The Gift of Discernment

[DearHolySpirit]

Hey, does anyone here know what the gift of discernment is? Please tell me.

[Jim47]

I see that no one else is jumping on this so I will be the one to make a fool of myself.

Discernment is a term you will seldom hear Lutherans use, in my opinion because it is so often misused or over used by other denominations.


Phil 1:9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Of the passages in scripture that use this term I think that one best explains what it means.

The web offers this explaination keenly selective judgment: good taste and judgment

In my opinion it is simply making a God pleasing judgement about something. If we avoid our sinful nature and listen to our trained concience we will discern properly. :wave:

[C.F.W. Walther]

Well within the legalist community the gift of discernment probably relates more to these passages that is said to be a discernment of spirits or know what is in people's heart, Baptist and Pentecostal preachers have a very bad tendency to "discern" the motives and mind set of the members. Somehow, the "control" mentality drives preachers to a frenzyto know the heart of the sheep. They abuse it as a tool of control and judgement. Heritical.


Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.

1 Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:





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[DearHolySpirit]

Well within the legalist community the gift of discernment probably relates more to these passages that is said to be a discernment of spirits or know what is in people's heart, Baptist and Pentecostal preachers have a very bad tendency to "discern" the motives and mind set of the members. Somehow, the "control" mentality drives preachers to a frenzyto know the heart of the sheep. They abuse it as a tool of control and judgement. Heritical.


Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.

1 Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:






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I believe you are right in saying that the gift of discernment is the gift of discerning of spirits as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10.

To the part about Charismatics misinterpreting this gift, I beg to differ. ALL denominations have people who misinterpret this gift. I think there was a reply here earlier from someone who said the GIFT of discernment is related to good taste and judgement, which is a misinterpretation. (Nothing personal, I appreciate your response!) In fact, I think Charismatics are the ones who really knows the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. Ask them about tongues or prophesy, and they'll have much to say about it and the difference between tongues and the gift of tongues, as mentioned in the Bible. So... let's not attack charismatics here. In fact, I was just over to the Charismatic forum (but I didn't post) and searched "gift of discern", and I got a lengthy topic about this gift. I found out that you were right in saying that it's the gift of discerning OF SPIRITS as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. It's not discerning anything else like personal matters and tastes and judgements, it's discerning SPIRITS, as in finding out whether a spirit is of God or Satan.

So please... let's respect Charismatics here. I got more than I asked for in the discernment thread over there, whereas here I only got two replies. We have to respect Charismatics for their biblical knowledge of spiritual gifts. :)

[C.F.W. Walther]

I did not make idle comments about what happens in legalistic churches who are more prone to discernment and gifts. This is not an opionion but actual observations with these said churches. I attended Baptist, A&G and Charismatic churches for years under the assumption that they had somhow attained a higher understanding of faith and gifts of the spirit. All I found was dissillusionment and rampet abuse of the office of the ministry and the socalled "gifts" as they presented them. I've seen thousands of diillusioned people come and go in droves in mega churches because of abuse of taking things out of context and blowing bibilical precepts out of proportion.

it's discerning SPIRITS, as in finding out whether a spirit is of God or Satan.

And what exactly did you find out about this subject except for what it exactly is, is one person judging another.

I'm not saying discernment is not a legitimate gift but I'm saying that the abuse of the use of the gifts is rampet in the legalitic churches. ie: if you don't have a gift then you are less of a Christian.



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[Jim47]

I don't believe in cutting down anyone's faith, but when comparing the gift of discernment it isn't even close to the gift that Jesus gave us when He died on the cross. I just think that way too much emphasis is put on gifts that we have been given, after all they are gifts from God. Its not as though we have earned any of them, and Paul said we should never look down on another for what gifts they may not have, AND there is no greater gift then the gift of prophesy which translated is the gift of telling others about Our Savior. :preach:

[theologia crucis]

Lot's of churches need help discerning between law and gospel...

[LilLamb219]

In fact, I think Charismatics are the ones who really knows the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10.

Oh, that's class. You come here, ask us a question just to tell us that we're wrong and that someone else has it correct? Nice plan, but it won't work. No, the charismatics don't necessarily have it all right and maybe you should hang out here in Theologia Crucis a bit longer :)

[C.F.W. Walther]

This is a repost I made from our sub-forum on "Speaking in tongues"


OK---I went over to the non-denoms, charismatics etc forums and read what they had to say on the subject. I did this on the advice of The Princess Bride and it just reinforces my observations of discernment.

Gifts can be abused because they point to self and promote "puffing up". The devil can be alive and well in these situations and belive it or not he is real.

We as Lutherans allmost without fail assign the devil to a very minor roll, and rightly so, because we take ourselves out of the equation and put Christ at the center. The opposite happens in the above mentioned denoms. This gives him power to feed on their sellf-centered concerns and then uses the gifts against them as in the abuses of discernment and gifts of knowledge--------all the gifts. It makes them believe they are more important than they really are. We are fallen, sinfull man and not god prospects.

Satan also fuels their paranoia on keeping the letter of the law. If they don't keep the law to a tee then they have unfounded guilt trips and satan uses this to make them feel inadequate and less of a Christian. Satan is devious and works covertly and not overtly like people think. He's not stupid.

I've even noticed this concern among their own members as stated in their forums so I know they realize somthing is amiss.




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