How Do You Know?
Dearly beloved, there are two gods: the One True God, who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the devil, who is the prince of this evil world. Both are spirit beings and they work in the spiritual realm, a realm that cannot be known by the five senses, or by one’s experiences.
The One True God is light, not darkness, and His Word is true and faithful.
The devil is the liar, there is no truth in him. He is the deceiver of this world; he would deceive the very elect if it were possible. Listening to his words lead to catastrophic consequences.
God plainly reveals Himself to us in His Word, while the devil cloches himself in darkness so that he is not easily detected.
The One True God gives us enlightened understanding by His Word and He desires that we study it, so that we can have the answers we so desperately need.
The devil wants us to frame our thinking with ideas and experiences that he orchestrates, which many take for their own.
If a person wants to separate the truth of God from the adversary’s lies, he must compare the idea or experience to the revelation God gives us in His Word.
God exhorts us in His Word to not believe every spirit, but to prove whether the spirits are from God. We are to take the teaching to the Word of God and compare it to what God says.
Since God is Spirit and no man has ever seen God at any time, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to declare Him by His words and His works. Jesus declared His Father; he demonstrated His Father’s word and will, His character and His ways. He always did His Father’s will. He also exposed the devil for who he is.
God did not give His words by measure to Jesus Christ, and he faithfully spoke them. He believed God according to His Word and he kept God’s Word faithfully; even believing that God would raise him from the dead as He promised him. The Lord Jesus said that the Word of God cannot be broken, and he proved it by obeying it. God validated his words by raising him from the dead.
Jesus repeatedly said that the words he spoke were not his, but his Father’s. He said that he carried out his Father’s will, not his own. The works he did were not done by his own power; they were done by the Father’s power in him.
He declared God; he made Him known. He proved that no word of God is impossible of fulfillment. He summed up his life’s work saying, “I have given them Thy word.”
After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into the heavenly realm, God continued to give us His Word. He sent more ambassadors with His Word, apostles, who were sent to reveal His purpose in Christ and what he accomplished, even to fully reveal the purpose of the ages that He purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Today we have both the Word of God and the spirit of God so that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
God’s apostles wrote as God revealed the information to them, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but with words that the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing (to draw a conclusion by comparison) spiritual things with spiritual words.
For example, He gave the Apostle Paul the revelation of things concerning Christ that had previously been a mystery and He had him write them down so that we could read and understand this mystery, which in other ages was not known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
We do not gain this understanding through intuitive thinking (thinking based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive) or by personal experiences; we get it from the revelation that God revealed in His Word.
Dearly beloved, don’t be deceived; study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.
All scripture is God-breathed, and it is profitable so that we can know the truth concerning spiritual matters; that's how we know. God does not want us ignorant; He wants us to have answers so we are equipped, fully equipped for whatever may come up in life, dearly beloved.