Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will accompany those who believe:

• in my [Jesus] name [authority] they will cast out demons;
• they will speak in new tongues;
• they will pick up serpents with their hands; and
• if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them;
• they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

-- Mark 16:16-18

Note that these are no requirements for salvation, but only signs to help identify who are saved and could potentially be trusted. These instructions were given by Jesus in a world where:

• his disciples were persecuted and trusting the wrong people could be a deadly mistake
• no bibles were published yet, so there were no intellectual way to verify any preaching
• there were many false prophets around
• there were many false teachers

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. -- 2 Peter 2:1-3 (ESV)

In the book of Galatians Paul address a false teaching that confused his followers. I cannot quote the entire book here, but I would encourage you to read it. However, I will highlight a few scriptures from it:

Now the works of the flesh are evident:

• sexual immorality,
• impurity,
• sensuality,
• idolatry,
• sorcery,
• enmity,
• strife,
• jealousy,
• fits of anger,
• rivalries,
• dissensions,
• divisions,
• envy,
• drunkenness,
• orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is

• love,
• joy,
• peace,
• patience,
• kindness,
• goodness,
• faithfulness,
• gentleness,
• self-control;

against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

-- Galatians 5:19-24

Again, this is not a list of prerequisites for salvation, but indicates which spirit is at work and whether a message should be trusted or rejected. This includes church meetings, sermons, videos, books, websites, but especially prophecies which usually cannot be confirmed or denied by bible scripture alone.

Measuring salvation

Many systems are designed to compare people. For example:

• nett worth
• credit score
• social media rating
• loyalty points
• trophies, medallions or personal records
• number of contacts in social networking
• number of employees (or church members)
• ... and so forth

Likewise, some are also seeking a system that can measure or justify "righteousness" with God. Is this even possible? How can we measure who loves his or her spouse the most? If we cannot even accurately measure this among humans, how can we measure another individual's personal relationship with God (Matthew 7:1-5)?

"Good spiritual fruit" could be a potential confirmation of a mature believer, but the lack of "good spiritual fruit" does not necessary proof that the person is condemned. People are not saved by works but by grace. For example the thief on the cross did not have a chance to show "good spiritual fruits" in his life, yet Jesus said that he will be saved (Luke 23:39-43).

However, when a "prophet" or a church leader claim to be a mature believer who conveys the message of God, he or she ought to be to judged by his or her "fruit". The attitude of a person can easily be faked to please people (which is often confused with the "fruit of the spirit"), but the long term effect of someone's actions or message on the community cannot be faked as God's Spirit would either bless or curse the person's works.