Chapter 1Prophets and Prophecies

     Many times people prophesy against people who they don't like or something they saw and decided that God is using them to bring correction and judgment.  The devil is a liar, regardless of how gifted you are none but the Father decides whom he uses, when He uses them and how he uses them.

     All throughout biblical history God always used prophets that had a heart for the people, which were standing the gap for mercy for the people.  And then when they did speak, because their heart was pure, the message was received as from God.

     Now some people accepted, some did not, but all reverenced it as being from God.

     There is one occasion when God reprimanded and rebuked one of his prophets, because they lost their affection for the people, and that is Moses.  When Moses disobeyed God, he stroke the rock and did not speak, as God commanded.  Why?  Because his anger and his frustration he had toward the people.  His patience ran out.  And unfortunately for him, he was withheld from going into the promise land.

     Today, God is tired of people getting a feeling and saying its God, or seeing a dream and saying God showed me, being upset because the Pastor isn't moving like you expect and believing that God sent you to correct His shepherds.  Not so!  Stop lying on God!

     Then this message came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the false prophets of Israel who are inventing their own visions and claiming to have messages from when I have never told them anything at all.  Woe upon them!

     O, ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel, these 'prophets' of yours are as useless as foxes for rebuilding your walls!  O evil prophets, what have you ever done to strengthen the walls of Israel against her enemies- by strengthening Israel in the Lord? 

     Instead you have lied when you said, "My message is from God!" God did not send you.  And yet you expect him to fulfill your prophecies.  Can you deny that you have claimed to see 'visions' you never saw, and that you have said, "This message is from God,' when I never spoke to you at all?

     One day the woman's child went out to visit his father, who was working with the reapers.  He complained about a headache, and soon was moaning in pain.  His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother."

     So he took him home, and his mother held him on her lap; but around noontime he died.  She carried him up to the bed of the

prophet and shut the door, then she sent a message to her husband:

"Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the prophet and come right back."

     As she approached Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance and said to Gehazi, "Look, that woman from Shunem is coming.   Run and meet her and ask her what the trouble is.  See is her husband is all right and if the child is well."

She told the servant "all is well".

     Elisha was the great prophet at that time; he was able to predict rain, and the birth of the child.  He hears from God.  He was used heal people from diseases and heard from God to deliver messages to the king.  However, this is noted in scripture that God does not reveal everything to us, not even His prophets.  When people say God reveals everything to me, they are lying.  Even Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour for his return, none but the Father.  So who are we?  Are we closer to God than Jesus His only begotten Son?

     Here we find that Miriam and Aaron were doing big talk about how they hear from God and how they are prophets of God also. 

Miriam was the main one who was questioning Moses being the one who hears from God.  So many times this happens in the church.

     The Pastor may ask the church to go on a fast, and then there is someone in the church who says, like Miriam, "I didn't hear that from God, the Pastor needs to hear from me, because I am a prophet and God speaks to me to give direction to the Pastor".

     No, God is not the author of confusion.  God set the church up to follow the leader, which is the Pastor and the Pastor must ultimately follow the voice of God and God only.  Yes, I believe in prophets but even the scripture says "the spirit of a prophet is subject to a prophet".  If you feel that you have a word from God, pray and ask God to reveal it to the leader.  After all, the Pastor (shepherd) has the responsibility of feeding and nurturing the sheep, not the prophet.

     There was a prophet on a mission.  God gave him strict orders to not to eat anything or drink any water while he was in that city, and

not to return to Judah by the road he came in.

     First, the king was so grateful of the prophet healing his arm he begged him to stay and eat, rest awhile and he promised him a reward.

     The prophet boldly replied, even if you gave me half of your palace, I wouldn't go into it, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place; for so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Beth-el.

     There was an old prophet in Beth-el; his sons came home and told him what the prophet from Judah had done and what he had said to the king.

     Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. Then he answered, "No, I can't; for I am not allowed to eat anything or drink any water at Bethel.  The Lord strictly warned me against it; and he also told me not to return home by the same road I came on."

     But the old man said, "I am a prophet too, just as you are; gave me a message from the Lord.  I am to take you home with me and give you food and water."  But the old man was lying to him. So they went back together, and the prophet ate some food and drank some water at the old man's home.

     Then, suddenly, while they were sitting at the table, a message from the Lord came to the old man, and he shouted at the prophet from Judah, "The Lord says that because you have been disobedient

to his clear command, and have come here, and have eaten and drunk water in the place he told you not to, therefore your body shall not be buried in the grave of your fathers."

     The old prophet's conduct proves that he was not really a godly man. When the change took place under Jeroboam, he preferred his ease and interest to his religion.

He took a very bad method to bring the good prophet back. It was all a lie.

     Believers are most in danger of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretences of holiness. We may wonder that the wicked prophet went unpunished, while the holy man of God was suddenly and severely punished. What shall we make of this? The judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom; and there is a judgment to come.

     Nothing can excuse any act of willful disobedience. This shows what they must expect who hearkens to the great deceiver. They that yield to him as a tempter will be terrified by him as a tormentor. Those whom he now fawns upon, he will afterwards fly upon; and whom he draws into sin, he will try to drive to despair.

     The scripture says in I Corinthians 14:40 – "Let all things be done decently and in order."

     All throughout biblical history God always used prophets that had a heart for the people, which were standing the gap for mercy for the people.  And then when they did speak, because their heart was pure, the message was received as from God.

     Now some people accepted, some did not, but all reverenced it as being from God.

     There is one occasion when God reprimanded and rebuked one of his prophets, because they lost their affection for the people, and that is Moses.  When Moses disobeyed God, he stroke the rock and did not speak, as God commanded.  Why?  Because his anger and his frustration he had toward the people.  His patience ran out.  And unfortunately for him, he was withheld from going into the promise land.