Equipped with Spiritual Discernment by Rose McCormick Brandon

In his letter to Timothy, Paul warned of seducing spirits that would cause some to deny faith in Christ (I Tim. 4:1). Paul stressed the ever-increasing need for spiritual discernment as dark powers multiply their efforts to sidetrack the faithful in these last days (2 Thess. 2:9).

            In Being the Body, Charles Colson writes of “widespread apostasy within the church, indeed within whole denominations, which any Christian should challenge.” The Spirit equips us with the ability to discern and the courage to challenge. 

He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. (I Corinthians 12:10 NLT)

Do we shy away from exercising discernment for fear of appearing judgmental? There is a difference between discerning and judging. When Jesus said, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” (Matt. 7:1) he meant we should not condemn with intent to destroy or base our judgments on hearsay and evidence taken out of context. The crucial difference between a judgmental attitude and godly discernment is that the first is rooted in pride and the latter is rooted in love.

  A discerner examines, evaluates and checks the accuracy of a teaching or activity by comparing it to scripture. The discerner depends on scripture for instruction and the Holy Spirit for guidance and understanding. Jesus said that anyone who desires to discern between God-sent messengers and false prophets would receive the ability to tell the difference. (John 7:17, Matt. 7:15-23).

Discerning is an act of love – love for God, His Word and His people. The goal of a discerner is not to be right but to be faithful.

Knowing that doctrinal error has the potential to divide Christ’s church, John urged believers to test spirits to discover if they come from God (I John 4:1). Human imagination can manufacture the appearance of the divine. Donald Gee, who wrote about the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, believed the human spirit is the source of most deception and disruption. In Concerning Spiritual Gifts, Gee wrote “When it (the human spirit) becomes self-assertive rather than self-effacing, the only cure is at the cross.” 

The Bible, our manual on discernment (2 Tim. 3:16), teaches that anything that exalts man’s work belittles Christ’s sacrifice on the cross (Eph. 2:8). 

A Jesus-follower is careful not to condone or condemn anything that is not first condoned or condemned by God. He is able to guide His followers today as surely as He did when He led the Israelites through the desert by flame and cloud. He is the One who filled the tabernacle and anointed Jesus with wisdom, knowledge and power  (Isa. 11:2,3).  

A discerner knows that crowd sizes, excitement levels, affluence and success are not always evidence of God’s blessing. What is evidence? A life transformed. At the cross. Everything true is rooted in the cross.

The discerner's heart longs for the Spirit and is not satisfied with temporary blessings. Discerners strive for deep, lasting, consistent faith. 

Prayer: Father, make me like the Bereans who “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Act 17:11).

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Rose McCormick Brandon is an award-winning inspirational writer who contributes to denominational publications and devotionals. She writes and teaches Bible Studies, authors biblical essays and is the author of the Canadian history book, Promises of Home – Stories of Canada’s British Home Children. Her book, One Good Word Makes all the Difference, contains stories of her personal journey with God from prodigal to passionate follower of Jesus. Rose is married to Doug, the mother of three adult children and grandmother of four.

Fanny Crosby's November Experience by Rose McCormick Brandon

Fanny Crosby

Times of seeking God often precede a moment of revelation that transforms our lives. Blind poetess and prolific hymn writer, Fanny Crosby, had such an experience. Fanny had become the star of the first Institute for the Blind in New York City where she was educated and later taught. She recited her poetry before presidents and had her work published in newspapers and books.  One biographer wrote, “As Johann Strauss reigned in Vienna as the Waltz King and John Phillip Sousa in Washington as the March King, so Fanny Crosby reigned in New York in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century as the Hymn Queen.”

            Methodist class meetings, with their lively singing and warm atmosphere were attracting many New Yorkers who longed for more than religious formality. In 1850 Mr. Camp, Fanny’s friend and a science teacher at the Institute, invited her to attend special revival meetings at the Methodist Broadway Tabernacle on Thirtieth Street. Fanny declined. Then one night she had a vivid dream. “It seemed that the sky had been cloudy for a number of days and finally, someone came to me and said that Mr. Camp desired to see me at once. Then the clouds seemed to roll from my spirit and I awoke from the dream with a start.”

          After the dream, Fanny attended meetings with Camp every evening for several weeks. Services consisted of long emotional sermons, punctuated with loud amens and hallelujahs, tears of repentance and joyful outbursts, unlike anything Fanny had experienced in rural Connecticut where serious Calvinists worshipped in formal services.

          A feeling that a deeper life in God awaited her kept Fanny returning to the Methodist meetings. A few times she knelt with other God-seekers at the dirt-floor altar and prayed for hours but came away joyless and empty. Until November 20, 1850. “On that night it seemed to me light must come then or never.” At the invitation for prayer, Fanny walked to the altar and again knelt and prayed fervently for a spiritual breakthrough. When she was about to give up, the congregation sang Isaac Watts’ hymn “Alas and Did My Savior Bleed.” When Fanny heard the words of the final verse, “Dear Lord I give myself away, ‘tis all that I can do,” she jumped to her feet and shouted Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Of that night she said, “My very soul was flooded with celestial light. For the first time I realized I had been holding the world in one hand and the Lord in the other.”

         Bernard Ruffin writes in his biography of Fanny – “although there were no dramatic changes in her life and she soon realized it did not solve all her spiritual problems, her November experience as she called it, marked the beginning of a deeper Christian life and a total dedication of her life to God.” 

          Fanny’s hymn portfolio increased to 9,000. Many, like At the Cross Where I First Saw the Light allude to her November 1850 experience.  Her reputation as a happy, contented Christian lasted until she died at age 95. She didn’t seek pity for her blindness but often said, "When I get to heaven the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!" Generations have grown up on Fanny’s hymns and congregations still sing Near the Cross, Tell Me the Story of Jesus, Praise Him Praise Him, I am Thine O Lord, Close to Thee and hundreds of others. Her gravestone in Bridgeport, Connecticut is inscribed with two lines from one of her best known hymns  –

“Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory Divine.”

            Experiences like Fanny’s ignite a passion for Christ in our hearts that forever changes us.

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Rose McCormick Brandon is the author of Promises of Home - Stories of Canada's British Home Children, One Good Word Makes all the Difference and numerous magazine articles. She writes two blogs, Promises of Home and Listening to my Hair Grow. Contact her at: rosembrandon@yahoo.ca  

             

Tale of the Field of Clay -- Black

Word spread amongst the farms and gardens of King Solomon’s Kingdom that a certain piece of ground wasn’t at all happy.

Now, the hills of Bethlehem were very happy with their being honoured as the place where King Solomon’s father, King David, had kept sheep and played his harp, and where he sang songs of praise to the Lord. So, they weren’t the unhappy ground. Besides, these hills were raising sheep to be used in sacrifices at the magnificent Temple, which was then being built, and lamb would also be served at royal banquets around King Solomon’s table!

The land of the royal gardens in Jerusalem prided themselves in the many beautiful shrubs and fragrant flowers which graced the King’s palace. And the royal produce garden grounds were especially proud of the herbs, vegetables, and fruit, grown for the royal table. No – they too, were very content. So then, which of the grounds wasn’t happy?

Word eventually came that it was a field near Succoth and Zarethan, across the River Jordan, which was very upset. That field complained, "The fields of Bethlehem don’t have to do anything; they just sit there and rich, tasty grass grows! Sheep just love it and grow big and strong. The ground of the royal gardens is so easy and workable that the gardeners say it’s a pleasure to till and work it. Besides, King Solomon’s always showing the gardens off to his important visitors."

"So what’s your problem?" asked the other grounds.

"Well, whenever anybody comes to till my ground, they run into all this tough, heavy clay, and the poor oxen just about die from the strain of plowing it up. And then, because I don’t produce a good crop, farmers just give up."

"Oh, poor Succoth-Zarethan. It’s too bad!" the other grounds said.

Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story. One day the king learned that many years before, things made from bronze were cast there, and so he sent a clever man called Huram to head up the work of casting all the bronze articles needed for the Temple.

And so it was that the old clay-soil field became very useful, and the beautiful huge pillars, the gleaming altar, the laver – that is, a huge wash-basin for the priests – as big as a small swimming pool – and all the basins, tongs, and equipment necessary for the priests to offer sacrifices to the Lord God, were cast in this field using its clay in the process. How honoured and happy this piece of ground now was, after all!

Reflection:
How honoured we are to be used of the Lord to help influence people’s lives, so that they too, may be strengthened in character and the likeness of Jesus Christ, and be fitted for His Kingdom’s service!

Scripture References: 2 Chron 4:16-17; Ps 40:1-3; Rom 8:29-30
© Peter A. Black 2000 / 2009 (This piece was written to accompany and illustrate a sermon.)

Peter writes a weekly inspirational column in the Watford Guide-Advocate, a Southwestern Ontario newspaper.

His first book, "Parables from the Pond" (written for children, read and enjoyed by all ages) is published by Word Alive Press. He can be contacted at raisegaze@execulink.com and www.freewebs.com/authorpeterablack