Spiritual discernment has become a major theme of this blog, mostly because there doesn't appear to be a great deal of it happening in the world today. The glaring lack of spiritual discernment is understandable. After all, people who have effectively despiritualized themselves cannot be expected to make sound spiritual judgments or exhibit profound spiritual wisdom. Nor can they be relied upon to make any sort of sound judgment or exhibit much wisdom about anything.
Obvious examples of this are the predictable Pavlovian reactions to the current "hot" war projected against the mystifying obliviousness of the "secret" war of the 2020 global totalitarian coup and the birdemic, both of which remain major elements of the largely dismissed and denied spiritual war of evil against God and Creation.
This does not imply that all Christians began to salivate the moment the Establishment started ringing its latest external stimulus bell. On the contrary, some immediately recognized the lies flooding the world. This indicates of a certain level of awareness, perspicacity, and sagacity.
Detecting lies is an indispensable part of spiritual discernment, and it serves as a foundation that supports the other elements and qualities of discernment. Yet discernment that begins and ends at detecting lies is no better than a foundation upon which nothing is ever built. This is particularly true of Christian spiritual discernment, the ultimate purpose of which is personal and responsible decision-making that aligns with God's will and Creation.
Getting to the point at which knowledge is gained or a personal decision can be made involves going from the external to the internal and employing our innermost spiritual resources to open up a conduit for divine communication. The key here is not to find the "truth" behind some event like the current, heavily-promoted "hot" war, but to discover what such external events reveal about the innermost, divine aspect of ourselves in relation to God and Creation.
That is the truth that matters because it enables spiritual learning and proper action. More importantly, this activity "creates a truth" into Creation, a truth that had not fully existed before the spiritual discernment took place.
Those who lack spiritual discernment are conditioned to respond to whatever external stimulus or force happens to impose itself onto the screens of consciousness. Some people will ignore the external stimuli and continue occupying themselves with other external stimuli. Others will fully internalize the external stimuli and offer nothing beyond the level of conditioned responses.
Those who are able to detect the lies behind the external stimuli but make no effort to determine deeper levels of discernment leading to truth -- not about the external event but about the divine self and its connection and relation to God and Creation -- neglect a vital and positive aspect of spiritual discernment.
Those who detect lies in the external world and use the awareness to discover how it can increase alignment with God and Creation -- with a particular emphasis on Jesus -- move beyond mere perception and move toward the act of creation. Instead of merely recognizing and rejecting falsehood, this level of spiritual discernment strives toward truth -- not abstract, distant truth, but the personal, concrete truth of God and Creation.
I believe this connects well with the C.H Spurgeon's famous quote, "Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between right and wrong, rather it is the difference between right and almost right."
Perceiving lies and falsehoods in the external world is the state of almost right. Being fully right involves using that perception to discover personal spiritual truths, which inevitably involves thinking, decision-making, and, perhaps, action.
I believe this ties in well with Solzhenitsyn's reformulation of the old Russian proverb: One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.
Perceiving a lie is important, but this perception alone does little to reveal or bring truth into the world. Only the deeper levels of spiritual discernment can do that. Activating these levels involves turning inward and thinking in a primary, heart-oriented way. This sort of thinking may lead to a direct kind of knowing that is not dependent on the external world. Truth that is discovered at that level of spiritual discernment will equal the one word of truth that outweighs the world -- even if the one word of truth is never explicitly communicated to the external world.
Obvious examples of this are the predictable Pavlovian reactions to the current "hot" war projected against the mystifying obliviousness of the "secret" war of the 2020 global totalitarian coup and the birdemic, both of which remain major elements of the largely dismissed and denied spiritual war of evil against God and Creation.
This does not imply that all Christians began to salivate the moment the Establishment started ringing its latest external stimulus bell. On the contrary, some immediately recognized the lies flooding the world. This indicates of a certain level of awareness, perspicacity, and sagacity.
Detecting lies is an indispensable part of spiritual discernment, and it serves as a foundation that supports the other elements and qualities of discernment. Yet discernment that begins and ends at detecting lies is no better than a foundation upon which nothing is ever built. This is particularly true of Christian spiritual discernment, the ultimate purpose of which is personal and responsible decision-making that aligns with God's will and Creation.
Getting to the point at which knowledge is gained or a personal decision can be made involves going from the external to the internal and employing our innermost spiritual resources to open up a conduit for divine communication. The key here is not to find the "truth" behind some event like the current, heavily-promoted "hot" war, but to discover what such external events reveal about the innermost, divine aspect of ourselves in relation to God and Creation.
That is the truth that matters because it enables spiritual learning and proper action. More importantly, this activity "creates a truth" into Creation, a truth that had not fully existed before the spiritual discernment took place.
Those who lack spiritual discernment are conditioned to respond to whatever external stimulus or force happens to impose itself onto the screens of consciousness. Some people will ignore the external stimuli and continue occupying themselves with other external stimuli. Others will fully internalize the external stimuli and offer nothing beyond the level of conditioned responses.
Those who are able to detect the lies behind the external stimuli but make no effort to determine deeper levels of discernment leading to truth -- not about the external event but about the divine self and its connection and relation to God and Creation -- neglect a vital and positive aspect of spiritual discernment.
Those who detect lies in the external world and use the awareness to discover how it can increase alignment with God and Creation -- with a particular emphasis on Jesus -- move beyond mere perception and move toward the act of creation. Instead of merely recognizing and rejecting falsehood, this level of spiritual discernment strives toward truth -- not abstract, distant truth, but the personal, concrete truth of God and Creation.
I believe this connects well with the C.H Spurgeon's famous quote, "Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between right and wrong, rather it is the difference between right and almost right."
Perceiving lies and falsehoods in the external world is the state of almost right. Being fully right involves using that perception to discover personal spiritual truths, which inevitably involves thinking, decision-making, and, perhaps, action.
I believe this ties in well with Solzhenitsyn's reformulation of the old Russian proverb: One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.
Perceiving a lie is important, but this perception alone does little to reveal or bring truth into the world. Only the deeper levels of spiritual discernment can do that. Activating these levels involves turning inward and thinking in a primary, heart-oriented way. This sort of thinking may lead to a direct kind of knowing that is not dependent on the external world. Truth that is discovered at that level of spiritual discernment will equal the one word of truth that outweighs the world -- even if the one word of truth is never explicitly communicated to the external world.
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