My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ — the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person — comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!
Whether out of intention or ignorance, there are many who proclaim a message about Jesus that is untrue. However, when the genuine Holy Spirit of God is alive in us, we will believe and confess that Jesus is God's Son who came in human flesh as God with us. John also reminds us that the Holy Spirit is our anointing from
God and teaches us the truth about Jesus, reminds us of what Jesus said and did, and leads us into all truth (
1 John 2:18-27;
John 16:12-15). The Holy Spirit within us helps us understand and apply the message he inspired (
1 Corinthians 2:10-16;
2 Timothy 3:14-17). No wonder the Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Truth.
Father God, the Almighty, thank you for using your Holy Spirit to inspire mere mortals to speak and write your message for us in human words of truth. As I listen to your message proclaimed and read the message found in the Scriptures, I ask that the Holy Spirit convict me of what is true and right, open my heart to apply it and put it into action in my life, and help me see when what is spoken or written is not true to your will. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
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