Greetings!
The ability to discern truth is a result of the active and present work of the Spirit in your mind and understanding. He creates a discerning heart as He lives in you and has more and more access to you. It is Jesus’ own discernment being given to you that brings understanding. The Spirit and He alone knows the heart and mind of the Father and the Son. He is teaching you, guiding you into truth. When He teaches you, knowledge becomes understanding and you have a discerning heart.
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” (John 16:13–15).
The cry of a discerning heart is, “Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths” (Psalm 25:4). Show me your ways. Cooking is not a skill that comes naturally to me. However, I have a friend for whom putting together a wonderful meal seems effortless. From time to time, I call on her expertise. “Libby, tell me how you make that delicious casserole,” I say. Libby begins to describe exactly how to make the casserole, but she is using words like mince, sauté, and other terms that are outside my vocabulary. Finally she says, “Come over. I’ll show you how to make it.” Now she enters right into my experience and shows me what to do. Then I understand.
Show me your ways, O Lord! He is not teaching you on an academic, arm’s-length plain. He is entering into your now. He is engaging with you in the first person. He is fully investing Himself in your experience and He is causing you to understand. When you understand any spiritual truth, it is because the process of discernment has occurred in your spirit. When that truth begins to transform your life — your actions and your thought processes — then discernment has created understanding. “Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them.
The ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them” (Hosea 14:9). You know the saying, “The more I know the more I know I don’t know.” As the living present indwelling Jesus moves you into the depths of the kingdom and shows you the riches stored in secret places, the more you crave Him. You know the supply of understanding and truth is inexhaustible. The riches of the kingdom are never used up, just used in and for. They grow and multiply with use. You never have to conserve the kingdom’s resources. You can be greedy when it comes to the things that Jesus wants to show you. Your waking prayer becomes, “More!”
My niece Amy, when she was a little girl, was staying with my parents. My mother was pouring syrup on her pancakes one morning. When Mom stopped pouring, Amy said, “Put some more.” My mother responded, “Oh, I think that’s enough.” Amy said, “But I don’t like enough. I like too much!” When it comes to the things of the Spirit of God, I’m just like Amy.
I want too much. I want to superabound. And I can trust God with that desire because He is able to make me overflow and slosh over with His abundance.
Sloshing Over
He wants to live in you to live through you. He wants what flows from your life into the lives of others to be Him, not your flesh. To that end, He fills you up so completely that He sloshes over. What spills out of you spontaneously is not the old flesh habits, but the fullness of Jesus. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). The Greek word translated “abound” is perisseuo and it means “to superabound; to have excess; to have more than enough.”
This inward change that is finding outward expression is so drastic that it even begins to transform you words. Our words are the hardest thing to get under control. Even when we mean well our words often get in the way. To give the indwelling Jesus so much room to maneuver — flesh out of the way — that He can even transform our words is miraculous, but possible. “Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning” (Proverbs 10:13).
Once you have a discerning heart so that your mind is filled with understanding of the deep truths of God, then that understanding begins to flow from your mouth as water flows from a fountain. “The mouth of the wise is a fountain of life. . . . The mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom” (Proverbs 10:11, 31). The heart is the wellspring of life — the source from which all else flows (Proverbs 4:23). What flows out of a discerning heart are words of life.
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Jennifer Kennedy Dean 2019© | Legacy Writings
