1 JOHN 4
- Beloved, do not put faith in every spirit, but prove (test) the spirits to discover whether they proceed from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world.
6. We are children of God. Whoever is learning to know God – progressively to perceive, recognize and understand God (by observation and experience) and to get an ever-clearer knowledge of Him – listens to us; and he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us. By this we know (recognize) the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.
There is so much error in this world and the Church. How do we discern and recognize Truth? We have to look to the scripture and dig deep to find the answer. 1 John 4 speaks about the Anti-Christ spirit, testing the spirits, and loving one another. It also has the scripture we all recite, “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” All of these are tied together with one amazing teaching.
We must make it a practice to test the spirits in our life. We want to believe that all things we receive come from God and are blessings, when many times they are traps of the enemy. This is when we must test the spirits behind the so-called blessing. We must humble ourselves and lean on the Lord continually asking Him to lead us into all truth. That is His promise, but we are to pray and ask for the help we need.
Also, we must pay attention to those who continually reject and do not listen or receive the message we have been given. Verse 6 says that is how we can recognize the spirit of error. I have prayed for some who continually disagreed with me. Now I see why. The Lord wants us to know and embrace the Spirit of Truth. These are the last days, and the days of the Spirit of the False Prophet is rampant.
What is the last key in 1 John 4:12. It is love for one another. It says that if we love one another; God abides in us, and His love is brought to completion and perfected in us! It says in verse 8, he who does not love has not become acquainted with God because God is love.
We must believe that God loves us. If we dwell and continue in God, we must dwell and continue in love. Our union with Him brings us to perfection and completion. We then come to the place where full grown complete love casts out fear and turns it out of doors.
The end result is we become like God. He is love so we are love. Therefore, we cannot hate anyone but the devil. If there is hate for a brother in Christ then the scripture says we are a liar, (vs. 20).
Thank you, Jesus, for leading us into all truth. Help us to love one another so your love can be perfected in us and cast all fear out the door!