Confessing Spirits

Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:3)

I am still exploring various facets of what it means and how to go about testing every spirit. John says just previous to this that we will know that God abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us. Then immediately we are told to not believe every spirit but to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Right after that John gives criteria by which we can discern the difference between spirits and determine what comes from God. This has to do with the attitude that a spirit displays toward Jesus.

One of the words in this text grabbed my attention this morning, the word confess. Again, this is one of those religious terms that has over time become confused, misused and too often abused. As with much in religion it has tended to move away from what is going on deep inside at the heart level to describe more of an external, artificial kind of profession. Given the way we think, particularly in Western societies, it is easy to assume that if we just say some words and sound rather convincing that we have fulfilled a requirement for confession.

Many of us were raised to practice just such an artificial way of confessing which trained us from a very early age to become good hypocrites. You might remember as a child being sternly instructed to tell someone you were sorry for something you did or said that hurt them. Never mind whether you actually felt any genuine sorrow or not, the strong implication by the one demanding an apology from you was that if you didn't comply there would be serious and possibly very painful imposed consequences if you did not 'confess' immediately. But unfortunately this kind of forced confession only tends to drive us deeper into confusion about the true nature of the original meaning of this word.

When I looked up this word in the Greek I was surprised to discover that it includes the aspect of giving thanks as well as having covenant implications. While it clearly does involve the act of assent and acknowledgement, it also involves promise. With all of these aspects included in this one word it takes on significantly more meaning than simply to utter a few words to satisfy the demands of some authority figure. It involves verbalizing externally what is really felt at a much deeper level of the soul.

Maybe I am seeing yet another hint about how to discern or test different spirits. John says here that many false prophets have gone out into the world. The fact that they are false parallels the idea of a surface confession only, which in the context of the true meaning of the word is not really confession but simply a profession. One way to unmask the false in contrast with the true Spirit that comes from God is to look for authenticity as well as similarity to the pure honesty that was seen in Jesus and will always be seen in any spirit in harmony with God.

Another verse that came to my attention while meditating on this passage was one that has been very helpful for me when it comes to discerning between spirits.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15)

As I looked over a number of other versions of this verse I found some very encouraging renditions that bring out different nuances that can resonate with my heart more clearly.

You didn't receive His Breath to make you slaves to fear again, for when you received it, it adopted you as His sons so by this Breath we can call out, 'Papa! Father!' (2001)

God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father. (CEV)

The Spirit that we received is not a spirit that makes us slaves again and causes us to fear. The Spirit that we have makes us God's chosen children. And with that Spirit we cry out, "Abba, Father." (ERV)

For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, "Father! my Father!" (GNB)

What was given to you was not a spirit of slavery to terrify you again—what you received was the spirit of adoption into God’s family, so we can shout out, “God is our Father!” (WIKI)

You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being—a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons—a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "Abba! our Father!" (WNT)

From what I can see from these clear criteria in the Word, if someone comes along with an agenda of trying to make me afraid of God, it really doesn't matter how much they talk about Jesus or quote Bible verses, there is something false about their message and I can discern that their spirit cannot be trusted. A spirit of fear is not in harmony with the Spirit of Jesus. He did not go around trying to make people afraid of God but quite the opposite – He sought to reveal that God can be fully trusted and that it is our fears of Him that are the whole problem to start with, not any hangups or threats on the part of God.

The spirit of antichrist is always seeking to insinuate false beliefs about how God feels about us. There are so many of these false ideas mingled into many of our teachings and our assumptions about God that they constitute an enormous barrier preventing us from trusting Him with the confidence of a little child in a loving father. The true Spirit of God will always lead us toward relieving us of our fears, never seeking to amplify them. Only as we become relieved of our fears about God can we truly begin to enter into His rest and know what it means to joyfully abide in Him and He in us.

Love and fear are incompatible with each other. John makes this explicitly clear in verse 18. The Spirit that draws us into peace with God is free of all fear of the nature that the world experiences. The kind of fear that is not negative that is mentioned in many English Bibles is not this spirit of fear but rather an overwhelming awe, respect and wonder as we increasingly comprehend and appreciate the enormity and beauty and loving power of our great God. But in my opinion this should not even be associated with the word fear for it is too misleading.

As I confess in the way I am seeing this word to mean now, I will be expressing increasing gratitude and wonder as I see the glorious nature of how good God really is and how attracted I am feeling towards Him because of His revelation in Jesus. Counterfeit spirits, false spirits, deceiving spirits all tend to induce fear and try to make me pull away from God by any means possible. It may be through shame or terror or even by pride and a sense of self-sufficiency. But only God's Spirit will speak the full truth about Him and will always operate in complete agape love.

Papa, I want to learn better how to honestly confess the truth about You that I am learning as I meditate on what Jesus is like. Fill my mouth with gratitude, praise and joy as I come to let go of my fears and the many lies about You that still stymie my worship for You. Thank-you so much for continuously revealing more and more of Your beauty in Your Word. Let Your glorious light become more brilliant in my life, my family, my church and my community – for Your reputation's sake.