Discernment
THE OPERATIVE word among the presidentiables in this pre-election season.
Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio went into a long period of discernment and came out of it saying “God is telling me to run for the presidency.”
The opinion polls said otherwise: 0.4 percent acceptance is in no way reflective of a voice from God. Hence, Panlilio – salvaging whatever remained saveable in his reputation – gave way to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
The reluctant Noynoy is now in turn into a spiritual retreat down South to seek “discernment and spiritual guidance” as he considers whether to run for president under the Liberal Party.
Not to be outdone, Vice President Noli de Castro, albeit still remaining coyly undecided about his presidential ambitions, is doing his own discernment.
Said Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio: “We’re hoping before the first half of this month that there would be a clear resolution of what would be (De Castro’s) decision.”
Claudio added that Kabayan is “doing his own careful consideration of the entire situation and we’re giving him time.”
Discernment being religious, nay, spiritual in nature, it is valid to assume that Jesus is Lord (JIL) chieftain Bro. Eddie Villanueva had had his own discernment as he firmed up his decision to run for president anew. I just don’t know if El Shaddai’s Bro. Mike Velarde is still into it, having not heard any definite statements from him.
Discernment. What is it really?
The basic dictionary definition is that it is a faculty of the human mind to discriminate among sets of options what is apprehensible, relevant or worthwhile. Beyond that, I posted some research on the term in my April 3, 2009 piece here titled The omen, that warned of Panlilio’s run for the presidency. Thus:
A quick referral to Scripture on discernment leads to 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, to wit: “7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Finding full complement there is Psalm 119:66, “Teach me knowledge and good judgment.” Clearly indicative here, as an evangelical group puts it, is discernment as “the ability to make discriminating judgments, to distinguish between, and recognize the moral implications of, different situations and courses of action. It includes, apparently, the ability to “weigh up” and assess the moral and spiritual status of individuals, groups and even movements.”Comes here St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Yeah, the order of the Jesuits.
St. Ignatius became a master of spiritual discernment, only after a long period of practice and prayer, going through the temptations and experiences of “movements” in his soul.
It is not just God that moves us in periods of discernment. There could be Satan too, ever trying to mislead us. And our own inner voices that can work for interests other than God’s.
Hence, as a Catholic charismatic group posted: “If we are concerned to do God’s will, then we are only interested to discern whether God is the source of the leading…We must work at discerning God’s voice. Discernment is the art of knowing when it is God acting upon or speaking to us, and when it is not. This art can only be learned by trial and error. The voices we experience are quite subtle, and discernment requires us to become sensitive to subtle differences between the different movements upon our soul. Yet we will never recognize the voice of God with absolute clarity, and anyone who claims to hear God clearly and with certainty should be avoided — they have not even begun to know spiritual realities if they make such a claim.”
Thus Panlilio declared: “God is calling me to run for the presidency.”
Thus it came to pass: Panlilio getting 0.4 percent in the opinion survey of presidential pretenders.
A lesson to those undergoing discernment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio went into a long period of discernment and came out of it saying “God is telling me to run for the presidency.”
The opinion polls said otherwise: 0.4 percent acceptance is in no way reflective of a voice from God. Hence, Panlilio – salvaging whatever remained saveable in his reputation – gave way to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
The reluctant Noynoy is now in turn into a spiritual retreat down South to seek “discernment and spiritual guidance” as he considers whether to run for president under the Liberal Party.
Not to be outdone, Vice President Noli de Castro, albeit still remaining coyly undecided about his presidential ambitions, is doing his own discernment.
Said Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio: “We’re hoping before the first half of this month that there would be a clear resolution of what would be (De Castro’s) decision.”
Claudio added that Kabayan is “doing his own careful consideration of the entire situation and we’re giving him time.”
Discernment being religious, nay, spiritual in nature, it is valid to assume that Jesus is Lord (JIL) chieftain Bro. Eddie Villanueva had had his own discernment as he firmed up his decision to run for president anew. I just don’t know if El Shaddai’s Bro. Mike Velarde is still into it, having not heard any definite statements from him.
Discernment. What is it really?
The basic dictionary definition is that it is a faculty of the human mind to discriminate among sets of options what is apprehensible, relevant or worthwhile. Beyond that, I posted some research on the term in my April 3, 2009 piece here titled The omen, that warned of Panlilio’s run for the presidency. Thus:
A quick referral to Scripture on discernment leads to 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, to wit: “7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Finding full complement there is Psalm 119:66, “Teach me knowledge and good judgment.” Clearly indicative here, as an evangelical group puts it, is discernment as “the ability to make discriminating judgments, to distinguish between, and recognize the moral implications of, different situations and courses of action. It includes, apparently, the ability to “weigh up” and assess the moral and spiritual status of individuals, groups and even movements.”Comes here St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Yeah, the order of the Jesuits.
St. Ignatius became a master of spiritual discernment, only after a long period of practice and prayer, going through the temptations and experiences of “movements” in his soul.
It is not just God that moves us in periods of discernment. There could be Satan too, ever trying to mislead us. And our own inner voices that can work for interests other than God’s.
Hence, as a Catholic charismatic group posted: “If we are concerned to do God’s will, then we are only interested to discern whether God is the source of the leading…We must work at discerning God’s voice. Discernment is the art of knowing when it is God acting upon or speaking to us, and when it is not. This art can only be learned by trial and error. The voices we experience are quite subtle, and discernment requires us to become sensitive to subtle differences between the different movements upon our soul. Yet we will never recognize the voice of God with absolute clarity, and anyone who claims to hear God clearly and with certainty should be avoided — they have not even begun to know spiritual realities if they make such a claim.”
Thus Panlilio declared: “God is calling me to run for the presidency.”
Thus it came to pass: Panlilio getting 0.4 percent in the opinion survey of presidential pretenders.
A lesson to those undergoing discernment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 12:22 PM
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