January 9
"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."
1st John 4:1
Some
love to accuse believers of judgmentalism, but Scripture shows us
that we MUST test the spirits. We're not asking for judgment
to come upon people, we are simply discerning for our own benefit
what is of God and what is false.
vs 5-6
"They
are of the world, therefore they speak
as of the world, and the
world hears them.
We are of God. He
who knows God hears us,
he who is not
of God does not hear us."
What we speak will be
CONTRARY to what the world believes. You can't have it both ways. The
world's "wisdom" is CONTRARY to the Word of God.
"For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."
1
Corinthians 3:19
Believer's are "the restrainer,"
commissioned to restrain evil and "occupy" until the Lord
comes. To do that, we have to examine what society puts out there,
and especially what the churches put out there, otherwise we're
reneging on our responsibility.
"And have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but
rather EXPOSE them."
One reason they hate us is because
many do it in a mean-spirited way. That is totally unnecessary and
only stirs up hatred. No, keep your voice gentle, don't use insults,
just state the truth.
"Preach the Word; be
prepared in season and out of season;
correct, REBUKE and
encourage...
2 Timothy 4:2
Beloved, TEST the spirits!
No comments:
Post a Comment