I woke up this morning and this was already on my heart, so I just felt like I needed to sit down and share it.
Last night I was awake still going down rabbit holes. You know the ones, Antarctica, the firmament, the hidden places we’re never allowed to go, like certain areas in the Grand Canyon, the basement in the Vatican, things that make you ask, is any of this true? Some of it pulls you in because it sounds like it could be. Some of it even brings God into it, referencing scripture, talking about the firmament meaning there’s a dome over us, and you find yourself thinking, okay, but where is God in all of this really?

The more I watched, the more I noticed that nothing being said was actually pointing back to God, but I’ll come back to that. That rabbit hole journey deserves its own conversation.
What I woke up thinking about this morning was discernment.

Before I go further, I want to share something about where I anchor my scripture, because it matters to this conversation. I lean heavily on the Ethiopian Canon the oldest documented, canonized Bible in existence. Older than the Western canon. In fact, the Western canon was built from it. I hold onto that scripture that warns us not to add to or take away from the Word, and I believe a lot has been taken from the original scrolls over time.

The Ethiopian Bible is as close as I can get to what was first written. I still read the Western Bible daily, but I also compare the scriptures to what the Ethiopian Scriptures say.

Now. Back to discernment.
There is a lot of content out here that sounds good. It sounds empowering. It sounds like truth. It talks about awakening, purpose, identity, and unlocking something deeper within yourself. And if I’m being honest, some of it will pull you in if you’re not paying attention.

But I started noticing something that didn’t sit right with me. In all of that “truth,” God wasn’t really there. Everything kept pointing back to self. What you can unlock. What you can activate. What you can become.
And that’s when it hit me. Not everything that sounds like truth is actually from God.

Because the enemy is not coming at us in obvious ways. He’s not showing up with a warning sign. He shows up in things that look like growth, things that feel like elevation, things that sound like truth,  just without God at the center of it. If we’re not careful, we can mistake that for something good.

The desire to know more is not wrong. Wanting to understand your history, your purpose, your identity, even digging deeper into Scripture, that’s not the issue. The issue is when knowledge becomes the focus instead of God.

I had to check myself on that.

I found myself wanting to understand everything. Every layer, every meaning, every difference between what’s written here and what’s written there. There’s nothing wrong with studying, but there is something wrong when you get so caught up in gaining knowledge that you lose your ability to discern what is actually from God.
Not all knowledge is meant to lead you closer to Him.

Some knowledge will strengthen your faith, give you clarity, and ground you. But some knowledge will pull you into confusion, inflate your sense of self, and slowly move you away from depending on God. The tricky part is, it doesn’t feel wrong when it’s happening. It actually feels empowering.

That’s the danger.

Because if something makes you feel powerful without needing God, that’s your sign to pause.
There’s a passage in Sirach 3:21–22 that God led me to this morning. Sirach is one of those books that didn’t make it into the Western Bible, and honestly, that alone is worth sitting with. The very verse that tells us we don’t need to chase what’s hidden, was itself hidden from us. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. It says, “Do not seek what is too difficult for you, nor investigate what is beyond your power. Reflect on what has been assigned to you, for you do not need what is hidden.” It reminded me of the Garden of Eden, the fruit and the lie lucifer told Eve.

That checked me completely. Because I am never going to know what’s behind that wall in Antarctica. I’m never going to know what’s in Area 51. I’m never going to know what’s hidden in the parts of the Grand Canyon that are closed off to us, or the Vatican. My curiosity about all of it is through the roof, I won’t even pretend otherwise. But those things are hidden. And I’ve come to believe that if something is meant for me, God will reveal it to me in His time. Until then, I don’t need it.

Then there’s 1 Enoch, also fully canonical in the Ethiopian tradition. It speaks about angels revealing forbidden knowledge to humans,  knowledge that led to corruption rather than righteousness. That always stops me. Just because something is revealed to you doesn’t mean it was meant for you. Some knowledge leads away from God, not toward Him.

Proverbs 3:5–6 keeps me anchored. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

We are not meant to be the source. That’s the whole point.

James 3:13–17 breaks it down plainly. There are two kinds of wisdom. One that is pure, peaceable, and from above. And one that is earthly and self-centered. Both can sound wise. That’s exactly why discernment matters.

When you go back to the beginning, to Genesis, the deception wasn’t about turning away from God completely. It was much more subtle than that. The message was that you could become like God. That you could access something more on your own.
That same pattern is still here. It just sounds different now. It comes dressed up as “unlocking your power,” “activating your higher self,” or “tapping into what’s already inside you.” It sounds good. But it shifts the focus from God to self.

I don’t want anything that pulls me away from God, no matter how good it sounds.
So now I’m learning to slow down and ask better questions. Not just, “Does this sound good?” but, “Is this leading me closer to God, or is it quietly replacing Him? Does this create humility, or pride? Does this bring clarity, or confusion? Does this require dependence on God, or independence from Him?”

Anything that quietly removes God from the center, no matter how empowering it sounds, is not something I want to build my life on.

I’m still learning. I’m still growing, but one thing I know for sure is this:
I would rather walk slowly with God, grounded and aligned, than chase after every piece of knowledge that sounds like truth and end up lost.
Not everything that sounds like truth comes from God.
And knowing the difference… that’s where discernment lives.