Spiritual knowledge is always helpful. It gives us a clearer direction to spiritual progress. Ignorance always leads to mistakes.
Saints go astray because they do not have spiritual knowledge. Satan mainly utilizes the foolishness of the saints to mislead them. The Holy Spirit is not afraid of man having knowledge, spiritual knowledge. The more knowledge a man has, the easier it is for the Spirit to lead him. The devil is the authority of darkness; he utilizes darkness, loves darkness, and wants to keep man in darkness. The less knowledge a man has, the easier it is for Satan to deceive him.
There is a misconception among Christians that as long as they are honest they will not be deceived. They think, “My intention is very honest; therefore, I will not be deceived.” Little do they realize that mainly honest people are deceived. The saints who are deceived by Satan usually think that they are seeking the truth with a very honest heart. They pray, read the Scriptures, fast, and pursue spiritual experiences. Nevertheless, they are still susceptible to deception. They do not realize that Satan can very easily inject an erroneous thought into their minds. They also do not realize that Satan can very easily put a stubborn will in their hearts so that they will become obstinate in their thinking and consider their thoughts as the truth, besides which there is no other truth. They think that since they seek God’s gift with an honest heart, God will surely keep them from deception. Little do they realize that God has certain conditions for keeping man from deception. If a saint does not cooperate with God by persisting in his opposition to Satan, if he does not ask the Lord for light to discern the real condition of the situation, or if he will not submit to God’s words, then God cannot keep him. God did not promise to keep us unconditionally. On the contrary, we should work together with God. Only then will He keep us.
First Satan deceives the saints by saying, “You will not be deceived.” Those who believe that they will never be deceived will be deceived more frequently and seriously than others. Due to pride, Satan became Satan; he works by causing people to become proud. However, some pride is obvious and some is concealed. (Alas! Sometimes this pride is concealed to such an extent that a person thinks that he can never be deceived and secretly pities others for not having his unusual experiences!) Those who are proud and think that they cannot be deceived should be careful or they will eventually be deceived.
If we are humble and not self-assuming or stubborn, if we admit that we can easily be deceived, if we single-heartedly seek the Lord so that He would reveal the real condition and true significance behind every matter, and if we wholeheartedly resist the works and wiles of the enemy, we will know if our spiritual experience is from God or from Satan.
We should know that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light and his evil spirits can transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. The unusual experiences we have gained may be very good and may help us to go on. They may put a flame in our hearts and give us great joy. We may even speak in tongues, receive healings, dream dreams, hear spiritual sounds, constantly have third-heaven experiences, and know the most mysterious things. Sometimes, we may be affected by a spirit outside of us that makes us feel that Jesus is most precious. In our prayer we may feel that the Lord is in the room and there is no need to pray to God in heaven, and instead we only need to pray to the Lord in the room. However, we must never think that these experiences are from God. It is possible that we may be deceived. Do not think that just because we seek with a very sincere heart, we can never be deceived. An honest heart is not a condition that prevents one from being deceived. There are hundreds of thousands of honest believers who have been deceived. It is difficult to say that we will not also be deceived. For this reason, we should have spiritual knowledge.
We should know the spiritual law. God works according to definite principles. If believers do not know and walk according to the law of God’s work, God cannot keep us. The most crucial question for us is: are we willing to reject all of our wonderful, unusual experiences if they are not from God?
Do not think that we are always willing to reject these experiences. Actually we find too much unwillingness within our hearts. I am afraid that our hearts love our wonderful experiences too much! Until this matter is resolved, we cannot obtain any knowledge to go on spiritually. After the first step is resolved, we can then look at the second step. Our present attitude should be: if my experience is not from God, I will resist and oppose it. I resist and oppose everything that is from Satan. Before God, I unceasingly ask Him to reveal the real condition behind every matter to me. If we do this, God will direct us and enlighten us in His own time. Concerning supernatural experiences, unless we have actually tested the source of our experience, we should not lightly believe in it. Speculation and deduction are totally unreliable in dealing with things in the spiritual realm. If God has not revealed the real condition behind a particular matter to us in our spirit and we have not actually tested whether it is from God, we must not assume that it has been given by God. Unless God gives us the knowledge, we have nothing to believe. Our honest heart cannot keep us from being deceived. If we do not want to be deceived, God must give us the knowledge so that we can understand the real condition behind every matter.