This post is Day 20 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 20

The world is full of people who acknowledge Jesus came in the flesh, but do not follow Him. Many think He was a totally human prophet, not that He was planted in Mary by the Holy Spirit. Thank God there are many who can testify that these beliefs are false.

1 John 4:2-3

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 in the world.

The Thought

The world is full of people who acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, but don’t follow Him. There are many who think that He was a totally human prophet, not that He was planted in Mary by the Holy Spirit.

These are the people I think John is addressing in this part of his letter. Sadly over the years this spirit has grown and multiplied and is rampant in parts of the church today. There are christians who think miracles ended with the New Testament. There are others who think the gifts of the spirit won’t happen until Jesus returns to earth. Thank God that there are many who can testify that both those beliefs are false.

We as believers need to be actively living and doing what Jesus told us to do, in order to witness to these demonic spirits that they are totally wrong. We must bind them and cast them out whenever possible.

When Jesus was delivering people from evil spirits, He addressed them directly (Mark 1:25 & Mark 5:8). He calls us to do the same (Mark 16:17).

Action

Ask yourself today how many people you will see who don’t understand the truth of Christianity. It could be 1 or 2, but if you leave your home to go to work, school, shopping, it could be hundreds. If you stay home it could be hundreds on the screen of your computer or telephone.

Who will pray for those people if we don’t? Pray as you go about your life today that the eyes of each person will be opened to the Truth of who Jesus really is.