Testing the Spirits: Part Two

Chapter Forty-five:

 First John 4:1-3 tells us that we must learn to test the spirits.  It says, "Dear friends, 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.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,  but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."   Whenever you see anything or hear anything that could possibly be a counterfeit or false teaching, test the spirit as it will be very difficult to tell if it is God's power or Satan's power that is behind it. Remember, Satan's main method is deception.

When learning for myself on how to test the spirits, I turned to the writings of a very godly man, who has gone on to be with the Lord.  I have been a fan of A.W. Tozer for some time now, and have found his various teachings to be not only be very challenging and insightful, but very timely.  It is from his writings that I have learned how he, himself, tested the spirits and I pass this on to you.   

 He said, "Briefly stated the test is this: This new doctrine, this new religious habit, this new view of truth, this new spiritual experience how has it affected my attitude to...".  He goes on and looks at seven different areas that would be affected by what has just been presented to him, if he decides to accept it and incorporate it into his life.  We will look at each area separately. We will look at the first three areas in this teaching, and finish with the remaining four areas in Part III of this series.

A. W. Tozer

First, how does it affect your relationship with God, your concept of God and your attitude toward Him? Do you obey all He says in the Scriptures, or do you pick and choose what you want to believe and follow? In addition, God must always be viewed as the creator of the universe and of man.  Isaiah 42:8 says, "I am the Lord, and my glory will I not give to another." Revelation 4:11 says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

 Anything that diminishes God's glory or makes Him seem less magnificent is sure to be from either our own flesh or the devil.   We cannot go strictly by warm, fuzzy feelings that arouse our soul. Many who worship other gods (i.e. Hindus, Sufis) also experience these enjoyable feelings which further convinces them they are on the right road.  

Tozer said, "The big test is, What has this done to my relationship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? If this new view of truth--this new encounter with spiritual things--has it made me love God more, it if has magnified Him in my eyes, if it has purified the concept of His being and caused Him to appear more wonderful than before, then I may conclude that I have not wandered astray into the pleasant but dangerous and forbidden paths of error."

Second, how has your attitude towards Jesus been affected by this new experience? Do you still believe Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to eternal life? Jesus told us in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Does it in any way diminish the necessity of being a disciple of no one other than Jesus Christ? Does it confirm the Scriptures that tell us Jesus is the only way, and not just "a" way? Is Christ at the center of it? 

Tozer states, "Much that is being done in Christ's name is false to Christ in that it is conceived by the flesh, incorporates fleshly methods, and seeks fleshly ends." We must not allow ourselves to reach the point where we depend more and more on experiences or feelings as proof of our spirituality. If this new experience is of God, then we are not to be focused on our feelings but are to be focused on Christ alone.  Ask yourself, does this experience make Jesus sweeter to my soul and make me more assured that He is the only way?

Third, how does this experience affect the way you view the Holy Bible? Were you inspired and did God reveal something to you, personally, through the Holy Spirit when you were reading the Scriptures?  Does what you hear line up with the Word of God? If you are unsure in any of these areas, then you need to seriously question it. No believer can accept anything that is contrary to the Scriptures, no matter the source or the emotional feelings that accompany it. Remember, the Bible does not teach that there will be new revelation or new, advanced spiritual experiences.  While it is true that there are differences of opinion on the interpretation of certain Scriptures among men, it still comes back to the question of "what does this experience do to the way you view the Bible?" 

Anything that comes to us should deepen our love for the Scriptures, not bring them into question or cause us to question even the validity of the Bible itself. Unfortunately, one of the main things that has happened is that people who once believed in the Bible as being the infallible Word of God, now say such things as "we cannot be sure if it is really true...after all, it was rewritten several times...and how can we really put our confidence in something that was written by men?" Deception causes us to begin to question the validity of Scripture and we come to believe it is just a compilation of books written by the hand of ordinary men. 

Tozer warns us, "If the new doctrine, the influence of that new teacher, the new emotional experience fills my heart with an avid hunger to meditate on the Scriptures day and night, I have every reason to believe that God has spoken to my soul and that my experience is genuine. Conversely, if my love for the Scriptures has cooled even a little, if my eagerness to eat and drink of the inspired Word has abated as much as by one degree, I should humbly admit that I have missed God's signal somewhere and frankly backtrack until I find the true way once more."

In Part III, we will complete this teaching by looking  at the four remaining areas.