“He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?” (Psalm 147:17)
No one can. Without the proper protective clothing when the temperature drops to a certain degree, you will die.
There is a proper fear of the elements of God’s creation, whether it be what we call nature, the force of gravity, oxygen, even certain beasts of the animal kingdom, from the lion to microbes, mankind has a natural propensity to avert, when possible, all these things. But not those of the Spiritual realm.
Two verses for you to contemplate.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1st Cor. 2:14)
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” (Romans 1:20)
Those who have been born-again have a clearer vision of the Spiritual realm, not to say that we can easily see angels, fallen or otherwise, but in the interpretation of these matters our eyes have been opened. There is no difficulty for us in determining what is evil and what is good, to use that terminology in its basest form, there are no grey areas between the two.
There can be at times hindrances for us in deciding or being able to properly differentiate between the evil that mankind commits and those evil actions that are done through the wicked by devils, and that ability is being greyed out, if you will, in these days, and it is being accomplished in its root form by the word judging.
It does not require any Spiritual discernment to come to the conclusion that a coat is required when it’s cold outside, it takes much, and in fact can only be done, to determine good from evil. And out of all the verses I could offer to you about gaining wisdom, about Spiritual discernment, about being able to tell the difference between good and evil, this one verse encapsulates them all.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
We are freed to understand, yet accepting the truth is not always easy.
The wonderfully kind old lady down the street, the distinguished gentleman, the good-hearted young man or admirable young lady who deny the Lord Jesus Christ, in your mind are they evil? If they die in their sins, were they evil?
That word good we need to use caution with.
“And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18)
To the world, the world that Spiritual discernment is impossible for, they were good people, and good people go to the good place. Judging my friends, is to be done with righteousness, yet in firm truth.
Two homosexuals who love each other dearly, good or evil? The young sports star who assisted the elderly, who helped out around the community, who seemed humble in every aspect of his life, yet denied Christ when he died in that misfortunate car crash. Good or evil?
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (Matt. 7:5)
But many who profess Christ will not, even if that beam is not in their eye. They have enough sense to put a coat and gloves on in the bitter cold, but will not, cannot judge with righteous judgment.
If you want the world to hate you, judge righteously, speak truth, in love, but firm truth. Everyone in hell wishes that someone would have spoken the truth to them.
The natural man will not be able to receive the truth, but the invisible things of God will not allow him to firmly deny those truths. Being blessed with Spiritual discernment should come just as easily to you as knowing when you need to grab your coat.
