discernment Archives - Foundational Missions

Before I went to kindergarten, I had my first spiritual experience. How precocious, right? Well.. This spiritual encounter was actually from the devil. I was between 2 & 3 yrs old. I remember it, grant you. Not sure forgetting that is possible. I was in the middle bedroom at my grandmother’s house, where we were living due to my parent’s recent divorce. It was little kid nap time, and Mammaw Hill had laid me down for a nap. To the left side of the bed he appeared at some stage in nap time. It was a classic depiction of the devil, maybe I’d seen him on “deviled” ham cans, but there was no mistaking who was there. The jest of the encounter was this; he was (falsely) claiming me as his own. This experience was not from God and was accompanied by a payload of fear, with a side of attempted control and deception. I never wanted to nap in that room again.

As Christians, our lives follow a process of preparation that we can observe in the scripture. In many ways, we follow the same course of preparation that Jesus followed, and that we can observe in the Gospels. We can see ourselves, and recognize not only the process, but actual events in our lives can parallel what happened to Jesus in remarkable ways. He was tempted in every manner as we are, yet without sin. He lived as an example to us, and all the lives of people in the scripture are given to us as examples, upon whom the end of the ages have come, and are now coming.

One thing that I noticed or recognized some time back, which is an example of this fact, is a particular temptation that came to Jesus when he was in the wilderness that also comes to each of us, as Christians. There are some very high profile examples of this that I have observed, and I have also observed it in my own life, and in the lives of others close to me. It seems a universal part of the process that we go through. I will attempt to explain this in as few words as possible. Continue reading “Passing a Crucial Test”

Words Fitly Spoken

Tag: discernment

Not Everything Spiritual is Holy

Passing a Crucial Test