You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.
- Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (NRSV)
Just before this verse Deuteronomy warns that false prophets; or prophets who 'presume to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded' (Deuteronomy 18:20) 'shall die.'
Whenever we speak of God I think we should whisper / cover our mouths in humility; it is a dangerous thing to stand up and say: "Thus says the Lord..."
If I feel 'led' this way or that; if I pray and agonize all night about the message I should preach on Sunday because I know not everyone will like it; and feel 1000% convinced that this is of God. When the the conviction / the fire in my bones (Jer 20:9) is so strong it bursts in me; I still never stand up and say: "God has laid it on my heart to tell you this..."
I won't tell you how much I've prayed, I won't tell you how I have sweated over what it is I have to say. I believe that if what I have to say is from God; then it will be the job of the Holy Spirit to say yes in you. And I want you to know that sometimes I don't pray or prepare as much as I should - just in case you start to think that everything I say comes from the same place of conviction.
In fact - whenever someone starts with: "The Lord told me..." or "God has laid it on my heart to tell you..." I shut down. I worry about the person speaking; are you going to implicate yourself in blasphemy? Rather - humbly say: Do you think God is telling us to do... Does that resonate with you and the Holy Spirit?
Even the council of apostles in Acts when confronted with a difficult and delicate Theological and church polity problem - after debate and discernment on the highest level simply responded with the words: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..." Such a humble way for such authoritative people to speak. A way that offers you the chance to say in your heart - does this seem good to the Holy Spirit and to me. Resonance.
Jesus warns us: "For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great sings and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note, I have told you beforehand..."
- Matthew 24:24
Too often we think that this is all about people who come along and pretend to be Jesus; we'd see through that one straight away (although some people fall for the trick). False prophets are subtle; everything they say sounds Biblical; sounds orthodox - they encourage you not to think too much about what they are saying, if you correct them they tell you that you are judgmental or you lack faith.
They never stand up and say Jesus is a monkey from Mars and you need to drink this cool-aid. They start by saying: The reason you don't have healing is that you haven't yet caught the tail of Jesus. Your church hasn't told you about the tail because they are afraid of its power... (They actually tell more believable and credible sounding stories but I liked the monkey example.)
The worry about the false prophets is that they target the kindest, sweetest, most innocent and lovely people. They promise a gospel that solves all the problems of the world with miracle cures and the kindest people wish that there hopeful stories were true. But the gospel is not the answer to our wishful dreams - the gospel calls us to the tough task of faithful, life sacrificing discipleship.
The worst example is the miracle healing crusaders that take up lots of cash to fly around in aeroplanes and some even charge money for you to go to miracle school. Normal - less spectacular 'honest to God' Christianity arrives in impoverished places; establishes schools, send graduates to varsity, establish hospitals and teaching hospitals... and miracles happen.
So - don't be afraid of those who speak to confidently about all the stuff they think God told them - and all the stuff they think God is doing; but they can't prove it.
Ask the questions.
Dissect the answers.
And if the answers are simply deflections or a call to 'just have faith'. Remind them that faith in Jesus is faith in a physically real - incarnational God. And not a case for 'just have faith'.
