Because They are Spiritually Discerned

John 8:48-59 ESV

The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 

“But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

When we are talking with people who do not believe in Jesus Christ, it can be difficult sometimes to communicate what we are wanting to convey if we are trying to communicate the things of God and the things of the Holy Spirit. For the Scriptures teach this:

“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

And this is what Jesus was up against in his communications with these Jews who were opposing him. Even though they professed faith in the God of Abraham, their religion was intellectual, and it was in formality, and it was of the traditions of humans, but it was not of the God of Abraham. For they weren’t hearing from God. They were thinking just like human flesh and not with spiritual discernment. 

And we have many people today who profess faith in Jesus Christ and in the God of Abraham who are also not spiritually discerning but who are following the religion of their earthly ancestors, or who are following the religion of traditions and religious practices and forms of religion which have no power to change human hearts and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they can receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18).

Therefore, we who are following Jesus with our lives are going to come up against people just like Jesus did who are not going to understand us at all, for they do not know God, and so they are not spiritually discerning of the things of God, which are of the Spirit of God. And so we may be falsely accused, too, of being of Satan, or we might just be misjudged and misinterpreted because we are speaking of spiritual matters which can’t be discerned with human intellect. 

And we may have people who think that we are “high and mighty” because we speak the truth of the Scriptures and because we don’t teach the lies of the enemy, and because we call sin what it is, and because we teach what the Scriptures teach on the subjects of sin, repentance, obedience, holiness, righteousness, moral purity, faithfulness, and honesty, etc. And so they might say to us, “Who do you think you are?” And this is especially so if we do not have the credentials they think we ought to have to say such things.

But, as followers of Christ, we can speak the word of truth because we have the Spirit of truth living within us giving us the words to say and inspiring us in what to share and in how to say it, if we are those who are listening to the Spirit. We don’t have to have some college degree or some credentials of humans in order to speak the truth of God’s word. This is what we are all supposed to be doing. So we should speak the truth boldly as Jesus did to those who oppose us and who come against us, and to those who don’t.

Now you can read this conversation between Jesus and the Jews who were opposing him, so I don’t need to reiterate what they each said. But what I see as the overall message here is how those who don’t know God, even if they profess faith in Jesus Christ, are not going to understand those of us who are walking in fellowship with Jesus and who are hearing the Spirit speaking truth to our hearts and minds. But we just have to keep speaking truth and trust that the Spirit of God will open their minds to hear truth.

The Spirit Calling

An Original Work / November 12, 2019

Hear the Spirit calling.

He’ll keep you from falling.

Tenderly He’s calling,

“Come and follow Him.”

Walk with Jesus daily.

Don’t give in to lazy.

Folks may call you crazy.

Fellowship with Him.

Follow where He leads you.

Eat what Jesus feeds you.

His love will renew you

If you follow Him.

Do what Jesus tells you.

Don’t let your faith fail you.

His love will avail you

If you walk with Him.

Jesus, Lord and Savior,

Reigneth now forever.

He gave us His favor

So we’d live with Him.

Turning now from our sin,

Holy Spirit live-in.

Holiness we walk in,

Purified by Him.

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