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A.W. Tozer, clarity, confusion, deception, delusion, demons, discerning the spirits, God, Jesus Christ, love, method, mystical experiences, Satan, sin, test, the Bible, The World
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13-14 ESV) – Photo by Susanne Schuberth
If we are insecure about how to discern the spirits in certain cases, A.W. Tozer offers a very helpful method to try any new experience, doctrine, or religious movement regarding their effects on our relationship with (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Bible, (4) our (old) self, (5) other believers who are indwelt by Christ’s Spirit, (6) the world and its desires, and as to (7) sin. Tozer wrote an elaborate article of which I pasted excerpts, but the text is lengthy, still. The numbering slightly differs from the original due to those aforementioned text omissions. If you want to read more, please, follow the link at the bottom. This treatise is well worth reading, I believe. I also think we can use this method in order to judge the origin of our thoughts, our (day)dreams and visions, even everyday occurrences and their effect on us. May God help us sharpen our discerners with what Tozer, who in my opinion had been inspired by God, wrote about.
“It is my intention to set forth here a method by which we may test the spirits and prove all things religious and moral that come to us or are brought or offered to us by anyone. And while dealing with these matters, we should keep in mind that not all religious vagaries are the work of Satan. The human mind is capable of plenty of mischief without any help from the devil. Some persons have a positive genius for getting confused, and will mistake illusion for reality in broad daylight with the Bible open before them.
[…]
Briefly stated the test is this: This new doctrine, this new religious habit, this new view of truth, this new spiritual experience how has it affected my attitude toward and my relation to God, Christ, the Holy Scriptures, self, other Christians, the world and sin. By this sevenfold test we may prove everything religious and know beyond a doubt whether it is of God or not. By the fruit of the tree we know the kind of tree it is. So we have but to ask about any doctrine or experience, What is this doing to me? and we know immediately whether it is from above or from below.
(1) The heart of man is like a musical instrument and may be played upon by the Holy Spirit, by an evil spirit or by the spirit of man himself. Religious emotions are very much the same, no matter who the player may be. Many enjoyable feelings may be aroused within the soul by low or even idolatrous worship. The nun who kneels “breathless with adoration” before an image of the Virgin is having a genuine religious experience. She feels love, awe and reverence, all enjoyable emotions, as certainly as if she were adoring God. The mystical experiences of Hindus and Sufis cannot be brushed aside as mere pretense. Neither dare we dismiss the high religious flights of spiritists and other occultists as imagination. These may have and sometimes do have genuine encounters with something or someone beyond themselves. In the same manner Christians are sometimes led into emotional experiences that are beyond their power to comprehend. I have met such and they have inquired eagerly whether or not their experience was of God.
The big test is, What has this done to my relationship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? If this new view of truth-this new encounter with spiritual things-has made me love God more, if it has magnified Him in my eyes, if it has purified my concept of His being and caused Him to appear more wonderful than before, then I may conclude that I have not wandered astray into the pleasant but dangerous and forbidden paths of error.
(2) Christless Christianity sounds contradictory but it exists as a real phenomenon in our day. Much that is being done in Christ’s name is false to Christ in that it is conceived by the flesh, incorporates fleshly methods, and seeks fleshly ends. Christ is mentioned from time to time in the same way and for the same reason that a self-seeking politician mentions Lincoln and the flag, to provide a sacred front for carnal activities and to deceive the simplehearted listeners. This giveaway is that Christ is not central: He is not all and in all.
Again, there are psychic experiences that thrill the seeker and lead him to believe that he has indeed met the Lord and been carried to the third heaven; but the true nature of the phenomenon is discovered later when the face of Christ begins to fade from the victim’s consciousness and he comes to depend more and more upon emotional jags as a proof of his spirituality.
If on the other hand the new experience tends to make Christ indispensable, if it takes our interest off our feeling and places it in Christ, we are on the right track. Whatever makes Christ dear to us is pretty sure to be from God.
(3) Another revealing test of the soundness of religious experience is, How does it affect my attitude toward the Holy Scriptures? Did this new experience, this new view of truth, spring out of the Word of God itself or was it the result of some stimulus that lay outside the Bible? Tender-hearted Christians often become victims of strong psychological pressure applied intentionally or innocently by someone’s personal testimony, or by a colorful story told by a fervent preacher who may speak with prophetic finality but who has not checked his story with the facts nor tested the soundness of his conclusions by the Word of God.
Whatever originates outside the Scriptures should for that very reason be suspect until it can be shown to be in accord with them. If it should be found to be contrary to the Word of revealed truth, no true Christian will accept it as being from God. However high the emotional content, no experience can be proved to be genuine unless we can find chapter and verse authority for it in the Scriptures. “To the word and to the testimony” must always be the last and final proof.
[…]
Whatever is new or singular should also be viewed with a lot of caution until it can furnish scriptural proof of its validity. Over the last half-century quite a number of unscriptural notions have gained acceptance among Christians by claiming that they were among the truths that were to be revealed in the last days. To be sure, say the advocates of this latter-daylight theory, Augustine did not know, Luther did not, John Knox, Wesley, Finney and Spurgeon did not understand this; but greater light has now shined upon God’s people and we of these last days have the advantage of fuller revelation. We should not question the new doctrine nor draw back from this advanced experience. The Lord is getting His Bride ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. We should all yield to this new movement of the Spirit. So they tell us.
The truth is that the Bible does not teach that there will be new light and advanced spiritual experiences in the latter days; it teaches the exact opposite. Nothing in Daniel or the New Testament epistles can be tortured into advocating the idea that we of the end of the Christian era shall enjoy light that was not known at its beginning. Beware of any man who claims to be wiser than the apostles or holier than the martyrs of the Early Church. The best way to deal with him is to rise and leave his presence. You cannot help him and he surely cannot help you.
(4) The Holy Spirit and the fallen human self are diametrically opposed to each other. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal. 5:17). “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit . . . . Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom. 8: 5,7).
Before the Spirit of God can work creatively in our hearts He must condemn and slay the “flesh” within us; that is, He must have our full consent to displace our natural self with the Person of Christ. This displacement is carefully explained in Romans 6, 7, and 8. When the seeking Christian has gone through the crucifying experience described in chapters 6 and 7 he enters into the broad, free regions of chapter 8. There self is dethroned and Christ is enthroned forever.
In the light of this it is not hard to see why the Christian’s attitude toward self is such an excellent test of the validity of his religious experiences. Most of the great masters of the deeper life, such as Fenelon, Molinos, John of the Cross, Madame Guyon and a host of others, have warned against pseudoreligious experiences that provide much carnal enjoyment but feel the flesh and puff up the heart with self-love.
(5) The Apostle John makes love for our fellow Christians to be a test of true faith. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him” (I John 3:18, 19). Again he says, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (I John 4:7, 8).
As we grow in grace we grow in love toward all God’s people. “Every one that loveth him that begot loveth him also that is begotten of him” (I John 5:1) . This means simply that if we love God, we will love His children. All true Christian experience will deepen our love for other Christians.
Therefore we conclude that whatever tends to separate us in person or in heart from our fellow Christians is not of God, but is of the flesh or of the devil. And conversely, whatever causes us to love the children of God is likely to be of God. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).
(6) This is the world by which we may test the spirits. It is the world of carnal enjoyments, of godless pleasures, of the pursuit of earthly riches and reputation and sinful happiness. It carries on without Christ, following the counsel of the ungodly and being animated by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2). Its religion is a form of godliness, without power, which has a name to live but is dead. It is, in short, unregenerate human society romping on its way to hell, the exact opposite of the true Church of God, which is a society of regenerate souls going soberly but joyfully on their way to heaven.
Any real work of God in our heart will tend to unfit us for the world’s fellowship. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15). “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (II Cor. 6:14). It may be stated unequivocally that any spirit that permits compromise with the world is a false spirit. Any religious movement that imitates the world in any of its manifestations is false to the cross of Christ and on the side of the devil and this regardless of how much purring its leaders may do about “accepting Christ” or “letting God run your business.”
(7) The operations of grace within the heart of a believing man will turn that heart away from sin and toward holiness. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:11-13) .
I do not see how it could be plainer. The same grace that saves teaches that saved man inwardly, and its teaching is both negative and positive. Negatively it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Positively it teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly right in this present world.
The man of honest heart will find no difficulty here. He has but to check his own bent to discover whether he is concerned about sin in his life more or less since the supposed work of grace was done. Anything that weakens his hatred of sin may be identified immediately as false to the Scriptures, to the Saviour and to his own soul. Whatever makes holiness more attractive and sin more intolerable may be accepted as genuine. “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psa. 5:4,5).”
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/tozer/5j00.0010/5j00.0010.29.htm
Entering the Promised Land 
Great post.
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Thank you very much, Tammi.
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Thank you for sharing this writing by Tozer, Susanne. As I read it, it was easy to see where Christian cults and false “moves of the Spirit” have ignored these warnings at their own peril. Truly, “the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know it?”
All I can do is to pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps 139:23-24, ESV2011)
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You’re very welcome, Michael. We both know how easy it is to fall prey to such false movements when we submit to man’s leading rather than to Christ’s, right? Sometimes we need to learn it the hard way, it seems… Also, we never outgrow learning from our divine Teacher, I assume.
Amen to your prayer, my brother!
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Yes we do Susanne. They say experience is the best teacher. Sometimes I think that experience is the only teacher. There is hope for “the righteous man falls seven times but the Lord to lift him up.”
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I wholeheartedly agree with you, my brother. I too believe experience must be the only teacher. If I just think about writings from people who do not write from their own experiences… this has always been a difficult read for me because it is not ‘alive’, neither in their spirit nor in mine. But if someone shares openly and honestly their painful or beautiful experiences, I can easily identify with them and thus a connection between the writer and the reader (aka me) has been made. 😉
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Me too actually Michael.. I have been feeling some negative emotions in me as of late and know without a shadow of doubt that these things must be removed but know that I cannot do it alone.
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Stacey, I think that when God shows us things He wants to remove in us that He waits until being rid of them is more important to us than the “perks” we get from nurturing them… things like anger, lust, laziness, pride, etc.
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Alas, you are right, Michael. But oh, how difficult it is to finally realize that there is NOTHING which is good in our old nature and to cry out to God for being clothed in Jesus’ righteousness!
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Agreed. I would hate to be a complete hermit like John the baptist. LOL I have so much love to offer but it is not very well accepted and when I see this I tend to run. Forgive me. Almost sounds like self pity and I try not to be that way. I am not giving up thou. No way! No how! God is my number one more than all others at least I try.
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I found this an extremely helpful post, Susanne. Of course, I could say that about all your posts! 🙂
Tozer lays out clear guidelines by which the new experience/person/practice/belief can be tested. These confirm for me what I at times felt, but could never manage to articulate.
If our Christian brothers and sisters had only had Tozer’s guidelines available, had only lived by them! Think of the religious persecution by one Christian sect of another over the centuries, the Christians martyred by fellow Christians. Think of the self-righteousness by certain Christians toward the “sinners”, supposedly so far beneath them. Think of the false messiahs — the Jim Joneses and L. Ron Hubbards — who have misled tens of thousands. Think of the lure of drugs, and the countless lives destroyed. Think of the appeal of esoteric Eastern religions.
All this could have been avoided or greatly diminished. How our witness might have been strengthened!
And, on a personal level, how many detours and painful errors might we have avoided? How many dangers side-stepped? It breaks the heart.
You are always a resource, Susanne!
Much love,
A. ❤
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Oh wow!! Your first two sentences made my day, dear Anna! ❤ Thank you so very much for the encouragement!!! XD
I am glad to hear that you agree with me on Tozer’s great article. Indeed, how much deception could have been avoided with such clear guidelines as you said above. The examples you mentioned (Jim Jones and Ron Hubbard) have touched my heart too as I read about how these two men destroyed so many lives.
I was just wondering if being misguided, or rather fully deceived, must have to do with a hidden longing in the heart, that is, to adore a human being more than God. I wonder, too, how many people who had access to Tozer’s advice would really take heed of his guidelines? I saw it so often when I tried to warn carefully about false teachers or false prophets or only about false teachings that the reaction was all about defending the one I only cautiously had criticized… 😦 But I do believe some people could be helped, though.
As for Eastern religions and all that esoteric stuff, in fact, that is a big deception nowadays that has infiltrated the Church and Christian thinking and teaching immensely. It is like an encroaching invasion of confusing spirits that keeps more and more Christians captivated by Satan. They speak about a “Christ-consciousness” to which they need to awake instead of having a relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and they want to develop this awareness on their own (in their old self, of course). It also grieves me to have seen that deception on some blogs on the internet. At times I still let people comment on here, but as soon as it gets more and more ‘esoteric’ and deceiving, I do not moderate their comments any longer because I do not want to see some of my readers confused by their dangerous ideas and false spirituality.
May your heart not be broken but comforted by God, dear Anna!
Much love ❤
Susanne
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Amen Susanne! I have too been going through some painful turmoil within my flesh! It was old behaviors that I had not experienced for so long I thought I was going to go out of my mind heart. Finally it just dissipated to letting it go. Not really happy about the outcome but at least I have calmed down and the deep pain of lonliness went away. And even cried out to the Lord why? Why? I just get so lonely at times even more so since I have let go of some medicines. I am experiencing emotions on a different level again. Yes, nonetheless one day our sorrow will trun into Jesus’s full joy! The sooner the better! LOL I love you sister!
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I am sorry to hear that you had to go through much pain lately too, dear Stacey. 😦 Actually, there is a loneliness of heart only God can remove…. No human being can fill this void deep inside of us. Only Jesus can give us the rest we are longing for. I love you too, sister. ❤
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I know this is true and have experienced it as well but then someone comes along and takes you off the beam like falling in love with a “ghost” and feeds off my love and just dumps you and then you have to struggle to get back in to where you were before you met this person that knocked you off the beam. This is the real challenge for me Susanne. I have never been able to put God before a man. Keep men out and I am okay with just God. Can’t find that balance.
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I am very sorry to hear about your latest experience, Stacey. Being dumped or rejected is very painful, indeed. 😦
As for me, I was never able to put God before man, whether it was about loved ones or falling in love as you said above. If we were able to do anything apart from God, we would not need Jesus, I guess. I wish I had the balance Jesus has since I have not been balanced myself, ever.
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Thank you for your comforting words Susanne. It means so much to me now these days. I almost feel cornered at times just wanting to run run run and no where to run too. LOL Only to the quietness in my room where as Michael put it above that I need to have these feelings removed. Sometimes it just feels so intense. Today I am feeling a mixture of emotions. Pride, anger, self righteousness, hope, pain. It feels like when I am not with people I can feel the unconditional love but when I get around these people I feel less than. But they are of a worldly type. And I’m not. I feel so exposed. If that makes any sense.
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It makes a lot of sense to me, Stacey. I am like you. Just lately I thought that there never comes any positive emotion from my old nature. What I think first is almost always something negative unless the little ME is concerned. Then I might be able to think positive, a bit at least… until God convicts me again.
My feelings have always been that intense too. That can be tormenting at times!! 😛
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