by Neil Anderson
November 22
Jeremiah 23:29
“Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”
If you attend a Christian fellowship where prophecies are part of public worship, I wonder if we should expect from God generic messages like, “I love you, My children” or “I’m coming soon.” These statements are certainly true, but why would they need to be prophesied, since the Bible already clearly asserts God’s love and Christ’s imminent return? I have heard “prophecies” like these given in churches where many people were living in sin, lulling them into an unrighteous complacency.
The voice of a prophet is a consuming fire and a shattering hammer. A prophetic message should motivate people to righteousness, not placate them in their sin (1 Peter 4:17). God is more concerned about church purity than about church growth. Comfort only comes to those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake by allowing God’s Word to purge their sin and shatter their self-centeredness.
Jeremiah relates two other evidences of false prophets: “‘Behold, I am against the prophets,’ declares the LORD, ‘who steal My words from each other'” (23:30). That’s plagiarism: taking what God gave someone else and using it as if it were your own. “‘I am against the prophets,’ declares the LORD, ‘who use their tongues and declare, “the Lord declares”‘” (verse 31).
Declaring that what you are saying is directly from the Lord when it isn’t is an incredible offense to God. If God wants me to know something He will tell me directly. I believe in the priesthood of believers; however, God can and will encourage us and confirm His Word to us through others. “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). If someone says to you “God told me to tell you . . .” that person may be functioning as a medium. The gift of prophecy should reveal the secrets of the heart so people will fall on their faces and worship God (1 Corinthians 14:25). Then God will guide them by His Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Lord, teach me not to quench Your Spirit nor to despise prophetic utterances but to examine everything and hold fast to what is good.
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Reblogged this on A Conservative Christian Man.
Thank you Paul for blessing others with Neil’s words. 🙂
You are welcome my ‘faithful’ friend! Believers must share God’s Word and His truth. We must counter the false teachers and watered cafeteria Christians who pick and choose what to believe and what to ignore (at their peril I might add) on a daily even hourly basis and are deluded into thinking they are righteous.
God Bless you my friend.
Well said, thank you brother. 🙂
Love the name of your blog!!
Thank you! Blessings to you in Christ 🙂
It has been my experience that God will use others to give us a message of warning, confronting a sin, or of encouragement for others. I don’t agree with the statement “God told me to tell you” being as a medium. Yes, we do have to be discerning in what we receive or reject but the Lord isn’t limited to just the Bible. He also speaks through people. I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving Greg.
I agree God uses others for many things in “speaking” to us. I think though that Neil was driving at was people who will say to you, “God told me to tell you” – and whatever they say is not backed up by anything else. I don’t think Neil is speaking of those who are merely confirming something to you, providing insight along with other sources be they people or Scripture that spoke to you etc.
I believe the reference is to those who out of the blue say God told me… and what they say is more often than not false as it had nothing to do with God. Hopefully I made sense? 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving Sue, thank you for being a blessing. 🙂