Do More ‘Lead & Feed’, Less ‘Led & Fed’
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.’ (Hebrews 5:14)
Discernment comes from the Spirit. The Spirit must be tuned in, as one would do with the old TVs with rabbit ears, where you had to work on adjusting them to get the best signal for a particular channel. If you changed the channel, you had to adjust again. Eventually, with practice, one could adjust the antennas before flicking the channel. The position of the antenna became second nature in where to point them and how to position them. (For those who are post-Boomers, TV at one time did not come over a cable but was broadcast like radio.)
In Hebrews 5, Paul discusses the need to get proficient in adjusting our Spiritual rabbit ears, to gain the best discernment. Paul expresses disappointment in the Israelites as none of them have stepped up to teach or perform necessary tasks within the church, and the fear is many will fall away from the Faith. This falling away is attributed to them not knowing Scriptures or having any personal effort to getting closer in their relationship with Jesus. The Israelites were accustomed to having their faith ‘spoon-fed’, where they did not read the Torah on their own volition but through the rabbis of the synagogue, similar to the Catholic Church for centuries, where the priests had the only copies of the Bible (the Latin Vulgate ‘translation’) to read and ‘interpret’ for the congregates. They were not challenged to know more than what they were given.
Most types of instruction are based on the ‘least common denominator’, or toward those who know the least on the subject. This is true whether discussing public schools, collegiate studies, or technical training (most post-high school textbooks, including graduate-level texts, are written at a 5th-7th grade level). Many who wanted to learn more about Jesus didn’t have the access to learn more. Paul’s chastisement was the Israelites (and many Christians today) were stuck in grade-school level theology on Jesus, but should have advanced to at least a level where they could in turn teach others in knowledge and Faith. More important, they need the knowledge to better ‘tune in’ to the Spirit so they could discern and distinguish who and what was truly of Jesus and His Gospel, and who was being a charlatan.
Tuning into the Spirit allows us to find our Spiritual gifts, to stop being ‘led and fed’, and go to ‘lead and feed’. We need to be fed on Sundays, but Monday through Saturday we should in some form by feeding someone who is not there yet. To go from ‘fed’ to ‘feed’ requires reading your Bible, engaging Jesus in continual prayer, and fellowshipping with other Followers. I always challenge each of you to read the lesson outlines, determine the truth of the lessons (and the Pastor’s sermons, and the music we worship by), and verify the accuracy of what is said or presented to you. Get into the meat; the Spirit should and will lead you into learning more about Him.
If you hear or read a message that is ‘too good’ or ‘too poor’, seek Spiritual discernment of what you heard or read. This is not a condemnation, nor is it an affirmation, of the provider’s beliefs. Many messages sound good, but many sound good but lead others astray. The Spirit leads the discerning of the message, and that is good as Jesus will reveal the Truth.
