How many times have you walked into a room or store and felt like turning around and walking right out? Or have you ever been walking through a store and feel yourself gradually becoming more and more anxious or hopeless?

Some may say you are overly sensitive, but I believe that you have a “gift of discernment.” For some of us this may feel more like a curse than a gift, but things are changing. We are gaining more understanding of how we are made and how our ability to perceive things is unto a purpose. This purpose is making earth look and feel just like Heaven (Matthew 6:10).

This can be a process for some to change the way we deal with perceived stressors in our lives. We have to start separating out where our thoughts are coming from: ourselves, the enemy or God? We can then decide what to do with them. Second Corinthians 10:5b exhorts us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This looks like leaning into the Holy Spirit and asking what the Father is doing so we can do that too (John 5:19-20).

When our son was in 4th grade, he would come home from school many days very distraught and run to his room refusing to be consoled. He couldn’t tell us what made his so upset; he just needed time. One time I began to go through each block of his day inquiring about what happened. We got to the afternoon free time when he explained that a classmate of his had drawn a “really bad” picture of the teacher and showed it to him.

“Did that make you feel bad?” I asked.
“Yes.” he replied sadly.
“Did the other little boy feel bad?”
“No.” he said.
“So, you were feeling what that little boy should have been feeling.”
“OH!!” He said with relief in his eyes.
“Asa, those weren’t your feelings, those were his to have.”
“OK!!” He chuckled and ran off and played free as a bird.

We have had several conversations since then about what it would look like to lean into Jesus and ask Him what is going on so that he can partner with God to change the atmosphere inside of himself. He is now learning to see how his internal reality can affect the world around him too. He said to me the other day, “Mom, you know what? When I hug someone, I can feel love go out of me into the . . . and I can turn it off too.” It’s such a blessing for him to be learning to manage his internal “feeler” world now so he doesn’t make a habit of entertaining the negative thoughts coming from outside of himself.

With the gift of discernment, God is giving us spiritual insight about a situation so that we can have influence there. We were made to be in relationship with God, to look into his eyes and reflect back to the world what He is like and what He is doing in any and every situation. This gift of discernment is a powerful weapon of warfare. Let’s start picking it up and destroying the works of darkness so Jesus can get his full reward!

By Jill Talbot