Pursue Discernment

We need have discernment. If you believe you have it, and yet don't continually refer to Scripture to test even that sense of certainty...there's a good chance it lacks truth.

Thank of it in terms of flavor.

(granted, not the absolute best of all means of considering supernatural reality, and yet...)

If you cook using various seasonings you will develop a familiarity which what each particular seasoning adds, how each complements others, and you may even come to a point of being able to recognize a particular note of flavor yet lacking in a dish, then being able to identify what need be added per a deep familiarity with its individual bouquet and flourish.

Alternately, you can also...quite similarly...tell when something is just a tad off. When there's too much garlic, or when someone used mint instead of oregano. And it just tastes wrong. The flavors don't completely meld together. Something is just...off.

And even if you can't quite "put your finger" on what that flavor is...the one which disrupts the composition of the all...

...still, you can taste that something isn't right.

And the more familiar you become with each individual herb and spice...the more familiar you become with the way different herbs and spices complement and accentuate one another, even--coming together into various harmonies and layers of complexity..

...the more readily and easily you can identify what's right and what's wrong, and in what measure.

Discernment is like that.

Constantly developing, even.

The deeper the familiarity with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, with the recorded word as Scripture (given so as to have a physical means of discerning and rightly judging, amongst so many things)...the more readily a wrong, sour note with be recognized and understood for what it is.

To put it slightly differently...

Spiritually speaking, you might not know what malice "tastes" like. But...if you hear someone speaking even Scripture with a certain edge to their voice which makes you shudder in revulsion as a cold chill runs down your spine at the pointed edge and vitriol with which they're speaking...then, still, not recognizing that distinct "flavor," you would recognize that response as being completely different to the warmth and gladness evoked within by anything spoken truly in love.

Not good examples, not very precise...especially as I would imagine these things are experienced slightly differently, person-to-person, even according to that which the Holy Spirit impresses and clarifies...

...but just to have something as somewhat a point of reference.

We're to test every spirit, after all. Every spirit does not exclude the Holy Spirit, given that John's epistle makes it plain by further stating that we test to see if it is from God. Meaning, even that which is from God...is being tested.

That's not done lightly, though.

 Look to Galatians 5 for a decent overview of some commonly understood terms which are laced with "flavors" which constitute (in any way, as any part of composition) an "off"-note:

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

...in other words, if you know what it is to experience something regarding sexual immorality (lustful covetousness having incited such, especially), impurity (conceit being a large factor, as self-idolatry made evident as reality), and all the rest...

...if you have ever experienced any of these, which you have in this world, then you will know what it "feels" like to act in such a way, to act according to such a spirit.

Mockery is of the same, even, in large part...as divisive, discordant, selfish/self-centered.
...and so are many other things, not mentioned.

But, yeah.

Further, it seems there can also be division between the spirit in which something was given/intended and that according to which it is received. Something can be done in love and received jealously and with hatred. Something can be done with an undertone of covetousness and yet still received (even filtered, so to speak) in a spirit of love.

Love is of God. But not love as the world gives. Unconditional love.
Peace is of God.
True joy is of God...

...and really, just again, look to Galatians.

And if there's something you're not sure about, press further into Scripture. Continue to pray for clarity. He will reveal the truth.

Just...it seemed right and good to share something to this effect, given recent messages.
I have to test myself, constantly. I have to test the spirit in which I operate, constantly, and constantly seek that I could less and less obstructively give heed to the Holy Spirit, alone.

But I am yet human, and being at all self-conscious means that there is an off-note which may persist too much, making it possible for reception to be set off-kilter. Moreso than it otherwise might.

And the whole deal of progressing too, it seems, is that there's an ongoing increase in clarity which makes apparent that certain things which once seemed clear were rather skewed and contorted, compared to that which is realized and understood and known as truth, even know.

Through a glass, darkly, after all.

All things must be done in love, though, and of matters which are so very urgent and concerning as those of late, I know part of my passage has been colored by frustration, meaning that there's definitely an off-note, already. So, some persistent obscuring of truth is possible, in other words. Otherwise, personal frustration wouldn't be part of the composition.

Hatred isn't of God. Frustration...well, really...it depends upon its source and object. And there...there is where the need for discernment comes in.

Because things which are right and good, in instance, are wholly wrong in other instance, dependent entirely upon the spirit from whence inspiration has come and per which action has been wrought.

Where is it sourced from and what is the foundation upon which it rests, in other words.

And even in terms of frustration...

...read Isaiah. There's a deeper layer than mere frustration, but superficial assessment of certain chapters evidences a frustration of sorts. And yet, it's not same as the frustration which we experience. But how can you know that, except for discernment?

All is sourced from love, a deep abiding love for those whose faithlessness is lamented.
Even unto grief, lamented.
Even as expressed, at time, as frustration...even per sarcasm..

Yet, sourced wholly from and resting soundly upon a foundation of abiding, unwavering, unconditional love.

Whereas...our frustration?...if it's not sourced in and from Him, even as such..

...then it's sourced from self, and some sense of self-sufficiency which can only be wholly wrong given there's no such thing as self-sufficiency, in truth.

So, sourced from the Spirit of God, or from that of pride?

How can you know, except for discernment?

We must learn to love.
The author of it is the only Teacher.

Seek Him.
He will show you. He will teach you, if you seek Him.

With all your heart.
...even having no idea what that means, then begin to seek to know what it means, so as to know how to do what is required and necessary.