{"id":17774,"date":"2026-06-06T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankviola\/?p=17774"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:04:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:04:30","slug":"threeinstruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankviola\/threeinstruments\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Instruments and the Test of Discernment"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Every person called to the Lord\u2019s work possesses three instruments: a jackhammer, a surgeon\u2019s knife, and an anesthetic syringe.<\/p>\n<p>The test of spiritual discernment and wise leadership is to know when to use which instrument.<\/p>\n<p>Some are more gifted at using the jackhammer. This is the deconstructive ministry of the genuinely prophetic. Such people aren\u2019t tailors who thread a needle. They are wrecking balls.<span id=\"more-27847\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Others are more adept at wielding the surgeon\u2019s knife, resolving people\u2019s spiritual problems with gentleness yet pinpoint accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Still others are more schooled at administering the pain-relieving balm of anesthesia.<\/p>\n<p>But everyone called to the Lord\u2019s work must learn how and when to use each instrument.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things that aids in this endeavor is to become part of a ministry team.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, most leaders today are solo acts with no interest in working with their peers. Their penchant for independence hinders their spiritual usefulness and hampers the kingdom of God from advancing.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t make that mistake.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.frankviola.org\/2020\/08\/27\/threeinstruments\/#_ednref1\" name=\"_edn1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/a>I\u2019ve elaborated on this problem in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/yx92vsph\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Co-Working in the Kingdom<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Until next Thursday,<\/p>\n<p>fv<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every person called to the Lord\u2019s work possesses three instruments: a jackhammer, a surgeon\u2019s knife, and an anesthetic syringe. The test of spiritual discernment and wise leadership is to know when to use which instrument. Some are more gifted at using the jackhammer. This is the deconstructive ministry of the genuinely prophetic. Such people aren\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":16295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Instruments and the Test of Discernment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every person called to the Lord\u2019s work possesses three instruments: a jackhammer, a surgeon\u2019s knife, and an anesthetic syringe. The test of spiritual\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/frankviola\/threeinstruments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Instruments and the Test of Discernment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every person called to the Lord\u2019s work possesses three instruments: a jackhammer, a surgeon\u2019s knife, and an anesthetic syringe. 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