SCRIPTURAL GUIDANCE: BELIEVERS MAY TEST THEMSELVES

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 JOHN 4:1)

The seeker after God’s best things is always eager to hear from anyone who offers a way by which he can obtain them. He longs for some new experience, some elevated view of truth, some operation of the Spirit that will raise him above the dead level of religious mediocrity he sees all around him.

 

These are the times that try men’s souls. Our Lord has made it plain not only that there shall be false spirits abroad, endangering our Christian lives, but that they may be identified and known for what they are! I have met Christians who have been led into emotional experiences that were beyond their power to comprehend, and they have inquired eagerly whether or not their experience was of God.

 

The first test must be: “What has this done to my relationship with and my attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ?” Do I love God more? Is Jesus Christ still to me the center of all true doctrine? Do I still agree that anything that makes Him less than God has declared Him to be must be rejected?

 

Again: “How does it affect my attitude toward the Holy Scriptures?” Did this new view of truth spring out of the Word of God itself or was it the result of some stimulus that lay outside the Bible?

 

Be assured that anything that comes to us from the God of the Word will deepen our love for the Word of God!

 

  1. W. Tozer