The Prophets are Speaking. Should We Listen?

We know there were prophets in the past who God used mightily. After all, there are whole books of the Bible that were written by these prophets who God told to do certain things and to speak certain words. I have mentioned in a previous post how the messages these prophets spoke, typically of impending doom, were peppered with messages of hope (God's Prophecy of Hope) and that hope is not hope unless it is actually tangible and will come to be in the physical as prophesied.

Do such prophets exist today as well? One of the arguments by many against this tenet is that today we have all Scripture from God so there is no need for prophets today. But did God only use prophets to provide his scripture to us? As I pointed out in another post (Church Age), there were many other prophets who God used but their words did not become part of our canon of Scripture. It would seem it was not the office of prophet that determined the use of their words, but God’s intended purpose of their inspired words which the Holy Spirit gave them. Yet, the common denominator seems to be that all those whom God called to be a prophet pointed their audience to God and to God’s scripture. Their main purpose was to help prevent God’s people from going astray or to help them understand the error of their ways so they would return to God wholeheartedly.

So, if there are prophets today, they should be doing the same. I think there are three criteria they would be fulfilling based on what I just stated above: (1) they provide God’s inspired words, but not adding to what the Bible already has told us; (2) they point people back to God and his precepts; and (3) while they may be speaking about what God will be doing or is doing, they are not adding to Scripture, but utilizing Scripture for us to focus on to either teach us some aspect of Scripture we have not, or are not, abiding by or recognizing.

Yet, we need to recognize that prophecy can be tricky for us to validate before we jump in wholeheartedly. After all, the enemy has his prophets also. Our enemy, Satan, uses them to distract, divide, and confuse us so that we focus on the division their words cause us rather than on the message the true prophets are trying to get us to understand. It seems this has been his modus operandi from the very beginning. Maybe a few examples will help us. During the time of Jeremiah, there were those who opposed his prophecies as being untrue and unfounded and even publicly ridiculed him (Jr 28:1-11), and God proved the false prophet to be untrue as he met an untimely death (Jr 28:12-17). God revealed these false prophets’ true motives as being from the enemy (Jr 23:13-14). Almost all God’s prophets had to deal with false prophets who tried to make the people believe their words null and void. This was true of Isaiah (Is 8:20) and Ezekiel (Ek 22:28) as well.

We find similar cautions in the New Testament also. Jesus warned people of this issue even in his day (Mt 7:15) as well as what would happen in their future (Mt 24:24). John (1Jn 4:1), Peter (2Pt 2:1-3), and Paul (Cl 2:8) also provided this same warning.

So, if we know there will be false prophets among us, wouldn’t that suggest we would also have true prophets of God in our midst as well? Why would we need them if we have all of God’s scripture? Well, it seems the false prophets are using scripture (or, rather, misapplying scripture) to support their false theories and teachings (2Co 11:13). We need true prophets to cause us to focus on the true meaning of scripture and not fall for such false teachings. While, yes, we can accomplish the same on our own, we also know most of us do not dive into scripture and personally pray to understand its true meaning. True prophets will (and should, if they exist today) cause us to focus correctly on what God is telling us through Scripture.

If this was not true, then why would John say to test the spirits to tell if a prophet is true or false (1Jn 4:1)? What was the litmus test? “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (1Jn 4:2-3). So, listen to several messages from those who claim to be prophets. Are they consistent in their messaging? Do they talk about other prophets and demean them? Do they point you to Scripture or focus you on what they say? Does their message align with all Scripture or just the point they are making with a specific scripture reference (which may be out of context if it doesn’t align with all scripture). And, as John told us, is Jesus Christ the center of their teaching?

So, what are these prophets telling us that is putting so many people in a quandary? We’ll get into that in my next post. I hope you join me.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens