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I never knew for decades that she wasn't saved. I went straight to her when I discovered it. It destroyed our friendship as you might guess. But better the wounds of a friend, than the kisses of an enemy.
Actually it is good to check things according to the Scriptures!!
Checking them against the Scriptures implies that a person is to lean on their own understanding - yet the Scriptures explain tests to use and advice like taking all thoughts captive to Jesus Christ.
Sadly, too often people don't actually use the test for spirits in the Bible, nor do they take thoughts captive to Jesus Christ, like the Scriptures say to do!! In that case their testing the spirits is actually testing other people as opposed to spirits, and is nothing more than leaning on their own understanding!!
Prov 3:5,6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
The fact is, that if you are going to do what the Bible tells you, you are going to turn to the Lord and seek what He has to tell you!!
Let me explain how I try to do it - which is according to the Scriptures:
When I pick up a thought that doesn't seem to be mine I ask - "Tell me Jesus Christ is Lord and that Jesus Christ came in the flesh", then I listen with my spiritual ears for the next thought. Now it usually comes back that Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord of lords and King of kings and that He took on flesh, went to the cross, died, and rose again. -- That is usually but not always!! I have had spirits just quickly leave, and I have had spirits actually tell me, "I can't tell you that." - which if weird.
Now there can be a number of ways things can actually go, because I am dealing with beings. The spirit might just try to ignore the question, or the Holy Spirit might first tell me, "Yeah Karl, I Am here and Jesus Christ is Lord" and when He says the "I Am" a power hits me cause a significant jerk to go through me. Also I have had a thought, "Yeah, Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and came in the flesh" only to find out that it was just me confirming what I believe, and so I was not actually picking up another spirit.
Which brings me to Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
There is a lot to learn about discernment of spirits!! That learning happens from practicing seeking your Lord Jesus Christ and learning from Him by practicing using your spirit senses!!!
I have been hearing from the Lord for over 20 years now, and I still don't feel I have a great understanding about discernment of spirits!! The main thing I have figured out is to seek the Lord and try to do what he says! Yes, He will go over Scriptures with you but not so you can lean on your own understanding, but because the Scriptures tell you to seek Him!! Have we not read that discernment of spirits is a gift from the Holy Spirit?? The Holy Spirit speaks the words from our Lord Jesus Christ, and so by hearing Him we get discernment of spirits!!
THAT IS SOLID PROOF this friend does not KNOW CHRIST .There is another aspect of the gift of discernment of spirits. Actually seeing them.
My best friend can see them. Sometimes what they actually look like - some kind of monkey like creature. And other times like a dark shadowy haze around a person.
She never speaks of this unless asked. I just remember the conversation of many years ago about the monkey like creature. But recently I asked her again and found out about the dark shadowy haze, and that she never saw them before becoming filled with the Spirit, and that's been decades, around the same time I did - 45 years now. She's 81 and I am 75. We are both very, very mature in the Spirit. She is an amazing person, and I am so fortunate to have her in my life. She agrees with me about our friend. She has noticed her lack of fruit also. She told me our friend searches the scriptures for promises of riches she can stand on. They just don't work for her. She will only give to the poor when she needs something herself to get a hundred fold. In the past I tried to share the truth in scripture that would correct her prosperity theories. Now she won't discuss scripture at all with me. "God" has told her not to...
Practice using our spiritual senses like hearing is important, and anyone actually seeking the Lord Jesus Christ regularly does that. It is written, "Today if you hear His voice", and so today all believers should hear from their Lord. So it is that we learn things just from regularly seeking to hear from Him.
One thing we learn is that He reproves us! So might He say, 'Karl, you are an idiot who can't read nor comprehend English'? If He did it would come across in the form of humor. He actually has a great sense humor which you also find out about. So what if I looked and read something and just completely messed it up? Jokingly, might He say "Karl, you are an idiot who can't read nor comprehend English'? Not the 'idiot' part because He created us, so by calling me an idiot He would be saying something about Himself, but He might joke about me not comprehending English. Of course that would most like come after I already noted it to myself first. The thing is; what ever he said wouldn't tend to offend me! Have we never had a friend joke with us after we messed something up, and we understood that it was just part of a friendship?
Remember how the Lord showed up to Abram and Sarah telling them they would have a child, and then Sarah laughed. She thought He was joking, and while He was going to give them a child He was also joking - making them wait so long then showing that He was God. He knew what He was doing! He was developing a friendship with Abram and Sarah. So Isaac (which means humor) was born.
So to absolutely say that the Lord would not tell me, "Karl, you are an idiot who can't read nor comprehend English." might not be right. You need context, and we need to listen, test the spirits like instructed, and above all practice seeking the Lord and hearing what He says!! It is by that you get to know Him, and knowing Him helps you know who is who in the spiritual realm around us!
Oh my! I KNOW that sense of humor! Yes, He can be so funny! And that correction lasts because you receive it, not shun away from it!
One time it was miserably rainy and windy. I was trying to get across a parking lot with an umbrella. I said, Lord, not so great a day you made here. I think You could have done better! Just then, a huge gust of rain and wind came at me sideways and hit my face and body like an ocean wave and yanked my umbrella right out of my hands! I was a soaked and laughing mess.
I am sure you will agree with what i say next . I noticed you said if the voice is one of love , kindness , empathy , unity and compassion then you
know it to be of GOD . YET the devil himself has a version to everyone of these words .
Very good my friend . I will try and see if my sister in the UK wont send the post i made about what Charity is and what it aint .Your point is valid. We must define virtues such as love and compassion before we can properly discuss them.
There is another aspect of the gift of discernment of spirits. Actually seeing them.
My best friend can see them. Sometimes what they actually look like - some kind of monkey like creature. And other times like a dark shadowy haze around a person.
She never speaks of this unless asked. I just remember the conversation of many years ago about the monkey like creature. But recently I asked her again and found out about the dark shadowy haze, and that she never saw them before becoming filled with the Spirit, and that's been decades, around the same time I did - 45 years now. She's 81 and I am 75. We are both very, very mature in the Spirit. She is an amazing person, and I am so fortunate to have her in my life. She agrees with me about our friend. She has noticed her lack of fruit also. She told me our friend searches the scriptures for promises of riches she can stand on. They just don't work for her. She will only give to the poor when she needs something herself to get a hundred fold. In the past I tried to share the truth in scripture that would correct her prosperity theories. Now she won't discuss scripture at all with me. "God" has told her not to...
With pleasure.Very good my friend . I will try and see if my sister in the UK wont send the post i made about what Charity is and what it aint .
“Let us understand the love that comes From God .
For GOD is love and love comes from God .
If we have not charity then it profits us nothing .
So let us examine well for ourselves what charity truly is according to God . According to the truth .
For if we have not charity , i warn us all it profits us nothing .
Many can claim to KNOW GOD , yet if they have not charity , they lie and walk in darkness .
So its very important that we truly do have charity .
I have an old friend that thought everything she thought was the voice of God, therefore, absolute truth. She would always say, "God told me"..
I knew a young woman like that in an internet religious chat room who used to think she had a direct line to God who was telling her to pronounce judgement on us, calling us (including me) "phoney christians" and such, but we eventually made her see sense and she mellowed a bit and admitted that it might not have been God talking to her after all.
Shakespeare's Macbeth also eventually realised that the witches had led him up the garden path, and said-
"..oftentimes to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths; Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence.....And be these juggling fiends no more believed, that palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, and break it to our hope."
First - it is very important to understand that indeed - GOD IS LOVE!!!
That is the first thing that sooooo often gets missed!! Even as some people say it they also miss it!!
We look to God because He is love, then we look to ourselves whom we know is not Love because God is love, then we look back to God for the truth. It is just nothing more than going back and forth between leaning on our understanding to leaning on the Lords - if indeed we are actually doing what we say we are and not just pretending obedience to Him.
Too often I find quote "Christians" who say they know the Lord and follow His instructions, but the don't have the 'spiritual gifts'. People - you need to follow after Jesus Christ our Lord and God (charity/love) and also desire the spiritual gifts!!
Good point!
My takeaway here is we need to orient ourselves towards God within the context of love. Does this sound correct?
You mention spiritual gifts but I don't see the connection to love or to charity. Could you explain how the two are connected?
I agree that God is love. My experience of this is that God loves all humanity (indeed all creation) infinitely. He desperately wants his creations to obey him and to walk in union with him, which is the ultimate expression of love. That said, God's mind is 'higher than ours' and his ways are 'higher than' our ways. This means that God's expression of love might not make sense to us. In fact, that's pretty much a guarantee. But, we have the gift of faith which means that even though we can't understand why something is an expression of perfect love we can trust that it is and accept it as such.
How does knowing that God is love and trusting in God to always express his ultimate vision of love for us change us in our daily lives? Simple, it frees us to relax a bit and sort of let go. 'My yolk is easy and my burden is light', in other words; It also softens our hearts, for if God gives you infinite love (since you are one of his creations) and if God likewise gives me infinite love (for the same reason) then it makes sense that I should give you as much love as I can muster, and vice versa, since we are siblings in Christ; Lastly this means we should each love ourselves as God loves us, since to do anything less is to demean the love that God has for us by implying that we know our true value whereas God does not (and that's hogwash, as they say).
What's the matter @Behold, can't you think of something else to judge me about?