If you remember, last week I briefly spoke to you about a person that had asked me for advice over the Internet, because this person was saying that the Holy Spirit was instructing him to move from his church. Like I explained, I could not understand how this could be, as the Holy Spirit will never lead us away from God’s presence. This was something that I think I was able to firmly establish during last week’s study, but due to the fact that the time that we share is limited, I think that there were some unanswered questions that I would like to address today. This is why today I want us to explore some questions that I am sure many of you have asked yourself at one point or another. And they are questions that we should definitively ask ourselves when thoughts of feelings that appear at first glance to be good; however, that for some reason we still feel a little uneasy about the whole experience. Now comes the big questions, how can we know if God is the one speaking to us? Is it possible to listen to listen to the enemy’s voice by mistake? How can we prove that what we are hearing is correct? These are the questions that we will explore today. Let’s now turn to the Word of God to find the answers.
1 John 4:1-6 - 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. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and 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. 4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6We 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.
Like I always say, to have a better understanding of the message that God has for us today, we will need to conduct a brief history review. Although no one can fix an exact date as to when this epistle was written, it is estimated that it was authored before 96 A.D., as this epistle does not contain any reference of the persecution of Christians that took place towards the end of Dominitian’s reign which lasted from 81-96 A.D. The reason why John wrote this epistle is because the apostolic doctrine was being attacked by the proliferation of false teachings. Just like second Peter and Jude, John’s first epistle contains a positive and a negative thrust; the epistle exposes the false teachings and encourages the readers to walk in the knowledge of the truth. John lists the criteria and characteristics of a genuine fellowship with God, and teaches that those abide in Christ may have confidence and security before Him. [1] Having briefly established the purpose of this epistle, let’s now continue with out study for today.
As I have said on numerous occasions, whether we chose to believe it or not, we are in the middle of a war. And this is something that is clearly stated in Ephesians 6:12 when we read, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The truth of it all is that all of us are right smack in the middle of a war that we can’t see, hear, or touch. But regardless of this, the fact still remains that we are at war and the enemy is fiercely attacking. We are in a war that it is impossible to count the casualties, as we can not use our senses to detect what is happening around us, but just by looking around to what is happening in the world lately, it is not too difficult to see that the looses are vast and keep mounting. I say this because it is not uncommon to see how the majority of people today completely deny God, and others abandon the sound doctrine to follow philosophies, speculations and doctrines of men. We are speaking about people that have chosen to separate themselves from a genuine fellowship with Christ because they have permitted the enemy to whisper in their ears, and they have not been able to discern between God’s voice and that of the powers of darkness. But, is it possible to mistakenly listen to the voice of the enemy? Unfortunately the answer is yes, and this is why here we see that the apostle tells us, “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.” The problem that exists is that many still do not understand the concept of the spiritual war; therefore, allow me to illustrate this entire thing in modern terms so that you will be able to have a better understanding.
There are many things that exist in this modern world that we can not touch, in other words, there are many things that we can not feel or use our other senses to detect, but that we do not doubt that they exist. For example, I am sure that we all know what a beeper is; we know all about cells phones, we know what a radio and television are, etc. Isn’t that so? But, have we ever stopped to think about how these electronic devices work? When we take the time to think about this matter, it is not difficult to recognize that all these communications devices work via an invisible signal. Right at this moment this place is completely full of television, radio, and cellular signals. We are being bombarded by these signals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is as the youth typically say, we have them 24-7. What happens is that Satan and his demons work more or less in the same fashion. Satan’s army surrounds us waiting for us to doubt or stumble, and I can tell you that they do not miss any opportunities to attack. They wait until we are tired or when we let pour guard down to take advantage of the opportunity to launch an attack that will attempt to separate us from God’s presence. But this is not something that occurs physically, as there is nothing that can force us to travel down one path or another. We can not be grabbed by the arm and forced to do things that we know go against God’s will. This is something that is clearly illustrated in Romans 8:38-39 when we read, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Therefore, we can confidently say that there is nothing that can physically force us to separate from God’s presence, and this is exactly why the main battle field is not a physical one, but rather it is inside our own mind. The enemy will use our thought and prejudices in an attempt to confuse us and tempt us to abandon a genuine fellowship with God. This is why we must always follow the apostle’s warning that calls us to test the spirits. In other words, we have to learn to recognize God’s voice from among the loudness that exists in this world. But the questions than now arises is, how can we do that?
The truth of it all is that the answer is quite simple. I say that the answer is simple to find because there is but one instrument that we can use to accomplish this task, and this instrument is the Word of God. The reason for this is because the Word of God is the only things that remains constant at all times. Men change their minds or form different opinions; men modify doctrines and adopt philosophies to meet their needs, but God’s Word is constant and unchangeable. Look at how the Lord best said it in Matthew 24:35 when we read, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” Because God’s Word is constant and alive, there are no situations or questions that it cannot answer. Look at how this is something nicely reflected in Hebrews 4:12 when we read, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Therefore, if we have doubt or a thought that is not completely clear, all we have to do is look, ands as the Lord tells us in Matthew 7:8, “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” The truth is that we all have the potential for being deceived. This is something that is clearly expressed in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 when we read, “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” A message may sound very pretty, a proposition may sound perfect, but the question that we must always ask ourselves is, does it conform to God? We must never forget that Satan and his demons disguise themselves in their attempt to confuse us.
Continuing with our study we read, “2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3and 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.” John wrote this because he was battling the Gnosticism that was invading the church.[1] In other words, he was battling against the philosophical and religious doctrine that was attempting to mix the Christian message with Jewish and Oriental beliefs, that pretended to have an intuitive and mysterious knowledge of the divine things.[2] But this message is one that remains still for us today. I say this because on numerous occasions the bad can appear to be good or as something completely innocent. The spirit of the antichrist, that is to say, the powers of darkness are present in this world. The powers of darkness are present in this world influencing all non-believers, and attempting to separate the believers from a genuine fellowship with God. The spirit of the antichrist is the one that whispers in you ear and tells you, sure go ahead and look or watch those immoral or obscene and lewd things, they mean nothing; which leads many to completely ignore what the Lord tells us in Luke 11:34 when we read, “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” The spirit of the antichrist is the one that whispers in your ear and tells you, if you love each other have sex, don’t worry about the whole marriage thing; which leads many to completely ignore what we find in Hebrews 13:4 when we read, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” The Word tells us, “2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” I am repeating this because I want this to be engraved in everyone’s mind; let’s always remember that if we are doing or are entertaining to do is something that goes against the principles of our Lord and Savior, we have then stopped listening to God’s voice to listen to the devil. But, can we shut off the devil as if he was a radio? The answer to this question is found when we continue our study today.
Continuing we find, “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. 5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6We 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.” This clearly lets us know that we can defeat temptations. This clearly lets us know that we can shut off the devil’s voice in our mind, and stops him from entering our life. It is not because we are more intelligent than he is or because of our own strength, but rather it is as the Rods tells us, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The almighty God is the one that strengths us and helps us obtain the victory. Like I said previously, the enemy is waiting for the opportune moment to attempt to separate us from God’s presence. The enemy is waiting for us to stumble; he is waiting for us to doubt; he is waiting for that moment when we may be weak or tired, and at that moment he will unleash his attack of temptations. And if we are unable to discern between God’s voice and that of the evil one, we will then stumble and fall. Let’s remember that the enemy does not have authority in our life; the enemy cannot force you to sin. Don’t allow your thoughts to be clouded or invaded by impure and/or immoral things. Lets always remember that if our thoughts are not clear and firmly based in God, then we are allowing the enemy to separate us from His presence.
In conclusion, we have to test the spirits at all times. When the message sounds great, and the proposition sounds as something fantastic, look it all up in God’s Word. The world is anxiously seeking in something to believe; the world is desperately seeking in someone to believe, but we can’t believe everything that we hear. We must verify that the one speaking to us is God and not the enemy. We must never forget that all that glitters is not gold, and not everything that appears to come from God truly does. It is time to learn to recognize God’s voice. All of us here can be deceived, but only if we do not test the spirits, only when we stop listening to God’s voice. Please note that I said listen and not simply hear. I say this because there is a great difference between listening and just simply hearing. We may hear something that may sound good, but what did it really mean? Let’s always test the spirits, remain in constant prayer, and through His Word, God will show us the path that we must follow.
