Spiritual Discernment

UV 1619/10000 Spiritual Discernment
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
I Corinthians 2 v 14
The natural man or the sensual and worldly man will not be able to comprehend, believe or accept spiritual truths. He or she will make do with a semblance of the truth. Spiritual truth and wisdom will be like foolishness to such a person. For the spiritual truths cannot be discerned by the human intellect or the six senses. It needs to be spiritually discerned. Just as there is a natural body, we have a spiritual body. Just as there is natural vision, we have a spiritual vision. Just as there is a natural mind, we have a spiritual mind.

When an earthly ruler and worldly-wise Pilate asked Jesus, “ What is the truth?”, he did not see Truth standing in front of him for Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He was blinded by the trappings of power and imprisoned by the paraphernelia of prestige. He could not discern what his own wife was warned of in a dream that he was going to preside over the enactment of the greatest single act of injustice of mankind that God Himself was going to be convicted of an offence He never committed.

Spiritual discernment is a gift that is given to the believer by the Holy Spirit. The scales fall off our spiritual eyes and we are granted vision, perception and understanding of spiritual matters that we could not comprehend hitherto. Spiritual discernment is beyond the so called sixth sense. It gives us an understanding of eternal truths and a grasp on the wisdom of God. We will realize that what we considered important to us and what we regarded as wisdom and knowledge was actually folly. We will have the perspective of St Paul who said, “What I considered as gain is loss and what was considered as loss is gain.” Spiritual discernment leads to a re-ordering of priorities and a complete reversal of values.
Prateep V Philip