WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God.
1 John 4:1-3 (NLT)
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH OTHERS IN ALIGNMENT WITH HIS WORD
Recording artist Mickey Moore told the following story: One night, as we were packing up after a concert, we sent a young woman to pick up our children from the home they were staying in. Since the children didn’t know her, I told her to give our son, Trevor, our secret family code word so he would know she was authorized to pick them up. A little later, I received a phone call. Trevor refused to leave because the woman hadn’t given the right word. The mix-up was on my part, I had said the code word was “Dinosaur Monster,” which my son informed me was incorrect. “It’s Dinosaur!” he said. “Are you sure? I was certain it was Dinosaur Monster,” I replied. “I’m sure,” said Trevor confidently. “Well, OK, son,” I carried on. “You’re probably right. But it’s OK for you to come back to the church with this lady.” There was silence on the other end of the line. Then Trevor said, “Who is this?” “It’s me, your father, Mickey Moore! Now get in the car and come on!” “All right,” he replied and hung up.
The Apostle Paul clearly teaches that we should not believe everything we hear from people claiming to speak from God. From his temptation of Eve on, Satan has sought to distort and deny God’s Word (Genesis 3:1-5). Ray Stedman, in his sermon on 1 John 4:1-6 “When Unbelief is Right,” says, “every Christian is also called to be an unbeliever. There is a time when unbelief is the right thing and the only right thing.” One “test” we should use to see if what someone says is from God is, does it align with what the Bible already teaches? If it doesn’t align with clear Biblical teaching, we should not believe it.
Reflection
Can you recall a time of realizing someone was claiming to have a word from God, but it didn’t pass the test of biblical consistency? The better we know God’s word the easier it will be to discern when someone is being used by God to speak to us.
Praise
Praise God that He is consistent, and His truth is reliable. Ask God to grow your ability to discern and share His truth.
