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Originally Posted by A little brother
Quantity probably cannot assure quality. BTW, I think WL incorrectly did a lot of his logic backwards. I have no doubt that when someone is in the spirit, he/she can (not must) call on the Lord. WL reversed the cause and consequence saying that calling on the Lord can help us to be in the spirit.
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It can go either way. Either we can call on the Lord because we are in the spirit, or we can call on the Lord to get in the spirit. The Bible shows both God approaching man, and man approaching God. Christ abides in us and Christ asks us to abide in Him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A little brother
Seems you agree the tests aren't perfect. Then, what is needed to more surely discern whether someone is in the spirit, and equally if not more importantly, that someone is acting according to the spirit and not following wrong teachings?
I hope you would agree there is no simple way to discern all these things. You mentioned about the scripture but scripture is up to different interpretations (otherwise, we won't have so much debate in this forum). That's why I proposed we need both the Spirit and the scripture. The Spirit/anointing plays a role in our discernment of truth and lie as part of the "all things" besides affirming Christ is our Lord and He came in flesh.
I pray that you would open your heart to the Lord to examine and re-examine everything you got from WL's teachings and everything you are so sure about, with the help from the Spirit and all of the scripture. That is something I keep reminding myself to do as well.
1 Thes 5:19-22 Do not quench the Spirit; Do not despise prophecies, But prove all things. Hold fast to what is good; Abstain from every kind of evil.
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Paul and John did not really describe anything more to test the spirit other than the tests mentioned. They did not even refer to the "fruit test" that Jesus mentioned, I think because that applied more to false prophets/pharisees. They did not need any other tests - anyone who curses Christ does not have Christ, there is no need to test their fruit. The tests are simple, reliable, and accurate.
By the way, early Christian churches accepted people into fellowship only based upon their love and knowledge of Christ, not doctrine, creeds, or statements of faith. So a simple test about what they thought of Christ was enough to know if they should be accepted or not.