Tests the Spirits

1 John 4:1
“Beloved, believe not every spirit. Try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

“Some people feel the whole process of testing and trying the spirits is unscriptural. But it is the duty and business of everyone claiming the name Christian to be in a position to try and examine and test the spirits. We are given the power to do so: ‘greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world’ (vs. 4). We have been given this capacity by God through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit dwells in us and we have this power of discrimination and understanding.

What then are the true tests? The first and most important test is conformity to scriptural teaching. ‘Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God’ (vs 2). The second test is a readiness to listen to scriptural teaching and abide by it. The true spirit always glorifies Christ. The true prophet is not the man who talks about experience and visions and what he has done and seen, but about Christ. When you have heard him, you do not say, ‘what a wonderful experience this man has had,’ You say, ‘who is this Jesus of whom he is speaking?’ You do not say, ‘what a wonderful man.’ You say, ‘what a wonderful Savior!’“