Spiritual Discernment

Introduction

Did you know that there is evil in the world

this is not surprising to any of us…

just look around

watch the news

It is not enough to know that there is evil in the world, we must have ears to hear what the Holy Spirit tells us.

the Biblical terminology for this is Spiritual Discernment

Spiritual Discernment

1 John 4:1-6 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

the Bible is pretty clear, the closer we get to the return of Jesus, the more evil we will see

we must be able to tell the difference between the evil and the true spirit

PRAY!

Call to Spiritual Discernment

we must test all the spirits to see if they are from God

v1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

not everything that is spiritual is from God

many false prophets or pseudo prophets are in the world

those that will claim that they are from God, speaking for God

have you done this… where you tell people, “God says this...”

oh, I pray that we take seriously what it is that we are saying

God desires for you to know the difference and gives us this passage so that we have something to go off of, we are not left to ourselves to figure this out

God does not just want us to know him

God wants us to know the difference between good and evil

How do we tell the difference between the spirits

v2-3 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

these verses basically say the same thing, one in a positive way, the other in the negative

is there a confession of Jesus

we talked a few weeks ago about making sure that it is the same Jesus

there are many that want to change who Jesus is

He is God, who came to this world

lived a perfect life and died for our sins

at the time of this writing, was the beginning of the rise of the gnostic beliefs

the gnostics were a group of people that believed that the creator God was not the ultimate god, but a lesser one

how could the real ultimate God create something like this world that is so broken

Jesus was sent to give us spiritual enlightenment to the ultimate God

he never paid the price for our sin

salvation is spirutal enlightenment

things have not changed much today

how many times have we been told that we should just coexist

which is interesting, if you are telling me to allow you to worship who you want, that is fine

but if you are wanting me to conform to the idea that we have have our religions and we will all get to heaven, or paradise if we just live right then, no I cannot

we are being bombarded with political leaders and religious believers that will tell us that if we truly believed in Jesus we would vote a certain way…

But with all the evil in the world, God, through John, reminds us that we have already overcome the world (this translation uses word conquered)

v4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

it can be overwhelming when we look at this world and all of the evil in it

we can look around and wonder how God will ever win

the problem with that question, or thought is that it does not acknowledge that God has already won

Jesus has defeated death and Satan on the cross 2000 years ago

you, as Gods child, have also overcome the evil one

he has no claim on you, he has no control over your life

this means that as children of God, we do not have to fear the evil that is in this world because we know that we are God’s and there is nothing that can remove us from him

This is not the case for those who do not know God

they are not saved from the evil, but they also listen to the evil spirits as well

v5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.

1 Kings 22; Macaiah, prophesies to Ahab and Jehosaphat

even when Ahab knew that Macaiah was lying to him, he still did not listen to him

people would rather listen to those who tell them something that they want to hear than the truth

We only listen to the good shepherd

v6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

the word listen means to let in ears

we should not even allow the evil spirits to our ears

we are only listening to God

John 10:1-5 “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus is the gate

no one comes to the father except through him

any other way, is not the way

Jesus is the shepherd

leads way for the sheep

he lays his life down for his sheep

we listen to the one who is the gate… and provides the way for all who would believe

Living Out Spiritual Discernment

Acknowledging we are in a spiritual battle

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.

if we are in a spiritual battle, we must acknowledge that there are evil spirits

they are already fighting against us

some of us make it harder on them

some of us make it easy on them

do not rely on the spirit of God

try to do things in our own strength

Knowing the voice of God

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.

we must be in the word of God if we expect to hear from God

so many of us are trying to ignore the evil spirits or evil voices,

yet those are the only voices that we are putting into our ears

his word is what lights our path leads us through this dark world

Following the voice of God

it is not always comfortable and easy

I told you about Machaiah, the prophet in 1 Kings 22

he spoke the truth of God to these two kings

they asked for him to speak the truth, he didn’t go to them

it got him arrested, thrown in jail and given small portions of bread and water

he was tortured for speaking the truth of God

we are not called to comfort or success, but to obedience

Recognizing the lost listen and follow evil spirits

Jehosaphat and Ahab listened to all the prophets who said they would do great things in this battle

John tells us that they listen to the evil spirits

why would they do this,

2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

they will act lost

no legislation or amount of arguing that we do will make the lost act like they are found

we should know that they will not agree with our decisions

we cannot expect to look to them for validation

this should lead us into the spiritual battle

we should dive into this battle

desiring that the blind would see!