This book was written to encourage others to be sober and vigilant and to value the gift of discernment. You know, that intuition or unease we get when something is not quite right. Far too often, we have a tendency to ignore that check in our spirit, or we think there might be something wrong with us.
Here we are, in church, surrounded by believers that are clapping, shouting amen, and agreeing in unison. And we look around to see if anyone else might be thinking something is not right because we have received that Holy SpiritaEUR(tm)s nudge that something is amiss. The preacher is delivering a helluva hallelujah sermon, and the congregation is eating it up. But something does not seem right. We leave the service feeling like we missed something important or we are spiritually inadequate because most everyone seemed to love the service. We get home and we call a friend and ask, aEURoeWhat did you think of the service?aEUR
aEURoeAmazing! The preacher was spot on!aEUR they reply. We hang up the phone thinking that we must have a spiritual deficiency.
Or we attend a service and there are people going up and getting prayed over. We want prayer but something seems weird about this prayer session. We pass off our discernment and tell ourselves, aEURoeThis is just a flesh thing within me.aEUR So we ignore the warning and go up to receive prayer.
After service, we approach the preacher and ask him some questions we had about the sermon. We receive no satisfactory answers and we chalk it up to our own lack of understanding and our being spiritually inept.
This is what this book is about. Encouraging you to accept discernment as a warning and investigate the questionable situation further rather than finding fault within yourself. This does not mean we are to disrupt a service or argue with the leaders of the church, but it does mean that we are to stop ignoring that check we get in our spirit, even when others do not seem to notice anything wrong. Ask questions. Research and investigate what is being taught and what is being practiced when you feel something is amiss. Discernment is a gift that God gave us to keep us guided in the right direction. Use it or youaEUR(tm)ll lose it!