"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." 1 John 4:1–8 (The New King James Version. (1982). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.)
In Psalm 78, a Psalm of Asaph, God tells us how a whole generation of the people of Israel was not faithful to God, but was a stubborn and rebellious generation, with a fickle heart, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. And here comes the question: How can we keep our spirit faithful to God?
Our spirit is what connects us, not only to the Spirit of God, but to the whole spiritual world, both of light and of darkness. As Paul says, spiritual things are spiritually discerned; not with feelings.
And our spirit is directly influenced by our flesh, our passions and lusts, and by the spiritual world of darkness, which surrounds us constantly, creating traps, wanting to trap us through our own desires and for this reason, Jesus says: Whoever wants to come after me, deny yourself. He already knew that anyone who does not deny himself will not be able to overcome the temptations, he will not be able to depend on the Spirit, to live in the Spirit or to walk in the Spirit of God.
In Proverbs 20:27 says, "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, which searches all the inmost body." It is through the spirit that God reveals himself to us, never through feelings. Our feelings and emotions change frequently, so we cannot trust them. And the weak spirit goes in the wave of the wills of the flesh, but a strong spirit, nourished by the Word of God, is firm, bound in the true vine that is Jesus and therefore will be faithful to God; not like that fickle and unfaithful generation, but faithful to God.
In 1 Corinthians 2:6 to 16 it says: "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ."
And what about you? Do you have the mind of Christ? For a spirit that receives daily influence from the Spirit of God, from the Eternal Word, Jesus, who is the voice of the Word of God, this spirit (of man) becomes unshaken, meek, pure, straight, faithful, constant, joyful, persevering, good, moderate, balanced, showing all the character qualities of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So look inside yourself daily and ask yourself: Did my actions worship God today? Were they influenced by the Spirit of God or by the spirit of the world and the antichrist? Did I only do the will of my flesh or did it under the influence of the will of God?
If you feed on the Word and live by practicing this Word, under its influence, you will walk in the Spirit, as Paul says in Galatians 5:16 and not in the flesh.
Ask God, seek God and walk before him! He will give you a faithful and unshakable spirit.
In Jesus Christ's love,
Filipe A. Espindola
E-mail: espindola.filipe@gmail.com
