1 John 4:1 tells us how to know if we are sensing, seeing or hearing a counterfeit, false prophet or ungodly spirit in someone who is interacting with us. "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."
In a previous devotional, I spoke about the importance of boundaries and trust. Understanding and applying these scriptures can help us to rest assured about recognizing wisdom and its counterfeit. We know, the father of lies twists the truth anyway he can to establish confusion and doubt within us. He is hoping to throw us off the path of knowing what is true and right and real and of the one and only God. He is hoping to deliver a wounding word before we can even recognize the spirit with which someone approaches and speaks to us.
Therefore, it is good to develop the gift of discerning the truth. For those of us raised in unhealthy environments where the truth was frequently "bent," it may be difficult to learn and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us. However, that is the only way we will begin to know what we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, because the Holy Spirit is speaking within us. That is how we can verify that someone approaches us in an ungodly manner and with ungodly wisdom.
It is so easy to be caught off guard, if we have not put on our Godly armor for the day. We will talk more about that in a following devotional. For now, let us be so very thankful that we have a loving God. El Roi, God who sees us, knows what we need to learn and sometimes allows the devil to be our teacher. If that happens, it is important to remember that God uses for good what satan meant to be for evil in our lives. These may be hard lessons, but it will be more difficult in the future for such an ungodly and unwise spirit to approach us without our knowing it.
