There is a fine line between JUDGEMENT AND DISCERNMENT and a fine line between JUDGEMENT and SUSPICION. God would have us DISCERN. DISCERNMENT is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we all need to learn to operate in. But God hates JUDGEMENT and we shouldn’t operate out of SUSPICION.

All of us have judged others and been judged at times, but we need to learn to separate judgment from discernment and suspicion and leave the judging to Him. He is the Righteous Judge of all the earth (2 Tim. 4:8) and He judges in MERCY and RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Acts 17:31 - “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained….”
Ps. 19:9 - “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
John 8:16 - “And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true.”
Matt. 7:1-2 - “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

No one except God knows what has come down the hereditary line and landed on you and worked out in your life. No one except God knows what has been imparted in the womb, because of what your mother carried (e.g. Grief, rejection, fear) or what went down in your family home or early childhood. Everything that happens to us from conception to death is recorded in our unconscious and subconscious mind, but the emotions are stored along with the memory. If hurtful emotions are not healed, they will trigger our reactions in today.

We are a combination of all our yesterdays and all the experiences we have had and the circumstances we have been exposed to. These combine to make us who and what we are today. Our different motivational gifting will also affect how we react to a situation as will any conditioning we have learned in childhood from our parents. (Their reactions and role modeling also affect us.)

So how dare we judge another who has been subject to very different things from us? We all perceive things differently. Our perceptions may be valid to us, but not correct. No one has walked in anyone else’s shoes. So let’s leave the judging to God! How we hate to be judged, so we must treat others how we like to be treated. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” Not one set of rules for you and another set for them – double standards. How often we operate out of these without realizing. We have a reason or an excuse why we do things!!!!????

God hates JUDGMENT so we must learn to hate the things He hates and love the things He loves.

SUSPICION

Suspicion = an act of mistrusting or a fear of something wrong.

We can often react out of SUSPICION. We think a person doesn’t like us because they spoke to someone else, but not us, or we feel they have ignored us, but often  they just have something else on their mind that they are focused on. People who have suffered rejection often so need attention and acceptance and look to others to get their needs met inappropriately. They have wrong expectations of others.

Some people run huge scenarios through their minds about what other people will be thinking about them, or why certain people act like they do, but they are just making assumptions based on their perceptions or out of their woundedness. Wounded people have distorted perceptions. People also act and think differently, because of their different motivational gifts. Our evaluation of a person or a circumstance can be so different from true reality, even though it seems valid to us.

So God doesn’t want us to be SUSPICIOUS. Even if a person is thinking wrongly about us, that is their problem. If they are JUDGING us, or REJECTING us – it is their problem! They will have to answer to God for that, because they are meant to walk in love, acceptance and forgiveness towards us, but we must also walk this way towards them. We must free them to be where they are at. Each of us is at a different place on the road in our journey of life and some of us have had revelations that others have not yet had and vice versa.

We are only responsible to keep OUR ATTITUDES, BEHAVIOUR, FEELINGS, ACTIONS, WORDS and OUR WALK with the LORD RIGHT. Most of us have enough to do just to keep ours right! So often if we think they are judging us, neglecting or rejecting us – we come back in the same spirit and judge, neglect or reject them – so we are just as bad as them!

DISCERNMENT

This is a gift of the Holy Spirit, that God so wants us to operate out of. It is so lacking in the church today.

Prophetic people will pick things up about people, God wants to hone and adjust this gift of DISCERNMENT, so it is sharp and accurate and in line with His heart and thinking. So we must ask Him to separate away any JUDGMENT or SUSPICION and purify and sanctify this gift and bring it in line with Him. Then when we DISCERN something, we must ask Him what He wants us to do.

1. Sometimes He would have us just overlook the problem. It isn’t worth making a fuss about. It is just not important. Or sometimes the person wouldn’t understand or be able to deal with it because of where they are at!
2. Sometimes we are called to stand in the gap and intercede/pray for that person – for God’s blessing, His favour, for Him to bring revelation and truth to them.
3. Some times if it is affecting our relationship with them, then we need to learn to deal with it as an issue from a place of peace in love with the intent to come to a satisfactory agreement or solution or a SATISFACTORY compromise.

We need to forgive those who have judged us and own how it has made us feel. (eg. misunderstood, devalued, not accepted etc.) We need to bring the hurt, frustration etc. of this to the cross and release it there. Appropriate the power of Jesus’s blood to cleanse and release us.

We also need to repent where we have judged others, forgive ourselves and receive God’s forgiveness.

Then we need to ask the Lord to separate judgment and suspicion away from the gift of discernment. And strip that whole assignment of judgment and suspicion of any power or authority they have had in our life, of any legal right to be there any longer and command it to go in Jesus’s name and the power of the finished work of the cross.

Ask the Lord to alert you if you go to judge and daily ask for Him to sharpen the gift of discernment. Learn to receive it and when you do, ask Him what to do with it.
James 2:13 “For JUDGMENT is without MERCY to the one who has shown no MERCY. MERCY triumphs over JUDGMENT.”
1 Peter 4:17 “For the time has come for JUDGMENT to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first. What will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God”?
This is a very serious verse. We have the word of God – our Guide book for life. We need to come in line with God’s truth and His ways, so we won’t be ashamed at His coming (1 John 2:28)

And we need to take every opportunity to share the good news of the gospel, so others will not have to face the judgment and wrath of God after death.

There is total freedom in Christ Jesus, so let’s avail ourselves of it.