Jeremiah TiptonFounder in president of David Hernandez ministries

Are You Discerning or Suspicious?

23 May 2026 · 1 min

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1:16

In this short sermon, the speaker recounts vivid personal episodes of intense anxiety that felt like heart attacks, describing physical symptoms such as racing heart, numbness, tunnel vision, and dread. He explains how these episodes were driven by fear, leading him to suspect danger and even visit emergency rooms, only to realize the symptoms subsided without medical cause. From this experience, he draws a spiritual lesson: discernment is not the same as suspicion. He warns that fear can cause believers to quickly judge or cut off others—preachers, friends, or anyone whose beliefs differ—mistaking caution for condemnation. He urges listeners to let the love of God replace fear, and to practice discernment through the Spirit, viewing situations through a lens of love rather than fear.

Chapters

I would get to this point where my heart would start racing, my shoulder and my arm would start hurting. I would get a numbness in my body. My vision would become tunnel-like as I began to lose my peripheral sight. Things would be blurry. I felt this dread and this anxiousness in my emotions. And what actually happened was I thought, like I was totally convinced, I'm having a heart attack. There's no way around it. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. This is happening. And I can't tell you how many times I drove to the emergency room, walked in, checked myself in, and as I was waiting there in the ER, the waiting room, suddenly I realized the symptoms were subsiding and there wasn't anything actually wrong with me. Well, this is what happens when fear takes root in the heart. You begin to suspect. Remember, discernment is not suspicion, and we have to be careful of that because again, We're so afraid of deception, we're so afraid of getting it wrong that a preacher could say one thing we disagree with, or a friend can have one belief we don't like, and suddenly we cut them off. The love of God in your heart gets rid of all fear. Discern in the Spirit. That is, discern through the lens of love as opposed to the lens of fear.