Discernment

When I was a kid and watched Saturday morning cartoons, Superman was obviously one of my favorites. I am sure you are shocked to hear that after taking a year to develop our last series, “The Hero Within.” You rightfully picked up on the parallels being drawn from that most prominent superhero and our individual callings as heroes to this terrorized culture and time. That is a calling that requires supernatural giftings and abilities because this age is as messed up as a liberal professor of gender studies trying to explain to his Ivy League trust fund class which restroom to use at a truck stop in Oklahoma. What we need to do today is hard, really hard… but heroes do hard things.

I vividly remember some random Saturday morning as a fat kid sitting with a Tupperware bowl of cornflakes with at least three scoops of sugar (the nasty white, bleached, processed, cheap stuff) to help make the medicine go down, sitting Indian-style on our dirty, shag carpet watching our thousand-pound console TV while The Man of Steel kicked villain butt without regard for the sensitivities of our modern snowflake culture. Superman was and is the GOAT of all cartoon superheroes no matter how much they try to woke-ify him in our progressive (regressive) time, nobody my age will give up that place in our head where that “S” stands as an icon of the best of the best. But, there was something I always struggled with as a mostly dumb kid… X-ray vision.

What is that all about? I mean, you can fly so fast that you can actually reverse the rotation of the earth and turn back time. You can have sunlight laser beams shoot from your eyes at will. You can right-cross a million-ton comet hurdling toward Earth in an existential collision and knuckle it into potting soil. For real. If you could do all that and then some, why would you care if you could see a fountain pen in a guy’s shirt pocket from a hundred yards away?

Now I am a grown-up (mostly). I have not had a bowl of cereal in over a decade, and now I would rather eat a scoop of dirty kitty litter than a spoonful of sugar. The good cartoons are gone, sacrificed on the altar of limp-wristed modernization where the new, “heroes,” are mentally-ill transgenders using dance powers against their arch nemesis of systemic racism or the evil alien monster trying to devour humanity called, “conservatism.” Additionally, my value for X-ray vision has completely flipped and it is now at the top of the super-cool superpowers. Only, the name by which we Beloved adults calls it is, “discernment.”

And also He was saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising up from the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it happens. And when a south wind is blowing, you say, ‘There will be heat,’ and it happens. Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the earth and of the sky, but how do you not know to discern this time?
Luke 12:54-56 BLB

This is such a clear statement about the importance and downright necessity of discernment. Discernment is a superpower from Holy Spirit that is a reward for doing the hard thing of transformation. What is a bit subtle here is how the comparative reference also teaches us the way to develop this superpower.

The culture Jesus ministered in, mostly around the Sea of Galilee, was well-discipled in weather acumen. It could have quite possibly been a necessary skill for one’s survival in that day and region. For those folks, not being able to read the signs of weather patterns would easily have put them, and their families, in dangerous situations. There were no tornado sirens, Emergency Broadcast Warnings, weather alerts on the news, and weather advisories from the National Weather Service texted around town. Nope. You very purposefully and specifically trained yourself to quickly and easily read the sky so as to determine what the weather would be. And they were really good at it… they had to be.

What if we were of the same opinion about spiritual discernment as the ancient people were in sky discernment? Imagine the potential positive effect in our daily lives.

This is a truth I have known since I was a young man, so as to engage in the process of development. Obviously, there were times and instances where I completely stunk at it, and am humble enough to acknowledge that I will be tricked, fooled, con-ed, or deceived in the future. Yet, my X-ray vision is much, much more acute than the average Joe (or Frank).

Additionally, notice that Jesus yelled, “Hypocrites!” at disciples who could not operate this superpower. I am certain we all agree that Jesus was not loose with his words, especially words with this much derogatory intent, especially with His disciples that He loved. So we need to put the proper amount of gravity on this divinely accurate and appropriate rebuke. It is clear that Jesus believes a disciple who has developed discernment in natural areas, but has not developed it in spiritual areas is a pretender.

Amplified Bible
You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders)! You know how to analyze and intelligently interpret the appearance of the earth and sky [to forecast the weather], but why do you not intelligently interpret this present time?

Discernment is the ability to analyze and interpret information and data in a way that has a conclusion that is true in the spirit. As a reminder, the spirit real is the real, higher realm, while the natural is the after-effect of that higher realm. So natural discernment knows, “red sky at night,” concludes, “sailor’s delight.” We should see and hear so accurately that we can conclude what is really happening in our situations… in our hearts… in other people’s actions… in the fake news… in the government… in our world. This is not to say that we will be 100% precise, but we should be tracking light-years ahead of the world.

NASB 1977 
“You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?

Legacy Standard Bible 
You hypocrites! You know how to examine the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not examine this present time?

Analyze, examine, interpret, and discern all carry different nuances of the exhortation that we should reflect upon as readers and disciples. The Lord gave His disciples many tests along the journey they were all privileged to walk with Him. Not long before these statements, you may recall, that one such instance followed the famous, “Parable of the Sower,” (Mark 4, Luke 8, Matthew 13). Jesus teaches ALL DAY, and possibly a continuance from the previous day, on parables about how the Kingdom works in contradiction to the natural world. Discernment. Then, He proceeds to spend countless hours pulling His disciples off to the side explains every parable and answering every question they had. You would think after this intense experience with the Son of God that the disciples would be tracking true with the spirit.

Then Jesus gives a test and says, “Let us cross over (the Sea of Galilee) to the other side,” (Mark 4:35). Seems simple enough and not too needful of any deep spiritual impartation… but that command was in direct conflict with the professional fisherman knowledge they had about what the sky was saying about going for a midnight sail. If you parallel the different accounts of this instance, you will see there was some likely uneasiness in those guys because Matthew tells us that, “suddenly,” a, “mega,” storm showed up (8:24). They had to know that their expertise in reading the signs made them a bit uncomfortable. Shortly thereafter, Jesus uses His proper authority as the Master of Storms and becomes their Savior once again by verbally spanking the wind and waves into obedience. Here is where we pick up on Jesus’ disappointment with them for not using their discernment properly. He proceeds to immediately rebuke them, with pretty direct chastisement, for their unbelief.

Why?

Personally, I believe they failed the test in real time.

They had a chance to analyze the sky or discern the command, and they went with their familiar, natural, and incorrect choice of following that they could see and know just in the carnal. But for the grace of God, that choice would have sank their boat, taking their lives at worse, but at a minimum made them directly disobedient by refusing the Lord’s command. They could have justified that decision by explaining to the untrained carpenter all of their, “expert study,” through a lifetime on the water. “You should follow the science, Nazarene… trust us, staying home tonight will be much more safe and effective.” How I interpret this account is that they were operating in a particularly high amount of unbelief while Jesus was almost mockingly flippant. He just curled up on a pillow in the back of the small boat and was sawing logs so hard that the MEGA storm did not even rouse Him. His discernment was above theirs… above the natural.

In our present time, we are facing very similar decisions. The “science” and the “experts” have much to pontificate about that will lead humanity to a shipwreck of fear, insecurity, chaos, and confusion. They are reading the “sky,” otherwise known as the devil’s playbook, and letting the whole world know through their propaganda news networks what destruction is awaiting us foolish folks who ignorantly trust in God and His Word instead of trusting their screamy existential predictions.

• Climate catastrophe (again) or going victoriously through the storm.
• Fake science advanced by fake news or foundational truth grounded in the Gospel.
• Gender confusion or wonderfully and divinely created identity.
• Deconstruction of the family unit or revival of the value for Godly families.
• Pandemic 2.0 or removing tyrants from power.
• Great destruction or Great Awakening.

When we turn back to the Lord’s exhortation for discernment, there was another test that followed His call for spiritual maturation.

Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, who will throw you into prison. And if that happens, you won’t be free again until you have paid the very last penny.
Luke 12:57-59 NLT

Unoffendability. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Pursuit of peace.

A person who is operating in actual spiritual maturity will make every effort to avoid strife, contention, and any trap of bitterness that, like gathering storm clouds, is moving ominously toward our boats. A spiritually dull person does not see the invisible gathering forces while a mature disciple senses the rumbling and will quickly work to, “settle the matter.”

Discernment makes us like a superhero in this broken age. The least valued power (X-ray vision) is now of great value because we can avoid the spiritual traps laid by offense and the world’s “experts.” I spend hours a day in effort to develop this superpower, and I have a long way to go… but I am nowhere near as naïve as I once was.

Beloved, how well does your X-ray power work? You can know your level of spiritual discernment by assessing your level of offense.

We are all headed there together family, let us do it in such a way that we protect each other from the storms.

I love you,
Steve