By David ReayTuesday 10 Apr 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Jeremiah 14:13-15
13 Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, their prophets are telling them, ‘All is well—no war or famine will come. The Lord will surely send you peace.’”
14 Then the Lord said, “These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts. 15 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will punish these lying prophets, for they have spoken in my name even though I never sent them. They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves will die by war and famine! (NLT)
Quite a few of us may have had the experience of fellow Christians telling us that God has told them a certain thing, or that God has revealed to them certain realities that are not known to others. We are solemnly reminded that not all are privy to such revelations, that God has only shared his mind and heart with selected individuals.
What makes this challenging is that we have to acknowledge God can prompt and guide us individually through his Spirit. God does still speak to us, and speaks to us as individuals. Yet all such private revelations are to be tested against Scripture and considered by a wider group of believers. I am not bound to automatically accept what a person says simply because he or she claims that God told them. And as a result I can appear to be opposing the Spirit of God.
The prophets of Jeremiah’s day claimed to speak for God when all they were doing was pandering to the political elites of the day. They dressed up their lies and political machinations so as to seem like true prophecy. It was anything but.
If we think God is telling us something as individuals, we need to consider its consistency with Scripture and submit it to others we trust and respect. None of us can claim an exclusive hotline to God.
Blessings
David Reay