Exactly, and we are instructed to "try" them, and see if they are legit. The text is talking about "false prophets" correct?
1 John 4:5-6 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
a) A prophet of the LORD speaks for the LORD.
b) A false prophet says they speak for the LORD but instead speaks for a different spirit.
Therefore) If there are false prophets in the world that is because they are speaking from false spirits, meaning spirits that are not God but impostors. Human prophets aren't spirits. See Luke 24:37, "
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit" and Luke 24:39, "
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
If he meant human prophets out in the world, those would have flesh and bones, not an apparition like what the disciples thought they saw walking on the water. Jesus on earth didn't call himself a spirit even after he had risen from the dead and ascended to his Father.
The spirits that is talking about are the type that are normally invisible, but which have the ability to appear to us whether through physical manifestation, possession, or through our mental perception. You know, "spirits" ... not humans.
Really? Why do you think that?
You mean, why would be be robots if it wasn't for free will, and why free will must be a spiritual component and not something physical? That's a basic philosophy question, but it also lends itself into the engineering and computer science fields. We aren't able to build "free will" machines. All machines take input and produce outputs which are guaranteed outputs based on what goes in.
What is a "world of spirit"?
That's a term I made up for what we cannot see because it's spirit and we see with eyes. Spirit exists, but it's not something that we can directly detect or measure because it is immaterial.
This doesn't address HOW the immaterial can manipulate the material. Could you expand on this idea?
If the scope is still on whether spirits are "material" or "immaterial" I don't think that I should be required to explain
how spirits manipulate forces and matter. It's enough to recognize that the meaning of "spirit" by definition means immaterial.
If we are simply accepting that and expanding on a friendly basis,
1) God is a spirit, and he created the heavens and the earth with his word, by an act of will. I cannot explain how that happens, but I accept that it did.
2) Devils are spirits, yet they are known to have the ability to possess people and animals. See Matthew 8:29-32 for an example of both types of possession. In this way the physical world is affected through the manipulation of the possessed host. This might leave no memory of the events with the host, or they might be allowed to witness from a "back seat." I suspect that whatever interface our brains have that allow it to interact with our spirits might also be compatible with the demonic spirits.
3) Devils sometimes affect our world through direct forces, like the poltergeist. Physical objects can be moved or slammed about, noises might be heard, and so on and so forth. I don't know what rules are in place that allow or prohibit such activity. Another variation of this might be "magic" when supernatural effects seem to be performed by a human. I don't think that this is actually the power of the human, but rather the power of the devil that is in affinity with the human in question.
4) There is also the possibility that the physical might not be actually manipulated, but rather perceptions might be manipulated without the physical world changing. A devil might inflict an illusion or hallucination that only appears in the mind of those affected. It does not necessarily require physical presence or effects for this.