In recent years we see an explosion of people who claim to be "prophets". They claim to hear from the Spirit of God. And they claim to relay messages, or "words" from God.
There are entire events geared for this sort of thing. "Prophetic Conferences", as they were. At these events, people attend for one of two reasons:
- They want to hear a personal "word" from God, spoken over them by a "prophet", and/or,
- They want to learn how to hear from God themselves.
These kind of meetings are usually popular among Charismatic/Pentecostal Christians.
Many of them claim to talk to, and hear from God almost all the time.
Some of these people never open the Bible, the book they are supposed to believe in. They say that we don't have to go by the written word anymore, because today we have the Spirit of God. So why go to the Bible, when God can speak directly to you without such a book?
Yehezqel Italqi, a Messianic Jewish Rabbi from Toronto Canada, took it upon himself to research the absurd amount of Christian denominations that we have today. He claims there are over 40,000 of them. That means that within Christianity alone, there are 40,000 divisions!
The reasons for so many divisions in the "church" are as vast as you can possibly imagine. These divisions are sometimes based upon the most minuscule of things. But Mr. Italqi wanted to see if there were any common ground these denominations have. With do much division, is there anything that they all have in common?
Good question.
His conclusion: They all claim to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I have personally witnessed two preachers vehemently argue over what the Spirit of God says. One said the Spirit told him something that the other denies, saying that the Spirit of God told him something blatantly contrary.
We have to have a way to discern the truth from the false. We have to have a "rule" to go by. We have to have a final authority to consult.
Seeing that Christianity is inherently supposed to be based upon the teachings of Christ, we have a guide. But let's go even deeper. Let's go to the foundation: The Scriptures!
Without the scriptures, we would have to rely on what we heard through the "grapevine", a 2000 year grapevine! And you can just imagine how distorted things would get over 2000 years!
But thank God, we have ancient scriptures! Many of which date all the way back to the Dead Sea Scrolls. That is a secure foundation. And we need such a foundation. It is easy for the "river" of pure water to get polluted by the "dirt" of man through the millennia. That is why we need to go back to the source - first Century Christianity. We need to go back, not only by reading the scriptures, but understanding the culture back then. It is necessary to include the cultural context to the best of our ability, or else misinterpretations will surely follow.
The best way to interpret scripture is to familiarize ourselves with the author.
Every author was Jewish. And being such, every prophet's primary purpose was to call people back to obedience to God's law. A prophet isn't much of a prophet unless that prophet calls people to repentance.
Think about it. The primary message of Noah was repentance. We can say that because Noah is called the "Preacher of Righteousness". You can't be a preacher of righteousness without calling people back into right standing with God.
Jonah preached repentance, as he called the entire city of Nineveh to repentance.
Isaiah preached repentance, as he called people to come back to God.
Jeremiah preached repentance, as he called people back to right standing with God.
In fact, EVERY prophet preached repentance!
But, you may say, we are in a different time. Now we are in the New Testament.
Did anyone call people to repentance in the New Testament?
The answer is a resounding YES.
The first message of the Apostles was repentance, and they continued to preach repentance through their ministry, and all the way through the book of Acts.
The first message of Jesus was repentance. And more than that! The last message of Jesus, to His church was repentance in the book of Revelation. Notice Jesus called His church to repent, not the world!
Repentance is vital. But what is repentance? You may ask.
Repentance means to change, to turn things around in your life.
But that begs the question, how? How are you supposed to change? How are you supposed to turn things around in your life?
Repentance is changing and turning things around - positioning yourself - to receive God's blessing, by stopping all practice of breaking His law! That's it. Obey God.
But what about all these "Modern Day Personal Prophets" running around telling everyone that God loves them, and will bless them with a new house, a new job, a promotion, a new car, favor with colleagues, etc...etc... etc...? What about them?
You see, we are living in the days of Micaiah.
Let me direct your attention to the First Book of Kings, chapter 22. The Kings of Judah and Israel wanted to know if God would be with them if they make war against Ramoth Gilead. They did what anyone would do. They called together the spiritual leaders of the nation. They rounded up a total of FOUR HUNDRED prophets!
And ALL four hundred of them told the Kings that God is with them, and will give them victory!
Sounds a lot like today's "prophets" doesn't it? They always prophesy things that are positive - things that leave people feeling good.
But somehow one of the Kings had a hunch.... he had a haunting feeling that something was not just right with the situation. Perhaps there is a "second opinion" in the air somewhere. They unintentionally, or should I say conveniently ignored, a certain prophet by the name of Micaiah. They decided to call him in and ask him the same question.
At first Micaiah played the game and said what all the rest of the 400 prophets said. But the King again had a feeling that Micaiah wasn't really being honest. The King demanded that he tell the truth. Micaiah broke down and told the King that God was NOT with him, and that if he goes to war - he will DIE!
Well, perhaps you know the story. The King thought long and hard.... do I believe all 400 "established" and "respected" prophets? Or, do I believe this one lone prophet?
He decided that 400 to 1 was overwhelming. He decided to go with the popular prophetic word. He went to war - and DIED - just a Micaiah said.
Sometimes it is best to listen to the few than to listen to the many. Sometimes it is better to go with the message that no one likes, than to go with the message that everyone likes.
This brings me to my closing point: Repentance is not the most well loved message in the world. In fact, if you tell people to repent, you will probably get accused of being overly negative, or hateful. But the truth is the truth. And people need the truth.
It doesn't matter how many "prophets" tell you that God is with you, loves you, and will never forsake you. It doesn't matter how many "prophets" tell you that God will bless you with a new house, vehicle, job, or position....
If a prophet does not define, identify, and expel sin, that prophet is a false prophet.
Any prophet that does not preach repentance is a false prophet.