Testing Spirits and Battling the Antichrist’s Influence

Ever wondered how to navigate the spiritual complexities of our modern world? Join me, B.R. Maul, on "Living God's Way in an Ungodly World" as we uncover the secrets of spiritual discernment from 1 John 4:1-6. Learn how the Holy Spirit within born-again Christians serves as both a guide and a protector, helping us to differentiate between divine guidance and deception. You'll also discover the importance of testing every spirit, especially in a time when false prophets and the spirit of the Antichrist are more prevalent than ever. Equip yourself with the wisdom to distinguish the Spirit of God from the spirit of error and ensure you remain anchored to God's Word and His guidance.

Prepare to confront the reality of the Antichrist's influence today and its impact on believers. This episode will challenge you to consider the urgency of choosing God to triumph over sin and evil. Understand the stark contrast between those led by the Holy Spirit and those swayed by worldly influences. We'll also address the struggles faced by believers, including the dangers of worldly pastors and churches that stray from biblical teachings. And for those embarking on their spiritual journey, find out why genuine belief in Jesus Christ is pivotal for salvation and the importance of fellowship with other born-again believers. Tune in to gain profound insights and practical advice for living a spiritually discerning life in an ungodly world.

Chapters

• 0:29 Testing Spirits
• 12:52 The Spirit of Antichrist
• 27:05 Becoming a Child of God

Transcript

B.R.Maul: 0:29

Hello and good day. I am BR Maul and this is Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. We are in the book of 1 John, chapter 4, we begin today and today we'll be talking about spirits. Seems to be a popular topic in our modern society today. Unfortunately, most of it is not biblical. Most of it is based on fables, hollywood and stories told around the campfires late at night. Okay, some of that can be fun. However, in all seriousness, we have to be very careful what spirit is of God and what spirit is of the devil. Now we know from other areas in God's Word that when a person is born again, the Holy Spirit takes resident in that person and seals them. So a born-again person has the Holy Spirit, takes resident in that person and seals them. So a born-again person has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them and guiding them. Now, whether the person is paying attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying, that's a whole other topic, but for this discussion in the book of 1 John, chapter 4, keep that in mind. Now, for those who are not born again, they do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, so they do not have the protection of the Holy Spirit and they do not have the influence of the Holy Spirit, so keep that in mind as I read today's reading. A reminder as well. Before we get started.

B.R.Maul: 2:02

I welcome any comments or questions. If there's anything that you are unsure about that I teach from God's Word, you can contact me. Just go to my website, that is brmaulcom. B-r-m-a-u-l dot com. Just click on the contact page and send me your question with your email and I will get back to you. The purpose of this podcast ministry, beloved, is not just for me to teach and for you to listen, but it's also a way for you to reach out to me. I am happy to answer questions about God's Word any way I can to guide. Whether you're my brother or sister in the faith or somebody who has questions because you want to know more about Jesus Christ the Savior, I'm here for you, so please use that to contact me With. That said, let's go on with our reading for today.

B.R.Maul: 2:59

1, john, chapter 4. I'll be reading 1 through 6. John writes Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of 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 of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore, they speak as of the world and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So what is John saying? Well, let's back up, and I'll break this down for you.

B.R.Maul: 4:17

So back to 4, verse 1, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. So that's interesting. Well, first of all, what are we talking about when he says spirit? We have the natural world that we know very well because our natural bodies live in it. It's the world around us that we can see, that we can touch, but there's also the spiritual world that is also around us, and throughout the whole Bible, it is well known that there is the spiritual world. So there are things going on around us that we cannot hear with our physical body, we cannot see with our eyes, because it is of supernatural, it is not of the natural world. In the supernatural there are angels, a spiritual being. So they are not physical, they are not natural, they are supernatural. And those angels, we know that two-thirds are those that follow God and one-third that had fallen away from God, and so they are doing the bidding of Satan himself.

B.R.Maul: 5:31

And Satan, as we have covered just recently, is the ruler of this world. So do you think that the ruler of this world, who hates God, who hates Jesus and hates anyone who loves God and loves Jesus, do you think that he would intercede and try to mess up things in your life? I would hope so, because Satan loves when people believe that he is fake, that he is nothing more than a Halloween figure. But no, he is real. And so John tells us do not believe every spirit. Spirit is lowercase.

B.R.Maul: 6:09

So not only are we not to believe every spirit, we must be very careful, because the spiritual world can influence us, and we must be aware of that. And for those who are in God's word on a regular basis, who are walking with their Lord on a daily basis, staying connected, well, they are more in tune to God. But those who are in tune with this world most people are not blatantly walking with Satan. Most people would not say, oh yes, I'm a follower of Satan. But if they live like this world, if they love the things of this world, well then we are told that they are indeed following Satan. Because we are either for Jesus. He says, you are either for me or you are against me. There is no in between. We know that the spiritual world influences us. So you may not be sitting down having coffee with a spirit. However, think about this Everybody that we sit down with and have coffee with is influenced by a spirit, and everybody is either influenced by the spirit of this world or the spirit of God.

B.R.Maul: 7:23

So now that we understand that we are not to believe every spirit, we are not to believe every person Just because somebody claims they are a Christian, we are to test the spirits. Because that's what he says Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. He goes on to say whether they are of God, because many false prophets, john says, have gone out into the world. So there are many false prophets, which is, of course, the spirit of the world, and there are those who are intentionally perverting God's word, doing everything possible to mislead people. But there are also those who themselves have been misled. But there are also those who themselves have been misled and due to spiritual laziness not following up, reading God's word for themselves, for example and they are just blindly following somebody which, by the way, be very mindful of that.

B.R.Maul: 8:17

If you call yourself a Christian, beloved, do not base your Christianity on the mere words of another person. For this very reason that John is telling us, because the question is have you tested them? If you are not in God's word, you can't test them. You are unable to test spirits because you don't know how to do it. So you are at the very mercy of the devil himself, and I would hate to be at his mercy because he has none. He will take you for a ride.

B.R.Maul: 8:48

So, with that said, let's find out Verse 2,. By this you know the Spirit of God. That's capital S, so that's the Holy Spirit. So now John is going to tell us how we can know the Spirit of God. He goes on to say "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God". There you have it. That's pretty clear-cut, right. If a spirit confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, so he was born of Mary, born of a virgin, he was born baby Jesus, and when a spirit can confess that, well then that spirit is of God. But every spirit that does not confess that they have not confessed that Jesus Christ is indeed 100% man and 100% God and believe on that, that spirit is not of God.

B.R.Maul: 9:52

There are many cults out there that, first of all, they don't look like a cult. They are churches at the corner of small town, big city, you name it. Some even have an organ playing holy music, sounds like it's regular worship to the Lord. So a cult isn't just a group of people that meet secretly in the basement of some house and are sacrificing animals. There may be some that are that obvious, I don't doubt that. But the cults that we should worry more about, the ones that are disguised. They seem to be with God but they are not and many, many people are caught up in these cults and don't realize it.

B.R.Maul: 10:40

So, moving on, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. So I probably should have read that, because that was a comma and not a period, so the first part of that sentence. So I'll read that just one more time. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that Now this is a capital, a Antichrist there are many lowercase a Antichrists but reading in God's word right now, it is the spirit of the antichrist, satan himself, the devil, and because he rules this world, he has much influence For those who are hearing this message.

B.R.Maul: 11:38

And you are not born again, you don't have the protection of God because you have not been born again. You have not confessed with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you have not repented and admitted that you need a Savior, that you are broken, you have not turned to God and gave yourself to him because of his son, jesus Christ. And you have not yet believed in your heart that God, the Father, raised Jesus from the dead heart, that God, the Father, raised Jesus from the dead bodily, raised him from the dead and that Jesus overcame death and, for all who believe, have wiped out their sins. So, since you haven't done that, you don't have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, because you are not yet a child of God. If you haven't done that, I urge you, do not wait. If you are listening to this podcast, there must be some curiosity, there must be something that you are looking for, that you are seeking. Well, jesus says that those who seek will find. You don't need to continue to seek. You are hearing this message and so you have found him. Open his word and read, if anything, the gospel of John. Start there.

B.R.Maul: 12:52

There are many things happening in this world today that gives us signs that we can see that the Antichrist is indeed here, that his spirit is here. The Antichrist has not been revealed. That won't happen until the beginning of the tribulation. Satan is the Antichrist, and so his spirit is abundant. And just look around you, beloved.

B.R.Maul: 13:17

As this world continues to crumble, as this world continues to fall apart, in our public squares, in our societies around the world, righteousness and goodness is being rewarded with evil. People who are standing for what is right are being jailed, are being killed, are being mocked and ridiculed, they're having their possessions taken. All kinds of things are happening to those who are standing for good and righteousness, because as evil continues to abound, it wants to do everything it can to eradicate good. And the evil things being done in this world are being rewarded for good. You have so many people in power who, because of their greed, their lust for money, they have no problem aborting babies. There are people becoming rich off of doing that and so they're rewarding people to do evil things. They are rewarding people when they cheat and steal. In America we've had protesters do horrible things to people's residents, to their businesses and even to people themselves who their lives have been taken or people injured, and yet people in power in America do not press charges. They reward them for doing evil and they release them, and there are people being paid to do such heinous acts. So we are there in the world and it will continue to only get worse because the spirit of Antichrist continues to flourish for the short time, because soon it will come to an end.

B.R.Maul: 15:04

Verse 4, john says you are of God, and again he is talking to born-again believers. This isn't just everybody in general, john is addressing born-again people. He says you are of God, little children, and have overcome them, that evil, because he who is in you, the Holy Spirit, is greater than he who is in the world. That's Satan, that's Antichrist. So, because we are of God, we have overcome that evil. You don't have to be slave to your sin, beloved, because the Holy Spirit dwells in you and he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

B.R.Maul: 15:49

And yet so many Christians remain slave to their sin. They're born again. They have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They have every chance and possibility to overcome that. Why? Because Jesus has already overcome the world. It's done. That part is finished. So the power that is in you is the same power that split the Red Sea, that raised people from the dead, that made water into wine, that caused the seas to calm down and the wind to obey. That power dwells in us, and so for us to overcome our sins, we only have to use that power, because that power has already overcome and has conquered the sins.

B.R.Maul: 16:43

John goes on and he says he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Who's they? Well, those who are of the spirit of Antichrist, those who are not born again, because, remember, we are one or the other, there is no in between. You may feel like, well, I'm just kind of waiting, I haven't made up my mind yet, but if you are not of the Spirit of God, if you are not born again, your lack of decision-making is already a decision. You are still of the Spirit of Antichrist, because that is what we are born into, beloved.

B.R.Maul: 17:22

I hope this wakes some people up, because by not following God, by not being born again, you have already chosen to stay where you are at. And we are told that we are born enemies of God. We naturally want to be our own God. We naturally want to do our own thing. We don't naturally want to follow God. We don't naturally want to obey God. We naturally want to do our own thing. We don't naturally want to follow God. We don't naturally want to obey God. So because of that, we need to become born again, so we can supernaturally obey God. We can supernaturally want what our Holy Father wants. We can supernaturally be holy, because our God is holy. Does that make sense? And so if you're not born again, you are still naturally against God. You are still naturally of the spirit of Antichrist.

B.R.Maul: 18:20

I hate to spoil that for anybody and for those listening to this message, and you already understand that, but there are others that you know who are struggling with that. Well, someday I'll get around to it, yeah. When I'm good and ready, I'll follow Jesus Forward this message onto them, because they need to hear this, they need to be awakened and they need to be born again so they are not lost. It's so important because everybody has one of two destinations right now, and they're either on their way to heaven or on their way to hell. And those who are on their way to hell still have some time, because if you're not dead, you still have some time to make that choice. And so do it. Don't wait Now.

B.R.Maul: 19:08

John says, therefore, because they are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world and the world hears them. These are pastors and preachers who are of the world. They may be really good guys, they may even have good intentions and mean well, but if they're not born again, you are listening to somebody who is preaching of the world and the world hears them. The world loves that.

B.R.Maul: 19:34

These churches around the globe, especially in America, and it breaks my heart. These churches who are embracing LGBT, these churches that are embracing transgenderism, these churches that are telling people it's okay to get divorced, these people, they go to church because they want to get something out of it. They're not worshiping God, they are worshiping themselves. They are going to these churches so they feel good. And if you're going to a church just to feel good, you're going for the wrong reason, you are not going for God. When we worship God, we are blessed and our soul is alive and feels wonderful. But that's not the reason we go. If I went to church just because I felt like it, most of the time I wouldn't go. If I worshiped the Lord only when I feel like it, well, that would be rare. But I know the consistency because every time I start to worship, oh the blessings. Because that is what we are designed to do is to worship, and everybody is going to worship someone or something.

B.R.Maul: 20:42

But John says in verse 6, we are of God. So they are of the world, those who are not born again. They are not believers of Jesus Christ, but we, he says, are of God. We are God's family, we are brothers and sisters in the faith. He says he who knows God hears us. But he also says he who is not of God does not hear us. And that is so sad, that is so, very sad. So when he says that that we are of God, he who knows God hears us.

B.R.Maul: 21:23

When we hear the truth beloved, when you are hearing somebody teach God's word, when you read God's word, when you talk about God's word, when you pray to the Lord, you know the truth. You hear that truth and you know it's the truth, you know it's real. And the more that you hear the truth, the more you want to, and even need to hear the truth. But think of those who do not want it, people who live in denial. They continue to, they don't want to hear the truth. Why? Because it makes them. Well, look at their false doctrine. People who don't want to hear the truth are often the ones who are caught up in old traditions, in denominations. That's the way we were brought up. We were baptized as a baby. Well, that must mean it's true then. But again, think about it. Who's the one who is lowered over this world, satan? So who do you think is getting a lot of influence out there For those people who are denying the truth.

B.R.Maul: 22:24

When a child of God is telling you, listen, listen to what the Bible says, not me. Listen to what God says here in the Bible. And somebody puts the hand up to their face and says no, no, no, no, no. You go to some church that doesn't even have a denomination affiliation. You go to some church that doesn't even have a denomination affiliation. And just because Lutheranism and Catholicism and other denominations have these great, big, beautiful churches out there, well then they must be right. But that's the spirit of Antichrist, because now it makes it about people and it doesn't make it about Jesus. So now people are going to these churches that are the spirit of antichrist because it makes them feel good. People accept them for who they are. Jesus offended many people, so should his followers.

B.R.Maul: 23:16

We speak the truth because the truth sets people free. We speak the truth because the truth sets people free. The Spirit of God sets people free, frees them from their bondage of their sin, frees them from the bondage of everlasting death. So you can choose to tell people what they want to hear, but know this you are choosing to let them go to hell and, if you're born again, the judgment seat of Christ. When that time comes, we will all answer for those times that we had that we turned away because we didn't feel like it, or that we were afraid or we didn't care.

B.R.Maul: 23:54

There's one more part to verse six. I'll read it all together. He says we are of God. He who knows God hears us. So we hear the truth. They hear the truth, they want to know more. He who is not of God does not hear us. They choose, they don't want to hear.

B.R.Maul: 24:10

And then John ends with this. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So there are the two spirits out there the spirit of Antichrist and the spirit of God. So that war that continues to go on in the supernatural world is all around us. And every time we choose to tune in to stuff of this world, just by the things that we watch and that we listen to, our attitude towards other people or things, what we worship, whether it's our own time, our own money, that is stuff of the Antichrist.

B.R.Maul: 24:47

But when we choose to open God's Word and we read His Word and we give up doing things of this world in order to do that, we make sure that we are walking with our Lord and God every day, because we make him the priority of our life, before anything or anyone else. When we have the love of our brothers and sisters in the faith in our hearts, we have the love of the Father. When we pray and ask for help because we so want to overcome our old habits of this world and we want to love other people, we want to help other people out and we don't want to live the life of the world swearing and cussing, cheating, puffing up our pride, trying to look better than the next person, trying to act better than the next person, trying to get more money than the next person. Everything to lift ourself up, because that's Satan going. Yes, do that. Do that because that is good.

B.R.Maul: 25:43

And every time you ask to break away from that and you turn to God, you're turning away from the spirit of Antichrist and embracing the spirit of God. So I'm almost out of time for today. I encourage you if you have not made the decision to follow Jesus Christ, do it now. Don't wait. I'll even lead you in a prayer. There is no magic words, but try this.

B.R.Maul: 26:08

Heavenly Father, I turn away from my sins because I know that I am broken. I know I am of the spirit of Antichrist and at this moment I turn to you. Forgive me for not believing in you, forgive me for my selfishness. And I believe in your son, that he died for me on the cross and that his righteous blood washes my sins away, and that he died for me and that he was buried and on the third day he rose again in bodily form and he overcame death and he overcame my sins. And from this moment on, god, I am your child. Teach me and lead me. In the name of Jesus, I pray Amen.

B.R.Maul: 27:05

If you have prayed that prayer and let me also add, if you believed in the prayer, welcome to the family of God, because it's not the prayer that saves, it is your belief in Jesus Christ that saves. Jesus Christ that saves. And if you are now a child of God, go to my website, brmaulcom, click on contact and let me know that you are born again. I'd love to send you some information, love, to guide you in any way that I can and help you get connected with family members of God. So, even in this world that may be dark in and of itself, remember we are the light, with the love that we have for others and the love that we have for one another. People see that you are a child of God. People see and they know that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ and being born again. It isn't the end, it's only the beginning. So we need to make sure that you get connected with other born-again believers. And until next time, god bless.