Lately, I have been wondering how many prayers, preaching, worship songs and so-called “words from God” which were done in the spirit of error that I have been exposed to. I actually had to repent and ask God to forgive me for all the times I did not test the spirits and allowed people who were not walking in God’s truth to somehow influence my life. These are people who have a worldly or fleshly point-of-view and are more interested in popular opinion rather than God’s way. They are willing to compromise God’s Word to draw people themselves for them to get the glory. Unknowingly many people who are ignorant of their schemes get trapped by their words that are pleasing to the ears but corrupt the heart. Therefore, we must be careful not to believe every word that someone may say comes from God, but really doesn’t.
Beloved, 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. 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; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:1-6
The world does not care for God’s truth. Yet so many folks in Church have adapted the ways of the world and brought them into the church. We can scarcely see the difference between the world and the church these days. In an effort to be seeker-friendly, many are not seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness in order not to offend the world. Unfortunately, the church is often left in a compromising state in which holiness and God’s truth are often left behind.
The Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you. John 14:17
We must have the Spirit of truth residing in us to know what is really of God and what is fake. Jesus said that there would be many false prophets who would mislead a number of people. It is so easy to be deceived by false teachers as they mix a little truth with lies which results in many persons falling away from the faith and doing their own thing.
And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. Matthew 24:10-12
I was disheartened to hear recently that Christian organizations and different church denominations in a country in the Middle East were fighting against each other because of divergent beliefs. It occurred to me that Muslims looking on may not want anything to do with Christianity when they see no unity among these groups, whose love have seemed to have grown cold against each other. How can they truly spread the Gospel when they are not living in unity and loving each other as Jesus had prayed in John 17. The Spirit of truth seems to somehow be lost among these groups. They may have part of the truth, but not all of it, which is needed to have a life that God delights in. Interestingly also, as false prophets rise, so does lawlessness as these false teachers will lead us away from following Godly principles.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. John 16:13
The Spirit of truth does not lead us to have our own opinion, but to have God’s truth and live by it. In order to be able to do this though, we must not only read God’s Word but also obey it, and not choose what we like to obey because we are trying to manipulate God into giving us a blessing. When we are obeying God’s Word and have the Spirit of truth then it will be much easier to discern the Spirit of error. We also want to make sure that we are not the ones who have the Spirit of error and are teaching falsely, or else God will hold us accountable. We must be led by the Holy Spirit so that we will keep away from the spirit of error, which will not only destroy our lives, but could also impact others who are around us.
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