1 John 4:1-6

1 John 4:1-6 English Standard Version (ESV)
Test the Spirits
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

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Again, the early Church is warned about false teachers and false prophets, but John this time focuses on the origins of those teachings.....the work of spirits that are not from God (demons and even the souls of unsaved men).  There is only one Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity.  Therefore it is impossible for someone to "have a message from God" and have a different message than God has already given, because God is the I AM--the every-present, never-changing God.  Everything He is, He always has been and always will be, and He always has been and always will be everything we ever need.  He cannot contradict Himself and therefore, we should be able to test the spirits, by seeing if they are consistent about what we know about the Holy Spirit.

John 16:12-15 English Standard Version (ESV)
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

We see from John 16:12-15 that the purpose of the Spirit is to reveal the words of Christ which were originally the words of the Father, to guide those who belong to the Son in all truth, to declare to us the things that are to come, and to, in all things glorify the Son.  The Holy Spirit though part of the Trinity and co-equal with the Father and the Son does not glorify Himself.  This is one major way we know the work of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the work of man and the devil.

Every spirit which does not glorify Jesus the Son is not of God and is therefore in the spirit of the antichrist(against Christ).  We do not need to fear the spirits that are at work in the world because Jesus has already conquered them and has made us "more than conquerors."  (See Romans 8:31-39).  Remember that Jesus taught that "by your fruits, you will know them" when He taught about false prophets.  John is saying the same thing here, but he's saying that there are specific litmus tests you can use.  Do they glorify the Son?  Do they speak from a worldly perspective?  Does the world love them and listen to them? Do they listen to sound, biblical teaching?  As part of that, where do they get their source material?

By this we can determine truth from error and are responsible to do so.  Isn't it great that we serve a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, and we don't need to wonder if He is always evolving and changing His mind from day to day?  If we served such a God, maybe He would even be able to change His mind about choosing us from before the foundations of the world, but we can be secure in His choice and His plan that brings Him glory because our salvation and our victory through Jesus is not based on a God whose opinion changes like the weather.  We can be sure that His character, His nature, and His Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever.