EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/5/2025 9:54 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “A Reason to Test”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 4:1b
Message of the verse: “but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
MacArthur says that “The term translated test is a
present imperative form of the verb dokimazo. The term was used to refer to a metallurgist’s
assaying of metals to test their purity and value. John’s use of the present tense indicates
that believers are to continually test the spirits see whether they are from
God. Contrary to the view of some, this
command has nothing to do with personally confronting demons or performing
exorcisms. Instead, Christians are to
continually evaluate what they see here (cf. 1 Cor 14:29; 1 Thess. 5:20-21, and
read to determine if it originated from the Spirit of God or, alternatively,
from demons.”
Now first after looking at this paragraph I want to quote
the two verses that are mentioned here, 1 Cor. 14:29 and 1 Thess. 5:20-21.
“29 Let two or three prophets
speak, and let the others pass judgment.”
“20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine
everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;”
Now
I want to talk about one of the things that MacArthur has written about and
something that I have heard him say in some of his sermons that I have listened
to. I am not sure that if I agree with
the fact that people are not to confront demons, not that I would want to do
it, but I have heard of people who have and have been successful in doing
so. When I first became a believer I
listened to and read much from Hal Lindsey, the author of “The Late Great
Planet Earth,” and also “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth.” It was in that second book that Lindsey
writes of a person who removed a demon from a person and did it in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that this
was done in the New Testament by our Lord and also by some of His disciples and
other believes after He had gone back to heaven. The question is was this was what is called a
“sign gift” that was ended early on in the Church age. These “sign gifts” were given to the apostles
along with other believers in order to help the church to be established, and
then after the New Testament was complete they were no longer needed. My mind is not totally make up on this issue,
but I tend to believe that this gift is not available at this time, but I do
believe that once the Church is raptured that during the Tribulation Period it
will be available again.
Now
back to our comments on 1 John 4:1b.
MacArthur goes on to write that “The only reliable way to test any
teaching is to measure it against what God has revealed in His infallible, written
Word (Isa. 8:20; cf. Prov. 6:23; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). As the perfect standard of truth (John 17:17)
and the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), the Word of God provides believers
with their primary defense against error (cf. 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Heb. 4:12).”
2/5/2025 10:16 PM
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