Mind of Christ: Ep 12: Hearing Heaven Clearly: Developing Spiritual Discernment

0:12 Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent. Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed. Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought was possible. Enlarge her territory. Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment. Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent to silence her. This isn't just a podcast. This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen.

0:53 Here we go again. Welcome to Diary of a Black Woman's Podcast. I'm your host Connie Morris, and we're continuing our Faith on the Go series. This one is hearing heaven clearly. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is so important that you hear heaven clearly, right? We don't want to get it twisted. Was that God or was that me or was that the devil? And so that's why you build your faith up because you're listening to God. You're listening to the whispers. Not only you listen to the whispers, you're obeying the whispers. And that's how your faith is being built up.

1:35 You're hearing it, but you also being a doer of the word and that is one of those muscles that we build up on this podcast. That is why this space was created, for your quiet moments, your work days, your commutes and those in between spaces and places where your spirit needs to be uplifted, recharged and refilled. Faith on the Go is for the times when you're fighting battles, not just one, not yet one, but already finished in Christ. It's time to cross the finish line, you guys. It's for the ones who keep believing, keep pressing, keep walking, even when the road gets long.

2:16 So wherever you are today, settle in and let the word of God strengthen your faith. While you're on the go. So let's get started. Day 12, Mind of Spiritual Discernment, Hearing Heaven Clearly is the title today. Let's go to our key scripture found in John 5, 19, and it reads, Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the Father doing? Because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Every moment of Jesus' ministry was led by the Father's voice.

2:56 He didn't guess his way through life. He heard his way through it. When others reacted, Jesus responded. When others rushed, he waited. He moved in divine rhythm, always in sync with heaven. In John 5, 19, Jesus revealed his secret. He says the Son can do nothing by himself, he can only do what he sees his father doing. That means every miracle, every message, every movement came from revelation, not impulse. When he met the women at the well, it wasn't a coincidence. The father had scheduled an encounter. When he delayed going to Lazarus until the fourth day, it wasn't negligence, it was divine timing.

3:40 And when he shows 12 disciples, He did so after spending all night in prayer, Luke 6, 12 to 13. Jesus didn't operate from assumption. He operated from awareness. He lived with discernment because his heart stayed close to the Father. Spiritual discernment is the ability to sense what God is doing and align your actions with it. It's not suspicion or intellect. It's intimacy. Discernment grows in the quiet. Prayer, worship, and the Word. The whisper in your spirit says, wait here or speak now or this is not for you. You're waiting for that. That's that discernment. That's hearing heaven clearly.

4:23 The more time you spend with the Father, the clearer his voice becomes. Just Jesus could perceive motives, recognize deception, and anticipation of opposition because his mind was tuned to heaven's frequency. When you walk in discernment, you stop focusing or forcing what God hasn't breathed on. You begin to sense his peace as confirmation and his silence as instructions. Isaiah 30, 21 tells us your ear will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Discernment is heaven's safeguard against deception. It's how you stay rooted when the world is noisy.

5:08 The mind of Christ gives you the sensitivity to recognize when something looks good but isn't God. Ask yourself, do I pause long enough to hear before I move? Am I acting from peace or pressure? Do I recognize the difference between God's timing and my own urgency? Remember, discernment isn't about knowing everything. It's about knowing Him deeply enough to trust in His direction. So here we go. We're going to walk it out like Jesus. How do we walk in that? So discerned that Jesus was so close to the Father that he said, I only do what my Father does.

5:50 And we are like him. We are supposed to mimic him. We have the mind of Christ. We're stirring up that gift so that we can walk like Jesus in this earth, that we will not be deceived. So number one, practice daily stillness. Create time to listen without agenda, Luke 5, 16. Stillness is the soil where discernment grows. There are some times when I wake up in the morning, I know I have this routine of praying, but some particular mornings, I have a big sofa in my bedroom. I will come and I will sit and I will listen before I start prayer. I'll just listen, listen.

6:32 And then he speaks. He speaks. He speaks in that stillness. A lot of my devotions are coming from that stillness. So it's so important to practice that. Stillness is not just sitting there. Stillness is listening. It's actively listening. That's the difference. You're actively listening because it's a still, small voice. And once you pick it up, then it's clear to you. You've got to pick up this heavenly signal just by sitting in silence. And when you pick it up, you'll hear a voice. And when you hear his voice, begin to just start taking notes because he has a lot to say because you're waiting on him. Number two, let scripture be your filter. The word is the measure for every message. Hebrews 4.12.

7:17 The word is the measure for every message. If it contradicts the word, it's not from God. Number three, pay attention to peace. God's direction always carries peace, even when it challenges comfort. Always follow peace. Peace is knowing the world is crashing and burning, but you know you're supposed to wait until you hear which way to go. That takes practice, and that practice comes from sitting in the stillness in the morning, in the evening, wherever your time you allow. Just sitting in it will allow you to just hear him. Number four, wait before you decide. Jesus waited before calling Lazarus forth, John 11, 6.

7:59 Sometimes the delay is divine. Wow. Sometimes, you know, me, I told you I had to get it done yesterday, but sometimes I can't because he says, I need you to wait. And then I'll wait, and then I'll wait. And then he says, now is the time. And it's always the perfect timing. Number five, ask for wisdom and test the spirit. Pray, Lord, reveal what's hidden. The Holy Spirit discerns that human eyes cannot. 1 Corinthians 2, 10-14 and 1 John 4-11. So let's see how Jesus walked it out. He practiced daily stillness. You know he prayed. He went away and prayed. Let scripture be your filter.

8:41 Always check the spirit with the word of God. His word will not return void. It won't even be twisted if you pay attention to it. That don't sound like God. And so you go, let me find it in the scripture. Did it happen to anybody in the Bible before? What does the word of God say? Pay attention to peace. God's direction always carries peace. And. It's just the absence of you moving without feeling that smoothness in it. You know how you follow the Lord. It's kind of a yes, go. And it's a stop. When you feel that sudden stop, just stop. Even if it challenges you, you just stop. The way the world is moving today, you better be paying attention to what heaven is saying.

9:26 And then waiting before you decide. I'm a quick decision maker. Sometimes I'm like, I get slowed down by the people who move slow. Which is okay because that slows me down a lot. But remember, sometimes there's a divine delay and we don't wanna miss God on that divine delay. And then we wanna ask for wisdom and always test the spirit, always test the spirit. Father, let's pray. Father, thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit, my counselor and guide. Teach me to recognize your voice above all others, silence the noise of fear, distraction, and confusion. Train my heart to respond with wisdom and peace. Let discernment guard my steps, purify my motives, and lead me to divine alignment. In Jesus' name, amen.

10:10 I decree I have the mind of Christ. My ears are tuned to heaven's whisper. I do nothing by impulse, but everything by instruction. The Spirit of God guides my decision, and I walk in divine clarity and peace. Let's think on this one. Where is God asking you to pause, pray, and proceed before proceeding? And how might stillness reveal his next instruction? God is speaking. He is regulating everything, but we have to be in touch with him. We have to stay in contact with him. We must, we must, we must. So I want to also thank you right now for listening to Faith on the Goal.

10:51 With your host, Connie Morris from Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I pray that this word energizes your faith and reminds you of God's promise. His promise, according to Isaiah 55, 11, he says, My word shall not return void. It will prosper in the thing I sent it. That's the short version. So remember, every time I'm using my faith to preach the gospel and you're using your faith to listen and to be obedient to the gospel, me too, being obedient to the gospel. God wants to prosper the theme, the word. What did the word say? The word said you'll hear clearly from heaven.

11:33 This is the second part of that discernment. You want to hear clearly in a world of chaos, but you have to sit still and listen and be confident of this, he says in Philippians 1.6. He, we know, who began a good work in you will carry it out to the completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Remember, we are a work in progress and God wants to get us fine-tuned like the clay that we have on the potter's wheel. He wants to get just so perfect. He doesn't look for perfection. He looks for perfect, right? Perfect is what it looks like when you follow Jesus. Each of us are individual. We are not iRobots. We have our own thing.

12:14 He created that on purpose. He didn't want robots. He wanted humans with their own mind and their own emotion. But he also wanted us to have the mind of Christ, right? Our own mind don't mean we're doing stupid stuff. He wants us to develop this mind of Christ so that we don't do stupid stuff, right? So that we stay free and clear, so that God and unhindered, so that Jesus can finish the work in us. So keep believing, keep walking, and keep trusting because God, yes, He will, will finish what He has started in you. And I pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out, I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

13:04 Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. So today we receive that truth. You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray. You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found. so we pursue. You said you will restore us from captivity, so we declare freedom over every place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small. Thank you for always drawing near when we show up in faith. In Jesus' name, amen.