Some offices have experienced this: An email from the boss lands in everyone’s inbox describing company plans for the next quarter.
Some misunderstand it. Others roll their eyes and decide to ignore it, saying, “This too shall pass.”
And then there are the few who talk as though they’re representing the front office. You can’t help but like what they have to say. Their critique of the memo combines humor and positive-think. Their opinions on how to run the company are far more insightful than the sterile email. Over the next week at the water cooler, you start to see things their way.
Then, all of you get fired.
What happened? Well, the email had been the will of the boss. The water cooler talk had been the will of others. That was the point of conflict. Somehow, it never occurred to you that there was any conflict at all, just a more colorful take on what had been written.
This is a cautionary tale for the Christian who seeks the will of God.
Want to know His will? Read your Bible. Want to hear His will in an audible voice? Read the Bible out loud.
Okay, that’s a salty statement.
But it shows how reliable the Scriptures are.
For all its reliability, though, the Bible isn’t alluring for folks who have a taste for experience disconnected from truth. It has a way of knocking the shine off many a misguided religious fantasy. It grounds people who like to float. Those hungering for visionary power and pizzazz will, unfortunately, find the written Word about as exciting as a Betty Crocker Cookbook.
However, the Bible is every bit as foundational to our spiritual vision as that cookbook is to a brownie.
While we must value genuine prophetic speech that opens the heart of God, never was the call for discernment of those voices more pressing than today. With the rapid development of communication technology, every keyboard has become a pulpit, and every anonymous voice an aspiring prophet.
I realize that to speak this way is a non-starter for some folks. Cessationists say prophecy no longer happens, anyway. Since they maintain it has already vanished (c.f. 1 Cor. 13:8), this post is meaningless. On the other hand, many charismatic enthusiasts will affirm anything claiming to be prophetic. They reject limitations upon the use of prophetic gifts, so this post will come across as, well, ugly.
Regardless of either judgment, I’m more concerned that we not find ourselves players in the drama of Ezekiel:
7:26 Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders.
This is characteristic of the wayward and disobedient among God’s people. They passionately search for something from Him—a vision, a leading, a direction, a sign, divorced from His written word.
I’ve encountered some believers who actually assume current “prophetic” words overrule Scripture. This misguided attitude sees no connection between prophetic vision, law, and wisdom. And yet in God’s plan, all three are inseparably linked.
This is what distinguished Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the rest of the canonical prophets from the false prophets of their respective times. Those truly speaking for God captured the spirit and thrust of the law of Moses, applying it in real time to erring listeners, presenting repentance as their only true hope and, ultimately, the coming of Christ.
Meanwhile, the false ones spoke out of their imaginations, claiming that their personal dreams and wishes were divine. In essence, they acted as ventriloquists who projected their voices into the mouth of God by saying, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Prophecy should first depend upon the prophet’s uttermost fidelity to Scripture. For instance, Jeremiah’s book formed a core within Daniel’s ministry, something Daniel clearly described in chapter 9 of his book. And yet he didn’t simply parrot Jeremiah. Instead, he saw and was captivated by Jeremiah’s written word concerning the deeper importance of the land, the people, the temple, and the return from Babylon.
Though huge predictive elements had dominated the earlier chapters of Daniel’s book, the themes of sin, repentance, and divine discipline became the focus in the latter parts. Consequently, Daniel’s prayer recorded in chapter 9 is one of the most strategic of the entire Old Testament period.
These prophets applied the law of Moses–that is, opened the heart of God by bringing the Word into a current setting. They didn’t invent things.
This, of course, is not to say a prophet’s only responsibility lies in quoting verses from the Bible. False prophets are actually good at isolating biblical words and phrases from their context and using them to invent promises God never meant to give.
There has to be a balance. At the end of the day, we shouldn’t be soured with skepticism, but neither should we embrace every “Word” out there with fresh-faced enthusiasm.
No.
Paul wrote to the early church:
1 Thes. 5:20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.
And in 1 Corinthians 14:29, Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.
The Scriptures provide engine warning lights for the church when it discerns prophetic words.
- Do they encourage and console? (Empowering faith, increasing endurance under suffering, 1 Cor. 14:3).
- Do they build up? (Causing an increase in the living knowledge of God and a participation in His purpose, 1 Cor. 14:3).
- Do they convict? (Illuminating the state of others to themselves, causing them to repent and touch the living presence of God, 1 Cor. 14:24-25)
- Do they bear bad fruit? (sinful lifestyles such as immorality, divisiveness, violence, lying, greed, etc. Matt. 7:15-19).
- Do they predict things that do not come to pass? (God doesn’t get the future wrong; Deut. 18:22).
- Do they teach bad theology? (distorted gospels are anathema, even if what is said comes to pass! Deut. 13:1-3, Matt. 24:24, Acts 20:29-30).
In this way, the fixed, written word of God holds accountable those who bring it in the moment, in the situation, in the culture, and in the setting.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on John Myer
Featured Image by Tiến Đỗ Mạnh from Pixabay
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