THE DIVIDING LINE

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

I know I’ve mentioned it in an earlier post, but when dealing with issues of faith and belief, one cannot help but keep coming back to this issue. Call me foolish or naïve, but the extent to which the general population has accepted, tolerated, expected, and even eagerly received lying today, never ceases to amaze me. We are literally inundated with lying, nearly submerged in the dirty pool of deceit and dishonesty. It shouldn’t shock us that lying would increase in the last days, for the Bible strongly conveys to us that truth. It not only shocks me, however; it grieves my heart. Why? I want to trust! The Lord has given me a heart that longs to trust and believe truth. As my friend always says, “That’s a good thing!” Unfortunately, for all believers, because sin entered the world, we cannot trust with blind abandon. That would be a discouragement to end all hope if I did not have One that can be trusted with complete abandon—the One who is the standard of truth because He is truth! His Word is the plumb line with which to measure the veracity of all that is true. He is the precious Cornerstone, and all truth lines up with the firm foundation He provides for the lives of those who put their trust in Him. Every step of our Christian life we should be growing up into the image of Christ as we learn to trust Him more. If that growth is to take place, we must learn to discern truth from error. Thankfully, the Lord has not only given me a heart that longs to trust, but a heart that longs to flee from evil. And, He has given every true believer a Helper in the Holy Spirit to do just that.

Hebrews 5:14 says that solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Babies put all sorts of dangerous things into their mouths. It’s interesting to me that the word for solid in this passage in Hebrews means firm, steadfast, immovable. It’s the same word used in 1 Peter 5:9—But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. Resist him refers to Satan back in verse 8—Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. According to Hebrews 5:14, who is the mature believer? He or she is the one who, because of practice has had their senses trained to discern good and evil. There’s nothing sadder than to see an adult who still behaves like a child. In some cases, it’s even embarrassing! That would definitely be true of those who have professed to walk with Christ for many years but who are still eager to put “all things labelled Christianity” into their mouths. Food here is food of the mind, the substance of instruction.

The mature have habitually had their senses trained…Senses is the faculty of the mind for perceiving, understanding, or judging. Trained is to exercise vigorously. Now, I want to challenge you to stop and ask yourself this question: Are you vigorously exercising your senses to be able to discern between good and evil? As the current tidal waves of lies continue to increase, we had better begin to learn to discern truth from error, for tsunamis are just on the horizon.

To discern means to distinguish, to judge, to separate out by diligent search, or to examine. It’s a word that relates to wisdom. In Ephesians 6, the word of God is called the sword of the Spirit. Every believer is in a war. Crucial to understand, this war is a battle for our minds. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5—For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We are called to sharpen our swords by allowing His Sword to expose the lies we dearly hold onto…lies that will destroy us unless heart surgery is performed regularly. Hebrews 4:12 says: For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. We don’t know our own hearts as we saw in Jeremiah 17:9-10, but the Lord alone knows our hearts. As we submit to the truths of His Word, allowing Him to change our hearts and our desires, we are becoming more like Christ. Learning to discern is growing up so that we are no longer children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

I met a woman my age in prison who professed to follow Christ. To most, she appeared to be a very “spiritual” woman. It didn’t take me long to realize that her “Christianity” was not the same as mine. She didn’t use the Sword in her battles. I went to the Word. She went directly to a place where she had a mystical union with whatever spirit she met there. It was not the Holy Spirit because the things she said and the things she did never matched up with God’s Word. When I used the Word to show her truth, she twisted it and distorted it to mean whatever she believed. For instance, we both worked in the Chapel. I will say I witnessed a lot of crazy things that went on there. One day, with a fever pitch in her voice she confronted me as I walked in. She was excited to tell me what had been going on there. I think, looking back, she was trying to get some type of rise out of me or a reaction of fear, so that I would finally run to her for answers. She told me that there had been a lot of demonic activity going on, and she and her friends were going to have to go to battle. She said doors were opening and slamming shut by themselves, and some other events along these lines. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t budge. I had absolutely no doubt there was demonic activity going on all around me, every day, not just that day! She said, “You’re not concerned?” I said, “On the contrary, I’m staying in the Word every day. God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. We’re to resist the devil, and he will flee from us.” Then, I quoted a portion of 2 Corinthians 10. She said, “Well, this type of spiritual warfare can’t be fought with the Word of God! You have to be trained to do this type of battle like I have.” And she stormed away to go fight her demons. I genuinely loved this woman and tried to share the Word of God with her on any occasion I could. I believe she cared for me as well, but we were not like-minded. Consequently, I didn’t entrust myself to her.

This type of situation happens on a less obvious scale for believers every single day. How many times have you heard this phrase? “But they say they are Christians!” Or, “It says it’s Christian!” If we readily believed that everybody who claims to follow Christ is a true believer with whom we could have true unity, we would necessarily have to relax our convictions and be less dogmatic concerning the truth. You’ve heard the accusation: “Doctrine divides.” Yes. It does! And, that’s a good thing! Sound doctrine is a dividing line between truth and error. The world is full of doctrine. But there is sound doctrine, or divine truth, on one side and all other doctrines of the world are doctrines of demons.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 says: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. They won’t endure sound doctrine; they won’t put up with it! Everything we believe, everything that makes up true faith, is based on doctrine. Within the confines of true faith, there are some doctrines that are essential and non-negotiable doctrines. Every Christian ought to know what these are because his or her whole theology will trickle down from these doctrines.

2 Timothy 2:15 says that we are to: Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. Romans 12:2 says: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. And, 1 John 4:1—Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So, what’s the danger of not being able to discern truth from error?

In 1 John 4:1, what is the obvious thing we can see? We see more than one spirit here. There are contrasting spirits at work in the world. We know the Holy Spirit of truth, but there are unholy spirits that lie and deceive. We know that the Holy Spirit only dwells in those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to believe the Holy Spirit but never believe unholy spirits. So, in all things, believers are to test whether something is of the Spirit of God or from an unholy spirit. All unholy spirits are demonic. The question is this: How do unholy spirits operate? What is their forum? All unholy spirits operate through the false teaching of unholy men, false prophets or false teachers. False teachers don’t come to us and say, “Look everyone, I’m going to tell you a lie now!” No! How do they come? They come dressed as angels of lights but are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They use the Bible, or they would never be able to deceive those who profess to believe its truths. They speak a language that sounds like that of a real Christian. But, here’s the thing: They appeal to our flesh. They say things that we, in our human nature, want to hear. They don’t speak the hard truths that make our flesh go into attack mode. They are intent on coddling the flesh. Their purpose is always to lead one astray from the truth. Never forget that light and darkness are diametrically opposed to one another. You can’t be in the Kingdom of Light and walk in the darkness. There are only two “religions” in the world. There is true, biblical Christianity, and all other religions fall under the religion of the kingdom of darkness. Are you able to discern with absolute assurance to what kingdom you belong? Lord willing, there will be more on biblical discernment tomorrow.