In order to please God we must be able to live in the Spirit of God and be able to discern between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ as defined by God.

St. Paul prayed, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” Philippians 1:9-10

St. John cautioned us to “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1)

The only way we can successfully discern between good spiritual advice and bad spiritual advice is to study the Word of God.

If a preacher encourages you to pray so that you can discover the path of financial providence you ought to consider that he/she may be a ‘false prophet’ because Jesus teaches us that “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24

Prayer is key to being able to spiritually discern the Will of God.

On the night before Jesus died He cautioned His apostles to: “watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

It is easy to live a sensual existence where we make decisions based on how we ‘feel’. But Jesus challenges us to discern His holy will and that requires spiritual discernment.

My spiritual conversion was marked by a mystical encounter with God where God spoke to my heart.  I was forty years old and I was looking for God for I was unhappy. I was not going to Church and I didn’t own a Bible, but I wanted to find God. I realized I needed His help. Why do we wait for our life to take a downturn before we pray for God’s help? Maybe because most of us don’t understand how much we need God.

Jesus saw His lost sheep and He spoke to my heart: “What is love?” He asked me. I thought I knew what love was, so I answered “love is a feeling.” To this God replied, “wrong” in a quiet, serious, gentle voice. So I asked, “what is it then?”

God answered, “Love is a choice”.

This conversation with God changed my life. Illumined by the Holy Spirit I realized I needed to reconsider my choices in order to determine was I doing God’s will or was I simply pursuing my own selfish desires.

At that point I began to study the Scriptures, I returned to Church and over the course of the next ten years I began to abandon my own career plans to try to discover God’s plan for me. I learned to trust in Jesus and I realized that my plans were not God’s plans for me so I surrendered to God and asked Him to take over my life.

I spent a lot of time studying the Scriptures, meditating, praying and embracing a mysterious silence that would ultimately become a holy place of communion where I would discern God’s will and God’s way.

On this path of spiritual development something life changing happened, I fell in love with Jesus. I began to ask God to teach me His will and show me His pain because I wanted to console Him. Ultimately I felt as though I crossed a bridge between two types of existence, one defined by self and one defined by God.

As I worked to discover God’s will I began to volunteer in the Church and in the community. I discovered some sad things on the path called ‘charity’. I discovered people who were gossiping, some people were arguing and fighting. There was a lot of politics and I felt sad for Jesus. I had asked Jesus to show me His pain and I figured this was His pain to see people pursuing charitable causes with a spirit of competition versus a spirit of cooperation and understanding.

This page was born because I realized that Jesus had taught me some things that I needed to share. I had received a grace I needed to share with others. It was the grace of living a life in the Spirit of God.

A life of spiritual discernment is a life that is dedicated to pleasing God, not just on Sunday’s or occasionally but continuously, in every moment. God taught me that what mattered most was not ‘what’ I was doing, but ‘how’ I was doing it.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24

Over the course of the last ten years I discovered my true identity; I belong to God. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and I want to live to please Him, to help others to know Him and love Him. I discovered I wanted to be a woman of prayer that would pray for souls most in need of His mercy.

Living in the Spirit of God became something natural and easy once I fell in love with Jesus. If we are in love with ourselves then we serve ourselves and listen carefully to the voice of our senses telling us how we feel. We are led by our feelings to decide on paths that may or may not please God. Without any spiritual reasoning we make decisions that are selfish.

But if we fall in love with Our Holy Lord Jesus who was crucified to give us eternal life then we become spiritually aware of the choices that fill our lives and we become sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit living within us that leads us to places we might not have otherwise gone.

You might be wondering how did I fall in love with Jesus?

I went with Jesus to Calvary in a deep meditation and I witnessed in my heart the Passion of Christ. I witnessed the great suffering of Our Saviour and I looked into His eyes and saw a love that changed my life. I saw selflessness, a courage, a determination, a humility to give everything for the people who did not yet love Him. It was on Calvary that I found ‘my heart’s desire’. My heart’s desire is Jesus and the Way to Calvary was the defining point in my spiritual life. If Jesus would suffer all this for me then I would give Him my life.

You know the old saying, “you can take a horse to water, but you cannot force him to drink.” I can encourage you to meditate on the Passion of Christ. I can even describe the Passion of Christ using the Scriptures, but this experience may still leave you unchanged.

Why? Because only God can enable you to fall in love with Jesus!

Only the Holy Spirit can give you the desire to get to know Him, to want to please Him, to want to live each moment for His glory.

God wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit but He will not force the gifts of His Spirit upon you. You have to want them. You have to ask God for His Spirit and blessing.

“But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29

I encourage you to join A Peaceful Revolution in the Name of Jesus Christ, a global Christian prayer movement that remembers the Passion of Christ every day at the time Jesus died for us, 3pm, in our local time zones. We are calling followers of Christ from every Christian denomination to put a reminder in your day timer to stop, if but for a few moments, to pray for the mercy of Our Saviour Jesus Christ to be poured out upon our broken world to save all souls.

Let us pray for the gift of spiritual discernment that we may be able to know how to embrace good and reject evil in our lives. Let us pray that the great love of Our Crucified Lord will touch our hearts and revolutionize our lives so that we can make choices that honour Him and give Him the glory He so deserves. Remember at this time, our suffering Christian brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for their faith. Pray for all souls that are victims of violence. Pray for peace, that Jesus may be adored by all!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Jesus is waiting for His people to come to Him. Let’s carry souls to Him every day at the solemn time Jesus died for us, 3pm, as we ask Our Holy Lord to save the world!

Peace be with you!