DBE 48 Spiritual Discernment in The Degenerate Culture with David A Bednar

welcome to empower your pattern with President James [Music] Henrik remember of the Church of Jesus Christ of lday saints success confidence and Thrive coach and adversity educator he'll teach you the patterns of how to enjoy a better and extraordinary life right now along with ways to cope with the adversities of day life so if you come with us we'll be ready let's fide welcome at pattern Fountains at Mystic Park um I think that this topic is timely for what's been going on in my life and a lot of people's Liv lately based on what you're see on the news and social media and how being tethering to our our devices so often can lead the problems of mental health this title of this episode is dbe 48 um spiritual discernment into degenerate culture over to you to the Theologian David a bner this is a question where where we have to be wise and how we answer this uh it would be easy to say well just talk to your parents but this may be a case where parents possibly could be abusive and that's why he's afraid to talk so there's a lot that we don't know and we don't want to give some generic answer that may not be appropriate to the specific circumstances of this young man so here's a principle that can help this young man come to the answer to his question the spiritual gift of discernment is the ability to see not just with natural eyes but with spiritual eyes to hear not just with natural ears but with spiritual ears this young man needs to learn about the spiritual gift of discernment so it can operate in his life and what discernment ultimately means is not just recognizing between good and bad but discernment is the capacity the spiritual gift to see the good in someone else that that individual perhaps is not recognized and it's also the ability to help them develop it that if this young man will earnestly seek for the gift of discernment then he will come to know when he should or when he shouldn't talk what he should and what he shouldn't say because he'll be able to see what he cannot ordinarily see and he can hear what he cannot ordinarily hear there are times when people are silent and they're screaming but you can only hear that if you have the gift of discernment so he may have a a very sensitive set of issues he has to work through with his parents and he doesn't know how he may need to counsel with a priesthood leader or an advisor who could assist him I don't know what's needed in all of those circumstances but the Holy Ghost will help him with that gift of discernment know what he otherwise would not know see what he otherwise would not see hear what he in any other circumstance could not hear so that may sound like a vague answer but the answer he needs can only come through that spiritual capacity of discernment and those are some steps he can take to begin to try to seek for that thank you and I think underline a little bit in that question is that this young all right we're going to have a little fun with this if you know what I mean and um I'm not going to say names or anything like that but I've had some happening some things that's gone on in my life where I have gone off focus and I have not been able to discern spiritually and it's not just between what's good and evil but also sometimes between what's good and and better and best interest for me we live in a degenerate culture the the anger the demands for instant gratification and I have to be honest with you um I think that that's why my stress level has been kind of High um I've decided um M Eagles going to take up on my political show if if I decid to even have it for a few days I need to to be honest with you I need to recalibrate and focus more on some of the spiritual aspects of my life and really look at the lessons I've learned by falling off the path and doing my best to get back on and I'm just going to be honest with you the spirit is silent but one thing I have to say is that the world is screaming right now I gotta have what I have what I want and I got to have it right now you better respond to what I want and you better respond to it right now or I'm going to find out why attitudes like that or you know even we many people why don't you just compromise this why don't you just compromise that [Music] I think that our degenerate culture is trying to take away free will even amongst some well-meaning people and that's why I agree with the Theologian David a bnar and this isn't just for teenagers of kids this is for us adults too I think it goes along with what or how we consume social media along with some of the content that we consume I've been talking to Heavenly Father lately and one thing that he's been talking to me about is this and that is he said Jimmy first off set boundaries with people let people know that what you will not compromise on what information you will and will not volunteer and how you choose to live life because it kind of reminds me of what my friend um my college bu Kevin once said opinions are like a-holes everybody's got one man of you be off the horse but I think it needs it needs to take place all right let me tell you something I tried doing a video on this this subject yesterday but unfortunately I had so many distractions and I think part of our problem is we we got a degenerate culture that wants to pull P Us in so many directions and we wonder why we're not achieving our dreams and we wonder why we're not happy it's it's like we're sacrificing for the wrong things we're burning ourselves out by not saying no to certain people we're taking in messages and ideas that go against what we believe spiritually and I think it has a lot to do with our degenerate culture the news media social media entertainment media be scared be mad be scared be mad and eventually be scared be mad to me means be sad give up be sad give up and I got to say this because of how things have been with me lately this month I'm ready to recalibrate my life and just move in I'm not going to lie when I say that things have been crazy things have been beyond my control and I think a lot of it is because I lost Focus I let some other people and their desires to me get in the way instead of me working on achieving my dreams and finding happiness and I'm not saying it's it's others it's also the battle that's going on inside me and so that's why I agree with um the Theologian David abar we need to study discernment and know how to to use the gift of spiritual discernment not just for the matters of what's good and evil but often also what's good and better because one thing I know about this degenerate culture it will spin you around and turn you in so many different directions to you you just feel abused and drained and to be honest with you I that's how I felt the past few weeks abused and drained I've almost thought to give up podcasting and and going on YouTube but I realized that no I still have a message I still have something that God's called me to to do and I guess because I feel so pulled in in so many different directions and not focused but there is something inside me saying well just just give up it's not working it's it's it's never going to work but then I have to tell myself hey recal calibrate start taking better care of yourself learn to say no to certain people's uh demands and request you have to do that I've noticed for the past 30 plus years next next year be 35 years that our our culture is becoming more and more and more degenerate and we need to do something about it I'm feeling LED right now and I'm asking you guys to please tun on me okay please this is important for me to teach you because I'm hoping that you you'll understand why I'm doing this I'm talking about faith right now because the degenerate culture does not want me talking about faith all right but listen to me we don't have to get into that we're so much smarter we're so much better okay now I'm telling you something I do what I do but we have to we have to discern not just between good and evil which that is very important but also between what is good and what is better I want to look up the word discern and see if this matches uh I want I want to see if this matches anything because this is important that we discern what's going on and I don't care if I go a little bit over because we need to know we need to we need to know how to discern all right because if we don't we're we're messed up 1 Corinthians chapter 2 I finally found the verse verse 14 but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for there are foolishness unto him neither neither can be known them because they are spiritually discerned now if you will I want you to think what does it mean to discern it means to have the gift of the Holy Ghost as your constant companion to be aware of of the mission of the Holy Ghost and keeping the Light of Christ in you okay during some parts of Co the early days I was going to have my father and complaining about how bad it was because I was you know Sheltering place and everything quarantine and I was going nuts I said my father I hate this you know but I'm gonna do I can't stand this and this went on for like I don't know couple weeks and I remember one morning I was complaining and muring and how father was kind of like hey you know what if you keep if all you keep focusing on is the darkness then darkness is what you get but if you focus on the light then light is what you get okay and and and I I was cling along through my v and then that Good Friday I was lonely and I was at the point you I I cried off to Heavenly Father all day and finally that evening I was angry I was like okay okay you keep saying to focus on the light that there's a light at the end of the tunnel what is this light at the end of the tunnel I demand to know and he said you don't know you've lost that much Focus that you don't know you should know because that light at the end of the tunnel for you is the Light of Christ I need you to start focusing on the light of Christ and everything inside me was screaming how but yet the Holy Ghost was like Hey get still before me and I'll Teach You How get still for me and I'll teach you how yes things in some ways got worse before they got better and then um in October 2021 um my congregation in the church went through a boundary split in order to Foster growth and and I was devastated and then a few months later I found out that my good friend Bishop Dave and his family we moving back to Utah and I was freshed and it's funny because for three months I was crying out to heavly Father I'm lonely what am I going to do I'm lonely what AM going to do I'm miserable I'm lonely what am I going to do and finally I went away to Utah for a few days and heavenly father was like find purpose and so for the time I was doing good I found I found purpose things were going okay and then earlier this year my father died and I started complaining again I'm lonely what am I going to do I'm lonely what am I going to do I'm lonely I'm I'm going to do what am I going to do and finally early last month I like Angry my father like I'm having a tough time following you this stinks and heavenly father is kind of like really you're going to go in there with that attitude he said you have no idea how I'm about to bless you and of course you'll find out in the next episode how I have been blessed now I saying everything's perfect no as I said in an episode that I did last uh back in late summer early fall of 2020 only one that said this you can't escape the degenerate culture but what you can do is find a path help get you through it where you can tap into the light at the end of the tunnel the Light of Christ because I tell you something if you don't with what's going on news media social media entertainment media anything and everything that can is there that the enemy has to crush your Faith it's there but I want you to know something I'm doing this series design uh designing design belief Enterprise because I love you and we don't have to sit there and put up with it okay because spiritual discernment is a package deal it's not just between good and evil often times it's also between what's good and what's better oh no Jimmy come on no listen to me Jimmy hold on you been talking about faith the past few days when are you going to start talking about thiss soon soon okay and I'm sorry this episode doesn't necessarily give you a hint but more of them are coming listen to me more of than are coming our degenerate culture will crush you if you're not ready to accept these hands do you understand you have plenty of them and more are coming but I think our degenerate culture has made more or less impatient and why because we're Tethered to our devices all the time and sometimes we got to shut down and say you know what hey no more I got to take care of myself you do too much and I'm not saying be selfish but what I'm saying is sometimes we got to withdraw from the culture which is full of degenerate vultures and look after our spiritual needs Discerning once again between good and evil gifts but also between good and better because our our degenerate culture it would love to crush it's just absolutely crush us give us problems make it worse and you don't have to put up with that listen to me you don't and I'm just going to be honest with you you don't need to just lie down and accept what the degenerate culture says and Advance everybody and compromise your dreams and compromise your happiness I set up design belief Enterprise because of the wisdom I learn from people like Presley swaggerty okay Presley swaggerty dror stepen cubby Dan Clark these people along with many others because it's a design it's a pattern if you want to find belonging if you want to find happiness and meaning then all of this that I've been talking about for the past almost month and a half it has to fit in together but you are near Are We Now anywhere near the end of the design we are listen to me we are after this we got 22 Episodes in this series but I promise you as it as it goes on as it wears on the the clues the keys everything is going to fit together but we have to discern hope you enjoy Please Subscribe till next time share with mamao papaito everybody till next time choose active see happiness God bless you remember this from the bottom of my heart Jimmy loves you I really really really really love you God bless you and please have a bless day