DO NOT BELIEVE EVERY SPIRIT

By Alois Eggmann

 

Look around you and see how many people speak of not knowing WHAT or even WHO to believe. It has become more difficult to know the truth about anything with everything that is happening. The reason this is significant in terms of Bible prophecy is because we are told that this will happen in the end times. The apostle Paul writes in his letter to Timothy through the Spirit:

1 Timothy 4:1
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

This is what will characterize the last days, the time of the end. In his second letter to Timothy, he says:

2 Timothy 4:1
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

And here's the reason why.

2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

What are two signs of the time of the end? Christians will they fall away from the faith and listen to the teachings of demons, and they will also not endure the sound teaching.

1 John 4:1-6
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

In the last days, in the end times, at the time of the end, those who listen to the teachings of demons will fall away from the faith. And in doing so, they will not endure sound doctrine. They will follow after teachers who tell them what they want to hear, and say things that scratch their itching ears. They listen to them because they have no ears to hear what the Spirit of the church is saying today.

Who are these false prophets and teachers? They are of the world, and they speak from the world's point of view. This is the spirit of the antichrist.

Daniel 8:24-25
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

The teachings of demons are not compatible with sound doctrine. This agrees with what the apostle Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica about the Antichrist:

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The lawless one will come in the same manner as Satan. He will use all kinds of demonstrations of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all kinds of wickedness that will deceive those who perish. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and be saved. Therefore, God sends them a mighty deception, so that they believe the lie, and so that all are condemned who did not believe the truth, but delighted in wickedness.

1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

The level of confusion and deception today is unparalleled. Would you agree with that? But maybe this is actually a good thing, even a godly thing. And let me explain why I think this.

Think of all the confusing and contradictory reports about Russia and Ukraine. You don't know what to believe anymore. Not only are there conflicting news reports, but there are conflicting commentaries in terms of Bible prophecy. Who or what should we believe? None of us really know, but we do know this. We should believe the Word of God.

In Isaiah we have a prophecy against Damascus.

Isaiah 17:1
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

In other words, no matter what is happening in that part of the world right now, it is working toward another prophecy that we know will be fulfilled.

There is much speculation and teaching about Ezekiel 38. Listen to this:

Ezekiel 38:1-9
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

Gog is the leader of this League of Nations, and God Himself puts a hook in this Gog's jaw to steer him around and get him to invade Israel with his great horde, this League of Nations. Verse 10 tells us that a deceitful thought enters his mind and he hatches an evil plan when this happens.

Ezekiel 38:10
Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:

We can know this because this is what God says about it. That is the truth. There is something else we can know. At the end of Ezekiel 38, we are told that God will bring swift and decisive judgment on Gog and his army that will bring unspeakable destruction, and it will be sudden. And why does He do this? He does it so that the many nations will know that He is the Lord.

Ezekiel 38:23
Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

When we don't know, let's turn to what we CAN know. Do you know what else we can know? Not only THAT sudden destruction is coming, we know WHEN sudden destruction is coming.

1 Thessalonians 5:3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

So when they say these two very words - peace and safety - sudden destruction comes. They will not escape. We will, we will escape. We know that from God's Word.

Now, do they say peace and safety?

There are two things in particular that I would like to point out regarding the emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly that was held on Monday, February 28, 2022, on Ukraine.

The first is that since 1950, 72 years ago, only ten special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened. And when they do convene, it is because of the finding of Resolution 377A, known as "United for Peace."

The text gives the U.N. General Assembly the authority to address matters of international "peace and security" when the Security Council is unable to act due to a lack of unanimity among its five permanent members, who can veto. And that was the case in this emergency meeting.

The second interesting observation is that the two exact words ''peace and security'' were said no less than eight times at this emergency meeting on Ukraine. But many times they said the word "peace", "security", "stability", "protection", also: "peace and stability" or "peace and international security".

By the way, in the original language in the Greek NT in 1 Thess 5:3 the word translated "safety" is asphaleia meaning "firmness, stability, certainty, unquestionable truth, protection from enemies and dangers, SECURITY." So the apostle Paul says through the Holy Spirit that one can know when this sudden destruction is coming when they say two specific words, "Peace and safety." Now they are saying, "Peace and safety," so we know what is coming: sudden destruction.

Now, let's turn to the expert of experts, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. The truth, and that the only thing that really matters is what God says about it. As the apostle John writes:

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

They are of the world and therefore speak from the world's point of view. But God, as only He can and as He is always faithful, brings much needed clarity, and this is the test: do they profess Jesus and point me to Jesus, or do they parrot the world and take sides? Have they pointed me to Jesus or are they trying to sell me survival gear? They talk and talk and then you get to the end and Jesus is not there. The "expert" wants you to go to him every time, but the Lord in Heaven says, Hello! What about Me? Follow Me. Subscribe to Me.

Joshua 5:13-14a
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
14 And he said, Nay...

What did Joshua ask? Whose side are you on? Are you left or right? Red or blue, conservative or liberal? Is it Russia or Ukraine? Whose side are you on? What was the Lord's answer? He said, "No." But wait, that's not what I asked. No? What do you mean, no? In other words, no, Joshua, that's the wrong question to ask. The question is not whose side am I on? The question is, whose side are YOU on? Are you on my side?

I wish we would not ask the Lord, "Whose side are you on?" but instead, "What does my Lord say to his servant?"

Joshua 5:14
14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
15 And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

Have you noticed that the volume of disagreeing voices taking sides against each other seems to get louder and louder with each passing day? Could it be because of this that we no longer hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit? They are too loud, drowning out the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. God grant that we block out the voices of the world so that we can hear what the Spirit of the church is saying. What does the Spirit of the church say? That Jesus loves the Russians and Ukrainians. That he died for them and that he doesn't want any of them to be lost, but that they all have eternal life. But we can't hear that because the voices of the world are too loud. And when the Lord speaks, He speaks with that still small voice.

And He will not compete with the noise and shout. So in order to hear Him and hear His voice, we have to shut out all other voices.

I simply want to get to the point here and speak from the heart. You'll be pleased to hear that I won't beat around the bush for long. So this is the moment for you to let out a collective sigh of relief. It behooves me, however, to draw your attention to what I believe is the most serious and dangerous aspect of all this. I am talking about the division and discord.

So now you have - whose side are you on? Russia/Ukraine, vaccinated/non-vaccinated. And Jesus said a house divided cannot stand. So if a house divided cannot stand, isn't it just a matter of time before it collapses?

This is straight from the strategy book of Satan himself. He tries to steal, strangle and kill (John 10:10), and the devil has had some success in getting us to distance ourselves from each other, and thus also to distance ourselves from the Lord. Satan is always trying to move us away from the Lord. Remember the test of truth - does it bring me closer to Jesus or does it move me away from Jesus?

There is so much division. Why? Now it is all about "us" versus "them". It's about whose side you're on. It's almost as if Satan just sits back and say, Thank you very much; you're doing my work for me. Instead of me, its YOU who are devouring each other, you are the ones destroying each other.

I think you can boil it down to this one simple truth. And that simple truth is, at the end of the day, am I closer to Jesus? And at the end of the day, have I brought someone else closer to Jesus? That's all that matters. I would humbly suggest that all of us, move away from this world that is not our home and move closer to the Lord. That is the bottom line.

If we just don't know WHAT to believe anymore, we can know WHO to believe all the more. Jesus. That is all that matters in the end. Either I am saved or I am lost.

That is all that matters. My political convictions don't matter. Nothing is important. The only thing that matters is: Am I saved or am I lost? And this decision depends solely on the person of Jesus Christ. If all that is happening here is the fulfillment of what we are told will happen in Bible prophecy. Soon, very soon, we will see the Lord. That should have the effect on us to fall on our faces like Joshua. My Lord, what will You speak to me, Your servant?

Make no mistake about what is happening right now. Russia/Ukraine, geopolitically, China/Taiwan, this is really serious. And it certainly has a potential to ultimately fulfill those prophecies that we have in the Bible.

I would like to tell you a story:

Once upon a time there was a father and a son, and it was in those old days when they had to ride their donkey into town to get supplies. On that day, the father said to his son, "Listen, why don't you ride on the donkey, I'll walk. And they come into town and are criticized by the townspeople. Look at this young man. Shame on him. He is young and strong, and he lets his father go while he rides on the donkey.

The next time they go into town, the father says, "Okay, son, I'll ride the donkey, you go on foot. So they get to the town, and sure enough, there are the townspeople. Shame on this father, this slave driver father. He rides the donkey and lets his son walk.

Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're both going to ride on the donkey. And sure enough, they go into town to get supplies; they both ride on the donkey. And what do the people in town say about that? They both ride on the donkey. The poor donkey! They're going to break his back.

I know what we are going to do. Here is the solution. Neither of us will ride the donkey. So they both go to town with their donkey. What do the townspeople say? Look at these stupid idiots. They have a donkey and they don't ride it.

Have you understood the moral of the story? That's us! Everyone has an opinion and a criticism. We have these critical minds. We are so quick and also so good at it.

The bottom line is that the one who is about to come will save you from what is about to come over the whole world during the seven-year tribulation. That's the bottom line, you don't know WHAT to believe? Well, you can know WHO to believe. His name is Jesus, and that is why we end with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

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This message was taken and revised from: Bible Prophecy Update - March 6, 2022 - By J.D. Farag - I Don’t Know What to Believe Anymore

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Presented in Siselen, Switzerland on 28 March 2022. Translated from German.