Discernment

Alan Jacobs may or may not have in mind the insanity that happened in Washington yesterday (see here and here) but I thought his post this morning relevant to much that was said there:

There is no infallible means for discerning when a religious believer has been spoken to, directly and personally, by God. However, there is a reliable way to disconfirm such a claim. When a person demands that other people immediately accept that he has been spoken to by God, and treats with insult and contempt those who do not acknowledge his claim to unique revelation, then we can be sure that no genuine message has been received, and that the voice echoing in that person’s mind is not that of God but that of his own ego.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1 (KJV)