Let’s face it: as women, we have a lot of feelings.
Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. God created us as emotional beings, and I believe feelings do have their place. But raise your hand if you’ve ever let your feelings run away with you.
*both hands held high* Yeah, me too. I think that’s part of the reason God put men as the head of the household…but that’s a topic for a different day. In this post, I want to discuss what has become a huge part of some people’s relationship with God: spiritual experiences and encounters.
Many of us know this sensation. Maybe some reading this came to faith at an altar call during a tent revival or moving worship service. Maybe there are those of us who recently attended a retreat and felt a renewed connection with the Lord. If you’ve been a believer for any amount of time, I’m willing to bet you’ve experienced this type of mountaintop experience. And that’s great! Those moments are part of our walk as Christ-followers.
But there are those out there who take the moving of the Spirit a bit too far. There are many movements now that put the main focus on these spiritual encounters; and more often than not, they base these experiences more on emotions rather than Scripture. We need to be able to discern what’s Biblical and what isn’t; more than that, we need to RUN from anyone whose teachings don’t measure up to God’s Word. It’s our job as believers to be on our guard, to put everything under the lense of Scripture to make sure it lines up.
The Authority of Scripture
First, we need to understand that God’s Word has the final say.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may bec omplete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
The Bible was penned by men under the inspiration and instruction of the Holy Spirit. He gave us an actual instruction manual for Christian living. The Bible has a lot to say about the Spirit. And while I don’t pretend to know all the mysteries and intricacies of the movement of the Spirit, there are passages of Scripture to look to for insight.
So when we are going through any experience, we need to pass it under the lense of Scripture to gain the proper perspective. The same is true for spiritual encounters. The Bible says that even Satan himself can disguise himself as an angel of light (cite passage), so we must test every spirit (cite passage). Here are some of the criteria from the Bible to make sure a word from a spirit is actually from God.
1. Pray for Discernment
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
James 1:5 NKJV
This is the most important thing we can do when we’re trying to discern anything, let alone the movement of the Spirit. As we go forward and try to differentiate between Spirit and emotions, we must pray and ask the Lord to show us what is truth. As I stated before, even though we can feel something very strongly, that doesn’t always make it true.
God doesn’t try to hide things from us. That doesn’t mean that He reveals everything to us all at once, but there isnt any secret knowledge that He tries to keep us from knowing. In Ephesians 3, Paul talks about the mystery of our salvation being revealed through the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1, Paul writes about the spirit of wisdom that opens “the eyes of [our] understanding”. That wisdom is ours for the asking. I know I need to be better at taking advantage of that wisdom.
We also need to understand that this spirit of wisdom is NOT like the wisdom of the world–we find this in James 3. Wisdom from above is, above all, loving. It is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy”. When we want to be “wise and serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16), this is the kind of discernment we should seek.
Ephesians 5:15-17 sums it up pretty well.
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Ephesians 5:15-17 NKJV
2. The Gospel
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.
1 John 4:2-3 NKJV
This one may seem obvious: if a spiritual word comes to someone that preaches a different gospel than the one found in the Bible, it is not of God. But it even goes farther than that. Paul writes in Galatians that any spirit, or even any person, who preaches a gospel other than the one we find in Scripture is to be accursed.
So if a divine “revelation”, sensation, or feeling contradicts the gospel, or claims a new gospel, it is not of the Spirit. It may be of some spirit, but not the Holy Spirit—not from God. Paul curses such teachings. If it isn’t all about Jesus, then it isn’t from Him, even if it concerns things that may seem Biblical. Spiritual revelations that focus on angels, self, servitude, etc. are not from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will always testify about Jesus.
That isn’t to say that the Lord doesn’t have spiritual revelations for each of us individually…but it should lead us back to Him and give glory and honor to Him. It should preach that Jesus is God, the Son of God, and came to die for the sins of the world, only to be resurrected on the third day defeating sin and death, that whoever believes in Him might be saved. If it doesn’t do that, we have reason to question if it’s truly from Him. Our enemy’s MO is to steal, kill, and destroy. He will do everything he can to take our focus away from where it truly belongs (cite fix your eyes passage), using any means necessary. We must train ourselves to recognize it, and ask the Lord for wisdom.
3. The Nature of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22 NKJV
As stated before, I do not pretend to know all of the inner workings of the Spirit. He moves in ways we cannot even comprehend. And yet, there are indications in the Bible of how He does move. I believe the Lord included the above passage so that we can discern when His Spirit is moving, and when it’s something else.
There are some practices among certain churches today that are said to be of the Spirit, and yet clearly defy Scripture. For instance, included in the Fruit of the Spirit is self-control. The Spirit is a gentleman. He will never force Himself upon anybody. And even when He does cause someone to stir, it does not leave that person without self-control. That would be against His very nature. Does He empower those who ask Him to? Yes. Can He move in and through believers who call on Him? Yes. But this is an excellent example of passing everything under the lense of Scripture. If there’s a contradiction, there’s a problem.
BONUS: The Gifts of the Spirit
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant…”
1 Corinthians 12:1 NKJV
When speaking about the way the Spirit moves, I would be amiss to omit spiritual gifts from the conversation. I could probably write an entire series of blog posts on spiritual gifts alone–about how some believe the gifts are not for today, and others abuse the phrase “spiritual gifts” to fit their own agenda…but for the sake of this post, I’ll keep it short:
Our God is a God of order. Paul has a lot to say about this in 1 Corinthians 14; in fact, I challenge you to go and read this chapter and allow the Lord to minister to you about the way churches should conduct themselves concerning spiritual gifts.
Whether you believe the spiritual gifts are for this day and age or not, the above truth is undeniable. Even Paul instructs us to go about our services and worship in an orderly manner (1 Corinthians 14:40). The only time I’ve ever read about God causing confusion or chaos is when His wrath is being poured out. So when those things are present in worship services, it should make us question: is this truly God’s blessing? Is this truly from the Spirit?
Yes, I believe the Spirit can inspire us to go off of an itinerary or agenda. But it’s never in a chaotic way…or dare I say, a demonic-like way.
You know who loves chaos? The devil. Our adversary. He loves to confuse Christians. He loves to get us all caught up in trivial things. He loves to get us caught up in the emotion of the moment rather than actually having an actual heart change. He will do anything to try to take our eyes away from Jesus, even if it’s by using things that we would say are “good” things.
So when we witness the spiritual gifts being utilized, it must be in an orderly manner. It must have structure. If there is no structure or order, I would submit that it’s not the Spirit leading, but rather human emotion…or worse, human ambition.
Takeaway
When the Spirit moves, it is powerful. Even in the seemingly small ways He moves, it’s an awesome thing to witness. As believers, it’s amazing to think that the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the grave is dwelling inside of us. It’s amazing that we can be filled afresh and anew with the Spirit by simply asking for it. It’s amazing that He comforts us, that He makes intercession for us, that He guides us–that He reveals the meaning of Scripture to us, that He convicts us, that He seals us—and so much more.
Let us not cheapen the work of the Spirit. Let us not call all emotional experiences “spiritual encounters”. Although it can be (and for us women, mostly is) very emotional when He moves in our hearts and our lives and our midst, we can very easily be swept away by our emotions. Let us instead hold fast to the truth we find in the Bible. Let us take God at His word. By testing every spirit, we will know how to spot false teachers, false spirits, false emotions. We will not be deceived. Anything that does not point to Jesus, is not in accordance with Scripture, and does not honor the very character of God, we know it cannot be of the Spirit.
Last but not least, ladies, let us ask the Spirit for discernment. He promises to give freely to those who ask (cite passage). As homemakers, and as women, it is so important for us to screen everything that comes into our homes, and even our lives.
I hope you’ve been encouraged by this post. It’s been such a pleasure researching and writing about this topic. I’ve learned so much, and I’m glad I was able to share it with you.
With love,
Morgan
