by Saul. If I did the arithmetic correctly, a total of 347,122 such men came to help David. This number included only 200 from the tribe of Issachar. Twenty-two out of 347,122 represents less than 0.01% of the total.
We believe that, as it was in the time of David, so is it today in the Church. We believe that 1 Chronicles 12 is not only an historical fact, but is also prophetic of the state of the Church today. That is because human nature has never changed. If that be true, then LESS than 1% of Christians today have understanding of the times, to know what the Church (spiritual Israel) ought to do. Even more shocking is that only 22 of the captains of Zadok came to help David (1 Chronicles 12:28). We will have MUCH more to say about the sons of Zadok in our next message.
Now, concerning our emotions. God is not in our emotions either. About one year ago I started listening to some "good" Christian music on the internet. Some of the Christian music not only has stirring melody but even scriptural truth in the words that are sung. Two of the 8 or 10 songs that I like are "Oh the Glory of Your Presence" by Alvin Slaughter and "I Sing Praises to Your Name" by Terry Macalmon at a Benny Hinn crusade in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2001. That latter recording (I Sing Praises to Your Name) was made before 15,000 people, including a choir of 100 and a full orchestra of about 40. I assume the great majority of those present were professing Christians. During the 8+ minutes of those 15,000 people singing that song, a camera took a lot of pictures of many of the people there as they were singing, most with arms and hands raised, swaying back and forth, and expressions on their faces that seemed to be genuine. It indeed was a very stirring performance emotionally. And I am sure that many who attended went home and said, "Boy, wasn't that a wonderful meeting with all of that stirring music." But what the Holy Spirit very clearly quickened to me was that if all or even most of those 15,000 Christians were walking in the Kingdom of God, then many of our natural disasters might not have happened. That was not worship! Praise? Yes. But we don't need music to get into the spirit. We must worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, not with our mind or emotions. Three verses, 1st Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, and Psalm 96:9, tell us to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Holiness is not an aspect of our emotions.
The soul has tremendous power. It is called psychic power. Around 1974 I went with a brother in our New Testament house church to a weekend conference in Ohio. While there, at one point the visiting minister, who was the head of about 100 churches across America, prophesied over me. He had never seen me in his life and I had never seen him in my life. Now I have never asked for personal prophecy in my life. But everything that man spoke to me was 100% truth. Then he spoke a number of things about my wife, whom he likewise had never seen and was not even there, and everything he said about her was 100% true. That was impressive. When something like that happens to you, you tend to think, "This must be God." Well, no, it does NOT have to be God. The Lord made it very clear later that was just powerful psychic power, from devils. A few years later the Lord smote that man and many of their 100 churches disintegrated.
All Christians, including you and me, can be deceived by our intellect or our emotions. Neither can we give life through our intellect or our emotions.
The Lord's body is not, never has been, and never will be a piece of bread or wafer, usually accompanied by a sip of wine or grape juice. The Lord's body is the body of Christ. It is the church that the Lord, not Christian man, is building. It is in the realm of the spirit. If we cannot discern between the Church that the Lord is building and the church that man is building, then many are weak and sickly among us, and many sleep or die.
Today, the voice of true prophets is largely ignored by charismatic Christians. Christians today seem to be saying,
I have experienced several situations in several different churches where pastors do not want true prophets around.
Now let us consider Jonah and the people of Nineveh. Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11. Nineveh was the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire and the largest city in the world for at least 50 years. Some historians placed the population at 600,000 or more.
I know of no reason to suspect that the people of Nineveh represent Christians; but when Jonah, who came from hundreds of miles away and preached "yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," they repented. I have a very difficult time believing that result could be repeated in our modern-day churches.
120,000 adults who could not discern between their left hand and their right hand. In other words, absolutely no discernment.
We trust that your spirit has been stirred up today to see the need to be able to discern things that differ. If so, then ask the Lord to increase the measure of His discernment within you.
In our next message we will continue sharing about discerning things that differ. Until then, may the Lord be gracious unto you; may He make His face to shine upon you, and give you His peace. Amen
Before we continue, I have a question for you. How many times in your Christian walk have you heard a message about discernment or a message about the scriptural fear of God?
In 2002 I self-published through a commercial book printer a book titled "Discerning Things That Differ." That book is now out of print but I can email the text to anyone.
(That book is also included in this blog)
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9-10
Perhaps a better translation of the above is:
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all discernment;That ye may discern things that differ; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
These next few messages are entirely about discerning things that differ, or more specifically the LACK of discernment within the Church. Although the word, "discernment," does not literally appear in the Bible, the words "discern" and "discerning" certainly do.
Note: There is another aspect of discernment which is called discerning of spirits, which is one of the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. If you are interested in discerning of spirits for use in deliverance ministry, we suggest a book by Ken Bennett called "In A Pig's Eye," which we can easily arrange to send to you, free of charge.
On one of the many times that the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus to tempt Him, Jesus said:
2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? Matthew 16:2-3
54 And He said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.55 And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.56 Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Luke 12:54-56
We STRONGLY believe that one of the greatest needs at all levels within the body of Christ in our lifetime has been a lack of discernment on the part of Christians. Almost every charismatic Christian believes that he/she has discernment. The past does NOT bear that out as being true. The future will reveal some startling awakenings for many Christian "leaders" (in the eyes of Christian men).
One specific example of lack of discernment within the church ... Around 1974 one of my Aunts, who was born again and baptized with the Holy Spirit, called me on the telephone. She was all excited. She had been watching the PTL Club on TV and heard that Jim Bakker wanted to hire someone to help in their computer software division. She knew that I had been working in the computer field for a number of years so she strongly encouraged me to apply to work at PTL, just outside Charlotte, NC. She told me, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to work all day with other Christians?" Well, I never had any witness of the Spirit to move in that direction but I did not want to close a possible door prematurely. So I flew to Charlotte and was picked up and taken to PTL headquarters. They gave me the grand tour at their plush site and showed me the insides of how they operate. Among other things they told me that they received about 12 million dollars each month in donations from Christians. Then Jim Bakker asked me to sit in his huge office to listen to a proposal from some IBM folks. Presumably he wanted my advice about what IBM proposed. After that, someone took me back to the airport and I flew back home. As soon as I boarded the plane I wrote four pages on legal-size paper, as fast as I could write and mailed that letter to Jim Bakker when I got back home. The essence of what I wrote was that I could not work for him if he paid me $100,000 a year. Now $100,000 a year in 1974 was pretty good money. And I explained in quite some detail why I could not work for him. What I discerned was that PTL was primarily just a money-making scheme. A few years later Jim Bakker went to prison because of financial mismanagement. I really felt sorry for the tens of thousands of professing Christians, like my Aunt, who had given them so many millions of dollars for so many years.
But that same type of money-making fraud still goes on with many so-called TV evangelists today. And unsuspecting, shall I dare say ignorant, believers still contribute millions of dollars to the emotional and intellectual pleas of TV evangelists. Most of them are multi-millionaires.
Spiritual discernment is a gift from God which needs to be exercised. Discernment belongs to those who are mature.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:14
As we stated in a previous message, the word "both" cannot be translated as between. We must be able to discern the difference between what is good as contrasted with the will of God. Let us look at some prophecy of scripture in 1 Chronicles 12. Verses 23-37 lists the number of men from each of the tribes of Israel who came to David to help him while he was being hunted by Saul. If I did the arithmetic correctly, a total of 347,122 such men came to help David. This number included only 200 from the tribe of Issachar. Twenty-two out of 347,122 represents less than 0.01% of the total.
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. 1 Chronicles 12:32
We believe that, as it was in the time of David, so is it today in the Church. We believe that 1 Chronicles 12 is not only an historical fact, but is also prophetic of the state of the Church today. That is because human nature has never changed. If that be true, then LESS than 1% of Christians today have understanding of the times, to know what the Church (spiritual Israel) ought to do. Even more shocking is that only 22 of the captains of Zadok came to help David (1 Chronicles 12:28). We will have MUCH more to say about the sons of Zadok in our next message.
Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
We see in Hebrews 4:12 the ONLY One who can divide between soul and spirit and the ONLY One who can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart ... the word of God. But He can impart that gift to whom He pleases.
In our previous message we shared from Romans 12:1-3. Romans 12:1 says that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service or ministry to the Lord. Romans 12:2 says that we must be transformed by the renewing our mind in order that we might discern the perfect will of God. Our mind, or intellect, is part of our soul, along with our will and our emotions. The Word of God, of course, is designed to strengthen our body and to enlighten our soul. But we also have a spirit. And God communicates with us first of all in our spirit.
There are three types of men. There is the man of the flesh ... the man who is ruled by the lusts of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. He is carnal, looking to satisfy his natural, physical needs. Some men concentrate on being a body builder. And some silly women swoon over a man's muscular-looking body. However, Paul told Timothy,
In our previous message we shared from Romans 12:1-3. Romans 12:1 says that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service or ministry to the Lord. Romans 12:2 says that we must be transformed by the renewing our mind in order that we might discern the perfect will of God. Our mind, or intellect, is part of our soul, along with our will and our emotions. The Word of God, of course, is designed to strengthen our body and to enlighten our soul. But we also have a spirit. And God communicates with us first of all in our spirit.
There are three types of men. There is the man of the flesh ... the man who is ruled by the lusts of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. He is carnal, looking to satisfy his natural, physical needs. Some men concentrate on being a body builder. And some silly women swoon over a man's muscular-looking body. However, Paul told Timothy,
1 Timothy 4:7-8, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
Note that Paul did NOT say, don't waste your time with bodily exercise. Actually, I believe Verse 8 means bodily exercise profits for a little time. That means we have to continue in bodily exercise almost daily for it to have a lasting effect. What Paul is saying is that our primary focus must be on exercising ourself unto godliness.
Then we have the soulish man, who could very easily be a Christian. He could be ruled by his own will, whatever seems right in his own mind. A Christian also could be ruled by his mind or intellect. Like the Athenians, he can spend his church time in nothing else but to tell or to hear some new thing. For the past 50+ years the Lord has chosen to give to me much fresh revelation concerning the written word of God. And in various ways I have tried to pass on that which the Lord has quickened to me, hoping that would be of value to other believers. But the Christian with an Athenian mind-set may go to church gatherings, hear some marvelous revelation, and go away thinking, "Boy, wasn't that a great meeting! We learned so much from that fresh revelation." But it remains simply that, something to enlighten the mind but neither challenges us nor changes us. Further, God is not in our minds.
Then we have the soulish man, who could very easily be a Christian. He could be ruled by his own will, whatever seems right in his own mind. A Christian also could be ruled by his mind or intellect. Like the Athenians, he can spend his church time in nothing else but to tell or to hear some new thing. For the past 50+ years the Lord has chosen to give to me much fresh revelation concerning the written word of God. And in various ways I have tried to pass on that which the Lord has quickened to me, hoping that would be of value to other believers. But the Christian with an Athenian mind-set may go to church gatherings, hear some marvelous revelation, and go away thinking, "Boy, wasn't that a great meeting! We learned so much from that fresh revelation." But it remains simply that, something to enlighten the mind but neither challenges us nor changes us. Further, God is not in our minds.
1 Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Now, concerning our emotions. God is not in our emotions either. About one year ago I started listening to some "good" Christian music on the internet. Some of the Christian music not only has stirring melody but even scriptural truth in the words that are sung. Two of the 8 or 10 songs that I like are "Oh the Glory of Your Presence" by Alvin Slaughter and "I Sing Praises to Your Name" by Terry Macalmon at a Benny Hinn crusade in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2001. That latter recording (I Sing Praises to Your Name) was made before 15,000 people, including a choir of 100 and a full orchestra of about 40. I assume the great majority of those present were professing Christians. During the 8+ minutes of those 15,000 people singing that song, a camera took a lot of pictures of many of the people there as they were singing, most with arms and hands raised, swaying back and forth, and expressions on their faces that seemed to be genuine. It indeed was a very stirring performance emotionally. And I am sure that many who attended went home and said, "Boy, wasn't that a wonderful meeting with all of that stirring music." But what the Holy Spirit very clearly quickened to me was that if all or even most of those 15,000 Christians were walking in the Kingdom of God, then many of our natural disasters might not have happened. That was not worship! Praise? Yes. But we don't need music to get into the spirit. We must worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, not with our mind or emotions. Three verses, 1st Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, and Psalm 96:9, tell us to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Holiness is not an aspect of our emotions.
The soul has tremendous power. It is called psychic power. Around 1974 I went with a brother in our New Testament house church to a weekend conference in Ohio. While there, at one point the visiting minister, who was the head of about 100 churches across America, prophesied over me. He had never seen me in his life and I had never seen him in my life. Now I have never asked for personal prophecy in my life. But everything that man spoke to me was 100% truth. Then he spoke a number of things about my wife, whom he likewise had never seen and was not even there, and everything he said about her was 100% true. That was impressive. When something like that happens to you, you tend to think, "This must be God." Well, no, it does NOT have to be God. The Lord made it very clear later that was just powerful psychic power, from devils. A few years later the Lord smote that man and many of their 100 churches disintegrated.
All Christians, including you and me, can be deceived by our intellect or our emotions. Neither can we give life through our intellect or our emotions.
1 Corinthians 11:29-30, "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."
The Lord's body is not, never has been, and never will be a piece of bread or wafer, usually accompanied by a sip of wine or grape juice. The Lord's body is the body of Christ. It is the church that the Lord, not Christian man, is building. It is in the realm of the spirit. If we cannot discern between the Church that the Lord is building and the church that man is building, then many are weak and sickly among us, and many sleep or die.
Today, the voice of true prophets is largely ignored by charismatic Christians. Christians today seem to be saying,
Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Jeremiah 30:10
I have experienced several situations in several different churches where pastors do not want true prophets around.
Now let us consider Jonah and the people of Nineveh. Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11. Nineveh was the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire and the largest city in the world for at least 50 years. Some historians placed the population at 600,000 or more.
Jonah 1:1, "Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."
Jonah 3:1-10,1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
I know of no reason to suspect that the people of Nineveh represent Christians; but when Jonah, who came from hundreds of miles away and preached "yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," they repented. I have a very difficult time believing that result could be repeated in our modern-day churches.
Jonah 4:10-11,10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
120,000 adults who could not discern between their left hand and their right hand. In other words, absolutely no discernment.
We trust that your spirit has been stirred up today to see the need to be able to discern things that differ. If so, then ask the Lord to increase the measure of His discernment within you.
In our next message we will continue sharing about discerning things that differ. Until then, may the Lord be gracious unto you; may He make His face to shine upon you, and give you His peace. Amen
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