Or any other 'spiritual truth'? And he who knows God listens to us. If you look to 2 John, just stretching this a little bit, 2 John, his second epistle, verse 3, Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father. Down in verse 7, Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. Deceivers do not. We grieve in our hearts at how unwilling so many are to contend for the faith. What is confessed by those who are of God? And there will be in your life the fruit of that regeneration. No matter who wrote them. What exactly? Now as we come to the fourth chapter, the opening of the fourth chapter of Johns epistle the subject in the opening six verses is to test the spirits. Then you will be able to, Rom 14:22 - Keep your belief about such matters between yourself and God. There is only one source of evil - the Devil, the serpent, the one who masquerades as an 'Angel of Light'. 1 JOHN 4:6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. Demons recognize His deity. Home Discipleship What Does Test the Spirits Mean? This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming . And now here is the means or the way to test, and that goes from verse 2 down through the remainder of this paragraph, verse 6. The Word that was God "came" in the flesh and confession of this demonstrates it's origin in God. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. Christians are saved from the wrath of God and the penalty of sin. Lets call it the confession of the divine Lord. Is there a way to use DNS to block access to my domain? And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. The simple way to sum it up is to give you three perspectives on this. The devil is the great deceiver. Now looking at it a little more closely, Every spirit that confesses that is continually confesses, agrees with that reality to - homologe is to say the same thing, everyone who is saying the same thing as the Word of God is saying about Jesus Christ, that is that He is God in the flesh, is confessing therefore a truth that is taught by the Holy Spirit. So, by being obedient to this command we are remaining true and faithful witnesses to Christ. Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource. We should never attempt to kindle our own fire nor settle for the tiki-torches of man-made light. Through prayer and genuine seeking of truth from God's word, God willing it will be obtained - perhaps in this age, certainly in the next! All spiritual truth either comes from a divine source or a demonic source. His specialties include studies/teachings on the books of Daniel and Revelation. The combination is rare in the New Testament, occurring only in 2Corinthians 3:17, but is common in the Old, as in Isaiah 61:1 (quoted in . The ones who are true, like the noble Bereans, will search the Scriptures to see whats really true. Thats why Paul said to Timothy, Hold on to sound doctrine. You cant guard what you dont understand. The wonderful thing is thatwe can knowwhich spirits are not from God. Please know the Apostle John is overjoyed when people walk in the truth (2 John 1:4) and there are evidences when that is happening (1 John 1). Should Christians Listen for a Still Small Voice? There is set loose in the world, youll notice at the end of verse 6, the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The key to this transition was accepting that Jesus was the [promised] Messiah. John said, "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh". So basically to test a spirit we need to check whether the spirit confesses Jesus or not. You have the right view of Jesus. Cannot set Graph Editor Evaluation Time keyframe handle type to Free. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. They have no affinity for it. Each of us, for ourselves, is commanded to do the testing. Once a teacher can be identified as false, they should be utterly avoided. Chapter 1 of 2 Timothy, verse 13, Retain, that is hold, the standard of sound words hold on to sound doctrine which you have heard from me. Verse 14 , Guard there is that same word again. To rub elbows with them is to participate in their wickedness. 1 John 4:1 (NASB) Now, notice something. But what about when you are the one who is receiving revelations (not someone else)? Number one test, the confession of the divine Lord. the spirit of the times. You have an anointing from God. And again I say, error is not benign; it is malignant. It is evident in 1 John 4 that the "spirits" in view predominantly represent, not unseen spiritual beings who might whisper into our minds, but the mindsets and intentions of false prophets who proclaim falsely: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. In fact, they hate God. God is not flesh. One, you have to know the truth. He says youre from God. You have not believed lies, because greater is He that is in than he that is in the world. This now leads us into the next verse which will tell us exactly how to do this. 2023 Grace to You. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that . And thats what moves them, controls them, attracts them, dominates them. What's the meaning (qualifications) of "machine" in GPL's "machine-readable source code"? a : the attitude or feeling that a person has about a particular job, activity, etc. It is not just confessing Jesus Christ has come in the flesh that saves, we have to borrow from other elements of the Scripture. Why did the demon-possessed Gadarene bow down before Jesus? They are falsely called knowledge. Guard it, Timothy; retain it; hold on to it, because it is ever and always under assault. You can be led astray on some issues, but not concerning the truth of the gospel. And when you read the gospel of John, when you go through the gospel of John, you find John cycling back around through things that he has already said, adding nuances, adding richness, almost as if he makes an argument, and then next time he circles back, he takes you from where you were the last time to a new dimension or a new height or depth or length or breadth of understanding. From this we know that it is the last hour. In other words, we know Christ has come because of all the attacks on Him. The implication is means no beginning because everything that became (had a beginning) became through the Word. Many false prophets (teachers) are in the world, so we are commanded to test them. Measuring the extent to which two sets of vectors span the same space, Spaced paragraphs vs indented paragraphs in academic textbooks, to test, examine, prove, scrutinize; 2. to recognize as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy [Thayer], Rom 12:2 - Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. All of the things that attract them, all of the things that invite them, all of the things that motivate them, youve overcome all that. This is why you have to test out any spirit that would suddenly appear to you. Heres how he began his second letter to Timothy. We should want teachers to pass the test and rejoice when they do! Is the Rapture of the Church Found in Revelation 4? They will stand firm that Jesus had a body of flesh, died in flesh, was raised in flesh, and is coming again in flesh but will deny that he had a prior existence as God and that he, at a point in time, "came" in flesh. And the reason is the end of verse 1, Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. It is a huge problem and the undiscerning are victimized. You cant believe everything that is supposedly biblical. Angels are already spirits or can become spirits? Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. How to reconcile 1 John 4:15 with Mathew 8:29? This same John who declared that in the beginning the Word was God (John 1:1) and that very same Word was made flesh (John 1:14) has given the litmus test. Here at Grace to You Europe we take our data protection responsibilities very seriously and, as you would expect, have undertaken a significant programme of work to ensure that we are ready for this important legislative change. And then thirdly, when you bring the law of God to bear upon them, do they respond to it? This is a massive problem. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. Verse 27, As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, you have no need for anyone to teach you but as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.. This is not to exclude the trickery of spiritual beings who pluck at the strings of our consciousness or the deceitful craftings of our own sinful hearts but the passage primarily treats that antichrist spirit who is behind false teaching. Lord. They are from the world, verse 5 says. So, we are commanded and persuaded by John, an apostle whom Jesus loved, that we are to test the spirits. (Luke 24:39 NKJV), "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Back in verse 19, There are those who go out from us but they go out because they never were really of us. Test the Spirit that speaks and you will see it is the voice of the RUACH. -v.15. Grappling and disarming - when and why (or why not)? The source could be false, from demons. It is not unusual to have loyalties. Their theology has its source in demons. Teaching is consistent with already revealed Apostolic teaching (1 John 4:6, 2:19), Teaching is "good", encourages righteousness and truth (Eph 5:8-10), Teaching is nothing that we might be ashamed of on the day of judgement (Phil 1:9, 10) or even sooner (Rom 14:22). 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. the spirit of competition. The source. All Rights Reserved. 1 JOHN 4: 1-6 TEST THE SPIRITS [1 Peter 2:1-10] Close to the BATTLE LINES during the Korean War a sentry was walking his post one night. But Antichrist, hes just the final antichrist. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. Whats their doctrine of the incarnation? A person can not claim to confess that Jesus has come in the flesh if they claim that Jesus is spirit in nature. But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. Lets look at 1 Timothy 4:1. 5 Reasons Revelation is Hard to Understand, The Beast From the Sea Part 1: Seven Heads, The Beast From the Earth Part 1: The False Prophet. When I sat for hours and hours with the leaders of the Mormon church from Salt Lake City, and they tried to tell me that they spoke the Word of God and they had an aberrant view of Christ and they were wrong in their doctrine of salvation, they had not been regenerated, they were simply speaking seductive doctrines of demons, I brought to bear upon them the Law of God. Look at verse 4. Perhaps many, or most, over the ages have not had opportunity to know the whole truth and have died being somewhat deceived. 1 Pet 1:20. Is it valid to address (talk to) the spirit directly? 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And then there are those who are much more subtle than that. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. They eat, live, breathe and sleep Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures! So let's read 1 John 4:1-3, to see the work of the Holy Spirit and his testimony through the evidence of faith that he produces in the life. Jesus Christ also is full of meaning. Do they acknowledge a biblical Christology? Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Jews that had dispersed. He is one with the Father, manifested to us. Answer. This article is also available and sold as a booklet. Lord Lord.