Scriptural Guidance: Believers May Test Themselves

    By A. W. Tozer

   Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
    whether they are of God: because many false prophets
    are gone out into the world.                 -  -  1 John 4:1

        The seeker after God's best things is always eager to
    hear from anyone who offers a way by which he can
    obtain them.  He longs for some new experience, some
    elevated view of truth, some operation of the Spirit that
    will raise him above the dead level of religious
    mediocrity he sees all around him.

        These are the times that try men's souls.  Our Lord has
    made it plain not only that there shall be false spirits
    abroad, endangering our Christian lives, but that they
    may be identified and known for what they are!  I have
    met Christians who have been led into emotional
    experiences that were beyond their power to
    comprehend, and they have inquired eagerly whether
    or not their experience was of God.

        The first test must be: "What has this done to my
    relationship with and my attitude toward the Lord Jesus
    Christ?"  Do I love God more?  Is Jesus Christ still to me,
    the center of all true doctrine?  Do I still agree that
    anything that makes Him less than God has declared
    Him to be --- must be rejected?

        Again: "How does it affect my attitude toward the
    Holy Scriptures?"  Did this new view of truth spring out
    of the Word of God itself, or was it the result of some
    stimulus that lay outside the Bible?

     Be assured, that anything that comes to us from the
    God of the Word, will deepen our love for the Word of
    God!
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    Yours in Christ,
    Paul N. F.