Christ First Forum

by **Remnant** » 02 Aug 2010, 21:13

1 John 4:1-6

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Why We Are to Test the Spirits.

John is speaking to believers. He calls them He says we are not to "believe every spirit" but test them as to "whether they are of God. Why? Because there are many false prophets" who have "gone out into the world.

God delivered His word to the congregations of believers in part by the verbal word of divinely gifted and inspired prophets. We read about the powerful and prevalent gifts in 1 Cor.12 and 14.

John warns his readers not to "believe every spirit" but to "test the spirits whether they are of God" because not everyone who claimed to be a prophet was divinely inspired.

There was and is the great necessity of critical assessment of spiritual teaching. There are still many false teachers in the world and more today then every before in church history.

What it Means to Test the Spirits.

Every believer has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. In 1 John 3:24, we learned last week that God have given usâ¦ the Spirit. In chapter 2, John calls the presence of the Spirit "the anointing which you have received from Himâ¦ God has given us His indwelling Spirit but John now points out that there are other spirits loose in the world. If we have the Spirit, we ought to "test the Spirits.

Christians often test teaching by how it sounds, the words used, the inflection of the voice, the stories told, if it moves them or makes them feel good. None of these are appropriate tests. Test in v.4 means to approve or examine.

There are two categories of spirits operating in the world. When someone proposes to speak for God, you should "test the spirits" or you might amen the wrong spirit! I have seen professing Christians who would amen almost anything.

Behind every prophet, preacher and teacher is a spirit. The great question is does the Spirit of God or an evil spirit lead this teacher. Before we trust any teacher, we must test the spirits.

Paul wrote in 1 Thess.5:20-22, "Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good."

Jesus warned in Mt.7:15-16, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruitsâ¦"

Peter also offered this warning in 2 Pet.2:1, "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction."

Today there is still a great need for biblical discernment and discrimination. Many believers remain biblically illiterate and spiritually gullible. They naively accept any teaching as truth.

In Eph.4:14, Paul says that a sure sign of spiritual immaturity is "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

Just because someone is of a certain denomination does not necessarily mean it is a biblical teaching. We "test the spirits" and the chief measuring stick is the Scripture! Test the spirits!

by **Carmela** » 03 Aug 2010, 07:05

AMEN!! Christians need to memorize this Scripture!

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