A false prophet in the Old Testament was someone who said that the Lord had spoken to them and that a certain event was going to come to pass. They were in today’s vernacular a fortune teller, so to speak, they professed to be able to hear the voice of God concerning future events. “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.” (Duet. 18:22)
There are still false prophets of this sort in the world, the dreamers of dreams, those who profess to have a special revelation from the Lord, and their popularity is indeed growing. Not all of them of course but many can trace their origins to some offshoot of the Charismatic movement and not all of them believe themselves to be charlatans, they truly believe the deception that they have been entrapped by. The speaking in tongues group have quite a few followers still.
We have the complete and inerrant Word of God today, all that He has to say to us He has said, Revelation 22:18 is just one verse that confirms this. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” Another would be the passage in 1 Corinthians 13:8, “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
The path of emotions is fraught with more danger than perhaps any other path to the Kingdom of God.
Today the word prophecy means the ability to properly expound upon the Word of God in not just an intelligent way, but one that can only come upon a man when he is in wisdom from the Lord shown the truths of His word, there is no other way. Only God can show us what He meant when He said what He said, and one must have a fervent desire to never dishonor the Lord by misinterpreting His Holy words. It is the greatest fear of every man who has truly been called by the Lord to preach and teach, to be wrong in their interpretation of the Scriptures.
When someone who stands behind that pulpit, who stands on a street corner, who writes letters, books, makes videos, whatever he does that he is sure that the Lord has called him to do begins to start that task, the first words that their lips speak, that their mind says, that their heart cries out to God for is that He would be glorified by what they are about to attempt. They know for a fact that if they say, “In my opinion,” that those who do not study their Bibles, those that do not research the Word of God diligently will believe them, and if they are wrong, not only is God dishonored, but they have just led others astray. “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” (James 3:1)
We cannot be wrong.
It is a burden beyond our ability to carry, it is a great fear that can only be swayed by the knowledge that every time their mouths are opened, every time the pen is laid to that paper, that it is the Holy Spirit that is guiding them. This does not remove their responsibility, they are nothing more than a tool in the Master’s hands, but sometimes a hammer likes to think it is a knife.
I am not a writer, I am a messenger, but many messengers have imagined they have been sent when they have not even been called. You have heard pastors speak; you have read supposedly “Christian” books that will attest to this fact.
We do not care if people like what we say, honestly, we do not even care if they hear the wisdom that the Lord is using us to impart to them, it is not ours in the first place, it is His. We care that not one word dishonors the Lord, that every sentence in some way glorifies Him. If those who hear and read are encouraged, all the better, if the Holy Spirit uses those ways to convict them in their walk, that is indeed a blessing, but if God is not glorified, then I might as well throw this pen in the trash, and never speak another word.
