1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit [speaking through a self-proclaimed prophet]; instead test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets and teachers have gone out into the world.
We need to exercise God’s Wisdom and discernment when listening to bible teachers or pastors, or even when we’re having our own personal bible study. We can’t just blindly accept all the teaching we come across as truth (including what we hear within the church); we need to test it! We need to ask ourselves: does it align with the pure, uncontaminated Word of God?
Many bible teachers are rising up with a distorted version, a manipulated version, twisting scripture to mean something it doesn’t—and there are many who go along with it! We need to really ‘know’ the Word so that we will have an, “It is written” reply, like Jesus did. Even if it sounds correct, we need to check it out with God’s Word.
When we are well grounded in God’s Word, the truth we hear preached will resonate with our spirits. If it’s not truth, we will immediately know within our spirits—it will be red flagged, so to speak! This is why we need to daily pray for God’s wisdom and discernment.
But there is also another area in which we need to exercise discernment regarding what we hear being preached. When we hear a message that we haven’t heard before and are a little unsure, we need to prayerfully consider what is said and test it against the Word of God. We shouldn’t just right it off just because it’s all new to us. It may simply be because we haven’t come into that understanding yet. Remember, we are all at different stages of our walk, so be careful not to throw out a ‘truth’ just because it’s something you don’t understand at the time. Many of Jesus’ teachings were not always understood and quite often misinterpreted—even by the disciples.
