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An Open Letter On Discernment

To the body of Christ;

I am writing this open letter to share some thoughts in response to the comment made below. It is probably one of the most difficult issues we face today.

"When will the body of Christ start using their gift of discernment and put some of these phonies for profit out of circulation? "

Dear All,

People will only learn to use the gift of discernment when they stop blindly  trusting All people and rely on the Word of God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. That prompting comes by walking close to Him. There is not one person that shares with us, whose words or thoughts should not be completely weighed to the Word of God --both in what a person says and upholds as right or truth--and maybe more importantly ---by what they remain silent on. That silence can show either disobedience to the Word of God or the upholding of false teachings or leadership.

People become easily deceived because they want to believe someone they may like or trust would never be deceiving them-- or be a false teacher/leader. So they allow themselves to be taught things that are not of God--even when there are nudges by the Holy Spirit that something is wrong--they deny or ignore it--and uphold error.

Many times the deception does not even have to come through that leader--it is simply said by someone else--and then it is merely upheld by the silent support of that leader.

How was it that the Bereans weighed everything Paul said--to see if it was truth--and we know that he was called by God? Should we do no less today, when we are told in scripture that as the end draws closer there will be more and more deceivers and deceptions. And wasn't it Paul that asked why  are we surprised that they can stand right next to God's people and appear as ministers of righteousness--when they are agents of the enemy?

 2 Timothy 3:12-17; 2 Timothy 4: 1-5; 2 Corinthians 11: 12-15; Acts 17:11,12

 When we look at leadership there are questions we must ask ourselves.

Sharing Christ and what He teaches us is not a sin--to not obey Christ and His Word is a sin. A pastor, elder or leader is supposed to be an "ensample" not a "lord". Yet, we see in many "Christian" churches the leadership is leading the sheep to their destruction and are being upheld because many believe that once a person is placed in leadership- the sheep are simply to follow. That is not Biblical.

It is one thing to uphold leadership, it is another to blindly follow. There is only One that we are called to follow with total commitment and that is Jesus Christ. There are men that are given leadership positions, but we are never to put them on a pedestal and assume they will always portray the truth.

Titus 1:7-16 & 2:1

Some questions we need to ask in order to "test the spirits" are these.

Is the person in question in agreement with those that are exposed to be heretics or not of God?

Is the person "double tongued", showing at the very least, inconsistency in thinking.

Does leadership see error and expose it, or agree and make excuses for false teachings/teachers and only expose what others are already exposing?

Is it being obedient to allow error/evil to be consistently spoken beside truth, and allow it to be accepted as truth by those lacking in discernment or knowledge of the Word of God?

We know that one of Satan's most effective devices is to say truth and line it up squarely beside error and then focus on the truth. To not expose the error then would be to uphold it as truth.

 Is it being obedient for a "man of God' to know that someone is not of God and never rebuke or expose that person? 

Is it being obedient to allow the error/poison being spread by them to continue so that the flock and babes in the Lord are corrupted also?

Is it being obedient, to say you are listening to Almighty God and have discernment for the presence of evil, but never rebuke or expose it when it's in the midst of your group?

Is it being obedient to never be held accountable for these issues and expect that it should just be glossed over and be ignored because of who people perceive the person to be?

 1 Peter 3:8-17, 1 John 4:1,2; 2 John 6-11; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Timothy 2:22-26

 We need to ask that if someone is consistently in agreement with false teachings, including either the sheep or leadership, and do not discern when evil is being presented as good, is that person merely deceived? Or lacking in discernment or knowledge of the Word of God? Or are they simply a different flavour of what we can recognize as a false teacher? If so, we know that person was never Biblically qualified to teach anyone--if we weighed things against the Word of God.

If we weigh all to scripture and find that leadership is upholding or promoting error, or not exposing wolves that have infiltrated their own flock-- the following is most likely why:

Mark 3: 23-27 "And He called them unto Him, and said unto them in parables,
How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house."

There is indeed strong deception taking place--and the most difficult thing about being lovers of truth---and exposing the fruitless deeds of darkness--is it can be very costly. Deception is usually found very close to home, because we are often blinded and deceived by our feelings. One cannot expose or cast out what one is in agreement with, or upholds as "good".

All Scripture Quotes From the Authorized King James Bible.

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