ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

What should we think of someone who claims to have heard a message from God? Should we believe this person without any thought, question, or prayer? We do not need to look hard to find people claiming to hear messages from God…There’s “The 700 Club,” televangelists, pastors, and others in the body of Christ. But the fact they say the message comes from God does not necessarily mean it IS from God, no matter how reliable or trustworthy the source may seem. Take this story from the time of Jeroboam, King of Israel, in the First Book of Kings.

1 Kings 13:11-19 (emphasis mine)
11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king.
12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it.
14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place,
17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’”
18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him.
19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

Why did the man of God believe the old prophet? Was it just because of the fact he said the message was from God? It’s possible. It’s hard to argue with someone who says their message is from God. The fact the message was from an old prophet gave the message credibility, in addition to the seemingly divine origin of the message. And we can see the clearly good intentions of the old prophet. But, as we will see in the continuation of the message, this was false confidence in the old prophet, and it costs the man of God his life.

1 Kings 13:20-26
20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back.
21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you,
22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”
23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.
24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.
25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.”

How was the man of God supposed to know that the prophet was false? How was he to figure out the message was not from God? How can we avoid the same mistake in our daily lives, where people claim to be hearing messages from God? Will we not realize our mistake until it’s too late and suffer the same fate of the man of God? I hope it doesn’t come to that. This is how we can avoid listening to a false prophet and follow the truth.

Pray about it

Pray about the issue and what was given as God’s word. Nothing can be better for our discernment of the truth than getting closer to God in prayer. The Holy Spirit’s effect on us is the best tool for figuring out if the message spoken by another person is from God or from another source. Things said with the best intentions can still be against God.

Read the Word

The Holy Bible is God’s word. Consulting God’s word for the truth is essential if we are testing a message from a human against what God has revealed to us or spoken to us, either in our own lives or in the Bible. God’s word is absolute truth. If we hear a message contradicting the Bible, then we need to recognize the falsity of the message. Remember, the Bible talks about false prophets and false teachings:

Revelation 19:20
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image.

1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Understand Human Fallibility

A man can be wrong, no matter how credible or trustworthy he seems to be, just because he is a man. People may have the best intentions, but when their message begins to focus on prophecy, we must be wary and alert. We live in a world full of sinners. Sometimes people think they are speaking the truth but they are misled by their own minds. Others actively deceive us because of the influence of Satan. Cult leaders and charismatic people have been able to mislead thousands, even millions, into believing that something was the truth, that their message was righteous, while it was totally false and evil. Our world is corrupt, and we must recognize that leaders can deceive us, even the leaders of churches.

We live in a fallen world with many people trying to influence us. It is important to remember that not all messages claimed to be from God are actually from God. Pray, consult your Bible, and realize that man can be wrong if not led by the Holy Spirit. Through that same Spirit, discovery of the truth can be obtained, and the truth behind the message or the falsity of the message, will be revealed. We must always follow God’s word as the ultimate measure of truth!

Buzz

Photo accompanying article was taken by Flickr user wildphotons. The original photo can be found here, and was distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license.