LETTER 10 - A DISCIPLE GROWS IN DISCERNMENT
I began taking guitar lessons at age five. I have taught
and played guitar for sixty-five years. (How old am I?)
How familiar with guitars am I? Very familiar! I am able to
discern whether a guitar is in tune, or out of tune.
I became a disciple of Jesus just before my twenty-first
birthday. I have talked and walked and lived with Jesus for forty-nine years.
(How old am I?) Jesus became to me, as one scholar calls Him, a “familiar
stranger.”
From the beginning Jesus felt familiar to me. I felt safe, at
home, in Him. Coming to Jesus was a great Homecoming!
And, just as the first disciples found the ways and words of Jesus
strange, like His use of parables, so did I. Yet I, like those disciples, was,
and remain, attracted to Him.
I am familiar with Jesus, with more understanding coming
daily. I am able to discern what is of Jesus, and what is not of Jesus. The discipleship principle I have learned is:
Discernment is a function of familiarity.
Discernment is in direct proportion to
intimacy.
I want you to be familiar with our Lord Jesus. I want your
spiritual discernment to increase.
Apprentices become familiar with their teachers. My Teacher
has taught me this: The more I know Him, the more I see and understand Him.
This is what happens to disciples of Christ. May it be so,
in you.
Love,
PJ
DECLARATIONS
I am becoming more familiar with Jesus every day.
I am able to discern spiritual realities.
I can separate the good from the evil.
Revelation from Jesus is increasing in me.
It excites me to think there is so much more to Jesus waiting for me to comprehend.
There is no greater privilege than knowing Jesus my Lord!
