Testing the Spirits

 And while he was still approaching, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

Luke 9:42 (LEB)

What is the “Holy Spirit”? Trinity doctrines exist as attempts to explain the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This doctrine began sometime in the third century, and by the sixth century, people were being excommunicated and even put to death for questioning “the Trinity” doctrine. It may be a good and simplistic way to try to understand God, but there is a lot more to consider from Scripture.

The term “Holy Spirit” and “Holy Ghost” do not reflect the definitions of the terms in the original languages of the Bible. “Spirit” is the English word used for the Hebrew word “Ruach,” meaning breath and wind. “Holy” is used for the Hebrew word “Qodesh,” which is something that is set apart for a special purpose.

Anyone who has researched the Kundalini spirit from Hinduism and Yoga has seen the similarities between Pentecostal “movings of the Holy Spirit” and the snake demon Kundalini spirit. We certainly do not want to get these spirits confused.

Caution: This video may be disturbing to some.

The Kundalini spirit causes convulsions, extreme laughter, and shaking. It should not be surprising that this type of thing could take hold in churches where disobedience to the instructions of God is openly taught and embraced. We must know the difference between the Spirit of the Creator and lying spirits.

2 Chronicles 18:19–22 (LEB): ¹⁹ And Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab the king of Israel that he would go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?’ And one said this, and another said that. ²⁰ Then a spirit came forth and stood before Yahweh and said, ‘I will entice him.’ Then Yahweh said to him, ‘By what means?’ ²¹ Then he said, ‘I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You will entice him and will also succeed. Go out and do so.’ ²² So now, behold, Yahweh has put a spirit of deception into the mouths of these your prophets. Yahweh has spoken disaster against you.”

According to this story in Chronicles, the Elohim of Israel sent a lying spirit to all of the prophets in Israel except Micaiah. They all told the king of Israel and his son-in-law, the king of Judah, to go to war with Ramoth-Gilead. Micaiah was the only one to tell them, “Yahweh has put a spirit of deception into the mouths of these prophets. Yahweh has spoken disaster against you.“

Ahab, the king of Israel, was killed in battle, and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, returned to his kingdom unharmed. When he got back, the prophet Jehu told him this:

2 Chronicles 19:1–2 (LEB):19 Then Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. ² And Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him. And he said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you be a help to the wicked and love those who hate Yahweh? On account of this, wrath has come against you from Yahweh.

So this is a good example of how the Father will send lying spirits (much like Kundalini) to those who are in disobedience against Him. Jehoshaphat changed his ways after encountering the lying spirits and almost dying. He started to follow God’s commandments diligently.

2 Chronicles 19:9–10 (LEB): ⁹ And he commanded them, saying, “Thus you must do in the fear of Yahweh in faithfulness and with a whole heart. ¹⁰ Any legal dispute that comes before you from your brothers who live in their cities concerning bloodguilt, law, commandment, statutes, and justice, you must warn them, so that they do not incur guilt before Yahweh, and that wrath may not come upon you and your brothers. Thus you must do that you do not incur guilt.

The Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a spirit. It is not as if there is this entity that has a form or material body that then lends his spirit out to people. That is where I may differ with the “trinity” doctrine, which implies three separate parts of the Godhead. What is the difference between the Father, who is a spirit, and the “Holy Spirit” or “Spirit of YHWH” in scripture? God said “no divine image” or “replica of a male or female.” Nothing can change that, or we have to throw it all away.

Deuteronomy 4:15–20 (LEB): ¹⁵ “So you must be very careful for yourselves, because you did not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ so that you do not ruin yourselves and make for yourselves a divine image in a form of any image, a replica of male or female, ¹⁷ a replica of any animal that is upon the earth, a replica of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ a replica of any creeping thing on the ground, a replica of any fish that is in the water below the earth. ¹⁹ And do this so that you do not lift your eyes toward heaven and observe the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven. ²⁰ But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, as it is this day.

Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew, tells us how it works. Firstly, if we love him, we will keep His commandments. Keeping the commandments is a condition to receive the Spirit of truth, who is described as an “advocate,” which literally means “helper” or “intercessor” if we consider the Greek word used here. Secondly, keep His commandments. “The one who has my commandments and keeps them—that one is the one who loves me.” It really is this simple.

John 14:15–21 (LEB): ¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, in order that he may be with you forever—¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it does not see him or know him. You know him, because he resides with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ Yet a little time and the world will see me no longer, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ The one who has my commandments and keeps them—that one is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

Some First Nations believe in the “Great Spirit,” which they refer to as the “Creator.” They even have a list very similar to the Ten Commandments. Are these descendants of the people who were at Mount Horeb and heard “the Great Spirit” speak in an audible tone and saw no form? I have a book that has researched interviews from as early as the 16th century with First Nations people talking about Hebrew artifacts that were passed down to them from their ancestors. We should view the “Holy Spirit” simply as the Father, not as a separate entity, much like “the Great Spirit.” Again, Yeshua refers to the Spirit this way in Matthew.

Matthew 10:19–20 (LEB):¹⁹ But whenever they hand you over, do not be anxious how to speak or what you should say, for what you should say will be given to you at that hour. ²⁰ For you are not the ones who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who is speaking through you.

We should understand that the “Holy Spirit” is the Spirit of Truth that is given to the people of the “Great Spirit,” Yahweh, YHWH (meaning the one who causes things to exist), and it is the Father who is Spirit. Yeshua repaired the enmity between God and man so that we can experience the Spirit of His Father in Heaven. Yeshua clearly said that we must love Him by keeping His commandments. These commandments are not new, as some like to imagine. They are the commandments of God given at Mount Horeb.

John 12:48–50 (LEB): ⁴⁸ The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. ⁴⁹ For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.”

We get the Spirit of God in our inner parts to help us keep the commandments. Those who continue in the “abominations and detestable things” are going to reap what they have sown. The Spirit is a precious gift that helps us understand His commandments and gives us a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 11:19–21 (LEB): ¹⁹ And I will give to them one heart, and a new spirit I will give in their inner parts. And I will remove their heart of stone from their body, and I will give to them a heart of flesh, ²⁰ so that they may walk in my statutes, and they will keep my regulations, and they will do them, and they will be to me a people, and I myself will be to them as God. ²¹ But to the heart of their abominations and the detestable things their heart is going. I will bring their way on their head,” declares the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

In reference to Yeshua, there is scripture that describes his part regarding the Spirit of God. For one, he sends the Spirit to us, as we discussed earlier. The prophet Isaiah tells us about Yeshua coming from a “branch from the stump of Jesse.” This is a reference to David’s father Jesse and indicates that Yeshua would come through the line of David. The Spirit of God would be on him.

Isaiah 11:1–10 (LEB)

11 And a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit. ² And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him— a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. ³ And his breath is in the fear of Yahweh. And he shall judge not by his eyesight, and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with his ears. ⁴ But he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips. ⁵ And righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

John explains to us exactly who Yeshua is and speaks of the spirits before the throne of God, as Isaiah also did.

Revelation 1:4–6 (LEB): ⁴ John, to the seven churches in Asia: grace to you and peace from the one who is and the one who was and the one who is coming, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

How do we know the Spirit of God? There are a lot of indicators given in the Bible for manifestations of the Holy Spirit versus those of evil spirits. Paul gives us examples and calls them works of the flesh (evil and against God’s commandments) and the fruits of the Spirit, which uphold the law of God, or “Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:19–26 (LEB): ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, things which I am telling you in advance, just as I said before, that the ones who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Now those who belong to Christ  have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires.²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. ²⁶ We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

In another place, Paul describes those with the Spirit of God dwelling in them like this:

1 Corinthians 12:6–11 (LEB): ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but the same God, who works all things in all people. ⁷ But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is beneficial to all. ⁸ For to one is given a word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another a word of knowledge by the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing of spirits, to another kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ But in all these things one and the same Spirit is at work, distributing to each one individually just as he wishes.

Notice that the gifts of the Spirit of Yahweh do not include things like shaking, convulsing, blowing people over, and hysteria. Many of these things that are found as manifestations of the Kundalini spirit do not benefit everyone. They are in line with the works of the flesh. Also, we do not know what other lying spirits we are dealing with in the church today. The Kundalini spirit is just an example that is obvious when looking at some factions of Pentecostalism. I am sure there are others that exist in the New Age and Christ Consciousness sects as well.

The Apostle John gives us some examples on how to test the spirits:

1. 1 John 4:1–3 (LEB): 4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
2. 1 John 5:1–4 (LEB): Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father also loves the child fathered by him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and keep his commandments. ³ For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, ⁴ because everyone who is fathered by God conquers the world.
3. 1 John 4:5–6 (LEB): ⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

The Apostle Paul tells us in many places that our body is the temple of the Spirit of God, or the “Holy Spirit.” In the absence of the tabernacle, His presence and Spirit now dwell in us. In the physical temple, the wayward priests invited spirits of other gods through idolatry and witchcraft, along with all sorts of commandment-breaking—to the point where the prophet Ezekiel witnessed the Spirit of God leave the temple. Therefore, live by the Spirit, not by the works of the flesh!

Photo by Petra Reid on Unsplash