10. Prophecies:

My dearly beloved in Christ, we should not despise prophecies. We must analyze the prophecies and accept the good things in it and what seems evil should be left behind.

When we read The Holy Bible, we see that God raised his holy servants and spoke his words through them. Whichever book of prophecy we meditate upon, we see that God speaks to establish his righteousness and justice within us. He does this by using his words for correction, for reproof and to inspire us.

Revelation 22: 18,19 - For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

In Jeremiah 23:28, God says regarding prophecy - “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the Lord.

God is telling that his true word is wheat and the word of lies is chaff.

Jeremiah 23: 29 – 32 says - “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

“Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who steal My words everyone from his neighbor.

Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’

Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23: 10, 11 says - For the land is full of adulterers; For because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, and their might is not right.

“For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23: 12 - “Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

My dearly beloved, God is showing us clearly through these verses that prophets may speak in all these ways.

Jeremiah 23: 13 – 17 - “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal And caused My people Israel to err.

Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, And make them drink the water of gall; For from the prophets of Jerusalem Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the Lord.

They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”

In this way, God is calling those who are saying such prophecies as wicked.

Jeremiah 23: 19 – 21 says - Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

The anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.

“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Who are the prophets that Our Lord sends?

Deuteronomy 18: 15 – 22 says - “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,

according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.

“And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good.

I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. (That is Jesus Christ)

And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’

And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—

when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

(As an example, God anointed Saul as King of Israel through Samuel) I Samuel 10: 6 – 10 says - Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.

And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.

You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, till I come to you and show you what you should do.”

So it was, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day.

When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.

If you have to tell God’s word as a prophecy, the heart of the person telling the prophecy should be a new heart. (Christ’s heart)

If not the evil Spirit will cheat us, and we will be cheated thinking it is God’s word.

In prophecies, God has written to us about many different types of prophecies.

God was very angry with King Ahab, the King of Israel. This was because he was scheming against the vineyard.

I Kings 22: 20 – 23 says - And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.

Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’

The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’

Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”

In this way, if our walk does not please God, He will send a lying spirit into us. He will send the lying spirit and the deceiving spirit for us to be deceived. Therefore, we must always be watchful.

In 2 Thessalonians 2: 10 – 12 - and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,

that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all.

-      To be continued