Discernment

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is the most snow we've gotten any year in the last 10 years. [00:00:02] Speaker B: I don't mind snow, but when it's. [00:00:05] Speaker C: Sunday, the crazy thing is not so much the amount of snow because it's. [00:00:10] Speaker A: Not that much, it's the frequency. It's just happening too often. [00:00:14] Speaker C: 5 inches this year so far, but it was that every other day, twice a week, every week for this whole month. [00:00:21] Speaker D: I just been praying for pastors because I know that pastor's biggest concern is when you get something going, when people are gelling, when people are coming. Our biggest attendance this year was the week before it started snowing. We had the most people in the house and then boom, we had to go to live service only stream. And then the other service, we had to change our service from, from 10:00 to 5:00. Now I wonder how many other pastors are dealing with that. I know, just trying to keep people excited and connected. [00:00:51] Speaker C: The only ones that are happy are the ones that are down south that. [00:00:54] Speaker A: Have like my friends down south, they're fine. [00:00:57] Speaker D: Don't stop. Or they send me messages still loving New England because, because they're getting back at me. Cuz when there's a tornado and I was like, you missing the snow yet? [00:01:09] Speaker B: But you know, we've gotten away the last few years with really, really good. Yes. I mean, we've had good weather in December. [00:01:17] Speaker D: I can't complain. Well, guys, let's, let's start. [00:01:56] Speaker C: Welcome everybody to the Discover Life podcast sponsored by Vida Church. I am Deacon Elliou and I am your host this week and I will be sharing this role with my brothers. First, Pastor Axel. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Hey, everybody. Once again, we're here. We're so excited to start this. Finally we're here and we're excited to be with you guys and just, you know, we want to, we want to bless you with what God has been blessing us with. And so we're going to kick it. [00:02:23] Speaker C: Off and Minister Lewis. [00:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah, same thing. Like we said, the snow might have gotten in the way a few times. A little cold, a little bit deterrent, but hey, we were never going to stop. We are here. Finally made it. The investment we made for the set and everything. I can, I, I can think of the, the transition from the online thing to now we're here. A lot of thought, a lot of time, a lot of investment. We want to make sure that we bring the best to you, the audience, and, and that you guys are blessed by it. So here we are, ready, ready to go. [00:02:55] Speaker C: And we're thrilled to Be here with our Bishop, Herson Gonzalez. [00:02:58] Speaker D: Hey. Hey. Welcome, everybody. Thank you. Guys, boys. [00:03:01] Speaker B: My. [00:03:01] Speaker D: These are my guys. These are the guys that I'm not just doing ministry with, but I'm doing life with these guys. And I'm just. That you get to see the guys that are with me. These are the guys that I talk to, pray with, cry on. And. And. And this is us. This is our church family. This is part of our leadership. And we're excited to come up with this different podcast. Last time, it was you and I. [00:03:24] Speaker C: Yes. [00:03:24] Speaker D: That did all this stuff. But. But we decided, you know what? The only thing that. That makes something good better is more. More of us. And so we have more of the guys. And so our vision for this podcast is really to deepen the spiritual understanding that we have. And I find that talking it out, sharing our ideas and how we see the illumination of the Word of God, it just kind of lightens the entire Word for all of us. And we want to strengthen our community. And so we're hoping that as we do this, we can get closer. Not just the four of us, but all of you. The people that are members of the church and the people that are watching that watch us every Sunday. We love you. We have people all over the country, different states that watch a little bit every month. This is for you guys, too. So we want to explore that as well. And we want to just take some. Some contemporary issues from the faith lens. So we just want to put our faith lens on and deal with these issues that. That we're dealing with throughout the country. So it's going to be awesome. Yes. [00:04:29] Speaker C: Our theme today is discernment, and we're going to go start really hot. [00:04:34] Speaker D: All right. Right. [00:04:35] Speaker C: With. [00:04:35] Speaker A: It's a big topic. It's a big topic. [00:04:37] Speaker C: This quote from Charles Spurgeon says, discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong. Rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:49] Speaker C: That kind of gets a little bit into our mindsets when we think we're right. [00:04:52] Speaker A: But are we all the way right? [00:04:55] Speaker C: Right. Do we make the right decisions? [00:04:58] Speaker D: And. And that's why we need discernment, because some of us get close to enough. Right. More right than we've ever been, but we ain't all the way right. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:06] Speaker B: And that's really the most dangerous thing is to be between knowing a half truth and not the whole truth. [00:05:15] Speaker C: That's right. [00:05:16] Speaker B: Because I rather. Tell me the whole lie. [00:05:18] Speaker C: I rather. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:05:20] Speaker B: The full truth. But when you tell Me, half the truth. It leaves me thinking and wondering and, you know, what is it? [00:05:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:28] Speaker D: So isn't that how the enemy worked with Eve in the garden? Yeah, half truths with just enough of a lie. And that's why she needed discernment, to be able to see that whole thing. She didn't see it and neither did he, by the way. [00:05:43] Speaker C: And that's. And that's the whole thing that it pulls us in and it brings us into our feelings and emotions and not what's truth. [00:05:49] Speaker D: Yep. Yeah. Picture yourself in a vast sort of dense forest and you got a date, a map, but it's outdated. And so you're going, and you say, wait, there's supposed to be a bridge here. And there's this massive emptiness. Emptiness. Emptiness. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a ditch, a gap. [00:06:06] Speaker D: Right. And then you're kind of looking and this map that you had, that's our man made attempt to navigate through this thing, it's outdated. And so because it's outdated, you know, or. Or you have a compass that is always going to tell you where north is. No matter what the terrain is, it's always going to tell you where north, south, east and west is. In my opinion. Man's effort, the map will get you there sometimes, but sometimes things change on the map. Have you ever done that driving? And wait a minute, this is supposed to be a turn here. And there's a. It's not here anymore. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:39] Speaker C: They make new streets and you're looking, wait a minute, this wasn't on the map. And it messes the whole route. And you're like, I think I went the wrong way. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah, just go to Providence now. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. [00:06:52] Speaker D: I remember when they were doing the big dig in Boston. You couldn't use the gps, everything was a mess. [00:06:58] Speaker A: But somehow I always ended up in the airport. I didn't mean to. Why am I paying a toll? I didn't even want to be here. [00:07:03] Speaker C: He was trying to tell you, get on a plane and fly somewhere else. [00:07:09] Speaker D: So analogy here is the compass is discernment. It's always going to tell you what, Where God's direction is. And as we jump into this topic, I don't want you to get confused. Discernment is not something that comes from us. It doesn't. It's not natural. It's not an instinct. Discernment comes from the Lord. And so we need discernment. And where we are in this year of the year of open doors, we've declared this year the year 2025 is the year of open doors. And we've been preaching that the first full month of the year, Ask, seek, and knock. We've been. We've been hitting it hard, but then we remembered, wait a minute. We're telling about people, about all these doors, But, Pastor Axel, what are they going to do without discernment? [00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah. How do you even find the door? [00:07:55] Speaker D: But how do you find the door? And how do you tell the difference between the doors that God's opening. [00:07:59] Speaker A: That's right. [00:08:00] Speaker D: And the ones that the enemy. Because the enemy opens doors. That's right. [00:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Well, let's go to scripture. Right? So first, Thessalonians 5, 21 and 22. It says it like this. It says, but test everything. And you always got to pause when it's a certainty, when there's that exclamation almost right. But test everything, not some things. And it says, hold fast. What is good? Abstain from everything and every form of evil. It's powerful when you think about instructions like this. When you go to the Word and you're saying, what is the difference between half right and all the way right? See, a lot of time we go to scripture in the Holy Spirit, or the scripture will tell you, you know, husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church. But it doesn't say that when you're in that specific argument exactly how to deal with it. It just says, love her like Christ loved the church. And that's where the discernment comes in, because you need to be able to hear the voice. Well, how do you do that? Okay, wait a minute. Am I going to go to the side of, is this leading me to evil, or is this leading me to righteousness? Right. [00:09:06] Speaker D: The definition of evil here can be tricky. Correct. Because. Because evil can seem, you know, innocuous. It can seem like a small thing missing the mark just a little is askew. That. That's sin. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Especially over a long period of time. [00:09:22] Speaker D: That's right. And so you have to test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from everything, every form of evil. [00:09:31] Speaker C: What a powerful scripture. Fast. It's like that line, amen. Oh, here's God, and here's. Here's the evil side. And you. You just, you know, walking like. Like the tightrope guy and hoping that, you know, why would you even put. Just. There goes where you say, hold fast. Stay to the right side. Not. Not even testing even close to the bad side. Right. [00:09:52] Speaker B: You know, let's test another. Another verse. [00:09:56] Speaker D: All right. [00:09:56] Speaker B: John 4:1. It says, beginning, beloved, do not Believe every spirit. Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. I mean, how much spiritual can this get? I mean, test every spirit, every spirit. You know, and I. Every time I read this verse, I think about, you know, when you test something, you kind of have to compare it to something. Correct. [00:10:30] Speaker D: That's right. [00:10:31] Speaker B: So. So you have to know the Holy Spirit to be able to be able to test, to see if, you know, if that's the right spirit. And. And if we don't do that, we are gonna get confused and we're gonna go into directions that we shouldn't go. [00:10:47] Speaker D: So you test it against the Word. That's what you test it against. Because the spirit of God is never going to contradict the Word of God. [00:10:54] Speaker B: That's right. [00:10:55] Speaker D: Right. So that's what you test every spirit. Make sure it's not according to your feelings, because there you go. Minister. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:03] Speaker D: How many people do we talk to that come to us and say, I feel like. And we reply, but the Word says. [00:11:08] Speaker A: And it's so tough because every one of those con. Every one of those conversations usually ends with the person on the other side going, I know, but. Right. [00:11:18] Speaker D: Like, I know that's what the Bible says. [00:11:19] Speaker A: You can guide them all the way through. And let me tell you something, I've been on that side also of the conversation, where for me, I'm like, man, but this thing is tough. And then you go back to the Word. And the beautiful thing about going back to the Word and testing it through the Word is, first of all, you know that his Word never returns to him void. And so sticking to it may be hard, but that discernment leading you to the right decision isn't supposed to lead you to comfort. It's supposed to lead you to victory. Right? And so every time I think about having that conversation, I go, okay, we're going to go back to the Word. And then whether it's with my kids or if it's with somebody in the church, we get that little awkward pause of, oh, God, okay, we're gonna go test this to what God is directing me to do. But then the conversation always lead. We always leave the conversation in. This is gonna work. This is gonna happen. Why? Because we tested it to the Word, not to the things that were happening in our mind. [00:12:15] Speaker C: You see, the other part there is about the prospects. We got people that are very good with words. We. We know some con artists that are very good with words. [00:12:24] Speaker D: Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing about false prophets. They don't know their false. Usually they think they're teaching what they understand, except they don't. They're not being led by the Holy Spirit. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:36] Speaker B: And so that interpretation, yeah, it's that. [00:12:39] Speaker D: False interpretation and they think they're right. Those are the people that are almost right. They're. They're almost there, except they have error a little bit 11. A little bit of leaven messes up the whole loaf. And, and if they have a little bit of falseness in them, you may not know you're in a false church. [00:12:56] Speaker A: That's right. You're speaking on this for everybody watching this part right here. I really want you to pay attention here because it could be even just that the church you were raised up in, it was all about, you know, only the Holy Ghost move. But it wasn't about doctrinal learning. It wasn't about going to the Word or holy living or any of that. It was more about if it's, if it's loud and if it's proud. And so a lot of, a lot of the false prophets were actually raised in a lot of that stuff. But again, going back to the original statement there, which is, how do you test it? You go back to the Word, is it doctrinally correct? Is it exegetically, hermeneutically correct? And are you testing it? That's how, you know, if you're just making it up and it just feels really good and the analogy sounds really good when you preach, or if it's actually in alignment with what God said in his life. [00:13:46] Speaker B: It's funny how, it's funny how he started saying, you know, a lot of us grew up, you know, we've been, we've been walking with the Lord for a while. And you know, and, and my story is I, I was raised in a very religious, you know, congregation. And our dependency on prophecy was, I mean, every time they announce, you know, evangelists, you know, it's coming, you make sure you were in the front, that. [00:14:16] Speaker A: Whenever he says, it's for me, no. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Matter what, our dependency on prophecy and people just calling you, none of that is bad. But when your dependency on is just instead of the Word, it can really mess you up for a while. In your walk with God, you're saying. [00:14:37] Speaker C: Something so powerful there. I know we're in this right now, but you think about it. So they're depending on somebody to give them the Word, but they're not depending on their own relationship with God for the Word. Yeah, that. That's where the problem lies. And you got to be very careful. That's why he says, test it, you know? So let's see what Philippians 1, 9, 10 says. [00:14:58] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:14:59] Speaker C: And it says like this. And this is my prayer. That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. This is really directing you to where it is, you know, because if you have love, true love, God's love makes you do the right thing. And when you're in connection with God, God starts to speak to you. You start to remove those things that are clouding your mind, and you direct your insight on God's spirit to lead you so that you may do the right things. This is pure and blameless. That means righteousness and holy living a life that pleases God, a life that's after God's own heart. [00:15:47] Speaker A: You know, it's good. Can you read that, the beginning of the verse one more time? I want to tell you a quote that I heard today that really changed the way that I am approaching the Bible, but go ahead and read it again. [00:15:58] Speaker C: And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in depth of insight. [00:16:07] Speaker A: Okay. In knowledge and in depth of insight. So the pastor I was listening to today, his name is Keenan. Pastor Keenan. Clark. Young guy. But I love what he said here. He said, I don't study for revelation anymore. I study for retention. Why? Because if you study for retention and now the knowledge of the Word is in you, then the revelation hits you when you need it. Usually we're studying for these revelations, but don't remember even the stories of the Bible. And so when we need it, it's really not there because we read fast and we're like, oh, what's the deepest thing that I can take from this one piece? [00:16:47] Speaker D: Yeah, that's how I used to preach when we first started the church. [00:16:50] Speaker B: Say that again. [00:16:54] Speaker D: I used to preach that way. [00:16:56] Speaker C: Used to? To. [00:16:57] Speaker D: Yeah. I used to preach in a way where if I wasn't saying something that was blowing my mind or blowing current way, then I wasn't preaching. And then I. I preached like that for a few years. And I realized people don't change by revelation like that. [00:17:09] Speaker A: No, they're. [00:17:10] Speaker D: They're impressed by it. [00:17:11] Speaker B: Wow. [00:17:12] Speaker D: But that doesn't change people's lives. The. The biblical principles. Step by step, walking people through the Steps. That's what helps people change their life. Revelation is powerful. [00:17:23] Speaker A: Correct? [00:17:23] Speaker D: Right. But. But it's that step by step stuff that if you do it right, the revelation finds. [00:17:30] Speaker A: That's correct. [00:17:30] Speaker D: Yeah, that's right. [00:17:32] Speaker C: But it's again, you know, about the renewing of the mind. This is what we do. We go to scriptures and we study and we meditate on it so that, so that it could be in our minds, it could stay in our thoughts and to help us to live a righteous and holy life. [00:17:49] Speaker B: That's correct. I remember there was a time when you say that there was a time in my life that I didn't study Scripture. For me, you only. [00:17:58] Speaker D: It was only to preach. [00:17:59] Speaker B: It was only to preach. It was like, you know, what can I find that can, you know, touch the church or. [00:18:07] Speaker A: Which, by the way, was with good intentions. [00:18:09] Speaker D: Sure. [00:18:09] Speaker A: I want to see the people I'm leading inspired to follow God. But you're not all the way there. Yeah. You're just halfway there. [00:18:17] Speaker D: You're not all the way. Right. Because you ain't reading the Word for you. [00:18:19] Speaker A: Right. If it ain't, if it ain't touching you, it ain't good for nobody else. Right. [00:18:24] Speaker D: So we see that we have this need for discernment. This discernment isn't in its simplest form, it's the ability to judge. Well, yes, that's what we're talking about. And, and there's some people that are living this Christ thing according to the flesh and according to how they feel. And it really. You have to make this shift from what you feel to what you know. You need discernment to live according to what the Bible says. Not all the people that come to me and says, I feel, but I feel. But feel, I, I understand your feelings, honey, I get it. [00:19:02] Speaker A: We all feel. We all feel, absolutely. [00:19:04] Speaker D: But we can't be led by the feeling. [00:19:06] Speaker B: That's right. [00:19:07] Speaker D: We need to be led by the Word. [00:19:08] Speaker C: That's this generation today. Right. It's feeling and emotions. The truth. [00:19:12] Speaker D: But we've always been like that. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Correct. [00:19:14] Speaker D: It's always been like that. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Correct. But it is for some reason. I think that if you, if you took it to a super spiritual sense, religious sense, people would say, your feelings don't matter. Your feelings matter. They're supposed to lead you back to him. You're supposed to feel something. But if it. But then you have to test it and you have to say, okay, why am I feeling this and what do I do with it? And it should guide you back to the Word. You Know, the truth is, right now our world needs discernment to navigate the complexities of life. And really what we're saying is we have to have a relationship with God, a relationship with His Word, a relationship with the Holy Spirit, a relationship with Jesus. And not to get into a trinitarian conversation, but the Holy Spirit is a person of God. They're supposed to be real relationship. I think a lot of times what happens is we can sometimes get lost in desiring the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but not understand that you can actually have the person walk with you. And so I can think of tons of times in my life where I had to really reach out in a moment. I didn't have an answer in a moment. I knew the scripture said something about the situation. I just didn't know how to decide right there in that moment when it really took me feeling it out through the Holy Spirit and saying, lord, guide me through this decision, because if it's you, I know what it'll guide to. And it's. Sometimes following the Holy Spirit isn't to your benefit necessarily in the moment, because you're going to feel like man. But this is what I desire. Shouldn't I have taken that job? Shouldn't I have bought that car? Isn't that the house I've always dreamed of? Yes, but you need discernment to make the decision, and the Holy Spirit guides you. [00:20:55] Speaker D: And if the world needs discernment, how are they going to receive discernment if it's got to be displayed by the. The body of Christ? [00:21:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:21:03] Speaker D: We have to display. We're the ones that display to the world what discernment is. Right. Because they don't have it. People that don't have the Spirit don't understand spiritual things. The Bible's really clear about that. [00:21:15] Speaker A: Correct. [00:21:16] Speaker D: They cannot understand things spiritually because they are not in the Spirit. So we that are in the Spirit can manifest, can demonstrate that so that the world can. Can see what it is to be led by the Holy Spirit or to have discernment. [00:21:30] Speaker A: Let me tell you this real quick. I want to share this. I. I just started my own personal podcast just the other day, and I put up a clip. Okay. [00:21:38] Speaker D: I was looking for it, by the way, today. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Were you? [00:21:40] Speaker D: I didn't find it. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Yes, it's on my Facebook, but I'm gonna be releasing the. The. The links to everything else soon. [00:21:45] Speaker B: I saw it. [00:21:46] Speaker D: Did you see it on his Facebook page? [00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a. I think it's a real but. Okay, but what happened was I Looked at the people that were responding to it, and I saw old work colleagues of mine. And the beauty in seeing them see that is they know. They knew my journey back then. They knew I was on a trajectory, and I didn't know how long it would take. And they saw me throughout the time that I worked with them. They've probably not seen too much of me necessarily, unless they kept up with me online. But they're seeing things that has been spoken of 10 years ago, 15 years ago, come to fruition today. And the. The benefit of that is the world gets to see through our living if we're following the voice of God. Because guess what? I was offered to become a manager. I had all these other trajectories that I could have taken. [00:22:33] Speaker D: I remember. [00:22:34] Speaker A: But not wanting to leave his will for my life was better than choosing all the options that were available. [00:22:41] Speaker D: That's awesome. [00:22:42] Speaker B: You know, the sermon is so important for us today. Think about how many fights we wouldn't be involved if we just had some discernment preach. How many? You know, when we talk to people, you know, we talk to people every week, and. And when you hear them telling you their, you know, their struggles there, and you just like, why are you involved in that? That's not why you're there. Why are you fighting that battle? And it's like, out of the 10 things they tell you, you're like, only these two matter. You know, Only these two. The other stuff, you know, leave it at work, right? Leave it, you know, where. Where it belongs. And discernment is so important when we. When we, you know, as Christians, we're involved in that spiritual warfare, and people don't realize it. [00:23:36] Speaker D: Yeah, they think they're at a park, but they're in their bat. They're in a battlefield. It's scary to see how people are walking around like there's nothing happening, nothing wrong. Oh, the world, everything's perfect. No, there is an enemy that's out to take your head off. And, And. And he doesn't matter how many doesn't. He doesn't care if you go to church and raise your hands, so long as you're not growing and not engaged in the spiritual battle that's happening around you. [00:24:02] Speaker B: Oh, we find that he the wrong people. [00:24:04] Speaker D: That's right. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Because we. We think that, you know, oh, my friend's a problem or my spouse is a problem. And. And discernment gives you that ability for you to see who's. Who's the real enemy. Look at this verse here. And I'll finish with this. That the enemy says on 2nd Corinthians 11:14, the enemy is crafty and deceptive, often disguising himself as an angel. [00:24:30] Speaker D: As an angel. [00:24:31] Speaker B: You know, I was talking to a lady the other day, and she was telling me, you know, we went into. I don't know how we ended up talking about the devil, but I told her, I said, the devil doesn't look the way you think, you know, because they're thinking, you know, horns and a tail and color red and ugly. I said, if you see the devil, you probably fall in love with him. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Sometimes he comes with a six pack. Yeah. [00:24:57] Speaker D: You know what I mean? [00:24:58] Speaker C: Listen, discernment is essential for our spiritual growth and maturity. [00:25:02] Speaker D: That's right. [00:25:03] Speaker C: And Hebrews 5:14 tells us that solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Right here it's talking about staying in the word being. Because you have so many people come to church and they stay in their habits. Stay in the habit. They're still drinking milk. They're not eating solid foods. The. The word, the food here is the word of God. The word of God is going to help you to mature and to be able to withstand what he said. Warfare against the enemy. You won't if you're not in the Word. He laughs at you. The enemy will laugh at you if you're not in the Word and you try to use Jesus. [00:25:41] Speaker D: Can I tell you, the other day we had a snow. Snow situation and. And we were here from 1:00 for the Spanish service. Then we had the 5:00 service. And so Brother Doug came to shovel, and he was, you know, and so he came into my office and he said, can I talk to you, Bishop? And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna talk. And he wrote out this. This thing, this. This all about end times and what it means to him. We just finished the series called the Return of the King. That series transformed this guy's life. And he says, bishop, I'm done with milk. [00:26:15] Speaker C: Come on. [00:26:16] Speaker D: I'm done with the milk. I'm ready for the solid. [00:26:19] Speaker C: That's right. That's right. [00:26:20] Speaker D: He said, I am done with accusing my wife of this and that and that. He says, I know now it's. It's the devil. He says, I know the enemy's trying to. And he said all these things that, man, it amped me up. [00:26:32] Speaker A: And he said it just like that, too. Real passionate, real, real gully real. [00:26:37] Speaker D: You know what it is, though? [00:26:38] Speaker C: But. [00:26:38] Speaker D: But I am so thrilled that, that it's not every member that you can see it happen. I mean, sometimes it's a real slow, you know, transition. But for him, it was a moment. It was like a. Ah, it caught him done. I am done being a baby in the Word. I'm not. And he told me a bunch of things that he just. I'm not doing no more, Bishop. Oh, what a blessing. [00:27:00] Speaker C: You think that he had an encounter. [00:27:02] Speaker D: That he had an encounter with the Word? [00:27:03] Speaker C: That's right, with the Word. It's the Word that changes us. Like we always say, we don't change people. The Holy Spirit changes people. Yes, it's the Word, but when you're in it, that's what changes. If you ain't in it, you're just going to be that same old person still getting milk, still with the pacifier. You're still going to be there. [00:27:20] Speaker D: Shout out to my boy Doug. I love you, Doug Douglas. [00:27:23] Speaker C: I am so proud to you, man. [00:27:24] Speaker A: I'll just throw in that man when he shows up to shovel. He's geared up head to toe, the whole everything. He knows how to put on the armor. [00:27:34] Speaker B: He was here from the moment I walked in. He was already here. And then when he saw me from. [00:27:39] Speaker D: Here from 1 to 7, when, when. [00:27:42] Speaker B: He saw me, he said, pastor Axel, don't worry, I'm going to be here all day. I'll make sure those, I'll make sure those stairs are back door. Don't worry about. [00:27:53] Speaker C: I love my guys, man. I love my guys. [00:27:56] Speaker A: Well, listen, discernment is needed to fulfill our calling as Christians. It is needed. It is not an option. It is not possibly a thing. It is absolutely needed. Discernment enables us to fulfill this calling effectively. It helps us to discern the needs of the world, to respond appropriately, and to make positive impact for Christ. My favorite part about this point is that the discernment will cause you to do what's right. It won't do cause you to do what's popular. We're not asking for the approval of those we're even trying to serve. We're taking direction from God. We're following it. We're believing that it is the most effective way, even if it's contrary to the worldly belief. That's why the Scriptures say, forgive me for not knowing the verse. But we can't lean on worldly wisdom, but godly wisdom. We have to lean into this so that we can be the most effective in our calling. [00:28:51] Speaker C: Man. Love leads to this. We had love at the beginning, right? [00:28:55] Speaker D: Yep. [00:28:55] Speaker C: So it's love that leads to this. That's why God says love, pray for your enemies, love your, love your neighbors like you love yourself. It takes you to a deeper place of, of being Christ like. [00:29:06] Speaker D: And, and for those people that have been serving God for a while, and we know a bunch of people like this, that they have different gifts and different talents and they just, they just, you know, they can serve anywhere because they're, they're gifted. Discernment is what they need so that they can, can work where God wants them, not where they're most gifted necessarily. [00:29:27] Speaker A: To be the most effective. [00:29:28] Speaker D: That. Then that's where God wants you to be. [00:29:31] Speaker C: Yes. [00:29:31] Speaker D: And, and that's why we're saying that you need discernment to, to fulfill your calling as a Christian. You need that because a lot of people have, listen, if you don't have a, a plan for your life, don't worry somebody that's going to come along and give you a plan. [00:29:45] Speaker C: That's right. [00:29:46] Speaker D: They'll give you, they'll have vision enough. [00:29:48] Speaker A: For no matter where you go. [00:29:49] Speaker C: That's right. [00:29:49] Speaker D: And, and if you don't have your own vision, you can all just do what they're gonna do that guy doing. And that might be all right for some people, but for you, that, that you believe that God's called you for something else, you better get that discernment activated and be able to distinguish the right voice and get to God and his plan in your life. [00:30:07] Speaker C: You said, why would you want somebody else's vision when God's given you a vision? God says you are unique. You have a unique gifting that God gives you. [00:30:15] Speaker B: You. [00:30:16] Speaker D: So the source of this thing, discernment is important to note that it doesn't come from us. And a lot of people really don't understand spiritual gifts the way we ought to. Just like the, the, the gift of forgiveness. You're not capable of doing that. You need the Holy Spirit to help you do it fully to do it. Right. The gift of healing, that's the Holy Spirit's work, not your work even. It's, even though it's your hands on somebody. And discernment is a gift of the Spirit. You have to look for it. Bible says, ask if anyone lacks wisdom, ask and he will give it to you. Right. That's James, chapter one, verse five. And so we understand then now that, that the source of this discernment is God himself. [00:30:57] Speaker B: You know, good thing you said that, because a lot of people see discernment like being suspicious or, or kind of like, guessing. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:31:10] Speaker D: In Spanish. Yeah, you can tell. You're sneaky. [00:31:15] Speaker A: You know, it's my gut. It's my gut feeling. [00:31:18] Speaker B: It has. [00:31:19] Speaker D: My spider senses are tingling and it. [00:31:21] Speaker B: Has nothing to do with that. Discernment is really, you know, knowing the word. And the word allows you to. To. [00:31:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:31] Speaker B: Separate, you know, wrong from. From being right. Yeah, but according to the Word. And it's not. It's not based on our feelings or. You know, I hear so many people say sometimes, you know, like, oh, something's gonna happen today. [00:31:50] Speaker C: I don't get a good feeling. Oh, my God, something's gonna. [00:31:53] Speaker A: I woke up and I don't know. There's a thing. It's weird, negative. I don't know. [00:31:57] Speaker C: Right. They like. And the face. The face shows it all. And you're like, I don't want to listen to you because all you got is a face. The Holy Spirit plays a pivotal role in this process. In John 16, 16, 13, Jesus says, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. Again, we're talking about the Spirit again. It's being in the Word. Everything's going to line up with the Word of God. Anything in your life you need. I don't care what you're going through. It's in the Word. You just got to make time to have an intimate relationship with God and let the Holy Spirit guide you. He'll guide you. People have heard it, you know that they say that little. Those two voices aren't you. And one of them is like, saying, don't. Don't go over there. Don't go over there. Go over there. Because that's how they picture. They picture angel here and the devil on the other side. And the one's telling you, you know that's wrong, and the other one's saying, come on, just do it. Right? So we. In the Word, it's always going to point to the Holy Spirit to tell us. It goes a light. It's always going to point us to the Word of God. [00:33:02] Speaker A: You got discernment. Well, let's go to the result of discernment, right? So the result of discernment is spiritual protection. Spiritual protection. That's so good. There's so much to say there. I mean, spirit, spiritual protection. Why? Let's go back to Scripture. We. We battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, Right? This is all a spiritual thing. So if we're going to face it spiritually, then we need to hear spiritually. I wanted to go back to John, chapter 10. I think it's verse 27. My sheep know my voice. If he's gonna, if he's gonna be speaking, we have to build the muscle of understanding. Yeah, we have to build the muscle of knowing the difference between his voice and the others. And you know, even like we were saying earlier, testing that, we definitely have to test it, but, but by strengthening that muscle, and it's not our work, it's just us being able to hear him clearly, we become spiritually protected. [00:34:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I agree 100%. That's. If I'm following God, then he's going to fight for me. Now listen, that doesn't mean that, that, that, that following God is going to keep me out of the lion's den. As a matter of fact, it's going to get me. But, but when I'm in the den, then I'm protected. [00:34:23] Speaker B: That's right. [00:34:24] Speaker D: And that's, and that's where you see the protection of God even greater. The, the, the following God didn't help the, the Hebrew boys stay out of the fire. It bought him into the fire. But in the fire, there was another in the fire. [00:34:40] Speaker C: That's right. That's right. [00:34:42] Speaker D: And he looked like the Son of Man. That's right. And I'm telling you, discernment will protect you even if it gets you into trouble. [00:34:50] Speaker C: That's right. [00:34:51] Speaker D: More times often than not, it'll get you into trouble. [00:34:54] Speaker A: Well, I think that's the defining factor between those who hear him clearly and don't hear him quite clearly because there is a resistance to hearing him clearly because we know where it's going to take us. A lot of times we don't want to hear God clearly because if we do, it actually leads us into places where we're going to need him fully, not just where we're going to have to pray and be like, oh, you know, I can get through this. Well, there's going to be seasons of your life. I don't understand the Christian belief that took us to believing that you walk the Christian walk and suffering isn't a part of it. If Christ suffered, we suffer with him so that we can also be resurrected with Him. And so I think that's the defining thing. People don't sometimes don't want to hear him clearly because of where it might guide them. [00:35:42] Speaker C: The suffering part is going to, gonna take you through your process to be able to conquer, to be able to withstand these things. You know, the word says, count it all joy in your suffering. I mean, some people take that like what yes, there's gonna be suffering. If Jesus himself, who is God, came and he suffered, we're gonna suffer. Yeah, but. But the. The process is victim. [00:36:08] Speaker D: Yes. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:08] Speaker C: The process is getting to the place. As long as you're lined up with God, he is not going to let you go. He didn't come to forsake us. [00:36:17] Speaker B: Look at this other result that we can see when. When we have discernment is that we'll experience that spiritual growth. And I. And I think that's. That's where it really lies, because growth equals maturity a lot of times. And the only way we can mature is if we have that discernment, that spiritual discernment, it leads to there for you to have that growth in that area. And I mean, discernment can't come any other way unless you experience that growth of God in your life and in every area. And that's how you get to have that discernment, because the Word just does that thing on you. Yeah. [00:37:11] Speaker D: And our last point of the night is for us to understand that discernment leads to peace. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:19] Speaker D: And if you're looking for peace and if you've been struggling, I'm telling you, nothing is going to bring you to a place of peace in your life like following the voice of God, knowing that it's God leading you. Boy, once you align yourself with the will of God, it don't matter what happens. You look at all the heroes of our faith in scripture. They all had moments where they had to choose to follow God. And sometimes God's leading is obscure. God tells Abraham, go to that mountain range. He doesn't tell them what mountain. He tells him, go to the mountain range. When you get closer, I'll ask. Discernment doesn't give you the whole picture. It gives you enough for just this, this part of the journey. Then you got to stay connected to get the next piece. [00:38:08] Speaker C: I think. [00:38:09] Speaker A: I think that that's the big thing about God's voice versus the enemy's voice. The enemy is going to try to give you all the great pictures of the end so you can see so far ahead in his mind that really all he does is he keeps you locked in this trap. Discernment takes. Takes you through a narrow path that you probably didn't want to travel. But if he's the one that. That makes our path straight, it's because it guides us to exactly where he wants us to be in the end. I love that. [00:38:33] Speaker C: But that's the thing about God. He's not going to show you at all. Because if he shows you, you're not going to want to go that, that. [00:38:40] Speaker D: Joseph saw it, he saw the end. [00:38:42] Speaker C: And he, and he, he had what a path he had. But, but the thing is that Joseph didn't stop. He believed. He said no. God showed me it. [00:38:52] Speaker D: My favorite thing. My father used to preach a message about Joseph and he called it. Yeah, what I didn't dream. Cuz everybody dreams about, oh, I'm going to be the, the moon and the star. They're going to bow to me and my brothers are all going to come to me. But, and, and that's the dream. But the stuff you didn't dream is the stuff that God kept from you. Because if I'd have told you this, you wouldn't have gone. [00:39:13] Speaker A: You would have, for you would have forfeited the whole dream. [00:39:16] Speaker B: I just want to say that part doesn't matter to God. [00:39:19] Speaker A: No, that's right. [00:39:20] Speaker B: But let's not talk about that. [00:39:22] Speaker C: Listen, there's a book that I'm reading on hearing God and it said something about God on purposely slows it down because you're not ready to get there. He slows it down on purpose so that you could be prepared to the next step. [00:39:38] Speaker D: Yep. [00:39:39] Speaker A: Can I just. I want to speak to somebody that's watching and I'm looking dead into your eyes. You are in a season right now where you are trying to discern is it God and is it not. And you're frustrated because it's taking long for you to get to where you want to be. But can I tell you this, Joseph wouldn't have chosen that path. And I'll be honest with you, what was it? 14 years or 17 years? Joseph's process, that may seem long, but not to get to the height that he was at. Nobody gets there in that, in that amount of time he went, he was, he was right hand man to the top. And so I want you to understand that if God is slowing down your process, if God is causing for you to go through a season of obscurity, it's because he's hiding you for a special time. And I want you to wait on him and discern the fact that it's Him. Don't get frustrated that you're waiting. If you still see that there's movement and if you're still serving faithfully, if you're still being a child of God, a disciple of God, if you are still in motion, but it feels like it's taking a long time, trust in the Lord. He's taking you to exactly where he wants you to be. [00:40:43] Speaker C: And he said something. Something powerful. Because if we're talking about Joseph, they. They traded him. They. They sold him to slavery, and he served that person 100. They put him in jail. He still was obedient, and he was helping. See, that's the thing about the process of being. Of having a discernment. Knowing that God is with you. No matter what, you still work in excellence. [00:41:07] Speaker A: That's right. Amen. [00:41:09] Speaker C: So we hope you had it. You have enjoyed today's podcast? [00:41:13] Speaker D: We sure did. [00:41:13] Speaker A: What a fun one. [00:41:14] Speaker D: We had fun. [00:41:15] Speaker A: What a fun pod. What a great opening podcast. [00:41:18] Speaker C: What? It's just amazing. [00:41:19] Speaker D: And. [00:41:19] Speaker C: But we. We want you to like, man, like it, share it, and follow us whenever you're watching. [00:41:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we might edit some parts, but. [00:41:29] Speaker D: Oh, there'll be some editing. [00:41:30] Speaker B: Okay. [00:41:34] Speaker C: Ms. Lewis, just tell us a little about. About your. Your podcast. [00:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm excited. So we actually just launched the podcast. We just recorded the first episode of the In My City podcast. Let's. Let's give it a little. A little bit. One of these right here. I'll make it quick. But God put a vision in my heart for a podcast. And it wasn't a podcast. It was actually a worship night 10, 12 years ago. And really the idea was local movement. It was, how do we get the local church active or local people active in the local church? And I bought equipment about a year and a half ago, and for some reason, I just couldn't launch it. But something catapulted that into existence in the last month, and I was able to record the first episode. And here's the main idea. The main idea of this is we want to create more awareness of the local movement of God. I know that you can jump on any podcast right now, and it will inspire you. You can go on, and you can see all the big pastors, all the big movements that are happening all over the world. However, sometimes it feels like I'm being inspired by something that's not near me. So I. Through this podcast, we want to bring awareness to what's happening locally. Why? Because you are important. God wants to use you, and there's a gift that he's given you to be active in the local church. And so if we can inspire you to become active locally in the church, then we want to do it. And so that's the. That's the whole concept. First episode will be out next Thursday. [00:42:57] Speaker D: Got to watch it. Got to watch it. [00:42:58] Speaker C: Got to watch it. It. He's going to be on it's. In your city. [00:43:01] Speaker A: It's in your city. [00:43:04] Speaker D: Well, thank you everybody for watching. We're so glad that you did. Please share this. Let folks know what's going on. We're going to end with prayer and we're just going to do quick popcorn prayer. Father, we thank you that you have called us for such a time as this to share our hearts, our dynamic, our love relationship, what's happening at v that church with the people in our network. Network. We pray, Lord God, that this message on discernment would be vital and that people could catch it, Lord God, and apply it to their lives immediately by studying your word, knowing that it comes from you and not from us. We pray in Jesus name somebody else. [00:43:40] Speaker C: Father, we thank you. Well as well, Lord God, thank you for opportunity, God, that we can come before this, this live audience, God, just to. To speak your word, Lord, to. To inspire, to uplift and encourage people. Oh, God, there's so much greatness in you. There is so many things that are in you that God wants to use. And God, we just thank you for the opportunity that we can expand the kingdom. We can get people to know God, find freedom, discover purpose and make a difference. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, Lord, I just pray. [00:44:13] Speaker B: That you help us in this discernment stuff, that we want to do it your way, the biblical way. Help us discern the way you discern. Help us, Lord, and all those that are watching that they may also be inspired to just seek you in such a way that they can discern more and more every single day, every single week of their lives, Lord. And we just thank you for this time. [00:44:40] Speaker A: Amen, Father God, our desire on this podcast is to help people discover life. And I pray, Father God, that every word of that comes from our mouth, Lord God, that it would be written from you in heaven, Lord God, and that we would simply be the deliverers of the message. And I pray, Father God, that as it goes through the airwaves, as it goes through Facebook and wherever else anybody is watching this podcast, that it catches the heart of every single person that has been waiting to hear a message like this one so that they can discover life, which in reality is just discovering Christ. We thank you and we bless you. In Jesus name we pray. [00:45:13] Speaker C: Amen. Amen. [00:45:15] Speaker B: Amen. See you next time. [00:45:34] Speaker D: Foreign. [00:45:39] Speaker C: Welcome, everybody, to the Discover Life podcast, sponsored by do that again. [00:45:43] Speaker D: Yeah, well, there's too many S's in there. [00:45:54] Speaker C: That was good. Welcome, everybody, to the Discover Life podcast. [00:45:59] Speaker A: You come for your every time. He d I get. [00:46:04] Speaker C: I get. I get in a. [00:46:06] Speaker B: You should be. [00:46:07] Speaker D: This should be part of the podcast. You should have just left it like that. [00:46:11] Speaker A: No, there's going to be a real. At the end, for sure. This is going to be a little piece. Wait, are you done with this? [00:46:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm done with. [00:46:16] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, get rid of that. [00:46:17] Speaker C: Look, that's real. All right, here we go. All Here we go.