The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment | Tim Challies

The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment | Tim Challies | A Vital Work that Will Really Benefit the Church

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	The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment Tim Challies Crossway Books, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Learn to discern

One word really stands out in my mind after finishing Tim Challies' book that is "timely." We live in a day and age where the term evangelical has lost its meaning and everything under the sun is in Christian bookstores, so the call for discernment is certainly high. I found this book to be written with a well-expressed style, yet very easy to comprehend. In the words of Tim himself, "This book is written for the general reader who wishes to understand discernment...It is not written primarily for people with theological training, though I trust they too, can benefit from it. Rather, it is written for you and me-average Christians..."(15). As soon as you begin the book you will realize its intent is not to provide you with a massive list of good and bad authors, but to help the reader better understand how to develop and begin practicing discernment..

Tim defines discernment as "Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong" (61). Concisely, this is thinking biblically, which all Christians are called to. I certainly recommend this book to any one that is looking for a better understanding in the area of "separating truth from error and right from wrong."

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A Vital Work that Will Really Benefit the Church

Survey after survey shows that most American Christians' behavior and even beliefs differ very little from the culture at large. Yet Christ commands us: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12:2). The new book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies is designed to help believers become more discerning and biblical in their thinking. He writes of his goal: "This book is written for the general reader who wishes to understand discernment and to understand what the Bible teaches about discernment, and who wishes to equip himself in this discipline....It is written for you and for me--average Christians living in a culture and in a church where it so often seems that anything goes." (pp. 15-16). The writing is clear, the reasoning is Biblical and he clearly lays out the Scriptural data in making his case. He also summarizes each chapter at the end in a "Key Thought" paragraph. He also has prepared study questions for each chapter in the back of the book.

Challies starts out by showing how the Bible calls us to discernment, and that according to Scripture, lack of discernment is a clear sign of a weak faith. "Scripture makes it plain: if you are not a person who exhibits and exercises discernment you are not a mature Christian." (pp. 23). And he adds, "Sadly, many who consider themselves Christian have a worldview that is completely inconsistent with their profession of faith. It is a worldview premised not on truths revealed in the Bible but on a person's flawed understanding of the world. It is ultimately a worldview rooted in a person's own sinfulness." (pp. 45).

So how does Challies define discernment? After a chapter showing the importance of discernment, and the another showing the challenge of discernment, in the third chapter he defines it. "Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong." (pp. 61). The author spends most of the rest of the book describing how the Bible presents truth and error, and how the Spirit works to develop our gifts in discernment and wisdom. He also shows how discernment must be linked with Christ-like character traits such as humility and kindness; otherwise a discerning person can easily turn into a proud and critical person! In Chapters 9, he specifically gives direction on how to develop discernment in your life, and then in Chapter 10, he takes the reader through the steps to take in discernment - using some lyrics from a "Christian" song as an example.

This book is thorough, clear, practical and incredibly timely! Best of all, it is very Biblical! Scrpture reminds us that we are called to mature in our faith, so that "we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." (Eph. 4:14). This book will go a long way in helping you grow up in your faith and practice. I cannot recommend it highly enough! Take up and read this- you'll be better for it!

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A Helpful Tool in Cultivating Discernment

I suspect that the topic of discernment is one that, while important, is not often examined by Christians. That this is the case is evident when looking at life in our mainline evangelical churches. Anymore, anyone that mentions that name of God or Jesus is considered part of the crowd. Too often, barely any thought goes into which shepherds the flock is following or which wave the church is riding.

It's a bit scary that I remember the last time I heard about a book on the actual topic of discernment. True there are many books critical of unbiblical theology, and for good reason. What we don't see are book written on how to think about these matters Biblically. In this respect, "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment" by widely-read blogger, Tim Challies, provides a good entry into a seldom examined and yet critical aspect of Christian life.

For the most part Challies is clear and gets quickly to the point. On occasion authors seem the subject accessible enough that the reader doesn't feel overly challenged. It is a strength for an author when they can make a useful book understandable and not overly daunting. This is nearly the case here, though it is offset by it's isolation in the landscape in Christian publishing.

My favorite chapter, Chapter 8's "The Dangers of Discernment", is a wise anticipation of the abuses of testing all things. Every discipline suffers from under use. In American culture, under use of discernment is the spirit of the times. However, those pockets of hyper-vigilance have historically bred the disdain for doctrine that is so popular today. Challies lists several kinds of abuses in discernment that pain me to agree. For my money, I'd like to see future printings use a larger font for this entry.

This book, short as it was, probably could have been a bit shorter. At several points throughout the book I wasn't convinced that subsequent points were distinct enough to warrant elaboration. The final chapter, an exercise in practicing discernment, went counter to the simplicity of the book by rolling through seventeen steps.

Challies' book makes a good tool for ministering to fellow believers who need to be introduced to discernment. Where I see this book being most useful is for a particular Christian demographic: mainline evangelicals who have not learned to be critical thinkers. Many of these Christians do not read outside of popular Christian literature if they read at all, they consider theology proper inaccessible and even divisive, and they tend to value the unity of the visible church above truth or being "correct". Furthermore, this book would be very helpful for folks who are moving out of churches where there is not a premium on connecting theological dots and into congregations that encourage more intentional biblical consideration. Challies can be helpful in these cases because it is not heavy handed and yet it makes a convincing case.

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I've already put this one in my short "read again" stack

Tim Challies' amazingly thorough exploration of biblical discernment should be high on the reading list of every Christian who is concerned about what is true, and what is not ... who wants above all to know God's truth in order to know His will ... and who wants His will to replace his own. "We will find joy and peace not in following our own path," the author points out, "but in allowing our minds to be so changed that our desires are the same as God's." I believe this book can make a significant contribution to that process.

I triple-starred many sections, but perhaps my favorite is the chapter entitled "The Practice of Discernment." Here, Tim describes in compelling detail 17 steps for distinguishing between truth and error. He walks us through the process using an interesting example - the seemingly benign premise that we need to forgive ourselves, endorsed in a contemporary Christian song called (surprise) "Forgive Yourself" as well as by every fan and proponent of the self-esteem movement. I've already had the opportunity to apply his suggestions to a theological issue I've been wrestling with for months. Guess what: They work! They actually broke the pattern of circular thinking I'd fallen into over this particular issue, leading me to biblical truths that have restored my peace.

The first line of a favorite hymn kept dancing through my head as I read: "Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart." I'd always thought the writer meant that he wanted the Lord to be all that he sees, and that may indeed be the case. But this book has given me a new spin on these words. As Tim writes, "Our goal in discernment is to do just this: to see things through God's eyes through the Bible and thus to see things as they really are." I'm already finding that a little easier to do.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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