“Try the Spirits”
In the last days seducing spirits (not so much opposing ones) form the active army of Satan (1 Tim 4: 1; 2 Tim 3: 13), and much sorrow and departure from the simplicity of the faith is the result. This would be avoided were believers more alive to God’s provision for His saints to meet these spirits.
That which is unmistakeably of “darkness” (see chap 1) a believer has nothing whatever to do with. The case is simple, for a believer is light, and ‘of the light’, and he has to abide in it. “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him”, 1 John 2: 9. The exhortation, “Try the spirits” does not apply the moment I see that the spirit acting causes “darkness”. My only safety and wisdom then is to have nothing to do with it. On the other hand, all that is of the teaching of the apostles—“He that knoweth God heareth us” (v 6)—I can unhesitatingly accept as of the light.
But there are cases of greater difficulty, in which it is not so easy at once to discern, and to such cases the exhortation we have here, “Try the spirits”, applies. The exhortation here is connected with prophecy, that is, what has to be tested claims to be so good, and to be so advantageous to the soul as to be a real message from God. “Try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”. The evil spirit is not now opposing but seducing, that is, leading into by-paths. He comes now clothed in a religious garb, for he knows that without it he would gain no ear at all. He is none the less evil of course, but he wields thereby a great increase of power to deceive. Ample provision is given to us all to meet him. The believer in Christ is the possessor of the Holy Spirit (chap 3: 24), and he is thereby fully empowered to “try the spirits”.
It is well to be clear as to this. It is no mystical assumption of power in myself (which is after all only ‘me’ in a more subtle form). We are speaking here of the Spirit of God, and a man may be possessor of the best tools and yet be very unskilful in the use of them, or even never use them at all, in the sense given us here. No aptitude as a learned and skilful theologian is necessary in order that the child of God may not be seduced by the enemy. Those who are such, relying on their supposed ability, may be the first to be deceived. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” is enough. God Himself dwells in us by His Spirit, and it is by Him we must try the spirits (of which I will speak more presently), but I think that many a slip in our ‘divine’ history may be traced to a neglect of this exhortation!
The spirit at work at any given time must be tested by finding out what is his testimony regarding Christ. If the Holy Spirit is working, that testimony will be clear, and give no uncertain sound. “Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God”. What this confession is, and what it means, demands I think some little examination.
The perfect work of Christ for the believer, and the exaltation of Christ as Man to the right hand of God—there to wait God’s time for the full display in glory of all His purposes concerning Him—these form the basis on which the Holy Ghost is down here, and dwells in believers on earth, Eph 1: 13. Now I have the conviction that the Holy Spirit, since He is God, is always true to God’s thoughts and purposes respecting the Son, “He shall glorify me”, John 16: 14. Hence if tested by this divine standard, there will always be found a response from the Holy Spirit in keeping with these truths respecting the Son. This we have to look for and expect. The subject of the Holy Spirit, in His communications to the believer, is Christ and only Christ. The object of the Holy Spirit, looking up from the saints in whom He dwells, is Christ still—Christ in glory—eternal Object of the Father’s delight. Thus all revolves around His one blessed Person, work, and present place in glory. Now the test is, what has the Spirit in question to say to these things? It is the moral (internal) character of what is presented that we seek to discover. No mere lip confession that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” is the proof of the Spirit of God. It is what is involved in this great fact that we have to consider. I have to “walk even as he walked” (chap 2: 6), and Jesus, the humbled, rejected Man, He who once, as rejected, walked here, was during all that time in fullest perfection under the eye of God in all His ways. He is now Lord and Christ. He is exalted to the highest place of glory and eminence in heaven, and all God’s delight and purposes still have their centre in Him, Acts 2: 36. The Holy Spirit is down here to maintain in our souls the knowledge of all these things—to unfold them more and more to us, and to form us by them. Again I would ask, Does this spirit thus confess Jesus Christ come in flesh? If not, I am directed to reject it, it is another spirit, that is, one “not of God”. What then is it? “This is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world”.
Since the devil therefore now is religious (he professes to be an angel of light), all that is religions must be tested. That which has no thought of God in it at all, no Jesus, and NO CHRIST, is clearly of darkness and cannot minister to the soul. But Satan is religious, that is, he and all his host are acting now on the lines of the ‘seduce’. Perhaps we do not reflect upon this as much as we should. A spirit, working persistently but ceaselessly behind the scenes, either for good or for evil, is moving ALL the machinery of this life, and through it the believer has to thread his way, a way illumined by the light of the word and the counsel of the Spirit of God. “That wicked one toucheth him not” (1 John 5: 18) is the result. He is thus equipped to meet the subtleties of the foe. We do not wrestle with flesh and blood. The vessel used may be flesh and blood, it matters little about that. But the Spirit working (invisibly to human eye) is the important matter, for it seeks to prompt me to action, and to act as led of an evil spirit, is no little matter for a Christian. May we all be more conversant, then, with the words, “Try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”. All that is in harmony with and confesses Jesus Christ come “in flesh” is of God, and all else is of another, and is antichrist.
I notice that a sister, living alone, is responsible in this matter, and uses this test for strangers in John 2 and refuses them as led of God to discover the seducing spirit. I notice also that Gaius in 3 John receives strangers, as led of God to discern the Spirit of God in those who came to him. Again, let me repeat the word to my reader and to myself—what assumes to be religious both in doctrine and practice must be tested by us if we would be preserved from the wiles of Satan in these days, and thus alone shall we practically be adding our “amen” to John’s three epistles.
From Helps in Things Concerning Himself —vol 4, 1894
