Prov 2:1-6 "My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding."

To become aware, to apprehend, to understand or grasp, marked by discernment, or insight in the Spiritual sense.

2Sam 19:35 "I am now eighty years old. Can I tell the difference between what is good and what is not?"

1Kings 3:9 "So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong."

Examples: Joshua, Caleb & the Spies. - Num. 13

Nicodemus - John 3

Christ washing Peters feet - John 13

Mt. 13:18-23 Parable of the sower.

1.  The world Mt. 13:22 (Choked).

2.  The flesh (sinful nature) Mt. 13:21 (Stony).

3.  The devil Mt. 13:19 (Wayside).

4.  Good soil - produces fruit some 30/60/100 times.

 

1.  Spiritual Perception is given when you are born again.

1Co. 2:14 "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

2.  Spiritual Perception grows when we read & obey the Word of God.

Hebrews 5:14 "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

1.  Sensitivity to the needs of others.

James 2:15-16 "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?"

2.  Increased discernment.

1 John 4:1. "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

1 John 4:6 "We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood."

3.  Enablement to walk by faith.

Heb 11:27 "..he(Moses) persevered because he saw him who is invisible."

2Co. 4:18 "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

4.  A life characterized by love.

2 John 1:6 "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."

We need Spiritual perception (discernment) greatly today. We need to be discerning:

1Tim 4:1-2 "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron."

2Co. 3:6 "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

1Co. 13:1-3 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

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