Dear friends, don't believe everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God. Test them all to find out if they really do come from God. Many false prophets have already gone out into the world, and you can know which ones come from God. His Spirit says that Jesus Christ had a truly human body. But when someone doesn't say this about Jesus, you know this person has a spirit that doesn't come from God and is the enemy of Christ. You knew this enemy was coming into the world and now is already here.
Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God's Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one who is in the world. These enemies belong to this world, and the world listens to them, because they speak its language. We belong to God, and everyone who knows God will listen to us. But the people who don't know God won't listen to us. This is how we can tell the Spirit that speaks the truth from the one that tells lies.
1 John 4:1-6
Have you ever tried to talk to someone who doesn't understand your language? You probably start by using gestures and objects to define individual words. You may be able to communicate that you are hungry or thirsty, but to have an in depth dialogue is virtually impossible if they don't know your language.
The world does not understand the language of the Spirit of God. When they hear a Christian talk about Jesus Christ and the ways of God it all seems like meaningless sounds.
Some Christians think that evangelism happens when they teach the language of the Spirit to non-believers. In doing that people without faith learn doctrines and concepts that do not apply to their lives because they have never decided to let Jesus be their Lord!
Don't spend your life teaching spiritual words to non-spiritual people. Just as people at the time of the Tower of Babel learned a new language in an instant, God will give the language of the Spirit to those who turn their hearts to Him! Suddenly, they will read the Bible and be able to understand things that made no sense before!
"Lord Jesus, increase the size of my spiritual vocabulary today! Help me to understand more of You and the things of God by listening to Your Words. Thank You for teaching me the language of the Spirit. And may You be praised forever! Amen."
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