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The Wake-Up Call
Jesus Discerned Spirits; We Can Too
00:20:12
In this episode, Dan Wilt explores the theme of discernment, emphasizing its importance in spiritual growth and daily interactions. He shares personal stories illustrating how discernment can lead to meaningful connections and spiritual insights. Dan recounts an experience with a waitress where a simple impression led to a heartfelt exchange, highlighting the power of listening to God's voice. He encourages listeners to cultivate discernment by staying close to Jesus, practicing holy listening, and being open to the impressions that align with His teachings. The episode also includes a reflection on Mark 2:6-8, where Jesus discerns the thoughts of the teachers of the law. Dan contrasts educated guesses with true discernment, which relies on a practiced hearing of God's voice. He provides practical advice on how to develop this gift, encouraging listeners to trust their impressions and take small risks in sharing them. The episode concludes with a call to action, inviting listeners ...
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Good morning fellow sowers. Today is Wednesday, June 10th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Dan Wildt and this is your wake up call in our series all the Things. We have been on a journey together and we continue in that today. I want to remind you that the journal is always available to you@seedbed.com AllTheThings as well as resources, sermon outlines, videos and all sorts of other strengthening encouraging tools for you to use along with the journal and this series. Then I also want to remind you that we're collecting Holy Spirit stories. Through all of this we have our kingdom question in our hearts. May I pray for you or may I pray for you now? Or can I pray for you? Is there something I could pray for you for right now? Whatever that that phrase is that you use, I want to encourage you to get it in your heart and then get it flowing from your lips as you discern a moment where the Father is doing something and you can participate with Him. And we want to hear your stories so you can send those to us@seedbed.com holyspiritstories and there'll be something there where you can send them in. And in sending them, it's giving us permission to use them. So craft them. Think about how you want to say it, but enjoy. Let's get into joy sharing these testimonies of God's faithfulness to teach us all the things ministry in his name. And then if you prefer to just email those in, that's fine. You can send them to wakeupcalleedbed.com all right, here we go. Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Let's pray our prayer of consecration as we begin today's meeting with Jesus. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. I just love that part in our time together where we just remind ourselves and we remind one another even as we pray it together. Jesus, we belong to you. It's where the all the things ministry of Jesus begins and ends. We belong to Him. So today's entry is titled Jesus Discerned Spirits and we can too. And our text is from Mark 2, verses 6 to 8 Hear the word of the Lord. Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that. That this is what they were thinking in their hearts. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things? The word of the Lord. Consider this. The other day I was in a restaurant with a friend and our waitress came to our table. I like to ask the Lord for words for waiters and waitresses, as they are a captive audience. As she walked up to take our order, I had a quiet impression, a sense that she was going to school and it had to do with the arts. I decided the impression was more than a good guess, so I chose to risk embarrassment. Are you in school or going back to school? I asked. She smiled. I am. I'm going to school for architecture, and I'm almost finished. I simply said a word of encouragement to her at that moment. Timing is everything in these things. Then when I went to pay the bill, she and I were standing there. I said, I pray and I believe God answers my prayers. I'm going to be praying for you that school finishes well for you and that you get to work in an architecture job that gives you joy. Her eyes brightened. She smiled and with sincerity said, thank you so much. We're coming to one of the most important gifts that help us do all the things that Jesus did with him. It's the gift of discernment. In Mark 2, verses 6 to 8, we read the phrase Jesus knew in his spirit. Discernment is cultivating such a closeness with Jesus in our abiding in him and him abiding in us, that we begin to know things in our spirit, we or our heart, that we might not have known otherwise. Jesus discerns, in this case, what these teachers of the law were thinking. He was discerning their spirit. There is a big difference between an educated guess and discernment. An educated guess relies on reasoning on experience, perhaps an inner judgment about what another person is most probably thinking. It can be accurate and. But it depends on human wisdom. Discernment, on the other hand, relies on a practice hearing of God's voice. Let me say that again. Discernment, on the other hand, relies on a practiced hearing of God's voice, on a consecrated intuition, on awareness that God is desiring to speak into a situation, and on a clear inner resolve that something is happening that may or may not be obvious at first glance. This is holy listening, holy hearing. Discernment is holy hearing where we have grown in intimacy with Jesus enough that we begin to know his voice in our mind in contrast to our own. In today's scripture, Jesus seems to be aware through what we might call an impression or word of knowledge, that the teachers of the law are thinking something. While we may not know everything like Jesus did, I believe we can move in discernment. In the story I shared today, without discernment, I would not have said anything to that waitress. She and I would have both continued our day, and her life and mine would be largely the same. But with discernment, we both left that moment encouraged, lifted, having a sense of hope that God is moving in both of our lives. You and I have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 16. Jesus moved in discernment. You and I can also. And here's our prayer for today. Lord Jesus, I want to hear your voice. Teach me discernment as I grow in closeness with you. Help me hear your voice speaking to me in ways that will encourage and strengthen others. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. And here are our journal prompts. What impressions have you had lately in your heart that are in line with Jesus teaching and would draw someone else near to him? What kind of impressions have come to you that you could maybe take a risk on if you sense the Father's doing something? And again, these things take practice. But what impressions have you had lately in your heart that feel like they're in line with Jesus teaching and would draw someone else near to him? Then your second journal prompt is, write those impressions down. Begin to ask how Jesus might want you to share those with the person. Now I just want to analyze that story at the beginning as we look at those journal prompts and head into our activation in that moment of discernment. I wasn't exactly sure that it was true that she was going to school and it was in an area of the arts. So you'll notice. One could say I hedged my bets, but I didn't. I really was just seeking to explore are you in school or planning to go into school? And instead of her just saying yes and then me asking, is it in the arts, she actually volunteered that she was going to school for architecture. And that in that moment then I had a little bit of a lead, a tug on the line, if you will, in my heart, Jesus, you're doing something here, Father. You're doing something, or you wouldn't have spoken that to me. And that's when I leaned in on encouragement and then telling her afterward, I was praying for her and praying for her in her studies. And you should have seen it, she just lit up. And that is 99% of the time. My experience, when those moments happen, they're not as awkward as I think they might be. They're actually quite precious. It just takes getting through a moment in order to discern it. Then when you do that five times over a year, 10 times, 20, 30, you start to get an intuition building again. Apprenticeship to Jesus in discerning what's happening and what he's doing in someone's life is more like learning a sport. It's like people don't just, you know, play baseball because they read a book. It's an embodied practice until they get good at it. That's the way it is with discernment. So here's our activation for today. If you are walking closely with Jesus, if you're keeping your heart clean before him, if you're consecrating yourself to him, if you're living in confession, if you're in band relationships and you're getting open and honest and you're cultivating worship and you're cultivating delighting in Jesus as he delights in you, and you're in those modes in your life, filling your life with voices and people, speaking into your life, and you are teaching reachable and you're yielded and you are surrendered to Jesus, then I want to encourage you in this activation. Begin to trust your discernment. Just begin to trust. Assume Jesus is speaking rather than the first assumption being that he's not. It's probably me. Take a little bit of a risk and just go a little baby step forward. Begin to trust your discernment. And when you see someone today, instead of just going on through the moment and just relating and doing whatever you need to do, pause inside to consider if you are receiving an impression about them. That could be for prayer there or later for you personally or for sharing. Consider that God is speaking. Open yourself up to the possibility. And when we get open, I'm always amazed that God usually is saying something and I can participate in what the Father's doing. Either share that impression with the person and why you believe it might be important, or take it directly to prayer. One of the things that I've loved about Jesus is that he never seems to be in a rush. So there might be a moment like that waitress, that the time is here, it's now, Dan, you can participate with me. And if you hold back, it's okay, we'll do it again. We'll find another moment. It's okay. You know, but I would want to do something if you want to partner with me in it, you're the one who's here, so dive in. And I am always so delighted when I do. I just am. But also know there was a friendship that I had that was with a friend in our area in the city where I lived in Cambridge, Ontario, that had a very high Portuguese population. And I would walk into a particular gas station every day because I was connected to my friend. And for some reason, I would love to stop there because I knew some Portuguese folks worked at the gas station and a girl would always be at the register. And the first time I met her, she just had this light about her. And I felt like Jesus was smiling on her life. And so I just began to pray for her. And I would see her and I would pray for her every time I felt like the Lord said, just don't say anything. Maybe you compliment her that she's such a people person or whatever. Well, I can't remember how long after it was, but it feels like about a year. She came walking into our church with someone else in our congregation. And my spirit, I was preaching that day, it just leapt. And I walked up to her and I just said, hello and welcome. And she gave her life to Jesus in that season. And then I told her that I'd been praying for her for so long and the Lord had just put her in my heart. And I knew that I had a part to play. I didn't know what it was, but I saw that now that someone else also had their part to play. These are the kinds of things you can't make up. This is the Jesus truth that's stranger than fiction, but far more beautiful and profound because it's not fiction. It's fact. It's real. Her life was forever changed. My life is forever changed. Jesus moves through his church to change people, family lines. And if we'll, in that moment, just say, jesus, I believe you speak to me, we can join him, partner with him in something very special. So there's your activation again. Send in those Holy spirit stories to seedbed.com Holy Spiritstories, or to wake up calleedbed.com because we want to see what they are. And again, I'll share some of these in our social media spaces over our whole series. All right, blessings, and let's move into worship together. Today we are going to sing the name of Jesus again, and we're going to do it through number 113 in our great Redeemer's praise. And I'm going to use the large print edition because that's wise for me and for you probably too. And we're going to sing 1:13 Fairest Lord Jesus. So let's turn our hearts to him and worship. I know some of you are just missing JD and his dad, and quite honestly, I miss them singing together too. That is so beautiful and so precious and such a joy to worship with them each day. So I'm doing every other day a contemporary worship song and then a hymn. But let's join together with Pharaoh's Lord Jesus and turn our hearts to him as we we continue to enter. Enter today.
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Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature O Thou of God and man the Son the will I cherish thee Will I honor Thou my soul's glory, joy and crown Fair are the meadows Fairer still the woodlands Robed in the blooming garb of spring Jesus is fairer Jesus is pure Makes the woeful heart to sing Fair is the sunshine Fair still the moonlight and all the twinkling starry. Jesus shines brighter Jesus shines pur than all the angels heaven can boast Beautiful Savior Lord of all the nations Son of God and Son of Man Glory and honor Praise, adoration now and forevermore be thine
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what a beautiful, beautiful hymn. As you walk out into today, Fair is the sunshine Fairer still the moonlight. As you walk into the beauty around you, may you have eyes to see it. May you have eyes to see, ears to hear what Jesus is doing around you. Partnering with him by his spirit, doing all the things with him to see. Lives opened to him, to come in to transformation into awakening. Just because you in the quiet of your heart said, yes, Jesus, use me. All right, Blessings to you. Let's grab those seeds. Peace and grace. I'll see you on the field for the Awakening. I'm Dan.
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Sam.