Women's Discernment

Saturday night services are starting this week, and we have all these extra things to do. It was just like a tidal wave this week when it hit. So the good news is that when I came before the Lord and asked for his direction for today, I mean, you know, if you're a pastor or if you speak a lot in public like some of you do, you always have a little repertoire of messages. And you say, well, Lord, any of these would be fine. And it's terrible when he says, I don't know, that's not it. I mean, I went through my files and I said, well, this is a good one. I mean, this would really get like, no, that's not it. And this literally happened to me yesterday as I was, you know, I had been thinking about this and thinking about it and saying, Lord, certainly, it'll be something that I learned when I was away this time. I spent a month, almost a month, with the Lord just kind of intensely gleaning some things. And I went through, you know, that whole file was full of great messages, but you're not getting any of them today. So when it came down to it, the Lord convinced me, because he gave me no peace any other way, that I wish to speak with you today and share with you about the topic of discernment. And you know, that is a topic that is so broad, there's no way I can do justice to it in 45 minutes or so. It's a topic that I guess, when it comes down to our corporate experience, we all know the need of it, but it's something that ladies, I feel, in this present day, has never been more needed than it is right now. I love so many things about women in the church, as part of the Church of Jesus Christ. The loyalty of women, the faithfulness of women to those things to which God's called them, the beauty that women inject into a situation just by their sensitivity and by their warmth, all those kinds of things that, you know, we as men often are lacking. Creativity, kindness, those kind of things. Now, there are some things that women inject that I'd rather not have in the fellowship, but the Lord said don't talk about those either, so you're all right. I'm not gonna be beating on you at all today, you know. And I'll say praise the Lord for that. But one of the things that seems to rise in my own perception about women, about everything else that I think about women, is the tremendous natural discernment that God has given you. Do you know that? In my experience, women generally are more perceptive and more discerning than men, and over the years of our marriage, that discernment has meant a great deal to me, as Carol and I have kind of walked through things together. And there's been more times than I can even begin to recount to you where Carol's intuition toward a certain situation was right. Or a person. You know, I advise our male leadership to listen to their wives when they say, gosh, I don't feel good about that situation or about that person. And even if it's not, you know, if they can't give you four reasons, most of these ladies can't give four reasons why, you know, you just feel that it's that way. And that has become something that I've grown to depend on. In fact, if Carol has some real reservations about something, I really have to know it's from God to press on ahead. And sometimes, you know, that's frustrating. Because sometimes my feeling is, let's do this. And I just went through that yesterday. We had something I just wanted to do, and it felt good. And Carol said, gee, honey, I don't think so. And but when the Lord doesn't give me a clear green light to go ahead with it, then I value that, and I've saved me a lot of trouble. I really appreciate that. Now, the reason why I believe the Lord wants me to talk about discernment some today is because of the times that we're in. Now, I wanted to go into Esther. Remember the book of Esther? And I've taught a series in the book of Esther when we were in St. Teresa's four years ago, and I talked about being in the kingdom of God for such a time as this. And I want to say to you a rather sobering word to start out, not just to shake you into getting your attention. But ladies, this is a day in my 15 years of being right here in the North Hills, I've never seen a day when I've been more conscious of the fact that there is titanic warfare in the heavenly places over our city right now. And I know that, you know, people who are unfamiliar with such things can think this guy's hallucinating. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I've never seen anybody fighting. But you see, if you look back in the history of the city of Pittsburgh, how many of you have lived here more than 10 years? It is amazing. We are the most... what is the word for someone who stays in the same place a long time? What? Rootbound? Stable? Yeah, stable. That's a positive word. Stagnant? Well, yeah. We are. I mean, you know, if you... now, if I asked that same question in Southern California, you know, there'd be three hands that would go up because I've done that. But you're making my point, you're really reinforcing it. You could probably, with me, discern that over the last 20 years, and many of you live here 20 years or more, many good things have come up in the body of Christ. Catherine Coleman's ministry, a number of good churches sprung up. Young Life, 20 years ago, Young Life had meetings all over the city, you know, booming youth meetings. Isn't it fascinating now that 20 years later, most everything that sprung up has dried out? Now, I just read a statistic yesterday that I'm still... I still don't believe it, but I read a statistic that there's somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 churches in our country, this is what this statistic said, it was in a Fortune magazine of all places, with a thousand members or more in the United States. I don't know, that averages out to 200 per state. That doesn't seem to register correctly with me, but let's just say, let's just say it was a thousand churches. I can believe that, of a thousand members. That would be a hundred... No, let's see, that would be 20 per state, right? How many churches do you know of, of a thousand or more, in our whole area, Western Pennsylvania? Very few. And for some reason, every time God starts to do a great work, and starts to raise up congregations, and raise up ministries, the devil is very effective. And if you don't know much about the devil, or you don't believe in the devil, or you think it's just a weird Halloween fantasy, I urge you to really study something authoritative, try God's Word, and see what he says, see what the Bible says about the devil. He's not just an impersonal evil force, as most of our cultures tend to think. He's a real person, with great power, and his power is in his deception. And what has happened in our city is that as God has sought to raise up great ministries, and to impact the region in the world, Satan has come along and just knocked him off. Division, splits, marriage breakups, even sickness and death, brought on by the devil's attack. Ladies, I felt that God wanted me to talk to you about this, because many of you have a burden to pray, and make a difference in the kingdom of God. And I want to urge you, I want to just somehow impart to you an urgency for today, and this whole issue as it comes and bears in our life as a church, and beyond us. I mean, I'm not just talking about Northwood, but many churches, others of you here today perhaps, come from another church. Your pastor would affirm what I'm saying today, if he has had his eyes open to what's happening in our city. I could tell you right now of a large church somewhere in the greater Pittsburgh area, that has been growing steadily over the years, and is just moving along, and doing wonderful things for God. And right in the middle of one of their most significant strategic times, the church is going through a tremendous internal struggle right now. And the marriage, marriages are involved, and there's disunity, and the eldership, and those kinds of problems that you know, and I know, in the end destroy churches, and destroy families. I want to tell you something. When a church breaks up, families break up. It shouldn't be that way, but that's what happens. Sometimes feelings are so deep, there's so much disappointment, so much heartache, that literally husbands and wives can't bear up under it. This is a day when, when in our city, I think God is on the verge of doing some wonderful, great, exciting things that we've not seen before. And yet, it's going to take discerning people, discerning the times, discerning what God is doing in order for the church, to rise up, and come through this. Now, the exciting news in our Bibles is that Satan only comes for a season. This is not a non-stop battle. How many believe the battle can be won? It can be won. It isn't just something that we're going to do for a little while, and then you know, get another wave. And if you've been living in 20 years of attack, then there's something wrong with your life. Hello? You know, if it's been 20 years of non-stop attack, then something's goofed up. And we need to get that right. And I've told my staff this morning, I said, you know, when the devil attacked Jesus, and in Luke's Gospel, in chapter 4, it says that he attacked him three different times. And then it says these words, and then the devil left him, and waited for another time. The devil will never be gone until Jesus comes back. However, there are times when he's going to be out of the picture. And that's, in a way, I feel like what I'm going to share with you today is just sort of a rallying call to you as discerning women, to discern the times that we're in, to know that these are not just incidental things that I'm talking about. I feel so strongly about this. Because, you know, many of you have been very faithful servants in the house of the Lord. And you know, you've been home group leaders, or you've been faithful in your ministry of some sort. And you know, you can just sit there and be faithful, faithful, faithful, and never gain any progress, never sense that you're overcoming or making strides. And the reason is, is because you haven't understood this issue of spiritual warfare as a beginning point, as discerning what's happening. Now, with that as a background, really, I'm not going to talk about that specifically, but that's, I think, the why. I'm going to get get into some very specific discernment as it relates to your homes, and families, and some other things. Because I feel this, that the number one place that you, as women, need to be discerning is in your home. You know, you, God gives you insight and discernment in your home that your husband, if you're married, don't have. If you're a single gal, there's every reason for you to listen to what I'm going to say. Because you can establish your household, and the people that you influence, in the same way, with these same principles. Now, let's look at a couple different things. First of all, let me talk for a little bit about, I think we have this on an overhead, the discernment that is necessary in women to understand the root causes of strife. Okay? That's the first one. First of all, okay? Oh, all right. Maybe I have them here, then. Let's see. All right. Just go cover up the other ones, please, Bonnie. Like that. Women of discernment understand that there are root causes for what happens. Anyone read this little book called, The Seductions Exposed, by Gary Greenwald? Anyone read this yet? New book. Interesting book, because he addresses, in this book, the fact that the relational problems that most of us see, and feel, and experience are often caused by forces that we never, you know, we feel like we just don't like somebody. So that's simple, you know? And I agree with him that most of it is because we're ignorant of root causes. The root cause is what you don't see that has caused the behavior that you do see. How many of you have ever had kids who have had your kids at a time, rather, when, for example, I can recall last weekend, our one son, I came home from being at work, and everything he did was cranky and grumpy, and he was, you know, I don't think I should do this now, and oh, you know, would you help me pick up some of the weeds down here? Oh, you know. And, you know, he'd walk in the room, and one of the other kids would be there, and there'd be this little explosion. I know that doesn't happen to your kids, but my kids do have those every once in a while. And I finally said, what's going on with Jonathan? And Carol said, the root cause is he stayed over at David Fisher's house on Friday night, and they were up all night, and he's tired. Now, you see, if all I was doing was dealing with the fact that he was just a little cantankerous, and he was, you know, argumentative, you know, and I could have said, we have a rebellion problem here. Well, really, we didn't. What we had was a tired problem. It was just weird. Now, your husbands are like that a lot, too, by the way. You see, the root issues are something that we've got to get down and understand, and many relationships now, let me talk about a little different level. Let me talk about the fact that many of the struggles that we have in root issues are things that people transfer to us. Listen to this now, ladies. Many of the problems that we get into in relationships are because we receive a spirit from somebody. Things are transferred into us. Turn to 1 Corinthians. Gina, is everyone supposed to have their Bible, or most people have Bibles? If you don't, you can look on with somebody, or just listen carefully, and I'll read it for you. 1 Corinthians 15. There's a scripture here that is very relevant to what we're talking about this morning, and verse 33 reads this way. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Don't be misled. Don't be fooled. One translation said, bad company corrupts good character. Or, another reference you may want to jot down, Proverbs 13 and verse 20. He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. Ladies, your discernment is needed when it comes to the people that you're spending time with, and your family is spending time with. Make no mistake, don't be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Now, I can unspiritualize that in a moment, just say it this way. The people you hang out with are going to affect the way you are, and ladies, be discerning. Use your discernment to help your family and exercises in your own life, to stay away from people who are going to bring you down. Don't make every grumbling, complaining, and I could use a lot of other adverbs and adjectives, kinds of people, don't make those your companion. Don't make yourself a one-woman mission to save all the people who are grumbling, because it's likely that you'll get pulled down by that. I can't tell you how many times I have seen and observed people who are very positive about what God was doing, and encouraged by what they saw the Holy Spirit doing, and they get with somebody that's not happy. And over the space of a few months, it usually takes some months, doesn't happen overnight, they begin to pick up the negative. They begin to transfer to them their negative attitude, their negative disposition, their negative judgments toward other people. And unfortunately, over the years, you see, one of the wonderful things about being a pastor in one place over time is you see the fruit of it. You know, I always find that the people who were positive and were pulled in by the negative end up being negative, and both of them end up being unhappy. The positive rarely goes out on their own and brings the negative one up. I don't know why that is. It usually takes two or more, so that you can be in the majority as you come around the person that's negative. Have you seen that? Would you affirm that that's true? Now, we'd like to read this verse to our teenage kids, don't we? It makes sense, you know, don't hang out with those druggies or those are the, that would be where you'd normally associate this kind of a scripture. But I want to say, ladies, be discerning. Use the discernment, the natural gift that God has given to you women, to know when to pull back from situations or people that are really negative and causing you to become tainted in your points of view. Another place where I see this scripture coming into into play, and this is a little trickier one, because it's a positive area, but I've seen intercessors fall into a real trap with this, this same principle. They'll get into a situation, I can tell you of one church on the west coast that I know of that an intercessory group was raised up to pray for the ministry, and I think that's a good and wonderful and needed thing, especially in light of what I shared earlier. Over time, this intercessors group began to believe that they were hearing from God more than the leadership of the church. And so they began to tell the pastor and the elders that so-and-so on this staff really was in error, and some things that the church was heading into doing, that no, no, no, that couldn't be God, and here's why. And then they began to single out people and manipulate their revelations against people. There has been so much destruction. This particular church went through a major split, lost a thousand members, because some people in the intercessory prayer group decided that they knew more than the anointed leadership knew of what God was saying. What would be the proper way to do that? If you're an intercessory group, and you feel there's a real error going on, what would be the proper way to do that? Exactly. Put that down in a form that you can communicate in writing, hopefully, and go to the eldership and submit it and say, in the name of Jesus, we believe this is what's happening here, but it's unto you. It falls on your head, not on my head, to make you do it. Ladies, tremendous principle. If you want to see something happen, then allow room for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction. And we need those kind of directives and feedback. You say, well, you know, I've done that. No one pays attention. Well, I can tell you in this church, we pay attention to it, because I respect that office, you know, of the intercessory. But don't let intercessory prayer become a time when you can just come and mumble. Very transferring negative spirits starts happening, and destruction is imminent for that group, if not for more than that, if something doesn't take place. On the positive side of things, you know, you can also receive some very good things from people. You can find an incredibly encouraging experience by being with people who are positive. And there's that sense in which your discernment can work for you. You know, if you discern that there's someone who's a little more mature in Christ, or maybe has been through a particular trial that you've been through, go out of your way, you know, corral and say, you know, you went through a divorce. Somehow you seem happy. You've made it, and you've been blessed in that, and I want to know how you did it. Help me, because I'm facing the same thing, and I'm really not. That's a very wise thing to do. That's a discerning thing to do. And I want to urge you ladies, don't minimize that. You have to take the initiative to say, I see something there I want to pursue. I'm going to go do it. I know in my own life, the ability, the ability to to see something out there clearly enough to know that that's where I need to go, and then pursue it has helped me to stay out of an awful lot of trouble, I think, and on the better side of things, has helped me to grow a great deal in Christ. Another way in which this transference thing happens is in terms of your anointing. Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Kings. All right, I'll give you five minutes. All right. 2 Kings. It's way back in there. Chapter 2. Another way that this discernment can help in a positive way is this. You know, Elijah is about to be taken up to be with God. He's been a faithful servant of the Lord, and Elisha had been following him around, learning things, and here's what he said in verse 9. Are you there? 2 Kings? Chapter 2, verses 9 through 13. And when they crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, tell me what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Elisha said, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit. Elisha replied. You've asked a difficult thing. Elisha said, yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours. Otherwise not. And as they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, my father, my father, the chariots and the horsemen of Israel. And Elisha saw him no more, and then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood in the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah? He asked. And when he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. You see, ladies, when you're discerning of people who are farther along in God than you, and they have the spirit resting on them, you can receive of that spirit. I mean this very sincerely. It's more than just information. How many know what I'm talking about? It's more than information. It's of their spirit. It's of who they are in Christ. You can receive that. Elisha received a double portion. And by the way, interestingly, as you study this historically, there's twice as many miracles that Elisha performed than Elijah. Number in Scripture. If you understand what I'm saying today, it should be a motivation for you to seek out people that you can be with and discern those that you can grow from by spending time with. Now, some of you, I'm sure, are thinking, gee, you know, I look around here. I can't grow from any of these people. You think I'm, you know, there are some people that... I've discovered this. There are things that I could learn from every one of you. There are things about your spirit. What I need to do is have the discernment to know. Or maybe I need to grow from Gail's joy, and maybe I need to grow from Jean's authority, and maybe I need to grow from Anne's kindness or whatever. But I see the character that I need, and I see a person who has that, and I say, could we spend some time here? I discern it, and then I act on it. A very, very important way to grow if you're serious about going on. And I have to say this, you know, Timothy saw Paul, and he spent time with him, and Paul transferred that mantle, that anointing, on to him. He said, remember, the gift that was given you by the laying on of my hands, the transference of that spirit. A very powerful way to grow in Christ. Paul says in Philippians 2, 19-22, I don't have anyone like Timothy who shares my spirit. All right, so that's the first area. Growing and discernment of the things that make for unity is the secondary, all right? Root causes. What's causing things to happen in relationships? Are spirits being transferred? Are people picking up things because of who they're spending time with and so on? Number two, discernment of matters of unity. You know, I think Jesus knew a lot more about what really mattered than we do. And you know, I've heard so many sermons and so many stories about unity, and John 17, and the high priestly prayer is a prayer of unity. My problem with unity is that I don't, it's very hard to find it, you know. It's very hard to find it, and it's very hard to know what to do to get there in many, many cases. But let me say this, ladies, your discernment, your discernment in these matters of unity is what helps us to know each step in getting there. I knocked out, outlined three specific places where I think you can use your discernment to address issues that once you're addressing them will make for unity. The first one I would say is use your discernment to perceive differing visions. Differing visions. There are many, many good ideas out there today. Do you know what I'm saying? There's lots of stuff that's happening. But God has given you the ability to discern the vision that's right for your life and for your family. I'm amazed at how many people get taken away in an emphasis. There are people out there who would say, well, for example, I've heard a lot of people saying, well, right now God is restoring to the church a prophecy emphasis, you know. Prophecy is the thing again, and it's becoming, John Wimber just had a prophecy conference. Well, gee, we got to run to the prophecy conference and learn how to prophesy again. And I'm not saying that isn't right or good. It probably is both of those things. However, is that the vision that you've been called to? Is that the vision that God has called the ministry that you're responsible for to? That is a big difference in that, you see. Because if you start pursuing every vision that comes down the line, you will burn out. You'll be confused. You're not going to know. Where do I really fit? There's been a, what was it, ten years ago, I would say, a prosperity emphasis. And everybody was going to the prosperity teachers and discerning that vision. Well, I need some of it, you know. Some people got really heavy into the word emphasis, and that became a thing. And the healing emphasis, and you know, the signs and wonders emphasis. And I don't know, all those things are in the Bible. But are they the vision that God has for your life? I learned this kind of in an interesting way, and I'll share this little vulnerable moment with you. Many of you were here when, in 1984, John Wimber was right here in this room. John Wimber, who's a well-known charismatic leader, used to be a Friends pastor, Friends denomination. And John, the Lord just got a hold of John in his, I think he was in his late 40s, and maybe 50 years old, and touched him in a very unique way, and gave him some gifts. One of which was discerning of spirits. We're going to talk about that in a minute. And so John could walk into a situation, look at a table of ladies, and kind of discern, well, really, you're dealing, you know, and he'd be able to look in your eyes. And you know how when someone can do that, you're like, you never want to look at them, you know? Because you're always feeling something's in there that shouldn't be in there. And yet John would have wonderful things to say to people, too. But he was very gifted that way. And I remember him standing up here in the platform in 1984, looking out over the congregation. We were all praying, and he urges you to pray with your eyes open, so he can look into it. And this is true. True story. And he discerned that over in this quadrant of the room, something was happening in the spirit. He could see it. He could discern it. He looked down here, and he could see, oh, over here, I sense that there's, I see the spirit resting on you four ladies right here. Or whatever it might be. And he'd do that kind of a thing. Well, needless to say, that kind of thing is spine-tingling, you know? This is the real power of God. This is what the church has missed. And you know, in a lot of ways, he's absolutely right. The church has cut out the spirit. The church has missed this spontaneousness that God wants us to live in, all this excitement. You know, and sometimes he'd even say, the Holy Spirit's moving right over here to heal arthritis, or right over here to heal colon cancer. Wow, I mean, New Testament Christianity, you know? So John came and did this seminar, and we had a lot of people. This was five years ago. A lot of people came. And he encouraged us. He said, no, no, you've seen me do it, now you go do it. So I stood up there the next week. I looked out there. I mean, I saw the same old faces and the same new faces. I saw eyes open. I mean, I just, you know, there weren't flames coming down on anyone's head. I felt nudgings, you know, like you do. I mean, I said, well, maybe the Lord's doing it, but I wasn't the kind of... And I'm sure that the Lord wants me to grow in the ability, but after a long number of months of really trying, you know, really trying, saying, okay, God, that's what I want to do. I realized something, that that was not the vision for my life. Boy, that was freeing. I felt a little defeated there for a few months, you know? I think everyone else felt defeated too. I mean, it was not a real glorious time. But I found a different, it was just a different vision. And you know what I've discovered now, talking with pastors of vineyards all over the country, that's been a thing that they've all had to struggle with. John is so gifted in that way, and they're not. And when they try to do what he does, if you try to do what someone else's vision is, ladies, you can be very unhappy. Another illustration I can think of is Mario Rivera. Most of you didn't know Mario, but he was here, let's see, about six years ago. Gentle man, but very, very wise, knowledgeable man, a Presbyterian pastor, actually, charismatic pastor, with tremendous ability to deal with inner hurts and healings. And I mean, there was a season there when our vision was to get everyone healed. His mission was, get the church whole, then the church can make the world whole. Now, that makes a lot of sense to me. How about you? Get the church healed. So, his method of doing it, his vision for that, was to take people in small groups and help them to sort out what was happening in their paths. Well, I went on several of these retreats, you know. He would get people together, and he would ask just the right questions. I mean, talk about faucets running, you know. People just weeping. And he was so discerning as to what was holding people. And I said, Lord, that's where I need to be. So, I'd get a group of people together. Tell me about what it was like when you were growing up as a teenager. And I said, I kind of discerned that maybe your dad picked on you all the time. Is that true? Well, my dad died when I was two years old, you know. So, there I was, you know. And I tried all these ways to be, you know, to get in that vision. And, I mean, now, I've come to accept the fact that that is a gift that he has been given. Now, here's what else I've discovered. On both of those fronts, God has gifted some of you with that kind of discernment. To see the Holy Spirit doing things or to help people with inner healing or whatever. I'm just using illustrations. And what's neat to me is, now, our church has grown to where we can release many of you into those special ministries. So that we have a ministry that specializes, you know, in healing. And helping people to become whole and those kinds of things. So, find out what the vision is and discern it for your life. And for, to some degree, I think you can do this with your loved ones, too. You can help them because of the gifts that the Lord puts in you. Another area is, we come into unity by discerning differing spirits. And, by the way, I'm saying here also, I didn't mention this. Talking about unity, you see, at North Way, we have a certain vision. Our vision is to make disciples who are loved, nurtured, and equipped to love God, one another, and the loss of the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's our statement of purpose and vision. That's who we are. We are a disciple-making church. So that means that we're more than just a place where the Spirit moves. And we're more than, I shouldn't say more than. We're different than. I was down in John Osteen's church in Houston, Texas, a year and a half ago. Anyone ever go there? Does anyone know who John Osteen is? Sure, he's a great, an independent, I guess, Pentecostal pastor. And I walked into that church. Looks like we have a baby in need here. Okay. Now that's sounding the alarm. Okay, we got it. And John Osteen's church is a huge auditorium that seats about 7,000 people. All right. Bye. I'm always upstaged by babies. I find that it's a losing battle when a baby walks in the room. Or is buried in either one. John's church, I walked in, and here's a church of about 7,000 or 8,000 seats, I should say. And I walked in, and I was with another pastor. And we walked up to the office. And we said, well, we'd like to talk to one of the staff pastors about how you care for all these people. And they said, well, well. And they kind of said, we