If I had to name one of the costliest mistakes in modern Christianity, it would be this. We have confused judgment with discernment, and we have used the wrong one to wound the very people God assigned us to heal.
Hebrews tells us plainly. Solid food belongs to the mature, those who through practice have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Discernment is meat. It belongs to grown sons and daughters of God who have learned how to handle what they sense without weaponizing it.
Judgment, on the other hand, is something else entirely. Judgment is the act of pronouncing a verdict. It is final. It is conclusive. It assigns a sentence. And Jesus was clear about it. With the same measure you judge, you will be judged. That is not a threat. That is a structural truth about how the kingdom operates.
Discernment is different. Discernment is the Spirit showing you what is really going on so you know how to pray. Discernment opens a window. Judgment closes a door. Discernment intercedes. Judgment sentences.
I want you to feel the difference because it changes everything about how you walk in the world.
Judgment looks at a man behaving strangely in public and says, that one is crazy. Discernment looks at the same man and says, something has happened to him, Holy Ghost teach me how to pray. Judgment looks at the woman whose lifestyle does not line up with the Bible and says, she is hopeless. Discernment looks at her and says, what wound did she walk in with this morning, and how do I love her well right now. Judgment looks at the ministry that has mixed flesh with spirit and says, that is a giant, let me run from it. Discernment looks at the same ministry and says, that is a giant, let me not be deceived by it, but let me also keep my mouth off of the people inside it.
There is one more place this matters profoundly. Discernment is what protects you from confusing the works of the flesh with the works of the enemy.
The book of Galatians is direct. Sexual immorality, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing. The Bible calls those works of the flesh, not spirits. And the modern church has spent decades binding what we were supposed to be crucifying.
When you discern rather than judge, you can look at your own life and tell the difference between a spiritual stronghold and an immature habit. You can tell the difference between a generational issue and a childish reaction. You can tell the difference between something that needs to be cast out and something that just needs to grow up. That kind of clarity is meat. It is the food of the mature.
And mature people are kind. Mature people are slow to speak. Mature people are quick to hear. Mature people do not flinch when they see the truth about someone, because they have already made peace with the truth about themselves.
Here is what I want you to practice this week. Every time you feel the urge to render a verdict on a person, stop. Hand the verdict back to God. Then ask the Holy Spirit a simple question: Teach me to pray for that person. Watch what happens. Watch the download you receive. Watch the prayer that comes out of your mouth. Watch the way your own heart begins to soften, not because the person deserves it, but because that is what mature love sounds like.
We are in a season when discernment is going to be unavoidable. You will see things. You will know things. You will sense things in rooms you walk into. That is the maturing of your senses. That is the meat the writer of Hebrews was talking about. But meat in the wrong hands becomes a weapon. Meat in the right hands becomes a meal that feeds the hungry around you.
Discern. Do not judge. That is where maturity lives.
Dr. Connie Williams is the founder of Connie Williams Ministries, Inc., a prophetic teaching and coaching ministry of over 35 years. Join the prophetic community at https://community.drconniewilliams.org
Related Wisdom:
- He That Looks Within Awakens: Why the Next Three Years are an Inside Job
- Your Destiny is Not a Place You Get To, It’s a Person You Wake Up Inside Of
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