Discernment can be a beautiful overflow of partnership and intimacy with the Lord. When we move in the power of discernment, He invites us to do so with humility, purity and love. As we grow in our level of gifting, we also grow in our level of responsibility. When our anointing and authority increase, so should our humility and desire for intimacy with Him. This is especially true when we are speaking about discernment and the prophetic. Paul teaches us that God’s intention for the prophetic is edification, exhortation, comfort and the building up of the Body of Christ. When we move in discernment, we have a great responsibility to do so in alignment with His heart.

Every gifting extends invitation to us for greater depths with Him. His desire is for relationship and going deeper still with each of us. In the prophetic, the gift of discernment is yet another invitation for us to partner with Him while growing in our own journey of wholeness and holiness, becoming ever more like Him.

We each have different life experiences, stories and journeys. Our history can shape our core values and beliefs as well as the way we perceive the world around us. You could say that we tend to view the world through what we believe to be true about God’s character and nature, what we believe to be true about people in general, and how we interpret the situations we are in based upon past experiences.

Kris Vallotton speaks to this with an analogy of us each “seeing” or perceiving with an accent. Similar to how we each speak with an accent, we typically think its other people who have one, not us. This accent in the way we see can be likened to wearing a pair of glasses with lenses we look through. Our lenses can be clear, smudged, scratched or even cracked. These lenses can impact the way we discern.

Our lenses matter because we have an adversary who attempts to bring division to the Bride through clouded or twisted discernment, also known as deception. There have been times in the Body of Christ when the enemy has brought false accusation, fear and division masquerading in the name of discernment. We want to see, hear and discern with Heaven’s perspective so we can partner with God’s agenda and not be swayed.

So how do we discern through clear lenses? We stay close to Him, lean in to His voice and invite Him to keep our lenses clean and fresh with His perspective. We choose to move in humility, purity and love, and ask God to keep our hearts in alignment with His. We come before Him and invite Him to continue His work in us, ministering to us and bringing healing to any places in our lives that might cloud our lenses. We learn to dialog with Him about what we are discerning and invite His truth and love to affirm or adjust our discernment. We can grow in deeper intimacy with Him and learn to move in even greater partnership with Him.

By Erika Jay