HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE HEARD DIRECTLY FROM GOD
God speaks, but we can get it wrong…
Quite a few years ago a friend of mine went to a healing meeting. She believed that God had told her she was going to be healed of being short sighted: so she smashed her glasses. She went to the meeting, went up for prayer, and guess what? She wasn't healed. God hadn't told her she was going to be healed. It was her imagination. She was in tears after the meeting.
Around the same time there was a guy in a prayer group I used to attend – very nice fellow...and he started to phone me up to tell me that the Lord had told him that we had to meet for prayer at such and such a time. So I would go...but then, another call would come...and another...and I could have got myself into a bit of a state...I mean I couldn't plan my day because this guy might phone up and say God had told him I have to go and pray somewhere...I am all for prayer...but this was becoming a bit odd...and why couldn't God tell me? I didn't have peace...and eventually I stopped responding.
When my wife was pregnant with Yasna – a girl – we went to a Billy Graham meeting and before going in this slightly overweight man waddled up to Mojdeh and said in a very spiritual voice, it's going to be a boy. I think we can safely say that was a false prophecy.
Just because people sometimes get it wrong does not meant God doesn’t want to speak. He wants to...indeed He is speaking to us all the time, the first rays of sun, the soaring song of the swallow, the gentle look in another believer's eyes, the rising chorus of praise, a violin starting a piece of Bach, the sting of conscience, the tears of grief...God is speaking...and that gentle nudge, that joyful sense that you should do something...that horror of sinning...all this is God. He is speaking. And of course every time we open the bible, He speaks.
And He can speak very directly and personally into our own situation. He is the good shepherd. He leads. His sheep hear his voice. This is fact. Christians can hear the voice of the shepherd. No exceptions.
The Lord can tell us we are going to be healed. He can tell us to go to a prayer meeting.
But as these true stories show...we can get it wrong. I am not talking here about messages claiming to come from God that are clearly against Scripture, like, it's OK to commit adultery, no, I am talking about how we know if God is telling us to go to a particular prayer meeting; see a particular friend; not go to a certain place...how do we know?
This is a very real issue for Christians who want to fight for the true God…for people who have one foot in the world and one in the church, it’s not a problem, as they haven’t don’t really want to obey Christ, so they don’t want to hear his voice..…so this message is for Christians who want to be used by God.
Christians can hear God speak clearly and about very personal matters, but we must always be wary of other voices that can deceive us.
How though do we know when God has spoken to us personally – and how do we know when it is a false voice? How can we tell the difference?
One way is to look at stories in the Bible where you have both God speaking, and someone claiming to speak for God, and then we can look at the differences.
We have such a story in 1 Kings 13. Let me give you some background. King David had established a great kingdom, and his son Solomon had come after him and taxed the country quite heavily to get a temple built in Jerusalem in the south. Now when David died all the people in the north of the country wanted higher wages, but Solomon refused, and so these ten tribes split away under a guy called Jeroboam. But Jeroboam had a problem. All the people had got used to going to Jerusalem to worship and Jeroboam, a man whose aim in life was to keep power, decided to create a false religion to stop people going south…so he had two shrines put up , one in Bethel and the other in Dan. He created a false religion for a political purpose and God wants to say something about this. God sends an unnamed prophet to Bethel to denounce the false religion and also specifically tells the prophet two things – he is not to eat or drink in Bethel, and he is not to return by the same way.
Try and read this story, it’s dramatic stuff. The prophet arrives in Bethel and this dictator king is standing by the false altar…you can imagine how religious the atmosphere was. Then just as the king, probably all rigged up in priestly clothes, is about to offer a sacrifice, the angry voice of the prophet comes crashing into the pious silence denouncing the altar and declaring that all the bones of the priests who have offered sacrifices on it will be burnt. And to prove my words are true this altar is going to split in half in front of your eyes. There’s no dialogue here, just blunt condemnation. Well, the king is not very happy, so he does what all dictators do to get rid of trouble makers. He raises his hand to order the prophet’s arrest…but this is God’s prophet, and as he raises his arm, so it withers with leprosy. And before the king has got time to take in that he is now a despised diseased leper there is a loud crash as the altar cracks in half and all the ashes of the sacrifice float around on people’s clothes. The King is now frightened, as will happen to all men who set up false altars against the living God. He pleads with the prophet to heal his hand, which the prophet kindly does. Feeling a lot better the king now wants to play the grand host and so he invited the prophet back for a meal at the palace. But the prophet has heard very specifically from God, so he tells the king ‘I have heard God’s order...I am not to eat or drink anything, nor return by the way I came’. And so he gets on to his donkey and leaves town, making sure he takes a different route home. What a fantastic man! He does exactly what God wants him to, even when he is offered the most delicious meal by a king.
But then everything goes wrong for our hero. And why? Because he hears another voice that is not God’s. He goes a little out of the city on his donkey, but then sees an oak tree, and feeling hot and hungry and tired after all the drama of denouncing the altar, he decides to have a little rest in its shade. Meanwhile news of all the drama by the altar has got back to another prophet in Bethel and on hearing the news he finds out which road our hero took, gets his sons to saddle his donkey. He finds our hero under the oak tree, and invites him back for a meal. He gets exactly the same answer as the king did…that God has told our hero not to eat of drink anything.
And now came these fateful words…this is what the prophet from Bethel said to our hero:
‘I too am a prophet, as you are, and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water (But he was lying)…
Well, our hero is tired, hot, and hungry and tragically he believes the other prophet and goes back with him where he eats and drinks. It was to be his last meal on earth. During the meal the prophet from Bethel warned our hero that he had disobeyed God and would not be buried with his ancestors…i.e. not make it home. And sure enough, on his way back, our hero was killed by a lion.
This story is very relevant for Christians today as it shows us that there is a voice that truly comes from God, and when obeyed produces dramatic results. But there are also voices that pretend to be from God…and when these voices are obeyed there are disastrous results.
The question is – how do we know when the voice is from God, and when it is not.
From this story we can do something very simple – we can see what are the confirmation signs that the voice is from God; and what are the warning signs that the voice is not from God...
Confirmation Signs
This is the part of the story where it’s pretty obvious that God has really been speaking clearly and personally for this prophet…indeed the whole story is dominated by the phrase – ‘the word of the Lord’…look at verse one, the prophet comes from Judah to Bethel because of the word of the Lord; it is the word of the Lord that then gives him the authority to speak out against the king. Then the actual message is just what God has said, and there is a dramatic sign as well.
So – how did this prophet know, how did he hear God’s voice? What are the characteristics that mark it?
I believe there are three key reasons why this unnamed prophet was sure he had heard God directly
1. The message was completely in line with God’s mission and character. From all this prophet has heard about God, he knows God is holy and is against false religions and false altars that lead people away to hell. So this prophet knows the words he hears are in line with God’s mission. This is the sort of thing God would want to do. It is not at all out of character.
So this is a simple test – if you think you have heard from God, just check, is this in line with God’s mission and character…so if for example you hear a whisper in your heart that maybe you should get involved in evangelism, and there is a strange joy with this…well, there is no reason to think this isn’t from God because we know this is His mission – seeking and saving the lost. This is important to God. Or if you are in a room and people are about to start playing with a Ouija board or something else from the occult and you feel a prompting inside to speak out against evil, again there every reason to believe that is from God, because this is His mission, to destroy the works of the evil one.
2. However the prophet heard God’s voice it filled him with a strange confidence that enabled him to go right into the enemy’s camp and declare a message. Imagine if you had been an Iraqi Christian and you thought God was telling you in 2000 to go to Baghdad and tell Saddam Hussein that six years later he was going to be executed on December 30th 2006. You would feel petrified…well I am sure this man felt frightened too, but when he heard the Word of God he was filled with a strange boldness and courage.
So this is another test. If you feel God is speaking to you is this voice filling you with fear and doubt or courage and faith? God’s voice never comes with slimy, chilling fear…maybe some apprehension, but never black fear. That is always the voice of the other side. But if the sense from God you have fills you with a strange excitement, and glorious sense of peace, and helps you to believe and have faith that something very specific will happen…like here the prophet knew that the altar would split in half, then there is every reason to believe it is from God. Let me add here, the Scripture says ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart’…if something strengthens His peace it is probably from God, if it disturbs your peace, it probably is not.
3. And finally there was a private and personal cost that came with hearing God’s voice in this story. While on his mission the prophet was not to eat or drink, and he was not to come back the way he went. In other words he was to fast while doing this work. This is completely in line with how God works with people – for with God we cannot be radical for him in public, unless we are radical for him in our private lives. The public flows out of the private for God’s people. It was the same for Abraham’s servant, the same for Daniel, the same for many others…
So this is a final test we can apply – is this word from God going to strengthen or weaken my ego. Is it going to bring about more self-sacrifice, or more self- promotion? God’s word brings about self-sacrifice, in private.
I am not saying these are the only things to look out for when we are wondering if we have heard from God, but they are here in this story from the Bible…let’s re-cap…is this message in line with God’s character and mission as revealed in the Bible; does it bring about courage and faith; will it lead to more self-sacrifice?
This section proves that
Christians can hear God speak clearly and about very personal matters,
but there was a second half to this statement....
but we must always be wary of other voices that can deceive us.
What are the warning signs in this story that a voice is not from God…
1. Does not make obvious sense because it is discourteous and dangerous. The message from the false prophet is first of all doubly indirect…it first comes to an angel, then to him, then to our hero. He gets the message third hand from God. This is discourteous. We all know what it is like to hear orders via other people…it does not make us feel respected. But God is a gentleman, and a gentleman certainly does not send sudden changes of orders by another messenger. He will tell you Himself, in the way you are used to hearing from Him. God is also concerned about the safety of his servants…this is why he didn’t want the prophet eating in Bethel and told him to get out by a different route. But this message has no concern for security. It is taking our hero right back into the heart of danger. That is not God’s way. He does not carelessly put his people in danger for the sake of a meal. To sum up…this message didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense for God to suddenly change his mind, and it didn’t make sense to send his servant back into danger just for a meal with a stranger. So it’s completely out of line with God’s character.
So next time you hear a message claiming to be directly from God, ask this question – is this in line with God’s character, is this how I know God has worked in the past, is this how I know God speaks to me. Jesus says, ‘My sheep hear my voice’, all Christians can hear His voice…you don’t have to hear personal messages from somebody else, especially if God has told you the opposite.
2. The false voice appeals to the flesh. God’s voice appeals to our spirit, which operates in the realm of faith. But this prophecy appealed directly to our prophet’s stomach. He has been fasting, and he’s clearly tired, that’s why we find him resting under this oak tree, and now this nice old man turns up and says come on home….the rice is nearly cooked, the kebabs are sizzling on the barbeque, I have fresh tomatoes and herbs from my garden for the salad, ice cream and chocolate sauce for desert….the whole message was for the flesh, not the spirit. And that is a warning sign.
So too, if you hear a message that is really appealing to your flesh, however dramatic and spiritual the presentation, that’s not the genuine article. In fact quite often it can be the voice of your inner child which is always demanding the best for guess who – you. It’s false. God want us to crucify our flesh, and live a life of faith.
3. False voices have not made a personal sacrifice. The true Word of God carries a private price for the prophet – he has travelled, he has fasted, he has risked his life denouncing the altar - but this old prophet hasn’t done much…in fact I have a few questions for him…if he was a prophet, why hadn’t he spoken out against Jeroboam? He has just stood by and let another man do the hard work. He hasn’t risked his life, he has just rode out on a donkey that his sons got ready for him, and at the end of all his prophetic activity he is just going to enjoy a big meal entertaining a now famous religious star. He gets a lot out of it. In fact that might well be why he was willing to lie, because he wanted people to see that he had entertained the prophet who healed the king’s hand. It was all about his status. He was going to feel good…isn’t that terrible? People claiming to speak for God just to feel good, just so they can go up the spiritual ladder.
This happens today, especially when people are sick. We need to be blunt here. God does heal some, and He can even bring people back from the dead. This healing is a sign…but most people who for example get cancer, die from cancer, and someone who is dying from cancer actually needs to be grateful for the time they are being given to prepare themselves. What is not needed is lots of prophets coming in and claiming they have heard from God that the cancer is going to be healed, when they haven’t really heard at all. But it makes them feel good. Oooooh, I am the man and woman of faith, I can pray against cancer, it’s my prayer that can heal people from cancer. The person praying feels good and walks away from the hospital…but what about the poor patient? Instead of being helped to trust God that He knows best and wants to bring him or her to heaven, instead, as the cancer gets worse as usually happens, so the patient instead of trusting God, is in his or her last days questioning God and asking why the healing has not happened…and even worse, thinking that somehow their lack of faith is to blame…that they are not good enough. Oh, what cruel torture comes to the sick because of false spirituality! If truly God has spoken to someone that He is going to heal a cancer patient, that person will go from Judah to Bethel, they will fast, and they will risk their lives to give the message – and God can heal but usually He doesn’t choose to for our total healing is in heaven, not here.
So we need to be careful when we hear a message and we know that really the only person who is doing well out of the message is the messenger. They are getting to feel good...and if they get it wrong, if the sick person isn't healed, or, like what happened here they are killed by lions, people get hurt, that's the point...and they don't even come back and say sorry to the relatives of that sick person...then you know you are dealing with someone who does not have integrity, does not have character...we should be careful.
CONCLUSION
Christians can hear God speak clearly and about very personal matters, but we must always be wary of other voices that can deceive us.
In this great story in 1 Kings 13 we have three confirmation signs, and three warning signs to help us know when God is speaking, and when He is not, when it is a false voice.
If the nudge, impression, message you hear is in line with God's character and mission
If it fills you with faith and joy and courage that you know is not from you
And if it involves some personal, private sacrifice
This message is probably from God.
But if it is wholly out of line with God's character and mission – and especially if it is from some one else
If the message is very much for the flesh does not fill you with a sense of joy and peace
and if you sense that actually the so called prophecy serves the status of the prophet more than the people – then be careful...
God speaks, but we can get it wrong…
Quite a few years ago a friend of mine went to a healing meeting. She believed that God had told her she was going to be healed of being short sighted: so she smashed her glasses. She went to the meeting, went up for prayer, and guess what? She wasn't healed. God hadn't told her she was going to be healed. It was her imagination. She was in tears after the meeting.
Around the same time there was a guy in a prayer group I used to attend – very nice fellow...and he started to phone me up to tell me that the Lord had told him that we had to meet for prayer at such and such a time. So I would go...but then, another call would come...and another...and I could have got myself into a bit of a state...I mean I couldn't plan my day because this guy might phone up and say God had told him I have to go and pray somewhere...I am all for prayer...but this was becoming a bit odd...and why couldn't God tell me? I didn't have peace...and eventually I stopped responding.
When my wife was pregnant with Yasna – a girl – we went to a Billy Graham meeting and before going in this slightly overweight man waddled up to Mojdeh and said in a very spiritual voice, it's going to be a boy. I think we can safely say that was a false prophecy.
Just because people sometimes get it wrong does not meant God doesn’t want to speak. He wants to...indeed He is speaking to us all the time, the first rays of sun, the soaring song of the swallow, the gentle look in another believer's eyes, the rising chorus of praise, a violin starting a piece of Bach, the sting of conscience, the tears of grief...God is speaking...and that gentle nudge, that joyful sense that you should do something...that horror of sinning...all this is God. He is speaking. And of course every time we open the bible, He speaks.
And He can speak very directly and personally into our own situation. He is the good shepherd. He leads. His sheep hear his voice. This is fact. Christians can hear the voice of the shepherd. No exceptions.
The Lord can tell us we are going to be healed. He can tell us to go to a prayer meeting.
But as these true stories show...we can get it wrong. I am not talking here about messages claiming to come from God that are clearly against Scripture, like, it's OK to commit adultery, no, I am talking about how we know if God is telling us to go to a particular prayer meeting; see a particular friend; not go to a certain place...how do we know?
This is a very real issue for Christians who want to fight for the true God…for people who have one foot in the world and one in the church, it’s not a problem, as they haven’t don’t really want to obey Christ, so they don’t want to hear his voice..…so this message is for Christians who want to be used by God.
Christians can hear God speak clearly and about very personal matters, but we must always be wary of other voices that can deceive us.
How though do we know when God has spoken to us personally – and how do we know when it is a false voice? How can we tell the difference?
One way is to look at stories in the Bible where you have both God speaking, and someone claiming to speak for God, and then we can look at the differences.
We have such a story in 1 Kings 13. Let me give you some background. King David had established a great kingdom, and his son Solomon had come after him and taxed the country quite heavily to get a temple built in Jerusalem in the south. Now when David died all the people in the north of the country wanted higher wages, but Solomon refused, and so these ten tribes split away under a guy called Jeroboam. But Jeroboam had a problem. All the people had got used to going to Jerusalem to worship and Jeroboam, a man whose aim in life was to keep power, decided to create a false religion to stop people going south…so he had two shrines put up , one in Bethel and the other in Dan. He created a false religion for a political purpose and God wants to say something about this. God sends an unnamed prophet to Bethel to denounce the false religion and also specifically tells the prophet two things – he is not to eat or drink in Bethel, and he is not to return by the same way.
Try and read this story, it’s dramatic stuff. The prophet arrives in Bethel and this dictator king is standing by the false altar…you can imagine how religious the atmosphere was. Then just as the king, probably all rigged up in priestly clothes, is about to offer a sacrifice, the angry voice of the prophet comes crashing into the pious silence denouncing the altar and declaring that all the bones of the priests who have offered sacrifices on it will be burnt. And to prove my words are true this altar is going to split in half in front of your eyes. There’s no dialogue here, just blunt condemnation. Well, the king is not very happy, so he does what all dictators do to get rid of trouble makers. He raises his hand to order the prophet’s arrest…but this is God’s prophet, and as he raises his arm, so it withers with leprosy. And before the king has got time to take in that he is now a despised diseased leper there is a loud crash as the altar cracks in half and all the ashes of the sacrifice float around on people’s clothes. The King is now frightened, as will happen to all men who set up false altars against the living God. He pleads with the prophet to heal his hand, which the prophet kindly does. Feeling a lot better the king now wants to play the grand host and so he invited the prophet back for a meal at the palace. But the prophet has heard very specifically from God, so he tells the king ‘I have heard God’s order...I am not to eat or drink anything, nor return by the way I came’. And so he gets on to his donkey and leaves town, making sure he takes a different route home. What a fantastic man! He does exactly what God wants him to, even when he is offered the most delicious meal by a king.
But then everything goes wrong for our hero. And why? Because he hears another voice that is not God’s. He goes a little out of the city on his donkey, but then sees an oak tree, and feeling hot and hungry and tired after all the drama of denouncing the altar, he decides to have a little rest in its shade. Meanwhile news of all the drama by the altar has got back to another prophet in Bethel and on hearing the news he finds out which road our hero took, gets his sons to saddle his donkey. He finds our hero under the oak tree, and invites him back for a meal. He gets exactly the same answer as the king did…that God has told our hero not to eat of drink anything.
And now came these fateful words…this is what the prophet from Bethel said to our hero:
‘I too am a prophet, as you are, and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water (But he was lying)…
Well, our hero is tired, hot, and hungry and tragically he believes the other prophet and goes back with him where he eats and drinks. It was to be his last meal on earth. During the meal the prophet from Bethel warned our hero that he had disobeyed God and would not be buried with his ancestors…i.e. not make it home. And sure enough, on his way back, our hero was killed by a lion.
This story is very relevant for Christians today as it shows us that there is a voice that truly comes from God, and when obeyed produces dramatic results. But there are also voices that pretend to be from God…and when these voices are obeyed there are disastrous results.
The question is – how do we know when the voice is from God, and when it is not.
From this story we can do something very simple – we can see what are the confirmation signs that the voice is from God; and what are the warning signs that the voice is not from God...
Confirmation Signs
This is the part of the story where it’s pretty obvious that God has really been speaking clearly and personally for this prophet…indeed the whole story is dominated by the phrase – ‘the word of the Lord’…look at verse one, the prophet comes from Judah to Bethel because of the word of the Lord; it is the word of the Lord that then gives him the authority to speak out against the king. Then the actual message is just what God has said, and there is a dramatic sign as well.
So – how did this prophet know, how did he hear God’s voice? What are the characteristics that mark it?
I believe there are three key reasons why this unnamed prophet was sure he had heard God directly
1. The message was completely in line with God’s mission and character. From all this prophet has heard about God, he knows God is holy and is against false religions and false altars that lead people away to hell. So this prophet knows the words he hears are in line with God’s mission. This is the sort of thing God would want to do. It is not at all out of character.
So this is a simple test – if you think you have heard from God, just check, is this in line with God’s mission and character…so if for example you hear a whisper in your heart that maybe you should get involved in evangelism, and there is a strange joy with this…well, there is no reason to think this isn’t from God because we know this is His mission – seeking and saving the lost. This is important to God. Or if you are in a room and people are about to start playing with a Ouija board or something else from the occult and you feel a prompting inside to speak out against evil, again there every reason to believe that is from God, because this is His mission, to destroy the works of the evil one.
2. However the prophet heard God’s voice it filled him with a strange confidence that enabled him to go right into the enemy’s camp and declare a message. Imagine if you had been an Iraqi Christian and you thought God was telling you in 2000 to go to Baghdad and tell Saddam Hussein that six years later he was going to be executed on December 30th 2006. You would feel petrified…well I am sure this man felt frightened too, but when he heard the Word of God he was filled with a strange boldness and courage.
So this is another test. If you feel God is speaking to you is this voice filling you with fear and doubt or courage and faith? God’s voice never comes with slimy, chilling fear…maybe some apprehension, but never black fear. That is always the voice of the other side. But if the sense from God you have fills you with a strange excitement, and glorious sense of peace, and helps you to believe and have faith that something very specific will happen…like here the prophet knew that the altar would split in half, then there is every reason to believe it is from God. Let me add here, the Scripture says ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart’…if something strengthens His peace it is probably from God, if it disturbs your peace, it probably is not.
3. And finally there was a private and personal cost that came with hearing God’s voice in this story. While on his mission the prophet was not to eat or drink, and he was not to come back the way he went. In other words he was to fast while doing this work. This is completely in line with how God works with people – for with God we cannot be radical for him in public, unless we are radical for him in our private lives. The public flows out of the private for God’s people. It was the same for Abraham’s servant, the same for Daniel, the same for many others…
So this is a final test we can apply – is this word from God going to strengthen or weaken my ego. Is it going to bring about more self-sacrifice, or more self- promotion? God’s word brings about self-sacrifice, in private.
I am not saying these are the only things to look out for when we are wondering if we have heard from God, but they are here in this story from the Bible…let’s re-cap…is this message in line with God’s character and mission as revealed in the Bible; does it bring about courage and faith; will it lead to more self-sacrifice?
This section proves that
Christians can hear God speak clearly and about very personal matters,
but there was a second half to this statement....
but we must always be wary of other voices that can deceive us.
What are the warning signs in this story that a voice is not from God…
1. Does not make obvious sense because it is discourteous and dangerous. The message from the false prophet is first of all doubly indirect…it first comes to an angel, then to him, then to our hero. He gets the message third hand from God. This is discourteous. We all know what it is like to hear orders via other people…it does not make us feel respected. But God is a gentleman, and a gentleman certainly does not send sudden changes of orders by another messenger. He will tell you Himself, in the way you are used to hearing from Him. God is also concerned about the safety of his servants…this is why he didn’t want the prophet eating in Bethel and told him to get out by a different route. But this message has no concern for security. It is taking our hero right back into the heart of danger. That is not God’s way. He does not carelessly put his people in danger for the sake of a meal. To sum up…this message didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense for God to suddenly change his mind, and it didn’t make sense to send his servant back into danger just for a meal with a stranger. So it’s completely out of line with God’s character.
So next time you hear a message claiming to be directly from God, ask this question – is this in line with God’s character, is this how I know God has worked in the past, is this how I know God speaks to me. Jesus says, ‘My sheep hear my voice’, all Christians can hear His voice…you don’t have to hear personal messages from somebody else, especially if God has told you the opposite.
2. The false voice appeals to the flesh. God’s voice appeals to our spirit, which operates in the realm of faith. But this prophecy appealed directly to our prophet’s stomach. He has been fasting, and he’s clearly tired, that’s why we find him resting under this oak tree, and now this nice old man turns up and says come on home….the rice is nearly cooked, the kebabs are sizzling on the barbeque, I have fresh tomatoes and herbs from my garden for the salad, ice cream and chocolate sauce for desert….the whole message was for the flesh, not the spirit. And that is a warning sign.
So too, if you hear a message that is really appealing to your flesh, however dramatic and spiritual the presentation, that’s not the genuine article. In fact quite often it can be the voice of your inner child which is always demanding the best for guess who – you. It’s false. God want us to crucify our flesh, and live a life of faith.
3. False voices have not made a personal sacrifice. The true Word of God carries a private price for the prophet – he has travelled, he has fasted, he has risked his life denouncing the altar - but this old prophet hasn’t done much…in fact I have a few questions for him…if he was a prophet, why hadn’t he spoken out against Jeroboam? He has just stood by and let another man do the hard work. He hasn’t risked his life, he has just rode out on a donkey that his sons got ready for him, and at the end of all his prophetic activity he is just going to enjoy a big meal entertaining a now famous religious star. He gets a lot out of it. In fact that might well be why he was willing to lie, because he wanted people to see that he had entertained the prophet who healed the king’s hand. It was all about his status. He was going to feel good…isn’t that terrible? People claiming to speak for God just to feel good, just so they can go up the spiritual ladder.
This happens today, especially when people are sick. We need to be blunt here. God does heal some, and He can even bring people back from the dead. This healing is a sign…but most people who for example get cancer, die from cancer, and someone who is dying from cancer actually needs to be grateful for the time they are being given to prepare themselves. What is not needed is lots of prophets coming in and claiming they have heard from God that the cancer is going to be healed, when they haven’t really heard at all. But it makes them feel good. Oooooh, I am the man and woman of faith, I can pray against cancer, it’s my prayer that can heal people from cancer. The person praying feels good and walks away from the hospital…but what about the poor patient? Instead of being helped to trust God that He knows best and wants to bring him or her to heaven, instead, as the cancer gets worse as usually happens, so the patient instead of trusting God, is in his or her last days questioning God and asking why the healing has not happened…and even worse, thinking that somehow their lack of faith is to blame…that they are not good enough. Oh, what cruel torture comes to the sick because of false spirituality! If truly God has spoken to someone that He is going to heal a cancer patient, that person will go from Judah to Bethel, they will fast, and they will risk their lives to give the message – and God can heal but usually He doesn’t choose to for our total healing is in heaven, not here.
So we need to be careful when we hear a message and we know that really the only person who is doing well out of the message is the messenger. They are getting to feel good...and if they get it wrong, if the sick person isn't healed, or, like what happened here they are killed by lions, people get hurt, that's the point...and they don't even come back and say sorry to the relatives of that sick person...then you know you are dealing with someone who does not have integrity, does not have character...we should be careful.
CONCLUSION
Christians can hear God speak clearly and about very personal matters, but we must always be wary of other voices that can deceive us.
In this great story in 1 Kings 13 we have three confirmation signs, and three warning signs to help us know when God is speaking, and when He is not, when it is a false voice.
If the nudge, impression, message you hear is in line with God's character and mission
If it fills you with faith and joy and courage that you know is not from you
And if it involves some personal, private sacrifice
This message is probably from God.
But if it is wholly out of line with God's character and mission – and especially if it is from some one else
If the message is very much for the flesh does not fill you with a sense of joy and peace
and if you sense that actually the so called prophecy serves the status of the prophet more than the people – then be careful...
No comments:
Post a Comment