Test!

Beloved, do not believe every spirit [speaking through a self-proclaimed prophet]; instead test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world. 1 JOHN 4:1 AMP

Starting from the very beginning, please note that today's extract is addressed to people the writer, John, identifies as the Beloved. The focus of the message about Christ is love, from start to finish. All the benefits and blessings promised and established by God are for people who have identified with God's love and have immersed themselves in it. If I have accepted Christ as my Lord, I accept his terms and conditions and promise to live by his standards. If he lives in me, I live by his standards and undertake to do as he commands, not as I please. If I am to be truly called his beloved, can I truly say that I am bound by love to and for God and my fellow man, nourished and connected to the One who calls us all to himself, and headed in the same direction - eternal life?

The instruction then comes to all who are the Beloved: 'Do not believe every spirit'. You can never identify the fake unless you have held, tasted, felt, seen or heard the original. An application of this is on currency notes. You are taken through a series of identification techniques on what a genuine note look like. Nobody ever shows you a fake note. As you immerse yourself in the seen and unseen features of the original, you can easily identify when you encounter a fake note. It is the same with the things of the Spirit. Do you have the Spirit of God? Does God know you as his own? It doesn't matter what answer you give yourself; the fruit of your life is the biggest testament to who is in charge of your life.

This generation is hung up on the physical. We crave physical evidence of God's move, we are deceived by the outward show of piety and 'miraculous' works all around; others have closed their minds to what God can do, and the devil is giving us very similar options to what God is doing. We cannot afford not to identify the fake. We cannot afford to accept all that comes, without testing out what is genuine. Even if it looks like the original, test it. Balaam was a 'prophet', who because of monetary gain, was going to change God's verdict about Israel. The old prophet deceived another young prophet to come in and sleep for the night, even when God specifically said the young prophet should not, and Judas spent three and a half years with Christ, eating and drinking with him, yet betrayed him for money. I cannot afford not to know the intention, motive and purpose behind everything I see.

Do you know when the Spirit speaks? In the midst of all the noise around me, can I discern when God speaks and what he wants me to do? Falsehood is gaining grounds and becoming popular by the day, and standing for truth is becoming uncommon. However, God's Word has always been true, and a day of reckoning will come. On that day, the standard will be the Truth as defined by God, not the popular culture of our day, or the inconsistent standards of this generation. I had better be sure I am standing on the side of Truth, and truly living for the pleasure of the One who loved me enough to give his life for me. His time of favour is here.