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Salvation and Discernment
(Mt16:1-4; 1Ti4:1-2)

God is seated on the throne of judgment (Ps122:5).
For He is rich in His wisdom and knowledge, His judgment is unsearchable (Rm11:33) and
To those who seek humbly He gives a discerning heart (1Ki3:7-13).
 
Faith is believing Him and
The life of this faith is seeking God and discerning between the truth and the falsehood of the world, the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of evil
spirits, and the Spirit of truth and deceiving spirits (1Jn4:6).
 
Discernment, the ability to distinguish between works and things, is very important in everything: Between truth/lies, right/wrong, good/evil, friends/enemies, the path to life/the path to death etc.
The Bible says that blessed is he who does not walk in step with the wicked (Ps1:1) and that
How one wrong decision can lead to eternal destruction (Job34:4).
 
Deceived by the devil, Adam ate the forbidden fruit (Ge2:17, 3:4-6), and
All mankind, his descendants, became hellhound with the devil (Mt25:41).
Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son,
Sought the blessing with tears afterward but could not change what he had done (He12:16-17).
 
The history of the Bible illustrates the results of those with the discerning ability and those without:
By faith, the prostitute Rahab welcomed the spies of Israel and hid them, and
Saved her family while Jericho perished (Jos2:4-24; He11:31);
King Solomon pleased God by asking not for long life or wealth or the death of his enemies,
But for the wisdom to discern between right and wrong and
He eventually had the reputation for being an excellent judge (1Ki3:7-13).
King Ahab, on the other hand, was stirred up by his gentile wife Jezebel and did evil (1Ki16:30), and
Thus, God put deceiving spirits in the mouth of his prophets to lead him to his death (1Ki22:20-23).
 
The destruction of Israel came for they did not listen or pay attention to Jehovah.
They followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts (Jer7:24).
 
According to the prophecy, the king called Counselor appeared (Is9:6) and
He is Christ Yeshua, who said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19-21),
He would give discernment of not the appearance of the sky but the signs of the times (Mt16:2-3) for
He is the Word in the beginning, that is,
The God who has the unsearchable power to judge came as man (Jn1:1-2, 14).
 
Even when tempted by the devil while in His greatest weakness after fasting for 40 days,
Yeshua defeated him by making the written word as the standard of judgment (Mt4:1-11).
He was passed over to death by those who, in spite of seeing His signs and wonders,
Only saw Him as a man, a prophet or a king's descendant.
 
Nevertheless, as He died, He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1)     Offered His life following the Father’s command and was distinguished as He who serves God (Jn10:17-18; Mal3:18);
2)     Judged the devil who was full of his own schemes (Ge3:4-6; Ps1:1; Is14:12-15); and
3)     Sprinkled His redeeming blood on all men so they may receive by faith the power to discern (Jn1:12).
 
He resurrected and ascended to heaven and
Sat on the throne of judgement to judge the living and the dead (2Ti4:1).
The Holy Spirit lets believers discern spiritual things (1Co2:13) and
Peter put to death Ananias and Sapphire who lied to the Holy Spirit (Ac5:1-11).
In the last days scoffers will come,
Denying the Lord’s second coming and His judgment (2Pe3:3), and
Deceiving spirits, which are one’s own angels changed by saint’s evil desires (1Ti4:1-2),
Lead them to abandon the faith and believe the lies as
God sends them powerful delusion so that they will be condemned (2Th2:10-12).
 
The Christian is he who knows his own weaknesses, that is, the deceiving spirits, and
Thus struggles to rid them at all cost:
1)     Renews an upright spirit within him — an honest judgment regarding himself;
2)     Repents with a broken and contrite heart (Ps51); and
3)     Desperately asks God for discernment.
 
O Lord,
Let us know that we are engaged in a fierce spiritual warfare.
Let us know that one bad decision will lead to the path of destruction of no return.
From the lesson of Balaam (Nu22; 2Pe2:15-16),
Let us learn the seriousness of deceiving spirits and
When an evil thought pops up, let us immediately repent and get rid of it.
O Lord, give us discernment above all else!  Amen.