First of all, we talked about having ears which can hear and why we need to be like this. We also discussed a controversial Isaiah’s prophecy and found that there was no need to controversy at all. We also see that the Lord is extremely willing to open our ears when we are really willing. The second is about the method of spiritual discernment, because everything that comes from supernatural ideas may not necessarily come from God. We gave a biblical example to illustrate this point. Every spirit that denies Jesus is not of God; it is the spirit of the Antichrist. Finally, we talked about the method of distinguishing those thoughts belonging to the old self. The New Testament teaches us to know by looking at the results! The Old Testament also says so. Being able to discern after the fact at least gives people an opportunity to learn how to discern, and to know that they must use the words of the Bible as the absolute standard for discernment. We gave a brief testimony to illustrate this point. The remedy is to repent. We see that it is not enough not to be afraid of death, but that we must not be afraid of death for Christ sake and have the determination to be a martyr for the Lord at any time. We also explained, one might ask, why Jesus was not collaborating with Satan when he dipped the bread for Judas to eat at the Passover meal. We also discuss that anyone who has influence over the kingdom of Satan will definitely be tempted by Satan or his servants just as Satan tempted Jesus. Because we want to be conformed to the image of Jesus, Satan will definitely prevent us from doing so and thus preventing us from growing up and being able to truly discern the difference between the good or the bad. For example, we illustrate that God’s view of death is quite different from the world’s view of death. Let us see that if a Christian has never been attacked by temptation, he should be alert! Because even Satan’s servants don’t think he’s worthy of attack.
1. Have an ear that can hear
We have already talked about the same sentence in the seven (all) churches in the book of Revelation, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”(See Revelation 2:7,11,17,29, 3:6,13,22) Of course, you should definitely listen to what the spirit says, “Do not quench the Spirit.”(1 Thessalonians 5:19) Of course, we must discern that it is from the Holy Spirit and not from Satan’s servants masquerading as angels of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Some examples of this in the New Testament are: “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.”(Revelation 13:9) “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”(See Matthew 11:15, 13:9,43; Mark 4:9,13, 8:19; Luke 8:8, 14:35) “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?”(Mark 8:18) We see that the Holy Spirit is not mentioned here, so we must also have an ear that can listen to other people’s words. However, other people’s words may not be entirely correct, so we must distinguish them. There are quite a few similar verses in the Old Testament, such as “Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see; Who have ears but do not hear.”(Jeremiah 5:20-21) I won’t go into details here since you can check them out easily by using software.
Someone may ask, but the New Testament says, “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’”(Matthew 13:14-15) Since they mentioned the prophecy of Isaiah, let us go to it. “He (the LORD) said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand. “Render the hearts (H3820) of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.””(Isaiah 6:9-10) Isn’t this that God makes the people unable to hear? We see this word H3820 thirty times in Isaiah, enough times that we can understand the meaning of this word. A typical example is, “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart (H3820) is My law; Do not fear the reproach of man, Nor be dismayed at their revilings.” (Isaiah 51:7) In fact, it is clear from the consistency of Scripture, “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house.””(Ezekiel 12:1-2) These people are from the rebellious house. How can they hear it? What we want to emphasize here is that most of the time the Bible talks about general situations, and sometimes it talks about special cases. We cannot use special cases to say that the general situations described in the Bible are wrong. Here, Ezekiel is an Israelite, but he is obviously not rebellious. From the case of Ezekiel, we cannot say that this general description of Israel as rebellious is a wrong description.
On the other hand, we see that “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”(Romans 10:17) If one can’t even hear, how can that person “believe?” If you want to change, the first step is to listen, right? This is true for both the words of the Holy Spirit and the words of brothers and sisters. Especially for spiritual matters, we need God to open our ears, otherwise how can we change it? The psalm says, “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.”(Psalm 40:6) We need to do both, but which one is more important must be clearly distinguished. Isaiah says, ““You have not heard, you have not known.
Even from long ago your ear has not been open, Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.”(Isaiah 48:8) The house of Israel was indeed a rebellious house. He also said, “The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back.”(Isaiah 50:5) We can see that Isaiah did have a hearing ear! We have to say it again, we must have ears that can hear for both the spiritual and worldly things. If we are willing, we can ask the Lord to open our ears and give us an ear that can hear. We know that He is extremely willing to do so. We have talked many times about that He was shut out by the Laodicean church and still said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”(Revelation 3:20) You really need to be sure that you are really willing, because “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”(Jeremiah 17:9) We sometimes deceive ourselves!
2. Methods of spiritual discernment
Everything that comes from supernatural thoughts does not necessarily come from God, because quite a few people think that supernatural things must come from God, but in fact it is not the case. To discern, you must use the words of the Bible as the absolute standard to make a distinction. What if there is no such thing in the Bible? Then we have to look at the principles of the Bible. If we truly believe that the Bible is inspired by God, we will know that the principles are all there. Therefore, the Old Testament says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.”(Psalm 103:7) Therefore, when we read the Bible, we not only need to know what the Triune God has done and what He can do, but we also need to know some of His principles for doing things. Because He is infinite and we are finite, it is impossible for us to know all the laws of His ways of doing things on our own unless He reveals to us. We believe that He is willing, provided that we open the door in our heart. In the book of Revelation, the church in Laodicea shut Jesus out, but He still said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”(Revelation 3:20) Here, didn’t God let Moses know His principles for doing things? Please don’t confuse what He has done with what He can do. Indeed, both the Old and New Testaments record many things that He has done, but what He can do is beyond our imagination. Therefore, the New Testament says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”(Ephesians 3:20)
First, we must know that Satan and his servants can also pretend to be angels of light. “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, …”(2 Corinthians 11:14-15) The book of Job in the Old Testament makes it very clear that supernatural things that come from thoughts do not necessarily come from God! We shared this before, and because it is so important to know this, we list the scriptures and then only briefly discuss them here. The scripture is quite long, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, “If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking? …“Now a word was brought to me stealthily, And my ear received a whisper of it. “Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, Dread came upon me, and trembling, And made all my bones shake. “Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. “It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; A form was before my eyes; There was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? ‘He puts no trust even in His servants; And against His angels He charges error. ‘How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! ‘Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.’”(Job 4:1-21) Eliphaz’s words are mixed between right and wrong. This is related to the serpent who used the same strategy to seduce Eve! So the spirit Eliphaz met was Satan, but he didn’t know it at that time.
In the New Testament, we are told more clearly how to distinguish in the spiritual world, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, …”(1 John 4:1-3) If we are sure that we are encountering something in the spiritual world, we can use this method to distinguish it. At the time of Eliphaz, Jesus had not yet become flesh, so it was impossible for him to discern this way.
We need to know that some wrong things that come from our thoughts are not always from the servants of Satan. Many times they come from our old self. Regardless of whether the thought comes from your old self that was stirred up by Satan’s agents, whenever you commit sins, your old self can be stirred up, so you must make sure it comes from the spiritual world. If it really comes from the spiritual world, the Bible promises us that this method will be effective. If it doesn’t work, it must come from the old self. Below we will talk about the methods to discern the old self.
3. Methods to discern our old self
We first talked about what Isaiah said, “So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” …”(Isaiah 28:13) This is basically a way of writing the Bible. You really need to have faith to read every page of the Bible, knowing that sometimes it is a little bit here and a little bit there!
If there is no opportunity for spiritual discernment or thoughts coming from the old self, is there any practical way to discern? Yes. The New Testament teaches us to know by looking at the results! “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-18) What we are talking about is life, not grafting. A tree has its own life, just like chickens and ducks have different lives. Ducks have a life of swimming, but chickens do not. The method to force the chicken to swim isn’t feasible. If the chicken is placed in the river, it will drown.
There are corresponding words in the Old Testament too, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”(Deuteronomy 18:22) What comes from God will definitely come true! The Old Testament says very clearly, “Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail. All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD.”(1 Samuel 3:19-20) This is indeed the case, because the scripture also says, “He said to him, “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. Now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out.””(1 Samuel 9:6)
Therefore, a person should know that something that doesn’t come true doesn’t come from God for sure. To reflect such points, some people have testified that sometimes things happen in complete agreement with the results of prayer, sometimes in part, and sometimes even in reverse. If this is the case, this person should know that he needs to discern. Don’t just accept it all because he has prayed. One should know that sometimes the results of a prayer is due to the old self who hopes it happens according to what prayed.
It is said in the book of Acts that when they chose a man to replace the betrayer Judas, their condition is stated in the verses, “Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”(Acts 1:21-22) “So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.”(Acts 1:23-26) They prayed, but the Bible does not clearly say whether this prayer was answered, so all people can do is to decide by casting lots. Therefore, Matthias is not like the eleven apostles whom Jesus Himself chose. The twelfth apostle chosen by Jesus Himself was Paul. He chose him in great light after His resurrection, so the book of Revelation says, “And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”(Revelation 21:14)
If we can only tell after the fact like this, isn’t it too late? Not too late. Being able to discern after the fact at least gives people an opportunity to learn how to discern when encountering similar situations in the future, and to know that the words of the Bible should be used as the absolute standard for discernment. And there is a remedy, which is to repent before God, because the Bible says very clearly, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9) So you must repent.
Let’s look at an example of “using the words of the Bible as the absolute standard for discernment,” which is one of my testimony. Once during an online Bible study, a sister happily testified that she said that a brother had seen the face of God. I couldn’t help but ask her, is this brother alive or dead now? She happily replied that he was still alive. I really had to tell her that this was inconsistent with the Bible! Because “…He said, “You (Moses) cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!””(Exodus 33:20) What the person saw was obviously not God. Then she said that since then, this brother has been very enthusiastic. Can’t you tell what a tree is like just by looking at its fruits? Yes, sometimes you have to wait, and Satan’s servants will pretend to be angels of light, but they cannot last long, and they will always show their flaws. This matter is obvious and inconsistent with what the Bible says. You don’t have to wait any longer to find out!
Someone might quote this verse, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”(Deuteronomy 13:1-3) If it is a fake, it will not come true every time, because sometimes it is like a weather forecast which may be accurate in the short term, but it will definitely be wrong in the long term. Sometimes we have to wait before we know for sure whether “…the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”(Deuteronomy 13:3)
Some people may quote this verse, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”(James 1:13-14) Aren’t the above two verses contradictory? Not contradictory. When we look at the beginning of the book of Job, we know what happened (see Job 1:1-2:7). We see that it was God who nodded, and Satan established himself within the scope allowed by God, and tried his best to tempting people does not require God’s personal work, because God knows Satan’s personality very well and knows that he will definitely do this.
We have also seen, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”(Hebrews 2:14-15) As soon as we believed, God “…rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”(Colossians 1:13-14) Therefore, we came out of the world to be in Christ.
However, it doesn’t mean that if one isn’t afraid of death, then it is ok. As the saying goes, a hero says, ‘beheading can only leave a scar as big as a bowl.’ Do you think such a hero would be afraid of death? It only counts if one isn’t afraid of death is for Christ sake and thus to have the determination to be a martyr for the Lord at any time, just like Peter. The scripture says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!””(John 21:18-19) After He said these words, Peter obviously lived well for a while, so Jesus was speaking a prophecy. The point is that even though Peter knew it in advance, he still wanted to serve for the Lord.
We also know that Satan knows that Jesus is detrimental to his kingdom! The scripture says, “Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!””(Mark 3:11) Even unclean spirits know that He is the Son of God, how could Satan don’t know what happened? It’s just that Satan doesn’t know how the plan of salvation will be completed. If he could know in advance, he wouldn’t be a part of Jesus’ crucifixion! On this point, the scriptures are very clear. During the Passover meal, “…when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. …”(John 13:26-27) Some people use this scripture to say that Jesus cooperated with Satan. In fact, this is not the case. During the period before the Passover meal, the scripture says, “And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.”(Luke 22:3) Judas was already prepared to betray Jesus. You can tell from the scriptures that Jesus knew it beforehand, so He just “…said to him, “What you do, do quickly.””(John 13:27) The result was, “…after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; …”(John 13:30) “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.””(John 13:31) Jesus can then fulfill His mission saying what He had to say.
Satan will definitely test anyone who has influence over his kingdom just as he tested Jesus, because “…A slave is not greater than his master. …”(John 15:20) We know that the Bible clearly says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18) Non-Christians will not affect the kingdom of Satan. Even Christians, not everyone will have an influence on the kingdom of Satan. For example, those who are once saved are always saved but are unwilling to embark on the journey to sanctification are merely saved Christians and have no effect on Satan’s kingdom. Jesus also said, “…If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; …”(John 15:20) So Jesus would say, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”(Matthew 10:38-39) We are to be conformed to the image of Jesus (see Romans 8:29). Do you think Satan or his servants will let us go? They will surely tempt such a person!
The scripture says, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses (G145) trained to discern good and evil.”(Hebrews 5:14) This word G145 only appears once, and comes from G143 in this verse, “But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive (G143) it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.”(Luke 9:45) This word G143 only appears once. From these two scriptures, it should mean that after the mind is opened, it can realize some things, which poses a threat to the kingdom of Satan. For example, after the mind is opened, one can truly discern between good and evil. So what is the real good or evil? Let’s take death as an example again. The good and bad in God’s eyes are quite different from the good and bad in the eyes of the world! People usually hope to live a long life, but we see that the apostle James died short-lived because the Bible clearly stated, “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword.”(Acts 12:1-2) But he still has a crown, because when the new city of Jerusalem comes down in the new heaven and new earth, “And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”(Revelation 21:14) It can be seen clearly that God and the world have very different views about death.
Usually, when a person is attacked by the spirit world, sometimes he does not know it, just like Eliphaz the Temanite, and does not realize it at all. Therefore, just because some people think they have not been attacked by evil spirits does not mean that they have never been attacked. So Peter tells us, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”(1 Peter 5:8) And Martin Luther would say, we cannot prevent birds from flying by and their poop falling on our heads, but we can prevent birds from making nests on our heads. In other words, we cannot avoid the sudden attack of evil spirits, but we definitely have enough time to avoid the attack from fermenting. If we let it ferment, it will be our fault. If a Christian has truly not been attacked by Satan or his servants, he should be alert! Because they all think you are not worthy of attack and are already in their kingdom. The scriptures make it clear, “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!” (Mark 3:26)
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
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