“Do not give the devil an opportunity.” (Eph 4:27 NET)
One of the ways to continually walk in victory in this life is to be discerning. Without discernment, I can guarantee that nothing good you have will last. That is because the Bible makes it very clear to us that we have an enemy who is always looking for a way to devour our lives and whatever good is in them (John 10:10; 1 Peter 5:8). So, we need to be discerning in order not to give him any opportunity to work in our lives.
Now, one of the ways Satan gains entrance to work in lives, homes, businesses or communities is through people. These may be individuals who are operating under some curse or who are walking in deliberate disobedience to some specific commands from God. And if you allow such people into your life, home, business, community or even Christian assembly, and you are not quick to discern that they themselves are ‘walking troubles’, and to deal with them by the wisdom of the Spirit of God, you may soon enough watch everything you have laboured for fall apart.
Do you remember Achan of Bible days? He was the one who brought trouble upon the whole nation of Israel in the days of Joshua. He made an entire nation fall on the day of battle. Yes, he was just one man. But he was one man who was walking in total disregard for the instructions of God. And until he, along with members of his family, was cast out and judged, in accordance with the will of God, the nation knew no peace. (Cf. Joshua 7)
Also, I am sure you remember Jonah the sleeper. This man came aboard a ship full of ordinary people who were just going about their business in an ordinary way and brought trouble upon them. He made them lose some of their cargo and would, in fact, have made them lose the ship and their lives had they not discerned in time that the trouble upon them was not normal. Don’t forget that those men were sailors, men of the sea. And coming in contact with waves, storms and the like could not have been entirely new to them. But what they experienced when Jonah came aboard to travel with them made them start asking, “Could it be that the gods are against us?” And as I mentioned before, if they had not acted with discernment and thrown Jonah, a true man of God, overboard, they would have perished. (Cf. Jonah 1)
In like manner, we too must learn to walk with discernment in all our dealings with men, even men of God. First, we must allow the discernment of the Holy Spirit to guide us before we bring or allow people, especially those we don’t fully know, into our lives. This will certainly save us from a lot of future troubles.
Then, if, for no clear reason, a family, business, community or group of which we are a part, and which has been doing well and enjoying God’s peace, suddenly begins to fail horribly and fall apart, we, as children of God, must lose no time in taking the matter up with Him. We mustn’t wait until we throw all our cargo overboard before we act. And we must never ever try to solve such spiritual problems with the resources or wisdom of the flesh. It will never work. Instead, we must allow God to take charge. And He will open our eyes and enable us to discern who has come in with trouble and what we must do to or for such individuals in order to put an end to the trouble they have brought upon us.
But then, of course, we must not mistake evil suspicions for discernment. There are people who have this unhealthy habit of always regarding as evil anyone they don’t like or don’t get along with. All they need is for one bad thing to happen, and they will immediately start pointing their fingers in the direction of those people. But that is not discernment; that is evil suspicion. And it cannot produce any good fruit. On the contrary, it can only create more problems and make undiscerning people lose individuals who could have done them a lot of good in life.
So, don’t mistake evil suspicions for discernment. Discernment comes through the wisdom of the Spirit, while evil suspicions come from the bitterness of the flesh. In addition, while evil suspicions always point accusing fingers at others, discernment does not always do that. What I am saying is that discernment does not always fish out other people as the source of our problems. There are times when it will fish us out as the source of our own problems or of other people’s problems. And when that is the case, we must be humble and honest enough to admit our errors. We must not wait until we lose everything or until other people begin to suffer terribly because of us before we do the right thing. May God continually strengthen us to walk honestly in these matters. Amen.
Life application: Before you let someone into a close circle—a friendship, a business, a ministry team—pray about it and give time and observation a chance to speak. When trouble hits a group you belong to, take it to God first and ask Him a hard question: “Is any of this coming from me?” Hold back from accusing anyone until you have prayed and have clear reasons.