Becoming and Being Spirit Sensitive

Photo by Adriano Cantarello on Unsplash

Recently the Lord has reminded me of the wisdom in being and remaining Spirit sensitive; to not just assume I know what God is saying, but to deliberately wait on Him in the mood of the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

If we are God-pleasing disciples, if we have agreed with ourselves that we’re on the Lord’s side, and if discerning correctly is of primary importance to us, then we’ll exercise great care to continually check in with God, to be continually submitted to His Spirit — even if and when He causes us to reverse our direction for discerning wrongly.

From time to time, we will discern wrongly.

We’ll take responsibility for our discernment, accepting divergence from the ancient path as inevitable, but repenting of it as soon as God makes us aware. God often speaks through our relationships to this extent.

If we have agreed that we are on the Lord’s side, we are against ourselves to the point that we believe we can easily be and often are deceived. We don’t trust in our own contemptible resources. We must always bear in mind, when we’re on the Lord’s side, that the Spirit desires to crucify our flesh; it feels like our whole world is caving in when this happens, if we are being honest. But we realise in trust that we surrender before the Spirit for our own good.

The confirmation of our surrender to the Spirit
is our humility in our relationships.

The nature of discernment is tried and tested in the realm of relationships; rarely, if ever, can we discern properly in isolation.

A common trick of pride is a person believes they’re so in touch with the Holy Spirit they don’t need others. Do you worry about it, I’ve been there! That place of spiritual superiority, having such a ‘close’ relationship with God that ‘He told me’ things that were contrary to His will.

Of course, it is a self-protecting delusion to imagine up a relationship with God that spurns our godly human relationships. It is a key deception. And for anyone reading these words, and feeling angry about them, what do you now say that the Spirit is saying to you? Is it not the height of spiritual arrogance to self-defend in the name of indignation?

No, discernment is often tried and tested in the realm of relationships; in a somewhat common agreement, with trusted wise advisors, that confirms the Spirit’s way. In sum, discernment relies so heavily on humility that, in our discerning, we’re fools without it.

Becoming and being Spirit sensitive are both profoundly dependent on openness of heart and the true inscrutable knowledge of God, demanding humility, and becoming and being Spirit sensitive are one and the same thing.

By becoming Spirit sensitive we are being Spirit sensitive.
By being Spirit sensitive we are becoming Spirit sensitive.

What I’m saying is that nothing of being Spirit sensitive is mastery, for mastery is pride, and the Spirit won’t have anything to do with or have any part in that.