We live in an age where mysticism and spiritual experiences are prevalent. The days of materialistic, secular humanism have given way to the New Age of spirituality. Our era is often called “post-modern;” it is an age of subjectivism. This means that we no longer believe that science, reason, and rationality can solve humanity’s problems. Our culture has turned inward to subjective, spiritual, self-validating experiences. Now people rarely ask, “Is it true?” but ask instead, “Does it work for me?”…

In every case in the New Testament, we have seen that the discerning of spirits is objective, not subjective. This is necessary because spirits have a great advantage over humans in the realm of the spirit world. They have been in that realm practicing deception for thousands of years and they are good at it. They can produce whatever feeling or experience a person would normally associate with God or the Holy Spirit. The dangers of deception are greater than most people realize…

If a person claims to speak for God but the person’s message content does not agree with Scripture and is outside of the sphere of material that God has revealed in the Bible, the spiritual source of the message is not God’s Spirit. We live in the time of great deception and apostasy. It is a time when the Biblical tools for discernment are needed more than ever. We need to take these objective tools and apply them to what we hear being taught in God’s name. Each of us might be shocked to find out that we have been listening to spirits and not the Spirit of God. We must run to the gospel and begin building our houses on the rock.

Bob DeWaay, The Discerning of Spirits: The Objective, Biblical Means to Discern Spirits

See also:

SPIRITUAL FORMATION: JUST SAY NO

THE CULT OF GURU RICHARD FOSTER

THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES OF DALLAS WILLARD DESTROYED

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM AS METHODOLOGY FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION