Bible Verse of The Day – 3-15-23

1 John 4:1 (NKJV) 1 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.

Welcome to part 3 of the Guarding Our Hearts series. Let’s dive right in.

The phrase, “test the spirits”, is a critical part of the foundation for guarding our hearts.

If we never learn to test the spirits, we will frequently fail to recognize false teachings and their purveyors, making it easy for us to fall prey to what they’re peddling.

Matthew 7:15-16, which we included in yesterday’s devotional, tells us that false prophets (and teachers) come as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Jesus made it plain that false teachers and false prophets will not always be easy to spot. They will blend in and appear to be genuine if we don’t know how to discern.

Again, this brings us back to understanding the importance of knowing how to test the spirits.

I have highlighted those three words because their level of importance deems that they be highlighted, so we will understand the emphasis that is placed upon them.

Did I mention yet that testing the spirits is critically important?

The camouflage of the wolves among the sheep creates the need for our levels of discernment and awareness to be at acute levels. Their ability to fool others is very polished.

Part of this is because they believe their own lies. They honestly think that what they teach is true, so they teach it with conviction.

They will also cherry-pick the word of God and twist scriptures to prove the validity of what they teach. And this would seem to lend credibility to their falsehood.

Once again, we come back around to testing the spirits.

Tomorrow we will dig into understanding what it means to test the spirits, as well as learning how to do just that.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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