Is it discernment or judgement? In this episode Gina and Stephanie talk about the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit and the common fears and misconceptions that stand in the way of believers stepping into all that God has for us as his kids.
Click below to listen starting at 21:22 to follow along.
Discernment, Judgement and Faith
Gina:
The gifts are no different than anything else in a functioning community. There’s going to be people who are going to do it right and do it wrong, say it right and say it wrong. You can be in an environment where gifts are actively flowing and you can see things that you’re discerning are God, and the enemy can come in the middle of it and be manifesting something that isn’t.
But as believers in the church world, we can tend to be pendulum swingers. We want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, the first sign of something that we aren’t comfortable with. When we teach on discernment, we teach what discernment is and what it isn’t.
Discomfort is not discernment. Offense is not discernment. Judgment is not discernment. But we can justify all three of those by throwing the word discernment in there. “I’m discerning this is. Well, no, I’m actually uncomfortable or I am totally offended, so I’m going to say I’m discerning something.”
There’s something discernment-related there, but that’s not the way to appropriately, in a healthy way and in a godly way handle it.
It does require a maturity of the people who are stewarding that environment to intentionally create a place where the gifts can be actually grown and nurtured and cultivated rather than to either go all crazy, or get shut down completely. Which is as damaging, if not more damaging to a spiritual community.
Stephanie:
It seems like so many of us want to wait to step out until we know that it’s going to hit, so to speak, it’s going to happen. If you speak to most people that I know that operate in the miraculous, that I would love to operate in, because how cool would it be to see someone’s leg grow back as you’re praying?
I desire to see more of that happening through the prayers that I pray, because I believe God to be that God. But most people I know that operate in those giftings will say,
“The first hundred people I prayed for didn’t get healed.” He’s cultivating our faith. It says, “When I come back who will be of faith? How many of you will have faith?” Faith is key. It’s key to all of it.
Sometimes our yeses and even when we step out and it doesn’t happen the way we believe it is supposed to happen according to Scripture. The miraculous doesn’t happen.
The word is incorrect. It’s an opportunity for us to step in and say, “Lord, I know someone’s going to get miraculously healed of something through prayer because I believe you to be that God.
If I am the only person there that’s got that faith in a given moment and someone needs healing, You’ll use me. The person will get healed and I believe that to be true I’m going to keep stepping out.
I’m going to keep declaring my faith and what I see in the Word of God. “That’s all part of sanctification. He’s working all of those things out. We don’t get there until we’re willing to step out.
Going back to these people that operate in the miraculous and hearing their stories of it, what we’re all doing is believing God to be who He is, praying with the faith that He is who He is and knowing He’ll show up in some way. If it doesn’t happen in that moment, we don’t let our experience or lack of experience define our faith.
The Gift of Healing & Connection with God
Gina:
It goes back to “The gifts aren’t the goal.” Jesus is the goal. I taught the other night and one of the things that was the big focal point of my teaching was, when we’re more focused on what we want from Jesus, than on Jesus Himself, and there is a danger in that.
We start wanting our healing or our breakthrough or our miracle more than we want Jesus, then we get obsessive over here. Suddenly we’ve created an idol out of this thing that we’re pursuing versus pursuing Him and trusting God.
“You’re God. You’re always moving and You’re doing something creative and you are creative. You’re not bound by the boxes that we have for You. You’re not constrained by our expectations.”
Projecting your expectation even in wanting this over here, God may have something even different and more creative in how He wants to manifest something when we’re praying. If we get so caught up in how we think it should look, we could miss all together where He is moving, because He’s never not answering. He’s always speaking. He’s always moving.
Something is happening. Whether this prayer, like that person you invited to pray, whether this prayer is the beginning of this journey that God’s going to now take them on, that’s going to not just heal or take care of the apparent thing, but is going to have this crazy effect.
It’s never just about us. God’s a Redeemer, but He also weaves everything together for this powerful, massive for our good and for His glory, working all things together for good.
And if we can let go of our expectations and the outcomes we presume it needs to look like, feel like, be, and trust that He is moving and step in and have obedience to do something scary that you think, “That can’t happen through me.”
And not get so caught up, “It needs to look like that thing, I want to do what they’re doing. Why can’t You show up, like You show up when she prays?” Not get so caught up on that, but get, “Lord, You’re miraculous. You’re amazing. You are here.
This is Your son, this is Your daughter. Lord do Your thing. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but do something.” Then trust that He will. That’s a very different posture to take in it. You’re not always going to see the outcome.
Stephanie:
There’s a couple things that I do to keep myself centered on Him. They’re self protection things. One of them is I often ask, “Give me the one step, because I realized that it actually protects me to not know Your whole plan.
Because if I do the step, I know what I’m saying yes to, and then I have to trust You with the rest.” Then I’ll say yes, and then there’ll be another request and there’ll be more yeses along the way.
But when I’ve shown up to things and I can get in my mind, I have a hard time getting out of my mind. That can take on a whole life of its own and the enemy can get me there every time.
I remember being invited to this one prayer thing, and we were praying over a couple that was moving to Northern California. There were a lot of people that I would consider power prayer people.
I remember parking going, “The heck am I doing here? I have no right being here. I’m so stressed about it. Should I be practicing prayers, so that they sound prayerful?”
I’m like, “You know what? I have to let it go. My “yes” is showing up. I’m going to be okay if You don’t even ask me to say a word in prayer. That’s going to be my starter. I’m just saying yes to being here. That’s all You ask me to do.” I’m getting in my head too much, and getting in a place that’s not healthy for me.
That’s one thing I do, “Only tell me what I need to know to say yes.” The one thing, one step at a time. Often when people come for prayer, I never have liked when people come for prayer for healing, I feel so much pressure. I am putting this all on myself.
I lost the point of it all before I’ve even opened in prayer, because I got into this stress. The Lord, very clearly one day, gave me this picture and He goes, “All I want you to do.” He showed me taking my fingers and putting them on the person’s chin that I was praying for and turning their head to their left or to the right.
Then He showed me a picture of Him being there. He goes, “That’s all I’m asking you to do. Your only job is taking their chin, moving their head. That’s all this prayer is to do. Direct them to Me.”
That’s all. He showed me that picture time and time again for a very long season to keep me centered. Now I think of before, “All I am doing is trying to direct them to Him.” And it takes the burden off of me.
Gina:
That’s the purpose of the gifts. God healing someone is demonstrating His love for them. It was a word of knowledge for the woman at the well. Him saying that was all she needed to shift her life, shift her faith. Then she became an evangelist and brought the entire town to Jesus. It’s all about bringing us back to relationship.
We have the ministry of reconciliation. We’ve been reconciled back through Jesus. All the ministry that we’re talking about, because prayer ministry is about people coming with brokenness and hurt, and pointing them to the one who can heal them. it’s all about bringing them back to awareness of His care and His love and His presence in their life.
Check out the rest of this conversation What To Do With Spiritual Gifts
Check out the Dwell Meditations
