False Prophets: The Truth About Mishearing the Holy Spirit

4:2–3 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.

Let’s get one issue clear: A Christian who stands in the office of a prophet cannot be a false prophet.

Only unbelievers, those who have never accepted Jesus as their Savior, can be false prophets. We often label Christian prophets as false prophets if their prophecy did not come to pass. The most common source of false prophecy from Christians is listening to the flesh and not the Holy Spirit. This does not make them false prophets but carnal prophets. Just as Christians can be spiritual or carnal, so can prophets. Also prophets can sometimes give false prophecies because they speak what they heard other prophets say. It can almost become a hysteria as true prophets, who have accepted and love Jesus, give a prophecy because so many others are giving it. Popularity should not be a motive for giving a word you say is from God.

I admire some true prophets who, when their words did not come to pass, apologized and admitted they gave the word to be accepted by other prophets and God’s people. Even Agabus, an accepted prophet in the days of the early church, made a mistake when prophesying over Paul. As he wrapped Paul’s belt around his hands, he told him he was speaking by the Holy Spirit. He said if Paul went to Jerusalem, in the same way the Jews would bind his hands and turn him over to the Gentiles, the Romans. This did happen, but it was the Romans who bound Paul’s hands and delivered him out of the hands of the Jews, who were going to kill him (Acts 21:10–11). Even a godly prophet like Agabus could miss the direction of the Holy Spirit.

First John 4:2–3 contrasts who Jesus is against who He is not. God the Father and Satan are two beings who are at odds with each other in character and goals for eternity. God’s very nature is love and grace, and Satan’s very nature is hatred and human works. God loves to create, and Satan’s pleasure is destroying what God has created since he can create nothing himself. God’s love was manifested to the world by the human birth, life, and death of His Son, Jesus Christ, in order to bring salvation to anyone who would receive Him (John 3:16–17). Satan’s hatred of anything and anyone divinely good is manifested in the birth, life, and work of his son antichrist into this world. The spirit of Jesus was seen for centuries throughout the Old Testament, long before Jesus as a man was born in Bethlehem. So it is with the antichrist who will rule the world for a short period of time. He has not made a per- sonal appearance yet, but his spirit of hatred toward others and love of self has been seen and felt in the earth since the fall of Adam. Long before he appears, antichrist’s presence has been felt by all humankind.

John points out these two kingdoms and their attitude toward God’s Son, Jesus, telling us this is how we recognize who truly is of God and who truly is of Satan. Look at and listen to a person’s view of Jesus Christ. If they can claim Jesus truly is the Son of God and came into the earth in human flesh, then that person is from God. If a person cannot say that Jesus came to the earth as the Son of God in human flesh, then that person is from Satan.

4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

This verse is addressed to those who have received Jesus as their Savior, not those who have rejected Him. Notice, those who have become children of God have already overcome the world, though they have not yet seen it come to pass. Being in Christ and having the Holy Spirit in us connects us to the one who defeated Satan and all principalities and powers at His resurrection from the dead. Satan was openly defeated when he and all demon powers were conquered and made a show of openly before all of heaven (Colossians 2:15). He was sentenced but has not been imprisoned yet. If God made the sentence known, it will come to pass. God does not lie. But Satan has not admitted defeat yet. He has been on a two-thousand-year rampage to prove God wrong, remove the gospel from the earth, destroy Jerusalem, and seat his own messiah, antichrist, on its throne. In the face of all that is written about his failed attempt, he still keeps trying. God’s Word, the truth, declares the defeat and imprisonment of Satan, antichrist, and all those working with Satan. So we, being in Christ, are victors over Satan. We live in the one who won and will visibly defeat Satan at the Battle of Armageddon. His sentence will be executed, and Satan will be imprisoned for one thousand years in hell after the battle is over. This is only the beginning of his eternal separation from God. More prison time will come after hell in the lake of fire for eternity.