Now is the time for the body of Christ to be on high alert when it comes to honing in on listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
In a recent message, Richard Lorenzo Jr. urged the body of Christ to discern spiritual challenges and embrace God’s process of refinement. “Some people are not discerning you spiritually, they’re diagnosing your suffering,” he says, emphasizing that God tests believers’ faith to make it stronger. “The Bible says He takes our faith and puts it through a fire… so it comes out stronger than it was before.”
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However, while many are being refined for greatness, the church today has become a breeding ground for people to question the success of others. In our current culture, it almost seems as though many would prefer to see believers fall into scandal and sin than to see them raised up and redeemed by God. This “Pharisee spirit,” as Lorenzo explains, focuses on others’ failures instead of their spiritual growth.
“The Pharisees were spiritual bounty hunters chasing failures and not souls,” Lorenzo says. He encourages believers to focus on winning souls rather than engaging in competition. “When you start winning souls… there’s going to be people as you’re chasing souls, they’re going to be chasing your failures.”
This Pharisee spirit is rooted in jealousy and competition. “Your destiny exposes their delay,” he says. Lorenzo observes that some people might secretly be “waiting for your downfall” due to envy, especially when others seem to advance quickly in their spiritual journey. “When people see you moving quickly in Christ… people will try to latch on to eat from your fruit,” he says.
However, these jealous spirits are opposite God’s heart for redemption. “God is not looking for a reason to judge you. He’s looking for a reason to redeem you,” Lorenzo says.
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He stresses that God’s grace and love are abundant, pointing out, “God is extremely gracious… He gives people time to repent because He loves and He is love.” Lorenzo likens God’s intentions to those of a loving father: “Think about a father who loves their son… they want to see their children win.”
Just as God wants to see us win, the true heart of a disciple of Christ should be to see others flourish in their walk with God.
This is a powerful reminder for Christians to prioritize their spiritual growth, trust in God’s redemptive process and rise above the distractions of jealousy and competition. It calls believers to stand firm in their faith, embrace God’s testing and support one another in their journey toward fulfilling their destiny—always remembering that God’s heart is for restoration, not condemnation.
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Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
