“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matt. 24:24)
Hit and miss, best guess, while claiming it’s a vision from the Lord, a dream of the night given by God to them. Have you ever noticed how disparaging circumstances bring them out of the woodwork, how they always seem to fit the scenario of the latest portent of doom that is occurring in the world? I wonder, how many of them would attempt to speak of what they profess to have been given if they had no television, no internet access, no continuous information arriving to them in any form from the outside world?
If there is one thing a false prophet craves it is recognition, pride is what drives them to seek for self-gratification which can only come when they are listened to by others. They believe themselves to be watchmen on the wall, but they see only shadows in the mist, nothing tangible, nothing of value. When the news of the world is not worldwide, they search for anything that will keep the attention on them.
“And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him?” (1st Kings 22:7) Before these two Kings went to battle they consulted with the prophets, with their ministers of spiritual direction, so to speak, and every one of them told them what they wanted to hear, that they would be victorious, even Jeremiah when he was called. But they knew better, they knew that this man was a prophet of God, that what he was told to say would come to pass because what he was given came from Almighty God. The proof of this was that everything that he had proclaimed in the past had come to pass.
If you become enamored with a person on a social media site, behind the pulpit, anyone that you see, hear or meet that professes to have a “new revelation” from the Lord, a future prophecy, a predication that they profess to have been given to them by God, check their track record. Search their past videos and test the Spirits, see if they have been wrong, even once, if they have, and I can pretty much guarantee you that they have, then apply Deuteronomy 18:22 to them. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
Take a look at the excuses they offer, if any, and then rebuke them. Balaam loved the wages that he received, and so do they, whether it be in the form of financial renumeration, self-recognition, pride or any other form. They are deceiving and being deceived.
As this world devolves into greater sin, as it rushes as fast as possible away from the Almighty, they will increase and many will fall for their deceptions, you must not. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2nd Tim. 2:15)
Feed the poor, attend to the widows and orphans, reach out to the lost, encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ, use the gifts you have been blessed with for the glory of God, stay on the wall and watch. When these false prophets cross your path, rebuke them and then continue in what you have been commanded to do.