Good Morning Friends,
“Dear friends, 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. This is how you can recognize the Spirit
of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even
now is already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)
You can’t believe everything that you hear. It
would be nice if you could. It would be great if you could trust everyone and
believe what each person says to you. You can’t do that, though, because there
are forces at work in our world that are seeking our destruction, not our
benefit.
John’s admonition: test what people say to
you. Be a skeptic. Don’t just take what people say at face value, put it to the
test.
Paul was a great preacher. He was a man of
God who could be trusted. But when he preached to the Bereans they tested what
he told them. Now, wouldn’t that make a preacher mad? Actually, just the opposite
is true. The Bereans were applauded in the Bible for what they did, they were not
criticized, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the
Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined
the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)
A preacher of truth is happy to have his
message tested according to the authoritative standard of the Word of God.
Truth will always stand the test!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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