1 Dear friends, 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. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.REFLECTIONSWritten by Tim MitryAs Christians we are to be discerning. Just as God loves truth and hates lies, we should also love truth and hate lies. But unlike God we are not all-knowing, and we must test things to be true or not. In this passage Paul cautions us to test ‘the spirits’ – prophets, gurus, religious teachers, strange children who claim to have received a new revelation from God… Some of their claims might sound very convincing, or even hard to dispute because they say God himself was the one who enlightened them. How are we to discern the truth? Paul says we can test the spirits, and he provides a short summary of doctrine that we can use as the litmus: They must acknowledge that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, entered the creation in human flesh, and fulfilled his work on Earth in dying on the cross (and then rising from the dead).If a teacher or teachings cannot agree and be consistent with this, then don’t let their teachings have any bearing on your life, throw their teachings out the window. Pray to God that we will remind ourselves of the truth about Jesus regularly.  Pray that we will feel secure in the truth God has given us.  Pray that God will rescue those who have been lost to false prophets.ABOUT THE AUTHORTim is a member of our Fairfield Evening Service.