Charismatic Discernment View
May 22 2025
As the name suggests, this view is connected with Charismatic Christianity and heavily emphasizes direct, supernatural revelation in career discernment, especially through charismatic gifts such as prophecy. Missions and church ministry may be especially prominent when defining the meaning of vocation.
Means of discernment
Prayer is considered very important: God can speak to people directly in prayer, and it can even be elevated close to the primary means of vocational discernment.
The Christian community plays a role in discernment, especially through prophecy, word of knowledge, and other charismatic means.
Example
When faced with a career decision, a Christian following the Charismatic Discernment View would seek to hear God’s voice to receive direct guidance on what to do.
This could be through prophecy or spiritual experiences during worship, or they could attempt to hear God’s voice in prayer.
Comparison with the CFI View
Both CFI and the Charismatic Discernment View affirm the importance of prayer.
However, CFI doesn’t consider seeking direct supernatural calling from God as the primary means of career discernment: while God can speak directly and unmistakably about career choice, this is seen as relatively rare rather than the rule.
God has instead given us many different means of discernment to use. CFI emphasizes using reason as a gift of God in the career discernment process, whereas it’s not a core component of discernment in the Charismatic Discernment View and may sometimes even be actively discouraged in some cases as “leaning on one's own understanding.”