Excerpts from The Gift of Discernment, by Francis Frangipane

     As you know from previous posts I am a great fan of Francis Frangipane.  He is a practical and wise teacher of the Word.  His articles contain such truth that I often find myself saying "Of course!"

     This one is no exception.  In it he has much to say about our tendency to criticize/judge and call it discernment.  I believe we often criticize and judge--not out of the heart of God with understanding of the person's intent or circumstances, but out of our own heart of jealousy, envy, pain, bitterness and anger.

     I once heard "Be careful not to judge because someone is judging you in the same way you judge others."  That has been my experience!  Someone will be saying something critical about another person when I realize that is the very thing I have thought about the person speaking.

    Oh, that I would not judge, but instead discern what is in the person's heart and be able to love and help them to become all that God created them to be.

You can read the entire article here.

The Gift of Discernment   (http://www.frangipane.org/)       If we will move in true discernment, our view of life must be purged of human thoughts and reactions. We must perceive life through the eyes of Christ. To Discern, You Cannot Judge       We will never possess true discernment until we crucify our instincts to judge. . . The Goal is To See Clearly       The judgmental carnal mind always sees the image of itself in others. Without realizing it is seeing itself, it assumes it is perceiving others. Jesus refers to the person who judges as a "hypocrite." The Lord is not saying we should totally stop thinking about people. He wants us to be able to help one another. The emphasis in Jesus' command to "not judge" is summarized in His concluding remark: "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." The way we help is not by judging but by seeing clearly. And we do not see clearly until we have been through deep and thorough repentance, until the instinct to judge after the flesh is uprooted.        We have seen that Jesus paralleled speaking to people about their sins with taking specks out of their eyes. The eye is the most tender, most sensitive part of the human body. How do you take a speck out of someone's eye? Very carefully! First, you must win their trust. This means consistently demonstrating an attitude that does not judge, one that will not instinctively condemn. To help others, we must see clearly.         If you seek to have a heart that does not condemn, you must truly crucify your instinct to judge. Then you will have laid a true foundation for the gift of discernment, for you will have prepared your heart to receive the dreams, visions and insights from God. You will be unstained by human bias and corruption.