Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1 NABRE
John is telling the community that there are two kinds of spirits. There is the Holy Spirit who comes from God. The Spirit of God will testify to God, will bring you faith in Jesus, will remind you of why you are faithful follower. There are spirits who do not draw their power from God, but draw their power from the anti-Christ. Spirits good and bad will come to us in the form of another human. There are many false prophets that have gone into the world, and we must test them, be sure we are being influenced by the spirit of God and not the other. It is important to test these differing spirits. When we are moving toward God, feeling like we have the interests of God in us, completely, then those dark spirits will get in front of us, and try to tempt us, to undermine the good work we do. It seems the closer we get to God and doing God’s work the more likely dark spirits will put more challenges on our path.
I have had the experience in life when I feel I am in a God groove, doing everything God wants, with a response from people and my prayer is rich. It is in these moments I see dark spirits get involved. Making it easy for me to commit sins of the flesh, to claim what does not belong to me, to feel superior to others. This is good and bad. It is good because it feels right to be so threatening to the anti-Christ that I am the target of several temptations. It is bad because sometimes I don’t recognize the temptation and I am already making God unhappy with my sin and can’t get out. Usually if things are coming too easily, what is not God related, I have to step back and test the spirit.
Have you seen the spirit in your life? Can you recognize a dark spirit?
There are many false prophets that have gone into the world, and we must test them, be sure we are being influenced by the spirit of God and not the other. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity#dailybibleverse @youversion#BeAnEncourager #spirit #temptation#John #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist#jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion#biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse#verseoftheday #pray #prayer #goodnews#loveeachother #godisgreat #bocaraton#youversion #everythingalways