Discerning Women

 Discerning women don’t want to hear pastors twist and sugar coat God’s Word to suit their own needs. The Bible is not about us, our problems, and making all our hopes and dreams come true. God is not our ‘genie in a bottle’ nor is He Santa Claus. We don’t want to hear seeker-driven or ‘Word of Faith’ false doctrine. We don’t need self-improvement motivational speeches or a list of life tips to follow. We want to hear a pastor rightly handle God’s word and simply present the truth of the word led by Holy Spirit. If Holy Spirit is not in control we don’t want to be there.

 The worship hour has become a variety show……skits, guest stars, movie clips, dance routines, rock concerts, elaborate sets, light shows, and smoke machines. All smoke and mirrors to draw a crowd. We didn’t sign on for Saturday Night Live on Sunday morning. This is supposed to be church. Get rid of all that junk, turn the lights on, give us some solid old time preaching, prayer, and some good old time worship songs we can actually sing, and maybe we’ll stick around. If most discerning women walk into a church and they’re handed a program of events, they’ll leave.

 Discerning women who see unbiblical things happening in their churches and stand up for what God’s word says about biblical teaching are often condemned and labeled as troublemakers. We are called haters, threats to unity, complainers, gossips, negative, and a whole pile of other scornful names. All this for wanting things done according to scripture. Can you blame us for shaking the dust off our high heels and leaving?

 Discerning women have little respect for, and find themselves unable to submit to the authority of pastors who see people in their churches who are openly spreading gossip or spreading false teaching yet are so afraid of confrontation that they will not set things right. By the same token, we cannot continue to attend a church in where we bring scriptural evidence of false teaching or sin to the pastor and he outright denies the biblical truth we present to him. We cannot be members of churches in which pastors will not give up their ‘this if my church’ prideful mentality and submit to Holy Spirit leading.

 Discerning women also want the altars brought back into the churches with anointed men and women of God on their knees praying for each other. We want to see the sick anointed with oil according to the Word of God and healed in Jesus name. We want to see signs follow them that pray and believe according to the Word as described in Mark 16:17-18 (KJV).

 More often, the discerning women you see leaving your church with tear filled eyes have been there for years. Sometimes they leave your church because it was never doctrinally sound to begin with, and God has opened their eyes to this as they grew and matured in Christ. Sometimes they leave because false doctrine and unbiblical practices have crept in and taken over a church that was once a Spirit filled, Spirit led church. Sometimes they leave because they’ve been pushed out because they refuse to join ‘the club’. Either way, these things shouldn’t be.

 And maybe, just maybe it’s not that discerning women are leaving the church, but that the church has left them.

In His love,

Elizabeth