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.  First 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.