 Whether they are of God Well, why because many false prophets are gone out into the world Hereby know that I love this because he gives us the absolute definition of why we need to try the spirits He says because Hereby here and by know ye the spirit of God. So he's gonna reveal what the truth is So you can identify the false Y'all with me out there Hereby know ye the spirit of God Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is coming the flesh is of God period stop right there for a moment I'm not trying to do an exegesis on this particular passage, but I want you to make sure you get a hold of it Here's the point Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is coming the flesh is of God That's not meaning that people go well. I believe in Jesus. Well, we understand that demons believe in Jesus and They tremble. So if all you've got is demon faith that you believe in Jesus you say I believe in Jesus, but you don't trust him Then you don't have salvation faith Okay, because everybody everybody in this world has been given the measure of faith So everybody's got faith where you place it is what matters He says every spirit that confess it that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh So what is the whole context of that it is this it is everything to do with the total Copulation if that's the right terminology, I should be using the total package of who Jesus is born of a virgin blood Sacrifice for the remission of our sins died on the cross lived a sinless life Why is that so important because in the time we're living in right now whole denominations are denying these doctrinal truths the virgin birth the blood the efficacious blood of Jesus Christ the virgin birth the Dying on the cross for the remission of sins all of them all of these things is what he is saying right here So he's not just talking about I confess Jesus Christ He's saying all of this is the totality of who Jesus is is coming to this earth He is God. He's not a lesser God He's God All right, so he said this is how you can know Verse three and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come to flesh is not of God We don't have to back up on this friends This is the confrontation that you and I are gonna have in the days that are ahead and are having it right now Where people that want to and I mentioned it to you this past weekend They use God's language but not his definition Muslims believe that Jesus Christ is a good man good prophet But they don't believe him to be the son of God because they don't believe that God has a son Are y'all all aren't all right out there Let me let me take a little bit further because a big controversy years ago and some people still don't understand it is to Think that somehow Allah is the same as Jehovah Okay, so you need to know what you believe and he's saying to us right here Any spirit that comes every spirit that comes They confess it's not that Jesus Christ has come the flesh is not of God and then he identifies it with what it is This is that spirit of anti Christ Word of you have heard that it should come and even now already is in the world. All right. Stop right there So many of God's people in the time we're living right now, especially Get into trouble because they lack a discerning spirit Several years ago. I had a pastor when I was teaching on this particular subject That came through the grapevine back to me that There is no discerning spirit in the bible. Well, I challenged him to just read 1st Corinthians 12 and you'll find it written right there The point is this Many times people are making decisions. I'm talking about Christians now. This is discipleship night. All right Many times believers are making decisions that walk them right into satan's trap And they never even know what hit them And and I'm not talking about oh, I just came to church and confronted some I'm talking about in everyday life You are dealing and making decisions And needing a discerning spirit. This is not just about spiritual things This is about business things. This is about family things This is about money things. This is about world discernment How is it that one person can see something as a sin and another person can look at it say it? No, it's not a sin How is it that one person can look at the world that's going on and and they go? Hey, everything's great and the other one looks and says No, it's not great That is the difference between a discerning spirit And as believers as Christians in these days, we must have a heightened sensitivity And discernment of spirits to understand what that's all about each one of us needs to develop even grow a discerning spirit That's rooted in not only a strong relationship with the lord, of course But in the knowledge of what is right and wrong and that location you're going to find out here tonight Over and over again is in the word of god You don't discern it because you feel something Okay, some of you may feel cold in here, but you know, I'm hot right now Because I got 50,000 candle power lights pumping on me and a jacket on and you're sitting there going who is cold Really not we just crank it down. So you'll stay awake dear my sermons. That's all I need So we must and let me just say this to you and this is important because of the, you know Sometimes you see these little commercials with with with children That, you know, don't go with a stranger. Don't listen to a stranger Well, I want you to know it is according to Deuteronomy chapter chapter number six god placed it upon the parents To instruct their children In right and in wrong So when you're doing that as a parent grandparent and uncle whatever You are helping them to develop a a discerning spirit How do that? How does that come about when you're speaking the word of god over them and this is what the bible says, baby And oh, why does he say that? Well, this is why it says that and little by little precept upon precept line upon line All of that you're building in them to know what is right and wrong because in the time we're living right now For the world is a gigantic gray area out there There is no right or wrong Do you hear what i'm telling you there is no right or wrong in this world If you look at somebody say, well, hey, that's wrong What do you mean that's wrong? And this is their this is their response of relativism. Well, it might be wrong for you, but not for me Well, I want you to know and here we go The absolute of god's word is absolute truth not absolute to the degree that we want it to be true Y'all follow what i'm saying it is absolute to the degree That god spoke it and we must believe it It is the basis upon which everything in this world hangs on according to hebrus So I want you to keep your bibles open. We're going to be going all over the place and maybe some of it is on your paper But I want you to look there at first Corinthians chapter number 12 few verses of scripture here from First Corinthians Hebrews and Matthew For to one is given the spirit of word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit to another faith By the same spirit to another the gift of healing by the same spirit To another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits To another diverse kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues Look at Hebrews 5 and 14 But strong meat belonging to them that are of full age maturity. We're not talking about 90. We're talking about maturity Even those who by reason of use notice that Have their senses exercise to discern both good and evil You understand that as a child They really don't understand danger from the outset We didn't understand it as something we had to develop that's something we had to Have built into us because we'd run out in the middle of some dangerous situation And the next thing you know, there we are and our parents are screaming or whatever somebody snatching us Whatever it may be to keep us protected to keep us safe So it has to be developed in other words the term excise or exercise In there is very very important in the context of scripture there our senses Exercise and he's not talking about our six. He's talking about our spiritual senses here Matthew 16 says this and he answered and said to them when it is evening He's talking to these Pharisees that always say that they know when the weather is right because they look up and they see the sky Is red and they make their forecast But in the morning it would be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering or oh ye hypocrites You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times So this word discernment In many places even right here in the passages of scripture that we've read and that word Discernment is is uh, actually an addition in that last patch of the scripture and Matthew wasn't written in the original context But it's there for a reason and it literally is meaning this Judicial estimation that's what discernment means. That's not on your paper judicial estimation to look at it and judge What what is going on look at a situation? I want to say this from the outset. We're not talking about judging people Discernment is not for you to judge people Well, I like them. I don't like them. Well, I get a good feeling when I'm around there I don't get a good feeling around there. No, no, no We're talking about and we'll explain this to you. We're talking about the ability To discern what is happening. Let me say it in simple five terms here behind the scenes We're not to judge other people Right. God is the judge, right? So spiritual discernment then protects us From making decisions based on what it what looks good or what feels right And I'm telling you in recent years I have Had so many people that have told me, you know, this this just feels Well friends, listen to me as a believer. We don't operate by feelings I understand it feels and you know, you feel peace and I know some people use that as terminologies But here what I'm telling you you've got to walk by faith and not by sight because your feelings will deceive you over and over again I've had good feelings about something and it didn't take long before it flipped around backwards on me. Come on now Discernment means looking beyond the surface or what's being said or taught or written to find the truth in it We're limited We are to our five senses. I said six a few minutes ago if you've got a sp or something And our experiences But god's view in our life is from the vantage point of divine knowledge So we're talking about tapping into the mind of god here To realize What I need to do and what I don't need to do what is good And some things that are good are not god's best You don't want just good when it's good when it's supposed to be best Right So our instructor and you'll see this in a moment is the holy spirit Of course teaching us what is the wisdom of god And as we develop this habit of following his promptings our senses even our physical senses become trained to distinguish Good from evil and we mature spiritually in that process. It's not an overnight deal This is a you know, I would love to say that just because you got yourself a degree That now you know what you're supposed to be doing But how many of you found out after you got the degree and walked across the The finish line and took it out of the professor's hand of the dean's hand And you went out there and got yourself a job in doing that you went wow, I'm not sure that I Know exactly what I'm doing at this point Because it didn't I've said it like that for for ministry for many many years. It's like, hmm. They didn't train us for this I wasn't trained for One of my first sermons at at destin when I said there was there was mostly women in the room And one of them's husband was a boat captain And I used as a passage of scripture that jesus was speaking to peter james and john and they were unlearned and ignorant men She immediately took offense and she was not a small lady. She could have probably taken me out From the second row eight foot ceilings 40 foot by 80 foot And we were like the only 10 in the room It took little sister caber my Sunday school teacher to get between us Because she thought I was calling her husband an ignorant and unlearned boat captain I want you to know no book that I'd ever read Or credentialing I ever had prepared me for that moment It takes training it takes exercising as we see there in heber is 5 and 14. So with the spirit of discernment We actually have God's hand in our life the holy spirit working in our life so we can recognize and expose and actually nullify bring to nothing satan's plans How many of you know god has a plan for your life? How many of you know satan has a plan for your life? Some of you may not have known that satan has a plan for your life, but he does He has a plan for your life and you can find it in john 10 and 10 that thief comes about for to steal kill and to destroy Jesus said this is my plan. I've come to give you life and the life more abundantly How many of you want that life right there? Amen? So we can actually nullify the plans if we understand and discerning the spirit that's going on There's an agenda always how many of you understand what i'm saying I mean it doesn't take me long to figure out pardon me. This is my one shot for the evening. I suppose It doesn't take me long to figure out that cocaine is not supposed to be in the white house And that it probably was not dropped by somebody visiting the white house I've been in the white house multiple times and the ability that you have to walk through security so many times That there's not a whole lot that you're carrying in there period Much less a little dime bag As they described it No, why am I saying that because some people will go? Oh, isn't that sad that somebody dropped their cocaine? I mean, obviously if you look on the national media ABC mbc all of them. They're all yucking it up and laughing it up over the whole deal Okay Oh, it's no big deal. Somebody's little cocaine bag Really is that what we want? Our leaders sniffing a line before they make decisions for our lives I don't think so Well, they weren't there come on You understand what i'm saying about discernment Okay, if you hit me upside the head one time and I didn't see it coming All right, but i'm gonna be looking for you the second time Because if you clock me on the second time, I'm gonna know either I wasn't paying attention or I Just dumb Right fool me once right come on It's amazing how many times people can be fooled And keep eating and drinking the Kool-Aid as you say The gift of discernment is not about discerning hearts of people you can't know the motive in the heart of an individual Bible says we don't even know our own hearts Much less know when somebody else is well, I know them. No, you don't It's about discerning the source of something So when you're operating in the gift of discernment you are recognizing where the driving force behind an action is coming from Wonder what that's all about right? You're sitting in the board room. You're sitting in the meeting room You're sitting in there and all the sudden things go south And suddenly you discover wait a minute Something's not right here Maybe we need to take a break right Many times the actual motivating force behind people's action and behavior is not always clear That's where the gift of discernment comes in How many of y'all liking this right now? See so i'm saving you from paying for the 1 800 hotline psychic hotline and reading tea leaves Over what your future is god's got a plan for your life And if you have the spirit of discernment operating and you're exercising that you can walk into the room of a group of people And and it won't take long for you to be able to recognize. Hey You've heard me say it before when i've walked in this room and you too man Like sunday it was a wonderful spirit of god in here people's attitudes and minds came to worship You could just tell it It wasn't a push for me and then there's been times when I have fought all of hell pushing against the wall up here Wondering did anything get through today? Some things some things move listen far more real to the world than we're in right here is that other world the spiritual world There's more going on in it than there is right here Because everything natural is first spiritual Second Corinthians chapter 11. I think it's on your paper for such our false prophets and deceitful workers Why is this look what he says Transforming themselves and the apostles of christ Think about that. Wait a minute. I thought we were just fighting the devil now We're fighting a somebody who looks like christ smells like christ acts like christ But they're not christ And then he warns us in verse 12 no marvel for satan himself has transformed into an angel of light What would you think he was going to come with pitchfork and a red tail and a pointed ears no In fact the bible's house reading it just today in the psalm the bible says that the psalm has said It was you my friend who wounded me In my own house Sometimes it is the it is the kisses of a friend Are y'all hearing what i'm saying? No made me go there therefore. It was no great thing if the ministers also his angels his emissaries Transform themselves and the ministers of righteousness whose ends shall be according to their works Isn't that amazing Much like i told you this past weekend that people are able to look straight into the cameras And promote lives open lives and you're sitting here going wait a minute This is not true. I researched this and this oh no no you don't believe no That's not true. Listen to me Friends, that's exactly the spirit of antichrist. It's going to hit and it's already Already in the world working right now Notice that he said he's a worker of righteousness Just because you do right things does not make you righteous Come on somebody Okay, uh, I forget where it is already article today. They're taking the koran They're taking the the bible and they're taking something else and they're burning them In india. I think it was just so they can Say we've got free speech and the religions don't control us Well, you can burn it all day long. I mean people have burned the bible for years Right It won't make it go away Why do you think i'm giving bibles out like crazy? Because it's not gonna make it go away It's the best seller of all time and the only reason why we can know what is right or wrong paul said Is because I The stop sign that's right out here the other day just mowed it right on down. I hope that you're paying attention I don't know if they got that thing back up there or not. They did For a few days. It was just a little barricade sign and i'm thinking oh boy, boy This is gonna be interesting right here. Bam bam right Well, I don't have to stop Well, okay, but the consequences of you not The gift of discernment is in one of three intelligent or knowing gifts that you find in first Corinthians In the realm of the spirit from god to the church from god to the believer back and forth It is that it is that alternating current ac That's moving back and forth all the time between you on a daily basis Are you hearing what i'm saying so satan's tactic is to confuse us And to distort between what is good and what is evil satan will never offer you Complete out and out evil He knows some of you are too smart for that So he cloaks it in the chocolate you like You hear what i just said in the chocolate you like Whatever it is that draws you away. That's what he presents Inside is a core full of worms and maggots Why did I say that because if you don't see it as sinful on the inside How many of you ever ate a banana or an apple and you found out wow No, no, let's try this. How many of you poured up that wonderful glass of milk just because it was white in the jug Only to find out when you took that great big first Because everything that looks right How you like that for getting your attention now you're awake aren't you you're afraid to Take place now you're gonna stay away the rest of the service aren't you let's pay attention now The gift of discernment i'm gonna give you something to write here in a minute the ability to see beyond our circumstances That's the reason why david prayed this in psalm 196. I love this passage of scripture Teach me good discernment and knowledge for I believe in your commandments When you affirm the word of god in your spirit even saying it out loud You understand what i'm saying lord i believe in you lord i believe in your word lord i believe in your promises your ears are hearing this You're exercising You're exercising that gift of discernment in your life when you place your faith in the word of god As absolute truth no alternatives See what satan is always doing is giving you the alternative Or something that cloaks or looks like it should be when in fact it is not There's some passages scripture there uh that I won't take time to read tonight, but uh The bible is very clear that in the last days, why am I teaching this lesson because in the last days You are going to spirit of discernment like you never have before First timothy chapter four verse one and two says now the spirit speaks expressly that in the latter time Some shall depart from the faith giving heed watch this to seducing spirits seducing spirits Just take that at face value seducing spirits Can you be seduced? don't say no The potential for every one of us in this place I was just talking to somebody before the service a little bit about this very thing Every person that says I'll never lie. They're the first one Every person that says I can't be seduced. I'm you know, I'm above that I read my bible and pray every day They're the first one on the ground Seducing spirits how many of you understand there's seducing spirits that are out there right now And look at this the devil has a doctrine Jesus got a doctrine the devil has a doctrine The doctrine of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy What does that mean? That means they're telling you what they say is true But it's a lie Having their conscience seared with a hot iron meaning they don't care whether it's a lie or truth They don't know the difference Because they have been they have been seared. They have no feeling about it whatsoever The bible says men having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof And this is the remedy in second Timothy 3 5 from such turn away Why is that so important? You can't play around And this means with relationships this means with all kind of well pastor. I'll win them to the lord. Okay I get you But i'm just telling you there are people that have fallen away from the faith Because they kept messing around out there Are you hearing what i'm saying So now i'm gonna give you something to write You want something to write don't you? Discernment is essential to these things one Understanding god's will Understanding god's will if you want to understand what god's will is Then you need the spirit of discernment Working the gift of discernment working in you god clearly communicates to us His purposes for our lives But we've got to be able to hear His guidance regarding every decision that we make I like to think of it when the scripture says unless the lord build the house they labor in vain that build it It's almost like an economy Diacotomy isn't it? Unless the lord builds the house they labor in vain that build it. Well, that makes no sense to me Because if the lord's gonna build the house, why am I bothering building? Well, he's the architect He drew the plans rolled them up stamped him and said this is the way to build it Now go build my church go build my house Now we've got to take those plans unroll them and go okay. Where's the wall go? All right measure And we've got to build according to plan Because it's god's divine design I've got to know what his will is and i've got to know how to read the plans Come on somebody Can you imagine noah arguing with god god said take some gopher wood Measure it this big do this high this wide pitch it within without you know god I don't know if we need all that slop pitch in there Really And does it need to be that big? I mean how many animals are you planning on putting on this then? Can you imagine? how foolish Build it according to pattern. I have to discern all right god's telling me something It's not for me to be able to argue or reason with him I may not know all of it, but that's where the spirit of god will help me with discernment to know what to do Now i know that you're i'm putting this a little bit on a spiritual plane, but i'm just going to tell you Some people don't know how to drive their cars You know what i'm saying some people do not know how to drive their cars I know a lot of them when i was in atlanta did not know how to drive their cars They did not and Um And and so you got ahead of discernment six lanes of traffic and all this going on I mean i i've thought about it many times my wife said to me why aren't you taking that great big red mcnally roadmap Spiral thing it's this big i bought it the other day One of these truck stops not the one that we stopped at but another one And i threw it in there Because i'm sitting at the house today and all of a sudden while i'm in my study and i'm trying to do all the sudden Here goes the lights No gps no internet nobody to tell me where i was what time to get up I had no reminds on my phone. I couldn't find my way because I couldn't have gps at the bathroom come on We're so dependent upon all that why did i take that because i'm thinking to myself in the event that there's some kind of Contastrophe I will find my way home. There'll be a bunch of people that won't know because I would discern the spirit and know where to go Now I know that may seem simplistic But we've become so dependent on something other than god in our decision-making process namely ourselves That we don't know how to read the will of god Some people will look right into this book right here and not know whether or not it's speaking to them or not Here's the next one distinguishing truth from error The two are often mixed. That's the reason why it's so difficult to discern but discerning spirit is essential so you can separate the two The holy spirit will separate good and evil in your in your spirit and a discerning spirit will show you This is good and this is evil and other people will look at and go well. That's just good. That's good right over there You should take that job I mean it's paying more money You can take care of yourself Yeah, but you don't know what when you step into it what you're gonna get into I can't some a man's out of somebody who's had that before We've got to hear his guidance and we've got to understand that in the last days one of the things the enemy's tactic is Is to confuse people For the rest of their life Here's number three avoid being deceived by sin Many things that are pleasurable Are only for a moment the bible says this is the reason why we've got to ask What are the consequences of this action before I before I make this choice? Because god will never lead you to sin. He will never tempt you to sin He will never use evil in order to make good come into your life. Did you hear what I just said? I just gave you something right there God will never use evil in order to get something good out of your life Are you hear what I'm saying? The next differentiating between good and best This is a difficult place because sometimes we are satisfied with good When god says I've got my best waiting on you and you satisfies for something less When I when I was writing that down and thinking about it. I was thinking about my own experience in In driving that lance cracker truck Because I was working at the fire department at the time and I was ready to move on from that because I had breathed in enough mouths A long long time doing cpr and it was time for me to go And the the opening came up for what I felt like with the ideal job And the ideal route was close to the house So I could go to the house and eat lunch every day and all that kind of stuff I had it all planned out And then all of a sudden I didn't get it and I don't mind telling you I got a little tick obviously none of you would have but anyway So I had to wait now months and months and months And while I enjoyed my job at the fire department, I knew that something was changing But and I just knew that that was the one And there was no other opening I'm thinking lord. What's going on here? I'm praying And then One of the guys took the leadership role. He stepped into a supervisory role and his route came over His route would take me all the way through niceville all the way down to freeport And then all the way back around through deaths and all the way down the sea grove beach every day driving straight on in the sun Coming back in the sun But when I got that route It went long for me to figure out this route was the highest paying route of the three routes that they had in the I was making more on one drop Of crackers y'all ain't messing with me. Are you talking about saltines y'all? I sure did I back up there to the back porch and empty the truck And write one ticket for over 800 during the summertime thousand bucks one stop I'm also gonna eat me a cracker on that one right there And I thought about that because if I would have settled for good I wouldn't have got best I don't know if that's helping anybody or not. We should always give god our best, right? A discerning spirit will keep us from making quick decisions that we may later regret I want to ask this so bad. Have you ever made a quick decision? That you later regretted Can I see your hand because I'm feeling lonely in here Look at there. Look at there. Look at there. Some of you that won't raise your hand. You're just lying Distinguished between legalism and liberty Now I want to give you this definition before we go any further Between legalism and liberty now. I want you to get this legalism Is the pressure of a personal preference? We impose as moral mandates from god on others. I should ask How many people have been broken because somebody else made the rule and they put their rule on them And the next thing, you know, they're up underneath some legalistic obligation That's not god's will at all and unfortunately Because maybe they put such I think about jim jones You remember jim jones some of you do Took over 900 people out in the middle Of the of the jungle and then they had such confidence in him that when he said drink the kuley They all drink the kuley and god right there on the spot The devil is a liar. Are you hearing me? Listen to me folks This is the way you need to conduct yourself from this point forward because we have suddenly found out That what was going on that's being sold to us in vaccines and everything else has been going on We needed to have discerning of spirits to be able to say what is right What is wrong what i'm going to do what i'm not going to do Because you are still a self entity that god created for you to make your own mind up about it And you need the help of the holy ghost to tell you what is right and what is wrong Not somebody's legalistic view. Look, this is a definition of what took place here in america Imposing upon somebody else a moral mandate Oh, no, no, no I need discernment Maybe somebody takes the scripture and twists it like Satan did I thought about listen if you don't think that satan knows the scripture you're satan mistaken He used it on jesus the author of the book. How'd you like to tell the author of the book about his own book? And jesus, I mean he was quoting psalm 91 in the wilderness and jesus flipped it around and said thou shalt Now it is written it is written it is written war him out with First thing you can do is argue with god over his own book Recognizing when god is speaking can you recognize when god is speaking? This is really slow back here guys. So could you go ahead and punch the button for me? There you go Recognize when god is speaking a discerning spirit will teach you how to recognize when god is speaking And when some when man is speaking God created each of us with a plan and a purpose for our lives She'll always give us clear direction and guidance. He's not withholding that from us We have to be able to look past what we see here feel taste touch To comprehend how god views a certain situation and then make the decision based upon the fact that my sheep know my voice And another one they will not hear Do you know the voice of god when he speaks to you? If you don't then you need to draw near to him because my sheep know my voice My sheep know my voice my sheep know my voice if you Speak to spirit every day I know the voice of god And i'll also know when i've got things that are Telling my spirit that i'm not hearing him clearly Come on somebody you ever been there before The bible says in the last days one of the signs would be that people would be dull of hearing We're not talking about the sinners We're talking about christian people. We're talking about believers Dull of hearing waxing gross I'd say the bible got it right Because when you cleaned your ear out with q-tips and you found gross wax in there God said look at there. There it is right there evidence on the end of that stick Pastor come on quick trying to gross us out. I'm just telling you I know And so do you how about receiving godly counsel? I love Psalm 119 and 30 I've chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before me Listen Everybody can't give you godly counsel Now there may be a lot of godly people around you, but you got to be particular about who's speaking into your life That's a big deal. It has been over the past few years I need somebody to speak in my life. You don't need just anybody okay recent days i've had to deal with uh with a situation that That Someone was blaming a person and just putting them down And it was no fault of their own whatsoever I'm talking about christian to christian It wasn't godly counsel Listen, if there's anything that needs to take place you go back and re-first Thessalonians If there's anything that needs to take place in these last days This is the reason why we're gathered here tonight is that your voice should be a voice of encouragement first of all Did you hear what I said? Your voice should be a voice of encouragement I didn't say you're not going to deal with things in fact when people come to me The first thing I start doing is firing questions Well, what do you think about this? Well, what about this? Have you thought about this? Our one of our Men here in the church who ran for Uh public office several years ago First time he came in my office. He sat down. He said pastor. I was just gonna tell you I'm fixing I'm fixing to run for office. I believe it's God's will. I said, okay, that's great. You know, and he's explaining all this and You probably know who I'm talking about but and we've got a wonderful relationship. So I'm not exposing you But he said pastor, I'm gonna do this and I feel like God's in this. I prayed about it My family's prepared and all that kind of stuff. I said, that's great. I said, have you thought about this? And he came in smiling He's excited and I was too and then I said, have you thought about this? So you need somebody in godly counsel that's going to ask the hard questions on the front end Let me say it to you like this on the front end of decision making and discernment You need a critical thinker Somebody's gonna ask you all the hard questions Pastor, I'm in love with them. I'm gonna marry them. Okay Have you looked at her mama? I'm just saying Right Have you looked at the family have what what's going on over here? Well, really I haven't I just okay. Well, you should That's not being ugly. That's being straight up, right? You asked the hard critical on the front end on the backside. I need encouragers Did you hear what I said? I don't need no critical spirits on the back end because by the time that I'm already deep in the middle of it I need somebody who says you can do it. You can do it. You can do it You're the little engine who could come on get on up that mountain I was talking to him in there. I said have you thought about this and Yeah, have you thought about this or about this? And I fired about six or seven off and And I'm not some expert. He just came to me for godly counseling He said I I'm just thinking these are some things you might want to think about And bless his heart by the time he left his smile had gone down to a frown I put my hand on the shoulder. I said man Listen if it's god's will Now hear me. This is the reason why you need to know what is god's will Okay, because you're going to run right into the wall of people that don't like your situations You're going to deal with that. You didn't have any clue that you're going to do Okay, I love this. There's a lot of uh, young folks that are taking, uh, elementary education You know, I want to be a teacher and they have this starry eyed view of what it's going to be I'm going to walk in there and all the little precious little children are going to be sitting in their seats And my and see I don't have to have counsel with that I send them straight to Sheila bozeman right back there and say tell them the truth She taught kindergarten. All right, if you want a real life study in behavior Okay, forget all about your degrees and your phd's and all that kind of stuff and get in that class And when little johnny looks up at you and says I ain't gonna do it and throw something right in your face Or wets their pants in the middle of the floor while you got 20 other ones running around raking havoc Now my dear friends discern is this the will of god for my life? Or was I just eating bad pizza? Have you ever eaten bad pizza and thought it was the will of god? I have I was glad for godly counsel around me Because it proved whether or not it was something that was of god or not Did you hear what I just said? I believe this is god. Okay. What about this? Well, I hadn't thought of that. Well, what about this? Okay, let me rethink this right That's good surround yourself with good godly counselors and don't you don't need a pack of 12 And you don't need to go to people who are yes people to you Anybody can agree with you Yeah, I think you ought to do it Go down and take a loan out On your house Right because they're feeling good about it now Y'all ain't here when I'm saying godly counsel godly counsel Jesus Jesus Consulted with the father And used the gift of discernment very Effectively when he looks in the fangirl. Look at this. How'd you like to have jesus reading your mail? He looks at the fangirl now underneath the fig tree and says you were under the fig tree How'd you see me? Well, I not only saw that but you're a man of no god How about when he Knew peter had received a revelation from the father that christ was the son of god There wasn't any handwriting god didn't write it up there. Hey peter has just received a download from me No, jesus said You said it well Jesus knew the woman was bound by satan when everybody else looked at her all been over And couldn't do nothing about it and he takes her all the way back to abraham Is this not a daughter of abraham? Oh my god, I feel like running and shouting right here on this This woman has been bowed over for 18 years and all the religious people walked right past her In fact, they said she was cursed He had no ability to stand up because she was cursed and when jesus came and let me say this to you Jesus came not to bind women, but to free women in the time that we're in He looks at this woman. He says is this not a daughter of abraham. He wasn't talking about even right now He went all the way back to what to the covenant He said this girl belongs In a position where the healing of the covenant that was made to abraham will manifest itself and he says woman Thou art loose from your infirmity She stood up and went on about her business Isn't that powerful? Over and over again, you see that effectively being used inside of the life of jesus christ in different situations And so if jesus needed the spirit of discernment and had the spirit of discernment Certainly we need the spirit of discernment in the last days for the discernment to be paramount according to the scripture We just read about it in first Timothy chapter 4 Look at second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9 even him who's coming is after the working of satan This is talking about the antichrist with all power and signs and lying wonders if you are a peer person who operates by your feelings Nothing more than feelings Than ladies and gentlemen, you will be deceived straight up Because the devil satans emissary the antichrist the false prophet are going to bring the working of satan with power and Signs and lying wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth Stop the love of the truth is right here If you don't love this word right here and make of the absolute rock of all of your foundation and life and living Then ladies and gentlemen, you will be deceived And for this cause god will send them strong delusion that they should believe alive That's what's gonna happen That they might be damned to believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. This is where it's at So let me run this quickly for you right here because the source of your spiritual discernment number one is the holy spirit Jesus said i'm sending you another comforter another helper Now he's not somebody different from me. He's not gonna speak different from me He's gonna confirm what i've always been said because he is my spirit my christ Are you hearing what i'm saying? So he's come alongside to help how much more help do you need than the one who got up the three-day dead body of Jesus Christ from the grave Who else can you consult with? Ladies and gentlemen every morning before I walked out here tonight holy spirit Help me to deliver this message and help the people to have ears to hear what the spirit says Why because the holy spirit has been sent to help you You don't have to do this on your own He's been sent alongside to help you while you're laying down tonight. He's standing guard. He won't sleep The word of god according to psalm one 1930 that we read to you a few moments ago the word of god The word of god is the essential ingredient in discernment And source now i'm gonna tell you i cannot emphasize this to you because today there are people that Are claiming certain things That is not biblical and hear what i'm telling you hear what i'm telling you Well, let me finish it and then i'll tell you that here we go number three the godly teachers How do I have discernment through godly teachers? The responsibility of the levites Was the discern between what was clean and what was unclean? How you like that and to educate the people in god's law so so when you've got someone who Is given themselves to the study of god's word and they're a person you sit under to hear They should be able to bring to you the word of truth That will let you know what is good. What is evil? What's god's law etc etc in that powerful Number the next number four experience now. This is reason why I want to say this and please I want you to hear me When I say experience i'm not talking about experience alone Because a lot of people are going to crusades or whatever that it may be Or standing out in a worship situation Uh, even like they have been this past week in new york city. I thought I saw that shon foight Was up there. He was leading worship in in time square and people were Encountering god and that's wonderful But I want you to hear me. You don't live by experiences You have experiences, but you don't live by them My experiences and I hope you're listening carefully me and all of you that are watching My experiences must line up with the word of god Now pastor. Well, you don't understand. I had this experience and and uh, it was god. I know it was god Okay, fine and dandy. I'm not I'm not going to demean you, but I'm just going to tell you if it's extra biblical outside of the scriptural text Then you must weigh that whether or not it was from god or not And even if you say it was god and it changed your life You don't camp and build a house on your experience You build it upon the rock, which is the word of god not my experience Because experiences will change with the tide. Are you following what I'm saying? I can have a good experience, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a god experience Now I'm I know it's getting quiet in here because I'm treading on some difficult ground right here, but I really don't care But you're going to make mistakes in your life. And if you trust experiences Your experiences are going to let you down You better have the word of god embedded to prove all things Prove all things if it's outside of the scriptural text Then you've got to prove that And I'm not talking about pushing it on somebody well pastor. I had this experience. I've had people tell me I've had this experience It was a god experience. Well, okay good. All right. Hey, did it draw you closer to god? Did it did it? I've watched people have experiences and they cut everybody off I've watched people had experiences that they claimed was god and cut their families off You better hear this preacher tonight Because god will never cut you off of your family by an experience that you had with god You hear what i'm telling you i'm giving you some pastoral instruction tonight God the the hand of god is upon families before the church families All the way from the garden of eden So he's not going to deny this is what you hear when he says god can't be tempted and he neither does He tempt us with evil he does not give us something and call it god and then it goes against his word or against his pattern and design That's the reason why you can't tell me that hey I'm a uh, i'm not a boy or i'm not a girl And it goes against the pattern and the design of god and don't tell me that god has approved that I don't have to have discernment for that all i've got is a word of god and it tells me Come on church You need to get this and you need to be you need to be confident in what i'm talking about right here because Experiences is what the devil will give to everybody And we're always looking for it, aren't we? Come on now People want to come in here and i'm telling you we have turned many times our worship into idol Into idols because when the time i've watched people before get in here And they sometimes when i've had a singing group that's come in or whatever like that They came and they heard the singing group and as soon as they heard i was going to get up and preach They hit the door, okay, maybe you had uh Eggs on the grill at the waffle house. I don't know Whatever i i preached to whoever is here if there's three or none of you I have preached to an empty house. So i ain't afraid of nothing Amen, I laid hands on pews and our seats and threw them over and walked on the top of them while we were in The middle of all that i don't care i'm all up in it Experiences never take the place of the word of god They will Compliment one another Y'all got that Always remember that because the closer we get to the coming of the lord the more there's going to be false stuff That's flying out there There was this guy that somebody Uh Said you need to listen this guy He's having miracle after miracle blah blah blah and all this kind of stuff. I think he was over in africa I won't mention his name. I think he's dead at this point Like physician heal yourself. He could heal everybody but But but I recall I watched some of his Crusades years ago and I mean he had a name all around the world But I had a real problem whenever he would Lift up the dresses and put his hands on people Women inside of the crusades and touching their private parts To pray for them Pastor that's a little bit no i'm telling you this is the kind of stuff that the enemy is going to do and pass it off as being god And people walk out of there and say i'm healed no no no not by god Did you understand that the devil can mimic these kind of things? That's exactly what he's going to do The antichrist is going to do that in the last days to deceive people To say it's god and it's not god Now that may be shocking to some of you, but i'm just telling you right now There's a lot of stuff out there that's going on even right now And we've got to have discernment I said we got to have discernment I conclude here with this Years and years ago in this very sanctuary Service was going on and brother bow Lowry was up Not this one in the other in the old church He was getting ready to preach and someone came in That had a gun inside of a bag and they were going to shoot him This brother Lowry's daddy And in the middle of that worship service and people praising and worship and singing All of a sudden one woman with the spirit of discernment Stood up in that crowd and she pointed her finger at that massive crowd And said someone has come here with evil in your heart to do our pastor harm And she started praying in the holy ghost and that guy got up and went out the door with that pistol still in the bag I'm just telling you we need the spirit of discernment We don't need to link up with just anything and everybody and anybody come on somebody If it's not the person you need to be around you need to move on down the road come on somebody This is a critical hour that we're in we cannot afford to make missteps in the hour that we're in I'm not saying we're not going to mess up make decisions We all make decisions and we all make bad decisions. Would we agree with that? Can I have an agreement right there? All right, and you might the potential is you might make a bad one again You hope not but you might make a bad one again. Can we agree with that? Some of you wouldn't say it for nothing. We're going to make bad decisions Yeah We're going to make regretful decisions and sometimes people make regretful decisions that you can't turn back I'm dealing with the situation right now where a person has made a regretful decision and there's no turning that clock back It's there Now I got to deal with what's on the tape Is god real then? Is god gonna Do what he says and restore me is god going to heal me is god going to fix it Is god going to put I don't know I don't know how it's all going to be but I have chosen lord not because I feel But because I know your word says you will never leave me Oh my god, and you will never forsake me So whether you know the good I'm so glad about the fact that I've made some horrible decisions And I'm not glad about it, but I made some horrible decisions in my life And you know what god said I knew it. I knew it Plunky Now you're going to take the class again Y'all leave me out there to dry You're going to take the class again And this time I don't want you rushing in to try to build your own deal I want you to walk with me and listen to my voice because it isn't about Success is not about the destination success is about the journey I'm successful today praise god that I hear the voice of god today praise god If i'm always out there with my success I'll never hear the voice of god because all I see is what's out there There is a process to get to that destination And if I walk with god in that that's one of the most neglected statements in all the scripture adam Walked with god In the cool of the day Did you hear what I just said? He didn't walk ahead of god He didn't walk behind god He walked with god may it be said on the epitaph of my grave He walked with god And the closer I am walking with him the more I can hear his voice and discern what's going on And he'll warn me about things He'll show me what's right show me what lord and if you won't get arrogant and think you got it after two or three times I got it. I got this one god. Oh, okay Going out there david and play around with that goliath Going out there david and try to kill this kill this giant now you're 30 years older than you were and you don't have no rocks Going out there and fight david thought he could go fight that thing He learned look what david did real quick look what david did He goes out and fights the enemy at one point and then he comes back and he said I need some discernment on this thing God he counseled with god god. What do you want me to do? He said and this time? I don't want you going straight out this time I want you to go over and hide in the mulberry bush and whenever you hear the wind blowing through it That'll be my signal to tell you get up and run after the enemy friends You cannot look at one thing and then go well That's how god's gonna do that and then turn around and do it the same way because god Is moving all of the time and if we'll walk with god He'll show us every step because the bible says the steps of the righteous are ordered of the lord How many of you want your steps to be ordered of the lord? Come on get up on your feet tonight and lift your hands and thank god for a discerning spirit Lord give me a discerning spirit lord fall down upon me inside of my soul and let the holy spirit develop and exercise A discerning spirit help me to know what is right. Help me to know what is wrong Help me to know what is good and what is bad. Help me to know the decisions I need to make even when it looks like god I can't see it all clearly give me the spirit of god that leads and directs and guides me all the days of my life Because of that lord, I will dwell in the house of the lord forever And I give you glory for it tonight in jesus name you receive this word tonight Amen turn around shake hands with somebody let them help how glad you are to see them in the house of the lord Be a friend show yourself friendly and all of you i'm shaking your hand right now We're so glad that you've joined us online. Be sure to be here sunday morning It's gonna be a great time the lord willing 10 o'clock. Don't miss it. Share it out with friends and we'll look forward to seeing you