Testing Every Conviction

How Yahweh Used My Pursuit of Holiness to Teach Me Discernment

There are moments in our walk with Yeshua HaMashiach that forever change the way we read the Scriptures.

Not because the Word changes, but because we do.

As Ruach HaKodesh continues to sanctify us, He doesn’t simply reveal more truth—He refines the way we understand the truth He has already given. Looking back, I can now see that some of the greatest lessons Yahweh has taught me did not come through dramatic moments of deliverance or profound revelations. They came through quietly discovering that some of my convictions, though sincere, still needed to be tested against His Word.

That realization humbled me.

For those of you who have followed my testimony, you know that I spent most of my life in darkness. Depression, suicidal thoughts, addiction, unforgiveness, and years of spiritual bondage convinced me that I would never truly be free. Yet Yahweh, in His incredible mercy, met me in that darkness and completely changed the direction of my life.

From that day forward, one desire consumed my heart.

I wanted to please Him.

Not because I believed I could earn His love, but because I had already experienced it.

When someone has been rescued from the pit, they never look at life the same way again.

Gratitude produces a hunger that cannot be manufactured, and mine became a relentless pursuit of holiness. I wanted every part of my life to belong to Him. If there was something that grieved Abba Father, I wanted it gone. If there was an area where I needed to repent, I wanted Him to reveal it. If there was anything standing between me and deeper intimacy with Yeshua, I wanted to surrender it without hesitation.

I still feel that way today.

That pursuit eventually led me into studying subjects that many believers either avoid altogether or become completely consumed by. Spiritual warfare. Deliverance. The unseen realm. Ancient history. The days of Noah. I wasn’t looking for hidden knowledge or some mystical experience. I simply wanted to understand the Scriptures more deeply so I could faithfully walk in the freedom Messiah had given me.

Like many believers, my curiosity eventually led me to the Book of Enoch.

I know that the very mention of Enoch will immediately divide some readers. Some believe it should never be read. Others elevate it almost to the same authority as Scripture. My purpose in writing this article is neither to condemn nor defend the book. It is simply to share what Yahweh taught me through my own journey.

When I first began reading portions of Enoch, I found some of it fascinating. Certain passages seemed to provide historical context that caused me to think more deeply about Genesis and the rebellion that took place before the flood. It made me slow down and consider the seriousness of spiritual corruption in a way I never had before.

Then I came across the section describing the Watchers teaching mankind things they were never intended to know. Among those things were the making of ornaments, jewelry, cosmetics, and the painting of the eyes.

Those passages stayed with me.

The more I reflected on them, the more one thought continued to surface in my heart.

If these things entered the world through rebellion against Elohim, why would I want anything to do with them?

No one planted that thought in my mind.

No pastor preached it.

No ministry required it.

No one handed me a list of rules and told me that this was what holiness looked like.

It was simply the conclusion I reached because I loved Yahweh and wanted nothing in my life that might dishonor Him.

So I stopped wearing jewelry.

I quit wearing makeup.

I even removed my wedding ring.

Looking back, I don’t regret the heart behind those decisions.

I wasn’t trying to prove I was more righteous than someone else.

I wasn’t judging believers who came to different conclusions.

I certainly wasn’t trying to earn my salvation.

I was simply a daughter who loved her Father so deeply that I wanted to remove anything I believed might stand between us.

There is something beautiful about that kind of sincerity.

But there is also something important that every disciple must eventually learn.

A sincere heart must always remain teachable.

Loving Yahweh with all of our heart does not mean our understanding is complete. In fact, some of the greatest seasons of growth come when Ruach HaKodesh gently shows us that our motives were right, but our conclusions still needed to be refined.

That is exactly where my journey was about to take me.

Not away from holiness.

Not away from the fear of Yahweh.

But deeper into the authority and sufficiency of His Word.

When I look back now, I realize something that I couldn’t see then.

I wasn’t asking the wrong questions because I didn’t love Yahweh enough.

I was asking them because I loved Him so much that I never wanted to grieve Him again.

There is a difference.

For those of us whom Yahweh has delivered out of deep darkness, there can be a tendency to become almost hyper-vigilant.

We remember what bondage felt like. We remember the torment.

We remember the lies of the enemy, and because we never want to return to that place, we begin examining every area of our lives with incredible caution.

There is wisdom in that.

But there is also a danger.

If we are not careful, our fear of Yahweh can slowly become a fear of making a mistake.

Those are not the same thing.

The fear of Yahweh draws us closer to Him.

Fear of making a mistake slowly convinces us that there is always one more hidden rule we haven’ t discovered yet.

Looking back, I can honestly admit that I began carrying some of that weight.

What if there was another open door?

What if there was something I hadn’t surrendered?

What if I unknowingly gave the enemy access to my life?
Those questions didn’t come from rebellion. They came from a sincere desire to remain free.

Yet Yahweh, in His patience, began teaching me something that has forever changed the way I approach every conviction I hold.

He kept bringing me back to His Word.

Not to my feelings.

Not to my experiences.

Not to an ancient writing.

Not even to the conclusions I had already reached.

Again and again, Ruach HaKodesh gently redirected my attention to the Scriptures.

As I continued studying, questions began to surface that I had never considered before.

If jewelry itself were inherently sinful, why did Abraham’s servant place jewelry on Rebekah as part of Isaac’s betrothal? (Genesis 24:22, 47).

Why did Yahweh command precious stones to be placed on the breastpiece of the high priest?
(Exodus 28:15-21).

Why did the father place a ring on the hand of the prodigal son as a sign of restoration? (Luke 15:22).

Why does the New Jerusalem itself shine with gold, pearls, and precious stones if those materials are, in themselves, inherently evil? (Revelation 21:18-21).

The more I searched the Scriptures, the more I noticed something I had overlooked.

The Bible was consistently dealing with the heart.

Peter did not forbid women from wearing jewelry. Instead, he pointed believers toward the beauty of “the hidden man of the heart” and a meek and quiet spirit that is precious in the sight of Elohim (1 Peter 3:3-4, ASV).

Paul did not teach that outward adornment was the issue. His concern was modesty, self-control, and godliness rather than drawing attention to ourselves (1 Timothy 2:9-10).

Even the prophets, when confronting Israel, were not condemning bracelets, necklaces, or fine clothing. They were exposing pride, idolatry, self-exaltation, and hearts that had wandered from Yahweh while continuing to appear outwardly religious.

That realization stopped me in my tracks.

I had assumed the outward object was the issue because I was so determined not to leave any room for compromise.
But Yahweh was showing me something much deeper.

Holiness has always begun in the heart.

An idol can be made of gold.

An idol can also be made of fear.

That realization humbled me more than almost anything else.

For the first time, I understood that it is possible to sincerely love Yahweh and still allow our conscience to become bound by conclusions that Scripture itself never makes.

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying.

I am not encouraging anyone to ignore personal convictions.

If Ruach HaKodesh asks you to lay something down, then lay it down without hesitation.

Obedience has always been better than sacrifice.

What I am saying is that every conviction we hold should continually be brought back before the

Word of Elohim with an open and teachable heart.

Not because we are looking for permission to compromise.

But because we want our lives to be shaped by what Yahweh has actually said rather than by assumptions we have made along the way.

That became one of the greatest lessons of my journey.

The goal is not simply to have strong convictions.

The goal is to have biblical convictions.

There is a difference.

That difference has completely changed the way I study Scripture, the way I approach deliverance, the way I disciple others, and even the way I examine my own heart before Yahweh.

It also prepared me for a lesson that I believe every believer must eventually learn.

Everything must be tested.

Not just the things we disagree with.

Even the things that resonate deeply with us.

Especially the things that resonate deeply with us.

Today, my desire has not changed.

I still long to walk in holiness and guard the gates of my life. I absolutely hate sin, and my greatest desire is to never grieve Abba Father or Ruach HaKodesh. More than anything, I want to serve Elohim with intention for whatever time I have left in this earthly body.

What has changed is not my pursuit of holiness, but the foundation upon which I pursue it.

There was a time when I believed the safest path was to add convictions wherever I thought there might be spiritual danger.

Looking back, I can see that my heart was sincere, but sincerity alone is not what establishes truth. As Ruach HaKodesh continued to lead me, He gently taught me to stop measuring my walk by my assumptions and to anchor every conviction in the counsel of Scripture.

That lesson has become one of the greatest safeguards in my life.

Whether it is an ancient writing, a modern teacher, a personal testimony, a dream, a vision, or even an experience that feels undeniably real, I have learned to bring it all back to the same place. If it cannot stand under the authority of the Scriptures, then it has no authority over my life.

One of the greatest gifts Yahweh has given His children is not hidden knowledge. It is not secret revelation that only a select few are able to discover. Throughout history there have always been those who claimed to possess deeper mysteries or greater spiritual insight, but the Bereans left us with a far better example.

When the Apostle Paul preached to them, they did not reject his teaching, nor did they blindly accept it simply because of who he was. They searched the Scriptures daily to determine whether the things they were hearing were true (Acts 17:11).

Think about that for a moment.

If the Bereans tested the teaching of an apostle against the Scriptures, then how much more should we test every teacher, every ministry, every book, every podcast, every prophetic word, every dream, every vision, and every spiritual experience?

We live in a generation that is overflowing with information. There are countless voices competing for our attention, each claiming to have a deeper revelation, a hidden truth, or a missing piece that the rest of the Body of Messiah has somehow overlooked.

There is nothing wrong with studying history.

There is nothing wrong with reading ancient writings.

There is nothing wrong with learning from faithful teachers.

But there is great danger in allowing any of those things to shape our doctrine before we have searched the Scriptures for ourselves.

The Word of Elohim is not one voice among many.

It is the standard by which every other voice must be measured.

That has become one of the defining convictions of my life.

I no longer want to ask, "What does everyone else say?"

I want to ask, "What has Yahweh already said?"

That single question has protected me from more confusion than I could ever measure.

It has also given me tremendous peace.

I no longer feel the pressure to chase every new teaching or investigate every hidden mystery that circulates through social media and the modern deliverance movement. If Yahweh wanted His children to live by hidden knowledge, He would have preserved it within the pages of Scripture.

Instead, He has given us everything we need to know Him, to recognize deception, to grow in spiritual maturity, and to faithfully endure until the end.

Does that mean we stop learning?

Of course not.

I pray that I never stop learning.

I pray that Yahweh continues correcting me for the rest of my life.

If there is an area where I have misunderstood His Word, I want Him to expose it.

If I have embraced a tradition that cannot be supported by Scripture, I want Him to remove it.

If I have believed something simply because it was popular, I want Him to replace it with truth.

I never want to become so attached to being right that I am no longer teachable.

That, to me, is what discipleship looks like.

The closer we walk with Yeshua, the more willing we become to let Him refine every conviction we hold.

Not because truth changes.

But because we do.

As I reflect on this season of my life, I don't see it as a story about jewelry, makeup, or even the

Book of Enoch.

I see it as a testimony of Yahweh’s faithfulness.

He honored the sincere desire of a daughter who simply wanted to please her Father.

Then, in His patience and mercy, He gently led me beyond my assumptions and anchored my convictions more firmly in His Word.

For that, I will always be grateful.

May we never lose our hunger for holiness.

May we never become satisfied with comfortable Christianity.

May we never stop searching the Scriptures with humble and teachable hearts.

And may every conviction we hold—no matter how deeply we cherish it—always remain submitted to the authority of Yahweh and the truth of His Word.

“Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.” — John 17:17 (ASV)

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Shannon Perry
God’s Princess Warriors Ministries
Phone: (936) 402-3124
Website: gpwministries.com
TikTok: @GodsPrincessWarrior777
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