This post is Day 19 in a series of studies about “1 John”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).


1 John – Day 19

1 John 4:1-3

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.

The Thought

These verses have caused difficulty for many Christians who do not imagine themselves talking to spirits. But reading it carefully we can see that the “spirits” are using people and it is those people that we will be talking to, except in the case of deliverance, when we must address spirits directly, but we’ll look at that tomorrow.

In our world today there is a rise in the number of mystics, mediums, yoga teachers, and hypnotists. People are flocking to those “healers” in great number, “because it works”. Or so people think. But the consequences can be terrible, and these verses today assure us that these people are from the antichrist. You will not find one who proclaims that “Jesus is Lord”.

The reason behind what they do is from the devil and is to turn people from Christ, although most “healers” do not know that. Sadly many churches are not doing what Jesus told us to do in Mark 16:17, so people are turning to others for wholeness.

Action

If you have visited a “healer” at any time, ask the Lord today to forgive you and free you from any unholy ties. Acknowledge that He is the only Lord who can really heal you, spirit, soul and body.

Pray for others you may know who are being led down the wrong paths to find their healing. Pray for them to meet Jesus, and for the healers too. Jesus loves them all.

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