The Goal of Spiritual Discernment is to receive God’s Guidance

  1. Take time to become settled in God’s presence.
  2. Listen to others with your entire self (senses, feelings, intuition, imagination, and rational faculties).
  3. Do not interrupt.
  4. Pause between speakers to absorb what has been said.
  5. Do not formulate what you want to say while someone else is speaking.
  6. Speak for yourself only, expressing your own thoughts and feelings, referring to your own experiences. Avoid being hypothetical. Steer away from broad generalizations.
  7. Do not challenge what others say.
  8. Listen to the group as a whole-to those who have not spoken aloud as well as to those who have.
  9. Generally leave space for anyone who may want to speak a first time before speaking a second time yourself.
  10. Hold your desires and opinions — even your convictions — lightly.

~ From Grounded in God, Revised Edition (Farnham, Hull, and McLean, Morehouse Publishing)

Download the Discernment Listening Guidelines