Prophets Not Sent By God

 God calls certain people to fulfill certain roles in His kingdom work. One of those roles is the role of being a prophet. The word is very easy to understand. It literally means "to speak forth." The prophet is to speak forth the Word of God so people can understand exactly what the Lord wants them to know. This calling was especially vital in the Old Testament times when the believers did not have the Holy Spirit living in them and personal copies of the Bible were very limited. The prophets were sent out by God to make sure the people did not miss the will of God. However, while there were prophets sent by the Lord, there were also prophets not sent by God. (Jeremiah 23:21-22) Isaiah made this very clear to the people of his day. God did not send out these prophets, but they ran on their own. God did not speak to them, but they prophesied anyway. If they had really stood in the council of God, they would have enabled God's people to hear His words. They would have turned the people from their evil ways and deeds. These unsent prophets are still around today, so we need to be warned, too.

The media is filled with preachers and teachers who claim to speak forth God's Word. A very high percentage of them do not stick with God's Word, the Bible. They take the Bible and twist it to say what they want to say and what the people want to hear. This is one of the signs we are near the end of time. People want to have their ears tickled, but they don't want to hear the truth. These unsent prophets proclaim a message of health and wealth. They say that all we have to do is speak, and we can make things happen on our own. They make it sound like God wants us to think positively all the time and everything will be OK. These things are not in God's Word. They lead us away from God. Real, God sent prophets enable people to hear the Word of God, the Bible, in a clear way, so they can follow all of it, not just certain parts. God sent prophets turn people from evil ways and deeds, even when it is a message the people don't want to hear. I pray that all believers will ask the Spirit to show us the true prophets and the unsent prophets, so we can be fed the truth and live holy lives as God has designed for us to live.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Jeremiah 24-26.