Discerning the Spirits

Click here for the audio message of – 1 John 4:1-6

We finish up our look at Angels this morning. I hope you have enjoyed this little series for the past couple of months and hopefully you have gotten something out of it. To conclude with today, however, I think we need to look at trying to make sense of it all.

No doubt you have all heard of miraculous stories of healing, of being saved from danger, and so on. Maybe you have even heard about people talking about their experiences with angels or demons or some other type of supernatural situation.

Think about your reaction to their story though. How do you handle what they say? On one hand we have to be open-minded to the possibility of angelic intervention in our lives, but on the other hand we also need to make sure that it is in accord with the Word of God.

For example, I once read of a story about a young girl who was very ill. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong with her nor did they know how to treat her. One day this girl’s mother was praying for God’s help when she heard a scratching sound at her door.

When she opened the door there was a kitten. This kitten had some white fur around its ears. The kitten ran up to the bedroom and jumped on the girl’s bed. Of course, like most little kids, the girl was thrilled to have a little kitty to play with.

A few days later the girl’s symptoms disappeared and the girl was better. The next day the kitten left and never returned. The mother was convinced that the kitten was an angel from God.

Was this an angelic appearance and how would you react if your friend or family member was telling you this story. That’s tough because we need to respond out of love, but also remain biblical in our answer.

I am not sure what I would say. I realize God can do and use anything to help us. On the other hand, I have found no evidence in the bible of angelic possession of people nor animals. We find only demon possession of animals and people for that matter.

Evaluating the experiences of other people is extremely difficult because we often feel so judgmental. But as our Scripture teaches us this morning we need to evaluate biblical things. To simply accept spiritual concepts or stuff without comparing it to scripture is very dangerous to our spiritual health.

John starts out, “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.” Apparently, the people that John is writing to were accepting whatever anybody taught them about God.

So John tells them to “test the spirits.” We are to compare anything we hear with Scripture, much like the Bereans did. John associates the word spirits with false prophets to make it clear that these people speaking these lies and heresies are under the control of Satan.

The major test is the person’s view of Jesus Christ. Who does this person say or think that Jesus is? Is He the Son of God? Was He born to the virgin Mary? Was He crucified dead and buried? Was He raised to life on the third day, and so on.

So one of the questions you could ask someone is simply, “What is your view of Jesus Christ.” If that person’s answer agrees with Scripture then they are from God. If the person denies any part of the biblical account of Christ then you should not accept his teachings.

The next time you are listening to a preacher on TV listen to how many times he uses the term God and compare that with the number of times that they use Jesus’ name. You will probably be surprised.

God is mentioned quite a bit, but Jesus’ name doesn’t come up very often. In fact, if you were to ask many of these TV preachers what their view of Jesus Christ is you would probably get a very vague answer.

Anytime I am asked to pray publicly and I know it is going to be a mixed crowd I try not to end the prayer with a simple AMEN. I try to end it using Jesus’ name so the people listening know that I am a follower of Christ, not just a person who talks about God. That is very important to me.

We as believers need to be aware of false teachers out there, in fact, the next series we will be launching into is 1st and 2nd Peter which deals with false teachers as well as some other issues. We need to be aware of false teachers, but not afraid of false teachers.

See we have the Holy Spirit living in each of us. He guides us and leads us into sound doctrine. As we listen to these teachers we need to compare not only what they think about Jesus, but also compare what they say with Scripture.

The Old Testament and the New Testament are the standards by which all teaching is to be tested. For example, if someone starts preaching that we should stop eating animals because they are part of God’s creation and we should love His creation. What are you going to say or think?

I know this is a ridicules example, but are you going to repent of you sin of eating meat and become a vegetarian? Or are you simply going to ignore that person and think they belong in the loony bin?

Most likely you will ignore them. In reality though you should evaluate their claim with Scripture before committing them to the loony bin. In this example, there is enough evidence in Scripture to support the eating of animals, but there is also evidence in Scripture that says people don’t have to eat animals if they don’t want too. Being a meat eater or a vegetarian doesn’t affect your ability to get into Heaven. It is not a salvation issue.

The idea is to think about what that person is saying rather than blindly accepting their teaching as gospel. Ask yourself some questions and search the Scriptures for answers. Does the person’s lifestyle conform to biblical standards? Obviously no one is perfect, but do they have a Christ like attitude.

Does the person demonstrate a genuine love for fellow believers? Are they faithfully serving God? Do they proclaim the Gospel to others? Do they try to bring sinners to Christ? And so on.

We are to test what other people say, not based upon our own judgments or ideas, but based upon the Word of God. We are to hold fast to the truth. We are to confront false teaching and the false teachers. Especially today, we are indeed in a spiritual battle for the truth.

We must recognize however, that just because someone’s beliefs are different than ours doesn’t make them wrong. They are only wrong when it is different that what the bible states. If the bible does not speak to the issue then we are to give them the freedom to hold to their beliefs.

We don’t have to be persuaded into their beliefs. Rather we are to continue to love them and maintain that relationship with them. For those people that have the wrong beliefs, meaning they don’t believe or understand Scripture, we are to minister and witness to them. That is our mission. That is our battle.

Again the main idea is to evaluate the things you see and hear with what Scripture tells you. If Scripture is silent on the issue, then ask for God’s guidance in the situation.

Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time in your word. We thank you for this interesting study of your angelic beings. We ask that you would give us the discernment to be able to separate truth from error.

Help us to be your faithful servants, so that your name will be exalted above all. Through your Son Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks

AMEN.