Who Are You?

Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. [1 John 4.1-6]

What we believe about Jesus Christ reveals what we believe about God and, therefore, determines whether we belong to God or the world (who we are).

How then does one know he or she is believing correctly about Jesus? It starts with believing that Jesus came in a real body. But John goes on to describe this as "knowing the truth about Jesus." Jesus coming in a real body has more significance than simply our acknowledgement that He lived much the same as acknowledging we ourselves live. Jesus' life is eternally more than just a vital statistic!

The truth about Jesus starts with His birth and the vital statistic that He was indeed born and lived on earth. 

From His birth, the identity of Jesus as God's Son is established - a fact that most today still grapple with. Oh, most everyone quotes the Christmas scriptures of His Advent with "acknowledgement," but  few translate His Sonship into "Manship" and, as men, relate to Him as such. The truth about Jesus is that He became a man to "plug in" (if you will) to mankind thus elevating mankind (through its response of repentance and faith) into unity with God thus availing to man all the power and authority of heaven and earth in order to accomplish the further establishment of God's Kingdom!

The truth about Jesus includes the fact that OUR lives are to mirror His in every possible way. To deny this is the deceptive spirit of Antichrist. The world's viewpoint says man cannot walk on water. What do we believe about that? Jesus walked on water. We are at an impasse with the world to make this claim and certainly only further elevate that impasse to claim we are called to the same works as Jesus (John 14.12).

I hope on this Christmas Eve 2022, people see Christ Jesus as more than a baby in a manger.

Father, help us to see Jesus for Who He Is so that we might see You for Who You Are - and us for who we are in faith!