TESTING THE SPIRIT
A very important point to all prophets, ministers, and believers is to learn the biblical way of testing the spirit. Over the years, I have asked countless ministers and believers how to test the spirit to know if it's of God. I have gotten the Biblical answer once! All of the other times, I have gotten one of three answers. They look at me dumbfounded because they don't know. They tell me you just have to be mature enough to know. They say to test the spirit by the spirit. None of these are the instructions left to us by the Apostle John on testing the spirit to make sure it's from God. John's instructions are the only foolproof system.
If you are reading this and you're saying, "Wait a minute, God speaks to people?" Or if you think God only speaks to ministers, we have a problem. I find many Christians today have never had the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit speak to them and if that is the case, there is an obstruction in your salvation. Believe every promise Christ left us:
John 14:21
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (KJV)
Christ not only promised that if we love Him and follow His commandments that He would manifest to us, He said the Father would also. In addition to this, the Holy Spirit was sent to teach us. Scripture says clearly that the Holy Spirit would speak to us and through us. If you have not received a manifestation from God something is hindering your salvation. Something is wrong. God keeps His promises. Go back over your steps of salvation. Take a day of fasting with prayer and ask God what is the problem. Please do not listen to those who will tell you God does not do that anymore. People have come up with all kinds of doctrines to justify not having two-way communication with God. When Christ says, "My sheep know my voice," it is not just metaphorically; the Lord actually does speak to us.
I am not saying God talks to us every day, this is seldom the case, but I am saying we serve a living God and He communicates with His children. I can put all of what God has spoken to me (in my thoughts in what seems like an audible voice) in a fifteen-minute conversation and I have been walking with God for a very long time. Since my vocation and anointing is teaching, there is much more that He has pressed into my spirit and confirmed by way of the scriptures. Additional information could be given on this subject but this is not the time or place because we have a lot more to talk about even before we get to the tithes. Please, my brothers and sisters in Christ, believe the promises because God does not lie. Have you noticed Christ said all those that meet the requirements of loving Him and keeping His commandments, He will manifest to them? He did not say just ministers, He said all. Claim the promise. Your communication with God is very important in your salvation, and it is not one way.
1 John 4:1
4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (KJV)
Back to the ministers. It is mandatory that if you are in ministry you know how to test the spirit. Think about what I am saying. Over the years, I have asked many ministers but only one has given me the correct answer from scripture. Let me reveal something to you. Every single minister has told someone something that they thought was from God and when the dust settled they were completely wrong. The question is what do you do after you are wrong? Many find a way to justify the false prophecy when they are confronted by saying the individual lacked faith so it canceled the prophecy. So God didn't know the situation of the person's faith before He spoke the prophecy through them?
Let me break it down to you so you can understand the importance of learning to try the spirits to make sure they are of God. Have you ever seen a minister tell the congregation God is in the house and he is about to give a prophecy and people run up to the altar? Everybody wants to get a personal word. Truth be told, this shows something is wrong. Today it seems all you hear are words of blessings, particularly if you give money or plant a seed. Yet in scripture people got nervous when the prophet came around because the majority of the time it was a word of correction. Has God changed? That is something to ponder.
You have ministers prophesying about marriage, children, finances, jobs, and important decisions in our everyday lives. They say the guidance they are receiving for you is coming from God. Yet many do not know how to test to see if it is really of God. Let me give you a personal example.
Early in my Christian walk, I backslid refusing to do something God told me to do. I was out of Christ for seven years. When God brought me back, I felt like someone who won the lotto! (Not to say we should be playing lotto!) I was on fire for God. It seemed God was making up for lost time by moving me along at a quick pace and showing me some wondrous things! About a year had gone by but it seemed like two or three in terms of spiritual growth.
So here I am at a church and the minister calls for everyone to form a line, he feels the power of God on him. He is going to give everyone a personal prophecy. So I get in line and the man tells me he sees I am getting weak and about to backslide. You know I gave him a look like he was crazy! Then he said he saw me getting a promotion at my job. I was already a supervisor, and I stayed in that position for another 12 years until I retired. When I walked away, I was thinking, "what is this man talking about?"
Yet ask yourself how many people received a prophecy that day and acted on it, and it detoured their lives down a road they were not supposed to go. I am not talking about the ministers that are just straight profit lying (meaning just what you think). I am talking about people that are hearing a voice and repeating what they hear thinking it's God speaking to them. This is the misconception in what people believe John said in 1 John 4:1. When people read the scripture, they think John is speaking about people that are calling themselves prophets. But if you read it carefully in the context you realize he is speaking about spirits of false prophecy.
Some of the spirits aren't too cunning and will tell you any ole' thing they believe you want to hear. They are speaking through people who can't tell if the spirit is from God or not because they don't know how to try or test the spirit. Then you have the ones that are really clever and actually know things about you because in the spirit realm they are speaking to the same spirits assigned to destroy you. These familiar spirits relay information to the false prophet spirit before he speaks through the so-called prophet who has no knowledge of testing the spirit. So the spirit on them and those assigned to you are in collusion, and are guiding you straight to a fall. For those who would respond that God would not allow that to happen, God just told John to tell you to try the spirit and make sure it's of God.
Now let's take another look at what John said with the verses following so we can get the whole aspect of just what he was telling us.
1 John 4:1-3
4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
KJV
Now pay attention. John said, "...believe not every spirit." When I am testing the spirit, this is what I say: "Spirit that has just spoken, do you confess that Jesus Christ (Yehoshua) is the Word of God that came forth from God and dwelled in the flesh and that He is the Messiah." If a spirit is speaking to you, once the spirit stops speaking ask the spirit if he confesses that Jesus is the messiah and has come in the flesh! If the spirit that just spoke to you refuse to confess this, it is not of God. Rebuke it! Now all kinds of things are going to come into your mind to get you not to ask but you must do it. God is not going to get upset if you ask because it says in the scriptures to try the spirit. No spirit of God is going to talk to you and then when you do what the Bible says to do, they have nothing to say. Let me warn you that you might get cursed out. I have had spirits that I tested curse me out. Other times I have heard a growl. The majority of the time I will hear nothing and other times the spirit will confess that Jesus (Yehoshua) is the Christ and He came in the flesh. When you get the confession, you are assured and can do with confidence what God has told you to do. When you get no answer you just throw it out and don't let it be a hindrance to you. Don't let anyone fool you by saying you just have to believe by faith. When scripture tells you what to do in a certain situation, do it!
Another warning to ministers: When you begin testing the spirit you might find out that the voice that has been talking to you is not of God, and it can be hard to believe. But you have got to let it go; don't let it deceive you into accepting it even though it has given you the wrong answer. Don't fall in love with "the power" because it's false and not of God. This will free you to seek the real voice of the Lord and it will help your ministry in the long run, not hurt it. You might have to throw out everything you received and start over because if the wrong spirit was operating, believe me, it had you going down the wrong pathway. If you continue embracing that spirit the only destination will be hell.
Now I want to show you something. Have you noticed a lot of prosperity speakers are being embraced of late by movie stars, musicians, other entertainers, athletes, and politicians? Some are even being embraced by the LGBT community because they are saying the "right things." I understand there are some famous people who really love the Lord and are followers of the doctrine of Christ. I am not talking about them. I am talking about the ones who like to mention the church but everything about their lifestyle says the world! And for those of you shaking your heads and saying "don't judge" please skip forward to the chapter on the correct meaning of judging. Let's read some more of what John said:
1 John 4:4-6
4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. (KJV)
One of the first things God taught me after I surrendered my life to Him is that the world will not embrace the things of God. If you see the world embracing something that seems to be of God, turn on the spotlight because something is wrong with it. They are repelled by the things of God because the spirits operating in them and through them do not want the Word to loosen the grip they have on these lost souls. When you see people of the world attracted to a minister or certain doctrine that are not bringing about godly changes in them, then something is suspect.
I remember asking a minister at a church I attended how do you know for sure when the spirit talking to you is of God. The reason I asked them was because they seemed to be a knowledgeable person in the church and I valued their advice. I was told you just have to be mature enough to know. This answer did not help me because it left the false conclusion that if a person is not spiritually mature they cannot know.
So many in the church believed the power of God was really working through the person that gave me the advice. I personally experienced this while praying on the phone with some friends and one of us had a vision. The vision was an open cage on a forest floor with a chicken next to it pecking on the ground. We later met at church and during the service sat in awe as we heard the minister say, "God does not want you to be a chicken on the forest floor, He wants you to soar like an eagle in the sky." Wouldn't you think that was a powerful word? The only problem was a while later God revealed to us that this minister was a witch! Just stop and think on that for a second!
Eph 6:12
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood , but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV)
Remember, I was told you just have to be mature enough to know? Readers, you must always pay attention to what people are saying. How many times have you heard the scripture where Christ says, "My sheep know my voice"? This does not override John's instructions to "believe not every spirit but try the spirits to make sure they are from God."
You ask many ministers how to recognize Christ's voice and they will tell you it's a still, small voice. Then you say, "How do you recognize the Holy Spirit's voice?" and they will say, "It's a still, small voice." Yet I have had a spirit call my name in a still, small voice and it turned out to be an unclean spirit that God used me to cast off a young woman. The spirit followed me home attempting to jump onto me.
I was a young Christian at the time who had just received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. While a fellow Christian and I were praying for a young lady who was struggling with sin, we saw a dark shadow lift up off of her. She didn't see it but explained to us that she felt something lift up off of her body, as well. Later I returned home and fell asleep. I had a nightmare of walking down a pathway and seeing people committing sexual sins in front of me. Every time I would turn away and walk in a different direction, the same scene would present itself before me. After this happened countless times I finally cried out to God and said, "Father." I heard a still small voice say, "Yes Samuel," I replied, "Help me." The voice then asked me, "Why should I help you after all the wrong things that you have done over the years?" I listened as it named my past sins. Finally, I said, "I thought you forgave my sins?" I then saw an old-time toilet flushing chain hanging in mid- air. As I grabbed it and pulled, I woke up. Hovering in the air over my bed was a dark shadow the size of a man. It seemed to be startled that I woke up and could see it. It shrunk into a black ball and flew into one of the speakers I had against the wall. All I could think was, "Oh my God." I rebuked it and got up and prayed. The next day when I spoke to the young lady and asked what was she struggling with before we prayed for her, she told me sexual sins. I had no doubt it was the demon that came off her that followed me home and attacked me in my sleep. I learned a lot from that experience. I realized that unclean spirits can speak in a still, small voice. This testimony should be a wake-up call to many!
The most popular response I have gotten for how to test the spirit is to test the spirit by the Spirit. The term means that the Holy Spirit in us will identify what spirit is operating through others and even ourselves. But what happens when the person doing the testing already has the wrong spirit within them? Is the wrong spirit going to rat out the other wrong spirit? Or will they collude together to get the believer into even more of a mess? One of the gifts I prayed for as a young Christian was discernment. God answered my prayers, and I have a strong gift of spiritual discernment. This is not an easy gift to understand or put to use. The gift shows you what spirit is operating through a person but I have experienced that even born-again believers with the Holy Spirit have had other spirits operate through them at times, especially if they are walking in iniquity. It does not mean the person is not of God, they might just be going through struggles. I have experienced this with some strong Christians. I have actually seen pastors preaching and their faces contort and turn dark.
When a person is under spiritual attack or struggling with sin, access to the gift can be limited. So testing the spirit by the Spirit is possible for believers walking in the Spirit of God, which means to be walking in obedience to Christ. You have to have the right Spirit operating through you, and have the gift of discernment of spirits. Sadly, that situation does not apply to everyone, and only mature Christians are that way for an extended period of time. So testing the spirit by the Spirit is not a fool-proof system like the confession.
Many mature saints from one church I attended were not able to recognize that a minister in the church was an undercover witch. This person had been ministering in the church for years before I got there and all the people telling me to test the spirit by the Spirit seemed to be oblivious to it. This individual was preaching, prophesying, and laying on of hands. We have to understand that the minions of the enemy are sent to infiltrate Christian churches. To uproot these forces, we have to rely on the instructions left to us in the Word of God. When I spoke to the pastor about what God had shown me he said a minister that had visited our church had told him about the same person. Yet the individual was not put out the church, and the reason I was given was that the wheat and tares have to grow together. People of God, the wheat and tares grow together in the world, not in the church. The field they grow together in is the world, not the church!
If you find people in your church involved in witchcraft in any way, confront them, and if they resist the word and do not repent and turn from the practices, put them out. If you as a lay member know of people doing witchcraft in the church and you don't report it to the pastor, then you're part of the problem. Report it and then inquire what steps were being taken to resolve the situation. If the pastor does nothing to address the situation, then find another church. If one witch is allowed to operate in a church, you better believe there are going to be others. The worst scenario is that the ministry itself will be overrun by witchcraft.
One of the topics I plan on writing about next, God willing, is witchcraft in the church. The infiltration of these false prophet spirits is something Christian churches really need to wake up to. As I sit here writing I am saddened because I remember when I first set foot in that church, God warned me about this same person but being a babe in Christ I rejected the warning because the person was a minister. I thought there was no way they could be a witch and the church would not know. Boy, was I wrong! I think of the countless number of lives that were exposed to the demonic spirit working through this person because the church did not practice testing the spirit, and they could not see a wolf in sheep's clothing.
