When you get to the end, you wanna be able to say, just like the Jerusalem Council said, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." Mm-hmm. That is the hallmark of whether community spiritual discernment happened, that the solution that they walked out of on that day in Acts 15, nobody brought into the room.

And the Lord works in such a way in the group through the conversation that everybody goes, "Wow, that's it." 

Could a church disagree honestly and still recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit together? Acts 15 does not give us a room without conflict. It gives us people who listen long enough to be changed.

James, the one who taught that they must be circumcised, probably caused this problem. 

That may be the most surprising part of the story. No one had to pretend the disagreement was small. 

In the midst of this no small debate and dissension- Right ... they disagreed, but bore the fruit of the Spirit towards each other.

Through this listening to each other- Yep ... the Holy Spirit worked. Nobody came in with that solution. This is a, a very, very surprising statement coming from James's mouth. 

They had to trust God could work through the people in the room. 

James was convincible. He didn't insist on his own way. He was willing to be shaped by the Spirit.

He was willing to be previously wrong. And James here does not insist on his own way. Love does not insist on its own way, and I think that that is a major feature that's needed in people that are gonna do community spiritual discernment. 

Remember, the first episode arrives Thursday, October 1st.

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