 I don't know, something in my spirit just doesn't sit right about this. Something in my spirit is just bothered by them. You ever hear phrases like that? You ever say those phrases yourself? Well, I wanna talk to you right now about how to discern between true discernment and your own emotions. Now, this word is gonna be very challenging for many believers. It's gonna be a major check to the ego because many of us, without even realizing it, are blaming our own personal preferences on the Holy Spirit and then calling that discernment. It's time that we begin to operate in true biblical spirit-led discernment. If you're ready for that, I want you to write in the comment section right now, open my eyes. Let that be a prayer of humility, of expectation and faith and believe that God is going to challenge you in areas that you need to be challenged. We all need correction in our discernment. We all need to recalibrate every now and then, no matter how long we've been saved, no matter how long we've been in ministry, no matter how long we've been serving the Lord, we all, every so often, need to be recalibrated, to be reconnected with true discernment because as life goes on, our feelings get involved, our thought patterns get involved, our past experiences get involved, we need to cut through all the noise, the opinions of others, our own emotions, our own thoughts come right back to the Word. So I'm gonna show you the differences between true discernment and again, your own emotions or your own thoughts, your own feelings, really the flesh is what we're trying to get rid of here when it comes to discernment. Now I challenge you to watch this message or listen to this message all the way through. Your flesh, you will notice, is going to crave entertainment, distraction, something else. The flesh always craves what's next because the flesh is always looking for distraction. So I want you to subject the flesh, say no to the flesh and yes to the Holy Spirit and commit to receiving this word in fullness because I believe there will be a progressive work that is done as you hear this message. So number one, true discernment is based on the word, not personal preferences. I don't know, something just doesn't sit right in my spirit. I don't know, something just seems off. I don't know, I just don't feel right about this. We say things like that, but remember the Holy Spirit isn't vague. He's not going to whisper in your ear, something's not right. I'm not gonna tell you what, but something's not right. There will always be something that we can measure against the scripture that the Holy Spirit will point out. My point here is simply that we have to stop judging based upon personal preferences and then blaming the Holy Spirit. Now this is difficult to admit that we even do this in the first place because many of us tie our whole spiritual identity around the idea that we hear the Lord with perfect clarity. Look, God speaks with clarity, but we don't always listen with that same level of clarity. God can speak, God can get through to us. We often think things in our own imagination, our own thoughts, our own emotions. And then when we get stuck in that place, it can be difficult to admit, hey, I missed this or I didn't hear God on that. It's better to just double down, at least it's better for the ego to just double down and not let it go. So I'll tell you a story. Years ago, my brother-in-law was in what you would call a hardcore band. Now if you don't know what hardcore is, hardcore is very loud, rambunctious music. The sounds are not even always discernible. You can't always distinguish between one sound and the next. There's screaming involved, there's fast-paced drumming. And then even at these hardcore concerts, there are people dancing in the front. They're like hitting each other and they're all having fun doing it. I never understood that myself, but my brother-in-law was in a hardcore band and it was a Christian hardcore band and they would go from place to place concert to concert. They would go to the darkest, most vile places. They themselves would live clean and pure and they would go into these places and they would preach an uncompromised gospel message. So a couple of times I went to support him. Of course, I stood way in the back. I didn't wanna get hit down in the front. And I would listen as my brother-in-law would present the uncompromised, undiluted, pure gospel truth. And I actually saw at these concerts demons beginning to manifest as they heard the gospel preach, because again, they were going to these secular places. They weren't just going from church to church. They were going into secular venues where people were getting high, where they were drinking, where they were smoking, where there was just this atmosphere of darkness and then they would take the light into that darkness and I watched people get delivered. I watched people get saved, by the way, with lasting fruit. It's not like they would get saved right then and there and then there would be no transformation. I saw many even ministries come out of that season where that Christian band was playing. Now, I went to one of the concerts in particular and I witnessed the Holy Spirit moving. They preached the gospel. They preached that you need to repent of your sins. You need to turn from sin and turn to Jesus. They talked about the judgment of God, heaven and hell, the blood of Jesus, the cross, everything. And I'm watching as people are responding to this right there in the middle of this concert. People, of course, were cussing at my brother-in-law for preaching. They were screaming at him. Demons were manifesting. People were angry that he was, as they would put it, forcing his religion upon them. But still, he preached the gospel with boldness and I watched as people went forward to get saved. I'm talking weeping before the Lord, repenting, getting right and actually turning from their sin. Now, on this particular night where we saw many get saved, I was leaving when I was told that there was a woman there who was standing in the back and she was claiming, as people were walking out, the Holy Spirit is so grieved. The Holy Spirit is grieved by this band. The Holy Spirit is not comfortable with this. And when pressed about why she was saying that, she didn't say anything about the gospel that was preached. She acknowledged that the gospel was preached. She didn't say anything about the people getting saved. Of course, those people, that was between them and the Lord. Her issue was the music was too loud. The singing was more like screaming and the electric guitar sounds were offensive to her ears. And so as the people were leaving, she would blame her own personal preferences on the person of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me ask you, do you think the Holy Spirit would be grieved by the preaching of the gospel through a Christian band? They're living clean. Yeah, the sounds maybe not the most appreciated sounds. I know I myself wasn't a fan of the sounds themselves, but they were going into these dark places preaching the pure gospel message where people getting saved, healed and delivered. Now, in that instance, it might be easy to demonize a ministry like that. And I'm not just saying this because he was my brother-in-law. In fact, I can name several instances where I've seen ministries demonized because of their methodology, because of their style, because of the personality of the person presenting. And then people will respond in that way because they personally don't like what they're singing, because they personally are bothered by what they're witnessing. They'll say the Holy Spirit is grieved or something just doesn't sit right in my spirit. Why do we try to spiritualize things like that? Why not just say, I don't like this or I'm uncomfortable with this or I don't like that person's personality? And then we can deal with those issues in our own heart instead of projecting the problems of our flesh on other people. Hebrews chapter four, verse 12 says this, for the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. So the word of God is able to help us distinguish between what is of soul and what is of spirit. It's able to help us distinguish what is spiritual, what is secular, what is satanic and what is sinful. And as you grow in your knowledge of the word, you will also begin to sharpen your discernment. Second Timothy three, 16 and 17 say this, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. Every good work includes discerning. Now we often base our discernment on the following. The tone of the preacher, I'll give an example. There are people who will criticize preachers with a soft tone because they're not preaching hard enough or they're leaving out key elements that they think should be included in every single sermon. And then there are people who will criticize someone for having a harsh tone. They come across too mean or too rude or too nasty and they're too heavily emphasizing certain elements that I'm uncomfortable with, but God uses both. He uses the soft spoken and those who preach with harshness. He uses hellfire and brimstone preachers. He also uses encouragers and we all have a different role to fulfill within the body of Christ, but we judge based on tone. We judge based on appearance and style. If you grew up in a certain culture and you're used to a certain look, a certain presentation, you're gonna be bothered by presentations and looks that are different than that. I know people who prefer a polished look to ministry. They like the high production value. They like when the preacher dresses nice. They like when the audio is nice and clean and everything looks, as I said, polished. And then there are others who just because it's polished will say that it's fake. On the other hand, there are people who prefer the more and I'm not using this in critical terms. I'm using it literal. They prefer the more amateur look. And by that, again, I don't mean a criticism. I just mean there's not as much production. Maybe they just turn on their phone and they start talking on the camera. Now to some, they might like that more, I'll call it a more of a natural look or more of a down to earth look. And they prefer that look. They prefer that production style. And because they like that style because it resonates with them, they'll use terms like, well, this is more real or this is the real deal or this is more genuine or this is more down to earth or this is more in touch. All the while, both could be preaching the same gospel but because of production style, we might like one and dislike the other. And again, instead of just saying, hey, I like one style over another we'll say things like, well, I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right. I'm uncomfortable with this. Some people who grew up, for example, with a rougher upbringing, they may prefer someone with tattoos and earrings. Others might look at them and say, well, I would never receive from anybody like that. But again, we're judging based on somebody's past from an exterior perspective. You may look at large ministries and there are some people who just have it in their minds that any ministry that is large must be fake. And then they're saying minds, they think any ministry that is small must be real. On the inverse of that, there are some people who think that every large ministry just because it's large must be favorite of God. And any ministry that's too small, they might regard as a cult. So again, size of ministry isn't a way of basing whether or not that ministry is true. We think of income, ministries with lots of money. Surely they must be fake. Others would look at that same ministry and say surely they must be blessed by God. Others would look at ministries that maybe struggle financially and say, they're the real deal because they're doing it for the right reasons. Others would look at them and say, what are they doing wrong? Why are they not stewarding the gift of God in a way that's causing increase? But again, different people will look at different ministries, different styles, different productions, different presentations, different sizes and come up with different conclusions based upon their own preferences. And it's not only appearance and style, but it's personality. Do you realize that there are some personalities that will just rub you the wrong way? There are some personalities that you'll just find abrasive. You're just gonna find them a little less magnetic. There are some people who like those individuals who are well-spoken, who are more polished in their presentation, who are a little more direct maybe. And then there are others who prefer those who maybe speak with a more of a natural tone. And we don't realize we do this. Guys, I'm gonna tell you this right now. We do this all the time as Christians. We will look at someone and if they have a personality that resonates with us, we'll say, yeah, I like this individual. And then if they have a personality that we don't like, maybe we don't like the way they dress. Maybe we don't like the way they look. And we would never admit that shortly because then we'd be admitting that we're discerning, so-called discernment based on the flesh. And so we judge on these exterior things and then we blame the Holy Spirit and we become very stubborn in that, don't we? We hold to that and rather than saying, maybe I misjudged, we say things like, no, I know the voice of God. And again, that self-righteousness because this idea that we could never misjudge someone is just not biblical. Now I'm gonna talk about discerning and of course, filtering out those teachings and ministries that we ought not to be receiving. That'll be in my next point, of course. But first I wanna establish this very important thought that true discernment is based on the word and not personal preference. We also judge on methodology. I know of people who were demonized because they believe in the slaying power of the Holy Spirit, people being slain in the Spirit, or they say, that's too showy. Think about it, somebody demonstrates power, they fall out of the power in the Spirit, like in our meetings like you see sometimes, it looks like they're being electrocuted. Now often I'll say that's probably deliverance that's taking place first and foremost. Typically, most of the time when the power of the Holy Spirit moves, it's very gentle, like almost like a wave of water coming over somebody. But sometimes not all the time when they're shaking like that, there's deliverance happening. But some might look at that and say, well, that's too showy. And then there are people who would look at where there's no demonstrations like that, and they would say, well, that's dead and religious. And again, we're judging based on the exterior. How about just looking at whether or not those people got set free? How about just looking at whether or not those people had a life changing encounter with God that drew them closer to Jesus? So methodology is not the issue. Some people take issue with ministries using the internet or social media. Some ministries take issue with people not doing that. And again, we demonize and criticize one another just because we differ in these superficial ways. Now, in some cases, you may get it right. And here's where confirmation bias might come into play. My brother and I used to play this game. Well, I don't know if it was so much a game as it was just something that we did for fun, but we would sit in the car and whenever we would come to a red light, we would try to guess when the light was gonna turn green. And we would say something like this, it's gonna turn green now. It's gonna turn green now. It's gonna turn green now. And we would keep saying that over and over. I'm sure it drove my parents crazy, but we would say it over and over and over and over. And finally, wouldn't you know it? The light would suddenly turn green. And then we would say something like, oh, I got that one. And my brother would say, no, I said it. No, I said it. We would argue back and forth. When in reality, we just kept saying it's gonna turn green, it's gonna turn green, it's gonna turn green. And eventually it did turn green and we thought it was because we called it. And this is what we do when it comes to discernment. We judge from paranoia. And then we think we get it right because one of the 100 people that we criticized ended up making a mistake. If we are highly suspicious of everyone, we will feel validated by the mistakes of everyone and vindicated by the fall of anyone. Let me say that to you again. If we are highly suspicious of everyone, we will feel validated by the mistakes of everyone and vindicated by the fall of anyone. So again, you may say, well, I called it one time. Well, I called it. I knew something was up with that person. Well, that's the thing. If you think everybody is false and you're constantly attributing this so-called discernment and this application of that discernment to everyone and anyone that you meet or come across or that you dislike, of course, eventually somebody you criticized is going to make a mistake. Of course, eventually somebody you criticize is going to misspeak and you can use that against them if you want. Of course, eventually somebody you criticize is going to have a misstep, but this doesn't necessarily mean that we were judging from the right place in the first place. This again could just be confirmation bias. I think again of the analogy I gave, it's gonna turn green now, it's gonna turn green now. And then, oh, it turned green. See, I called it and that's what we do. Fake, fake, fake, fake, fake. One person makes a mistake. We throw up our hands and say, see, I called it. And then that confirmation bias grounds us even deeper into judging from the superficial instead of based on the word of God. Now, when I talk about judging based on the word of God, I'm not talking about any old doctrinal disagreement. Are you pre-mitted or post-tribulation? Are you once saved, always saved, or do you believe we can lose our salvation? Other things like, do you believe speaking in tongues is for today or not? These are areas where the body of Christ has some disagreement doctrinally, but these are disagreements among fellow believers who are born again and are not reasons to demonize one another. But it is important to remember that number two, true discernment isn't petty. So number one, so far we have true discernment is based on the word, not on personal preferences. Number two, true discernment isn't petty. Remember this, discernment isn't hyper-critical. It's level-headed assessment based upon word and spirit. I'll say that again. Discernment isn't hyper-critical. It's level-headed assessment based upon word and spirit. Here's what Jesus told the Pharisees, found in Matthew 23. I'm gonna read verses 23 through 26. What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, that's a whole different message for another day, you should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Verse 24, blind guides, you strain your water so you won't accidentally swallow a net, but you swallow a camel. What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy, full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean too. So looking at this particular portion of scripture, we can conclude this. One of the characteristics of legalistic religious thinking is the imbalance of minors and majors. In other words, religious people major on minors and they minor on majors. Yeah, they're hyper focused on certain things, even to the point of being overly critical. And in so doing, they miss the weightier matters of the law. Think of how the Pharisees would often try to trap Jesus by twisting his words. How many times has somebody done that? And again, guys, I'm talking about life application here. I'm talking about keys that you can apply that will help you and challenge you. So how often do we do this to one another? How often do we do this to not just ministers that we watch, but your own pastor, fellow believers, your family members, they say something. And instead of actually giving them the benefit of the doubt and hearing what they're trying to communicate, we take key phrases, we take key terms, twist that up and then turn it against them in an effort to try to trap them. It's almost as if we intentionally misunderstand people. And again, this goes back to confirmation bias because once you've told yourself something doesn't sit right in my spirit, well now you got to commit to that unless you want to humble yourself and admit that it wasn't so in the first place. And so now everything that they say and do, we see it through a particular lens and we interpret those actions and communications that they carry out. And we of course see it through the perspective of what we've already claimed about them. And again, we do this to family members. We do this to fellow church members. There might be people in your church who you could have a great connection with, but because of this hyper critical spirit, you have no connection with them whatsoever. In fact, and again, as I said, this is gonna be a major ego check for many of us and this is gonna be a challenging word, but we need this. We are the clay, he is the potter and sometimes when we're being molded, there are pain points and God wants to fix those things and we have to surrender. This is why many have trouble finding a church. This is why many can't stay put in one place for too long and they go from church to church to church, blaming every single church, every single member, every single leader on the fact that they can't find somewhere to fellowship instead of taking a look inward and asking, am I too hyper critical? Is this true discernment? Or am I just bothered by something they said or did and I'm not willing to give them grace for those mistakes? Now, again, I'm not talking about, or I shouldn't say again, I didn't say this, but let me emphasize here, I'm not talking about cases of legitimate abuse, but oftentimes we're just very sensitive and then we blame that sensitivity, we blame our being easily offended on this keyword discernment. And so think of how the Pharisees also constantly questioned Jesus' character. They twisted his words, they intentionally misunderstood him and they constantly attacked his character. You know, we can question each other's doctrines, we can question each other's teachings without questioning each other's motives. We have to leave grace for one another's doctrinal disagreements and even mistakes. For example, I do not believe in cessationism. Cessationism is, and I'll put a very general definition out there, there are many variations of the definition even within cessationism, but I'll just put it out there just for the sake of communication. They believe that certain spiritual gifts have ceased in operation and in certain levels of potency. A cessationist claims, will claim usually that they still believe in miracles to some degree, but they have a very limited view of that. I'm not a cessationist. I don't believe that the gifts have ceased and there's nothing in scripture that would even come close to indicating that. Now that is a doctrinal disagreement. Now they may have a framework by which they judge the scriptures. They may have a lens through which they see the scriptures, but as long as they have a biblical framework, I'm not gonna label them as a heretic. I'm not gonna label them as false prophets. I'm not gonna say they're not saved. That's a disagreement among fellow believers. Now, if I wanna be petty, I can take that doctrinal disagreement and say I'm discerning that they're false. And this is what, guys, this is what we do. This is what we do. We take these doctrinal disagreements and if we find one area of disagreement, we'll say I knew something was off. I knew something was wrong. I knew in my spirit all along. What did you know exactly that they weren't carbon copies of you, that they don't think exactly like you? And so we have to have grace for our brothers and sisters in the error of cessationism. Yeah, they are an error, but they're still our brothers and sisters. They're not enemies. We mustn't demonize them as many have done. Again, maybe one day the Lord will help them to come to a place of the correct view and maybe the Lord will work on their hearts and humble them, but that's not someone to demonize. That's not someone that we come against. And again, we do that. Oh, I had to sermon all along. They disagreed with me on a doctrine and people will even be very hypercritical of maybe the pastor that they sit under and let's say things like, so far everything's been good and then they're just watching, waiting, waiting for maybe a certain term that they don't quite agree with the use of or maybe waiting for a phrase they can latch onto and say, well, I don't know exactly what that was or why you said it that way or maybe an outright disagreement. And once they find that area of disagreement, that's it. They throw up their hands. I'm out of here. I knew all along in my spirit, something was wrong. I knew all along in my spirit that something was off. What was off? You just disagree on something that's fundamental and not even fundamental. And by the way, these disagreements within the body of Christ, they've been going on for years. That's why we have different denominations. They're just variations on views that are the miners, not the majors, the miners, the peripheral doctrines, not the primary. Also, consider other points of doctrinal disagreement. Like for example, once saved, always saved. Once saved, always saved versus, right? We like pit these doctrines against one another as if it's like this great, like they're one another's nemesis, right? Once saved, always saved and some believe that you can lose your salvation. Well, okay. Don't we realize that there are biblical frameworks, at least that one could argue for on both sides? Don't we realize that there are biblical scholars on both sides? This doesn't mean that the Bible contradicts itself. This just means that there's room for debate. One of these sides are right. We probably won't discover until eternity who was right all along, but by then it's not gonna matter, is it? So here's what happens. And I want you to watch very closely for this because here's what happens. People will demonize one another based on something like this when it's not even something that you can label someone as a heretic over. Guys, we're getting real here. This is major stuff that's happening within the body of Christ where people who believe you can lose your salvation instead of just saying something like, well, you know, we agree to disagree and as long as we all agree that we need to live holy and as long as we all agree that Jesus is the only way then we'll let God be the judge of that. No, you can't do that. What do they do? They demonize people who believe in one's savior. And guys, that's manipulation. I'm gonna call it for what it is. It's witchcraft, it's manipulation. Instead of just saying there's a doctrine we disagree on, they have to hype and cause fear and propaganda and say things like, well, that causes people to compromise and that's a doctrine of demons and it's telling people that they can live lives of sin without repercussions. And meanwhile, I don't know anybody who believes in one's saved always saves who teaches that you can live how you wanna live. That's not at all what they say. But you know, the other side does it too. The people who believe one's saved always save, they demonize the people who believe that you can lose your salvation. And they'll say things like, well, they cheapen the blood of Jesus. They don't believe the sacrifice of Christ Jesus was enough. I don't know anybody who believes that you can lose your salvation that believes that the sacrifice of Christ Jesus wasn't enough. So I watch both sides and they go at it, demonizing one another, claiming the other is preaching a doctrine of devils. Meanwhile, I'm thinking there's biblical framework for both sides. There's biblical scholarship on both sides. Both sides are legitimate views that you can have and still be a Christian because both sides both teach that the blood of Jesus is enough and that you should live a holy life. So what is all this demonization for? It's immature. And guys, it's ego. The need to be right, the need to win the debate, the need to demonstrate how much they think they know about the word of God and they demonize each other and then they call it discernment. That is not mature Christianity. That is not of the Holy Spirit. That's of the flesh, that's manipulation, that's witchcraft, that's ego, it's pettiness, it's insecurity, and it has to stop within the body of Christ. And so again, you have something like that, even doctrines on the rapture. Guys, discernment isn't doctrinal disagreement. Discernment doesn't say, well, you disagree with me on some minor doctrinal issues and therefore I'm gonna dismiss you as a heretic or a false prophet or I'm gonna dismiss you as someone I can fellowship with. That's just not biblical, especially if you have legitimate biblical frameworks for both sides on any one topic. And I'm not just talking about this once saved always saved debate. I'm talking about doctrinal disagreement in general. I mean, just using that as one example, cessationism as another example. So both sides can find ways to demonize each other, but that's manipulation. That's trying to control the narrative. That's trying to persuade people to one side so they can say, look, I'm winning. And again, it's pettiness, it's immaturity, and it comes from the place of insecurity. So this gotcha mentality, it's not gonna work. Why? Because then there's nobody you can connect with. There's nobody you can listen to. There's no pastor. There's no YouTube preacher. There's no fellow believer. There's no family member that you're ever going to be completely connected with because you're going to find doctrinal disagreement with anyone and everyone. Somebody you love, in fact, I should say everyone you love will disagree with you on one particular issue or another. Is that a reason to therefore say, that's it, I'm no longer fallowshipping with you or to blame again, discernment. While I always knew something was off or I knew something was wrong or wow, I can't believe this was revealed and now I know, I should have known all along, we're very dramatic, you know, and that drama comes from fear-based Christianity. We're living in fear rather than by faith and love. And so we hype these things up and we live in the constant tension of paranoid Christianity, constantly battling, constantly waging war against fellow believers. And it's just not the way God intended for us to live. So if you live by this gotcha mentality, you're gonna be isolated. And eventually it turns on itself. Eventually there's so much division that there's nothing that can stand within that type of mindset. And eventually by the way, you won't have anybody that you can listen to because somebody or everyone is gonna have some way that they disagree with you. Now isn't it funny, when someone passionately preaches what we believe to be the truth, we say look how bold, yet when someone passionately preaches what we believe to be, what we don't believe to be the truth, we say look how arrogant. I'm gonna say that again for clarity's sake. When someone passionately preaches what we believe to be the truth, we say look how bold, yet when someone passionately preaches what we don't believe to be the truth, we say look how arrogant. Now again, guys, I'm not talking about the majors. We all have to agree that Jesus is God. We all have to agree that Jesus lived with sinless perfection. We all have to agree that Jesus died on the cross as the atonement for sins. We all have to agree that Jesus rose again from the dead in bodily form, that he ascended in bodily form, that he sits at the right hand of the Father, that the Bible is the inspired word of God, right? These are the fundamentals of the faith, but doctrinal disagreement on the peripherals, not that they're not important. I mean, my goodness, every doctrine is important, but not every doctrine is an issue by which we cause division or by which we label one another as false. So this is interesting to me that whenever, again, this shows how, again, we have that confirmation by us. If somebody's boldly preaching what we agree, we applaud it. Yes, that's bold, say it, that's true. Somebody boldly preaches what we disagree with. We give them a thumbs down and we say, no, that's arrogant. Why? Because we're judging their motives and their heart based upon what they're saying and believe. And that, again, is not proper judgment. Again, and I wanna emphasize this just in case while there's any confusion, I'm not talking about the majors. There's a time to call things out. There's a time to call someone false. There's a time to call out heresy, yes. And I'm gonna read some scriptures right now to emphasize that point. But disagreeing on these side doctrines, and again, I say side doctrines, not as if they're not important, but there are not reasons to divide over in a way where we disfellowship from people. First on four, one through three. Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test the spirits to see if the Spirit they have comes from God, okay? Here's a great discernment portion of scripture. For there are many false prophets in the world. Now, how do you discern it? Well, here's what the Bible says. It's right here in first John, verse two. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If they agree with us on every single doctrine. No, it doesn't say that. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If they carry out the method of their ministry just like we carry out the method of our ministry. No, it doesn't say that. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If they believe that speaking in tongues is for today. Oh, it doesn't say that. What does it say? This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the Spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. Now, this is interesting because we often read these scriptures, right? Test the spirits, test the spirits, test the spirits. And I found that a lot of Christians, and again, I wanna say this out of love. I'm not, I love the body of Christ. I'm not saying this to bash the body of Christ. I'm saying this to call us to higher places because we need to correct this. I often hear the term discernment used like this. Someone will be watching someone or listening to something or going to a church and they'll say it like this. They'll say, you really have to use discernment with this guy. Oh, I would use discernment with that church because shouldn't we use discernment with everyone and everything? What they actually are communicating is you should use hypercriticism with that one or you should regard that individual as fake. And that, again, is not the proper use of the term. It's to weigh properly and assess maturely with the word and spirit. So we often look at scriptures like this, test the spirits, test the spirits, test the spirits. Yes, but you don't test the spirits based upon whether or not they agree with you on every single point of doctrine. How do you test the spirits? By looking at what they do with the basic teachings about Christ, the fundamental foundational teachings of Christ. Jude 1, 3 through 4, another example. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to ride unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to ride unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. Here's another one we use a lot, right? Contend for the faith, fight for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unaware. What are they doing? What are they fighting against? Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation? Ungodly men, here's what they do. Turning the grace of our Lord God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, okay, basically saying that the grace of God allows you to go on sinning. That's what was being called out. It was a very fundamental, specific call out. It wasn't something that was vague. It wasn't something that was left to interpretation. And by the way, many people who claim that they're defending the faith often say that they're going by the context. You know, they insist on that context, context, context. Yet by this verse, they often violate the context and don't judge according to the judgment standard that's been given here. So it really is inconsistent to say that we should defend the faith but then not defend the faith based upon what the scripture is saying here, which is talking about a very fundamental perversion of the gospel message. And that's what we should call out, fundamental perversions of the gospel. Now here, someone is teaching that the grace of God enables us or allows us or permits us to go on sinning and doing whatever we want. And we of course know that no true believer actually believes that. And so if somebody's teaching that, believing that, you can label them as false. First Corinthians 12, three. So I want you to know that no one by the spirit of God will curse Jesus and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy spirit. So true discernment isn't petty. True discernment isn't, let me watch you, make sure every doctrine lines up with what I think. Oh, you believe in a mid-trib rapture. I'm sorry, you're false. Let me check the doctrines lined up here. Oh, you're once saved always. Okay, you're definitely a false teacher. Or let me check the doctrines right here. Oh, you don't believe the spiritual gifts are for today. You're definitely false. See, these are the things that we do to each other. When what the scripture lays out for us is the fact that discernment isn't petty, it's based on fundamental truth. Now we can have great debates about these things. We can have friendly conversations about these things. And there can be disagreements within the body of Christ on certain doctrines. But that is not discernment in action. That is doctrinal disagreement. So number one, true discernment is based on the word, not personal preferences. Number two, true discernment isn't petty. And Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruits. That's not, by the way, ministry success. We often say, well, look at the fruit, look at the fruit, look at the fruit. The fruit is not crowds and views and book sales. The fruit is the fruit of the spirit, the character of Christ in you. So discernment looks at those fundamental things. Now let's look at number three. True discernment is affirmed by the Holy Spirit, not other critics. True discernment is affirmed by the Holy Spirit, not other critics. Now let me make it clear where I stand. I believe speaking in tongues is for today. I believe healing is for today. I believe the gifts are for today. I believe in demonstrations of the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe in those for today. I believe fivefold ministry is for today. That's where I stand on the issue. And I have a lot of friends who stand on that same platform. But one time I was watching a live stream and I'll give you a little bit of backstory here. For several months, I was working behind the scenes to help get one of my fellow ministry friends onto a certain program. I saw the program and I saw my friend's ministry. And I said, if we can get him onto this program, that would bless the viewers of that program and it would really help his ministry. So behind the scenes, I was working backward in the background sending out texts. I was talking to producers. I was talking to different people saying, you gotta get this guy in, you gotta get this guy in. I felt like I was, what do you call it? The agent for this guy. I was really trying to get him in. And so eventually, finally, they said, okay, we'll put him on the program. It worked out really well. And so now he's finally on the program and I'm able to see the live stream premiere of this interview that happened. So I'm watching with excitement. I'm looking at my screen ready to see what the Lord did through the program. And so they start live streaming this and I'm looking at the comments coming in. People saying, this is encouraging me. This is blessing me. This is helping me. And I'm like cheering my friend on saying, yes, okay, good. People need to see, more people need to see this ministry because it'll bless their lives. And wouldn't you know it in every single comment section, I saw people typing, I don't know. Something just doesn't sit right in my spirit here. You know, there's like two or three of those in every church. And now that we have an online community, they all find each other somehow and then create validation for one another. And so this person types, I don't know, something just doesn't sit right in my spirit. Nevermind that they don't know the man's character. I do. Nevermind that they don't know his depth of knowledge of the word of God. Nevermind that they don't know how good of a father and a husband he, none of that. All they saw was a personality saying something maybe they slightly disagreed with and then saying, I don't know, something just doesn't sit right in my spirit about this guy. And then somebody follows up with a comment and they say, I was thinking the same thing. And then the other person said, well, I must be hearing from God. And I'm looking at this going, oh my goodness. And that's how many people validate what they think is true based upon other people also. So because somebody else was critical, they think they heard from the Holy spirit. Let me say this. Others being critical of the same person you're criticizing isn't vindication, it's just mutual pettiness. I wanna say that again. Others being critical of the same person you're criticizing isn't vindication. Often it's just mutual pettiness. In fact, some people get offended if you don't listen to them saying that person's fake or something's off with that person. Because again, it comes from a place of insecurity and ego. They wanna prove they're right. They wanna prove that they have great discernment. They wanna prove what they think is their knowledge of the word. And in getting others to agree with them, they feel validated by that. It does something for the ego. I've seen this happen in ministries where they can't just say for themselves, well, I don't think that's true or I disagree doctrine with that person. No, they gotta now try to turn everybody against that individual. And should others join in their crusade against that individual, now all of a sudden they're validated. See, I heard from the Lord because somebody else had the same criticism. See, I heard from the Lord because someone else also spoke the same thing. But again, true discernment is affirmed by the Holy Spirit, not other critics. We must discern by the Spirit. First John 2, 20 to 27. But you are not like that for the Holy One has given you His Spirit. And all of you know the truth. So I'm writing to you, not because you don't know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. There again, a very fundamental standard we're being given. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an anti-Christ. Anyone who denies the Son doesn't have the Father either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship, we enjoy the eternal life He promised us. Verse 26, I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit and He lives within you. So you don't need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know and what He teaches is true. It is not a lie. So just as He has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. Here we see that the Holy Spirit will help us to discern when somebody's off on one of these fundamentals. That's somewhat of what the context is here at first on 227. But I think we can glean that biblical principle from there that the Holy Spirit affirms these foundational truths within our lives and within our hearts and minds. And helping to guide us in true discernment once we've been shed of the flesh, the Holy Spirit will pinpoint where we should go and how we should think. Now, once you have stripped away that exterior form of judging, again, that's tone, appearance and style, personality, methodology, big ministry, little ministry, online ministry and person ministry, whatever it may be. Once we've kind of moved all that to the side, say, okay, I'm not gonna judge based on the superficial exterior measurements that people typically use. And then once we recognize that discernment isn't petty, that discernment isn't just this hyper-critical, watchful eye looking for anything that differs from what we hold to be true. And again, I'm not talking about the fundamentals and I wanna make that clear. The fundamentals, somebody violates those, they're a heretic and you can totally dismiss them as false. I'm talking about these areas where we can often demonize each other and the debate becomes heated and intense and emotional and because of that heat, that intensity and that emotion, we often resort to demonizing one another rather than just agreeing to disagree. So that's not the sermon either, it's not pettiness, it's not line by line going down and saying, okay, where do I disagree? Aha, we disagree here, that's it, I always knew you were a fake, that's not what discernment is at all. Again, it has to do with the fundamentals of the faith. Once you've set aside that pettiness and once you've set aside that external framework by which you judge certain individuals and ministries, then you can now ground yourself in the Spirit. You're looking at the Word, you're looking to the Holy Spirit, you're not quick to rush to judgment, you're not judging on exterior, you're not judging because your ego got offended because somebody disagreed with you on something, you're grounded, you're level-headed, you're gracious, you're patient, you're kind. Well, isn't that what it means to judge by the Spirit? Galatians 5, 22 through 23, what the Holy Spirit produces is this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things. So if you're judging by these metrics, those should show in what you call discernment. Now remember this, discernment, notice that I'm putting that in quotes there, discernment that lacks love and patience and kindness is not of the Holy Spirit. Yes, Jesus and the apostles were harsh when they rebuked people, but they were never unloving and unnecessarily mean-spirited. They were harsh when people violated the fundamental gospel message. Paul wrote, if anyone preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. Well, who was he writing against? He was writing against people who were teaching a works-based gospel. That's the gospel he cursed, or he prayed for curses on. So again, it's a fundamental violation that causes us to rebuke harshly. But in these other areas, there needs to be gentleness. There needs to be some self-control, some restraint. And again, this is why it's difficult because once you've jumped the gun, once you've jumped to a conclusion based on the exterior or based on the pettiness of simple doctrinal disagreement, once you've jumped the gun on that, well, forget it. You're not gonna wanna budge. And this is where we need to check the ego. Because if we have discern, and I want you to hear this, please, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you with this, if we have indeed made a judgment based upon the exterior, personality, methodology, something about them, just in general that we don't like, if we have indeed judged based upon doctrinal disagreement alone, and again, I'm not talking about the major fundamental doctrines. I'm talking about these minor areas, and I say minor, not that they're not important, like the denominational barriers and so forth. If we judge based on these things, and once we've made that decision, it's rather difficult, isn't it, to go back and say, I was wrong about that person. I was wrong about that ministry. I was wrong about that church. I was wrong about that brother or that sister in Christ. And it's difficult to admit that because now we have to admit we weren't hearing God. And some Christians think that if they admit they misheard God, then now they're calling into question their whole salvation experience. They're calling into question everything about their faith. When that's not it at all. In fact, it's a show of great character. It's a show of great spiritual maturity. When you can say, you know what, I judged on the exterior, or I judged based on doctrinal disagreement, my ego was offended that they didn't agree with me, and so I wrote them off. Well, that's difficult to do, but it is the right thing to do. But again, many don't do that because now they have to admit they got it wrong. And that is where pride becomes a barrier to repentance and reconciliation. I'll say that again. That is where pride becomes a barrier to repentance and reconciliation. We have to do this. Guys, I'll admit there are preachers that I've misjudged. I'm just gonna tell it to you plainly. There was one individual who came to preach at our home church there in Southern California. He came and he was preaching some harsh things. And I was just bothered by these harsh things. And really they were true. And really what it was, is I was convicted. And so I left that service. I was saying, oh, I said, you know, the typical something something was off, something didn't sit right in my spirit. And I get in my car and the Holy Spirit tells me, I wasn't grieved, you were convicted. Oh, I didn't like that. And I had to correct that thinking within my own heart and mind. Now, thankfully I didn't go too far and allow bitterness and division. It was just a quick thought that the Holy Spirit had to correct. But I said, you know what, Lord? Okay, forgive me for misjudging your servant. And what he was saying, yeah, it was convicting me. And I do receive that. And a connection developed and a ministry friendship developed and it was a great connection. And so we can often miss those because again, we're judging on the exterior or judging based on petty doctrinal disputes. And that's not what we're called to do. We are called to judge with righteous judgment. We're called to judge based on the word. And on that inner witness of the Holy Spirit you can only go by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit when you've dealt with those exterior ego-centered means by which we judge. And then if you're ready and you're challenged and you're saying, Lord, I want to judge with righteous judgment. I want you to write in the comment section just a prayer of repentance. Just ask him right now in the comment section just to help you to judge based on the word and on the spirit and not on these means of the flesh. Lord, I pray you help us do it. Let us be lovers of your word I pray. Grounded on the inspired word of God. Holy Spirit, teach us what it is to truly discern with level-headed discernment, righteousness, truth, love and patience. We thank you, Father, help us get this right, Lord, that your body might know unity and that the division of the devil might be defeated. In the matchless name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it, say amen. If you think more people need to hear this, do me a favor, leave a like on the video so that you can spread the teaching even further. And also, if you haven't done so already, make sure that you're subscribed to this channel. This channel releases teachings and sermons on the Holy Spirit, prayer, spiritual warfare and topics like these. We also show footage of our live streamed events from around the world where the power of the Holy Spirit moves and people are saved, healed, delivered and empowered. 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I just ask that you do your part for the gospel and do something right now. Please use the website if you can. It accepts all different currencies from all different nations. It also accepts Bitcoin and even stock donations. But if the form on the website does not work for you, then you can resort to using Facebook and YouTube, but do try that form first there on the website. Again, davidhernandezministries.com slash partner for monthly partnership, davidhernandezministries.com slash donate to give a single gift. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your giving. Thank you for partnering with me in spreading the gospel all around the world. I love you. I appreciate you. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. We are united by Christ. So spirit family, let's unite with our mission to stay focused on His word. And remember to major on the majors and minor on those minors. I love that point that you made there. I know you were truly blessed by this message as well as challenge. I know a lot of you were challenged with this message. So let us know down below what you thought of this message. Now with that being said, Diga, did you have anything else you wanted to add? Somebody was asking if we have a local church. We're here based in Austin as a ministry and we don't have regularly scheduled services in terms of every Sunday, but we do have services that we do every now and then. You can check that at davidhernandezministries.com slash events. On that note, on Friday, March 15th and Saturday, March 16th, we're coming to Orlando, Florida for a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. This is a two night event, two nights of worship, the word and demonstrations of the Holy Spirit's power. This is going to be an incredible time. The glory of God in these meetings is tremendous. There is a weight of glory that rests on these services that people testify about from all over the world. People fly in from different countries, from different states. They line up in the morning for services at night. Thousands come to these events and it is a powerful time. Jesus is glorified and the power of the Holy Spirit moves. So make sure you get down to Orlando. Now, we have about 5,000 seats available. We can expand that if need be. So I can safely say that we have enough room for you, your family, your loved ones, pastors, youth leaders, Bible study leaders, bring your groups down, plan your road trips now, book your hotels, book your car rentals, book your flights, get down to these services. It's free to enter. We don't charge a registration fee, but we do ask that you RSVP by going to davidhernandezministries.com slash events. When you RSVP, you're giving us information that we can use to determine how many seats we're going to need. And so we want to try to guess this correctly so that nobody's turned away. But as I said, we have plenty of seats for everybody. So come down. I recommend you get there at least an hour early. Some will get there two hours early and some even fewer will get there in the morning if they want really, really close seats. But if you can't come early in the morning, that's okay. Try an hour early or even two hours early, at least an hour early for parking to find your seat. Maybe you need to take a break before you get into the service, but do make sure to get down to these events, come both nights. It's going to be a powerful time. I want to show you actually the spiritual hunger that we've been seeing at the various events that we host around the world. I want to show you what the line looks like for these services. Let's take a look at that right now as I comment on it. This is Orlando, Florida last year. And this, by the way, is right around the start time for the service. Inside, the place was already just about full and people were still in line waiting to get in. As we said, this time around in Orlando, we have 5,000 seats available. We can increase that in the venue that we're at, but we just need you to RSVP. Let us know how many you're bringing. If you plan on coming so that we can determine whether or not we need to expand that. Now, what you're looking at here is a sign of spiritual hunger. These people are not there for me. They're not there to see Steve lead worship. They are there because they're hungry for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we understand that the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer. But when we gather like this, there are manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power that are unique to corporate gatherings. Notice also there's not a big lineup of conference speakers. We don't have a long list of different preachers who are well-known or different worship bands who are well-known. I bring the word and Steve leads the worship, but the people come for the presence of the Holy Spirit. They're not there for any big names. There are no big names present, but the name of Jesus. Jesus is the deliverer. Jesus is the healer. Jesus is the savior. Jesus is the one who empowers. And that's what these people are there for. So look at the spiritual hunger. Young and old, all different cultures and backgrounds represented. That's what heaven looks like. And these people are there. Of course it goes on and on, but I wanted to give you an idea of what that looks like so that you can know what to expect when you come to the event there. Again, March 15th and 16th, Orlando, Florida. Again, we have 5,000 seats. That means we have plenty of seats for everyone. In the past, we were always worried like where are we gonna have enough? Are we gonna have to turn people away? I'm confident with those 5,000 seats we'll have plenty and we can expand that if we need to as well. So don't worry. I know some of you have hesitated saying, well, I can't line up at 10 in the morning and therefore I don't even know if I'm gonna get in. Just come to the service. You're gonna get into the building, 5,000 seats. I'm confident there will be plenty of room.