The pastor ascends to the platform, Bible in hand, places it on the pulpit, stands confidently and prepares to address the people with what is coursing through his veins. A word. A word that has him nearly incapable of controlling himself. Many in attendance are familiar with this kind of passion coming from the pulpit and are ready to hear what the pastor has “heard for them from the Lord”. He’s tired of waiting. He’s ready for what he believes is “their season of miracles, of breakthroughs, of the fulfillment of ‘promises’ that they’ve long been told God has for them. He’s ready. He wants them ready. He’s heard of those warning of false teachers and false prophets and he can’t have his people testing if what they believe is true. He needs them off the edge of their seat, and doing the new thing he believes will ‘accelerate’ their promise. He stands before them and with great passion declares, “We have a promise!“ Immediately they jump up and shout ‘Amen’. He reminds them of every ‘promise’ that has been ‘spoken over them’ and that he believes that now is their season for the fulfillment of those promises, “but”… – They clap. They shout. He could say just about anything and they’d agree. There’s no discernment. – He proceeds to lead them further away from God’s Word and lays more burdens on them of what they must do to see the promise fulfilled.
But why should we not place implicit confidence in God and rely upon His word of promise? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Has His word of promise ever failed? Then let us not entertain any unbelieving suspicions of His future care of us. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not so His promises.
A. W. PINK
Can we trust God and His promises? Where are we to look for His promises? How has the desire to hear God outside of Scripture led to many trusting in false promises and lying visions? What does it say of God’s character to the world when the things professing Christian’s say God has promised, that He has not said, do not come to pass?
It seems everyone today is getting or seeking their own word from the Lord. Every week professing Christians gather not to hear God’s Word rightly exposited but to hear shallow preaching that says what they want to hear and others gather to “receive their own word from God”.
Men’s groups gather around campfires encouraging one another by what they feel like the Lord has revealed to them in a devotional style message. Before they leave they pray for one another but many men are adopting and applying unbiblical practices concerning the prophetic. They sit silently “Listening” – not praying; not reading Scripture; not meditating on the Word of God, rather, they are sitting completely quiet and expecting to hear new revelation. Someone shares what they feel like God is revealing to them for another man.
Likewise, ladies gather around kitchen tables with notebooks, pens, highlighters, sticky notes, a book, and maybe her Bible. They share their struggles and eager to move in the prophetic, someone feels like God is speaking to her for another lady and she tells her what “God said”. They cry together and bond over sharing personal struggles and finding comfort in the words of those “operating in the prophetic” as tears stain the cover of their closed Bibles.
Many hold in tension the belief that the Canon Is Closed and that God is still giving new revelation. Most who hold this view just accept that it must be possible to believe the Canon is closed while also believing that God is still speaking to us today, giving new revelation. They’ve never tested it. They see some verses in Scripture that speak of prophecy and because it’s in the New Testament, they assume it must be for us today. Many don’t know how to correctly study their Bible, have never looked into church history and do not know the history of their own movement or denomination. They buy the most popular “Christian” books, listen to the most popular “Christian” music and assume that what they are reading and singing is true. It’s “Christian”, so it must be true.
It is not uncommon to hear someone claiming “God told me”. The fact that it has become normative does not therefore mean that it is good or true. The problem is that many don’t test what they hear; if it sounds Biblical and many are practicing it, then it is assumed to be true.
This isn’t just a problem for individual Christians, or small groups, as dangerous and harmful as that is, but it is a problem for churches.
When a pastor needs to stir his people up again he brings in someone who “operates in the prophetic”. That guest speaker prays and “feels like” he has received a word from the Lord and comes to get the people excited again. What they may think is good is actually dangerous as it leads people away from the more sure Word of God and it leads them to trust in false promises of which God has not made. When those promises do not come to pass it can cause great harm to the faith of many.
It is common for those who practice the prophetic to give vague, subjective prophecies that are always only ever encouraging. This is not what we see in Scripture. Today, they test if it is true by how the person receives it. The test of a prophet was not if the person received it and now they must figure out what it means to them and if it doesn’t come to pass then it is their fault, not the prophet. Prophecy, according to Scripture, had the prophet always under the test of if it came true or not, and if it didn’t then they were stoned to death as a false prophet and if it came true but they led the people after other gods then they were a false prophet. It was a serious crime.
Today, the way prophecy is redefined, it is basically meaningless. You may or may not get it right: prophecy can be fallible. The prophet is not responsible if they get it wrong. What we see today that is called prophecy is completely foreign to Scripture.
Everyone Wants Their Own Promise
Why are there so many false prophets? Everyone wants their own word, their own promise. The demand is there.
The words these prophets speak are often vague, subjective, and tell people want they want to hear. Their words sound like the words of the false prophets in Scripture. They promise peace when there is no peace. They say what the people want to hear and make them feel good, safe, secure and do not warn them of their sinful condition and their need to repent. Those who “operate in the prophetic” or speak on behalf of God (not wanting to take the title of prophet) speak what makes people feel good.
People are hearing a positive “word” that they are told is from God and many times these people are dead in sin and do not hear the Gospel.
Often they are told that God loves them and has great plans for their life and He sees their struggles and He is about to work things out for them. Do you see the promises being made in God’s name and the failure to recognize their greatest need which is the Gospel? Not only are these very likely not even saved, but they have just been led into a wrong understanding of their “relationship” with God. They did not hear of the holiness of God, the wrath of God, their sin, that they are enemies of God or who Christ is and the greatest promise for all who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are not hearing about the God of the Bible because these professing Christians are not hearing from God. They speak the imaginations of their own minds. Many say that they are not prophets and therefore they are not prophesying, but what then do they think they are doing? They claim to be getting new revelation from God for someone else and speaking on behalf of God to those people. They can dance around the terminology and say they’re not prophets, but they are putting words in God’s mouth that He did not say.
Everyone wants a promise from God that makes them feel good and does not confront them in their sins and today many have been taught to speak on behalf of God in exactly this way. Today’s “prophets” sound more like they are attending the school of false prophets.
False Prophets, Lying Visions, False Promises and Waiting In Vain
“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a vision of lies, divination, futility, and the deception of their own hearts.” Jeremiah 14:14 LSB (emphasis mine)
“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into vanity; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of Yahweh.’” Jeremiah 23:16 (emphasis mine)
“Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own heart, Hear the word of Yahweh! Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Woe to the wickedly foolish prophets who are walking after their own spirit and have seen nothing: O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among waste places. You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of Yahweh. They behold worthlessness and lying divination who are saying, ‘Yahweh declares,’ when Yahweh has not sent them; yet they wait for the establishing of their word. Did you not see a worthless vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘Yahweh declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken?” Ezekiel 13:1-7 LSB (emphasis mine)
Today’s self-proclaimed Prophets are claiming to be sent by God, commanded by God and speaking on behalf of God, though they would also claim that prophecy is now different and may be fallible.
Why would we put our trust, hope, assurance, confidence in a word that may be fallible, when we have the infallible, inerrant, authoritative, immutable, Word of God? We do not need these self-appointed prophets, and well-meaning though deceived professing Christians, who claim to hear God speaking to them a word for us that they say they may or may not get right.
The church is being built on the FOUNDATION (a foundation is only laid once!) of the True Apostles and Prophets. (Ephesians 2:20) We have the prophetic Word more sure! (2 Peter 1:19)
Do a quick social media search to see how many today claim to be a prophet or have a word from God for you. Whatever “word” you “need” can be found with a quick YouTube search and guaranteed you will find a “prophet” promising what you want to hear. The danger is that these do not claim to represent a god of their imagination but they claim to speak on behalf of the God of Scripture.
Are people actually “learning” to “get it wrong”?
Bethel Church in Redding California and their School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) makes it mandatory that in order to move into their second year program you have to fail at prophecy three times. They teach their students to prophecy whatever they imagine in their minds. They teach that it’s ok to prophecy falsely and that it doesn’t make you a false prophet just a bad one. There’s not a single verse in Scripture to support that.
This is not exclusive to BSSM. There are various ways people are being encouraged that it’s ok to get it wrong or to “miss it”. We have so reduced who God is in the average pulpit and so exalted only certain attributes of God that many have no fear of putting words in God’s mouth that He has not said. We can only understand the grace of God when we understand who He is and how horrendous our sin is before a holy God. Though many, think nothing of putting words in God’s mouth that He did not say, because – Grace. They prove they do not understand the holiness of God or the grace of God.
Why will false prophets be here until Christ returns? Men would rather hear their lies and false promises than to hear what truly, ‘Thus Saith The Lord’. Many are dissatisfied with what God has spoken and have been taught to expect and seek something new.
We have a promise!
Remember what we read at the latter part of Ezekiel 13:6-7 “yet they wait for the establishing of their word. Did you not see a worthless vision and speak a lying divination when you said, ‘Yahweh declares,’ but it is not I who have spoken“. Look at the first part of that: “yet they wait for the establishing of their word.” They wait for the word to be established. Why? They came to believe their own lies. They convinced the hearers to believe their word and to hope in it. Instead of these lying prophets bringing the people to a sense of their own sins and repentance, they hardened them. Likewise, we read in Jeremiah 23, “They are leading you into vanity“, or rather, they are deceiving you; they are leading you to trust in vain things.
We see this very thing in churches all over today. Pastors bring in those who claim that God has given a word to them for their church. They stand before the people with confidence, declaring a word from the Lord and the people, without hesitation, readily receive it. Often there is no pause between what these false prophets declare God has said and the response of the people. There is no discernment. The people readily receive the word and place their hope, trust, and confidence in what they believe God has spoken. And they “wait for the establishing of their word“. They claim it. They pray for God to bring it to pass. They do all they are told they need to do to ‘accelerate’ the promise. They confidently tell others what they believe God has said He is going to do. They place their hope, their confidence in that God is going to do it, but God has not spoken to them and God is not obligated to that word.
Don’t Think, Just Respond In “Faith” (Blind Obedience)
False prophets and those who lead by deceptive doctrines and after lying visions don’t want you to think. They train you not to think. They train you to expect and respond. They train you that if you hesitate that you may miss what the Holy Spirit is doing or saying.
One such method is “when” you hear God or receive a ‘word’ from the Lord, don’t think, obey. They say it is not “hear and obey”, it is “hear obey”. Why? Because that time between, they say, creates doubt. What it really does is allow you to think Biblically. Some use manipulative tactics such as saying that the Holy Spirit is moving in this place in a very special way. They create the expectation that He is about to move or He is about to give a ‘word’ to someone, so when they tell you to respond do not hesitate but come immediately. They build your anticipation and cut off all critical and Biblical thinking. Then they say it, Come now! “Quickly! Quickly!” Why “quickly”? So you won’t think!
It’s Your Fault; Try Harder
Those who are committed to a lying vision, may be deceived themselves; seeking the fulfillment of what they perceive to be a promise from God, they seek ways to bring it to pass which results in laying heavy burdens on their people. They need it to be true. They need to prove those who have corrected them Biblically as wrong. They do not want to hear sound doctrine. They “have a word” and even if it means laying burdens on their people to try to move that promise along, it is necessary.
Pride will not admit when one is wrong. It cannot stand to be corrected. It is not a lack of faith to test what one has heard against the Word of God and admit when what has been spoken is not of the Lord and is leading people away from the more sure Word of God.
It becomes an obsession, a thing that must come to pass, now not only because they have believed God said it, but because their own name and reputation are on the line. They’ve confidently told people what they were told God would do. But they never tested it Biblically and now what would people think if they admitted they could be wrong.
What If The ‘Promise’ Sounds Good? Doesn’t That Prove God Said It?
False prophecy does not always look or sound like something bad. It can be the desire for revival or salvations in one’s community. (We must be careful what is meant by ‘revival’). A guest speaker then comes along and claims God told him that your church is going to usher in revival in your community, the likes of which have never been seen before and thousands will be saved. That sounds good, doesn’t it? So, why do you need to proclaim the Gospel to your neighbor? Just wait, God is about to bring revival and save thousands. So, you wait. You pray for this promise to be fulfilled. You tell your friends, family and coworkers that God is doing big things never seen before. Now people know what has been “promised”. Days, weeks, years, and decades pass. No such revival. The new pastor who “inherited this promise” revives the congregation to remember the promise, claim it, declare it, and they go about speaking of what God is going to do. Days pass. Weeks pass. Years pass. Decades pass. No such revival.
Pastors become discouraged and go somewhere where the people are more “on fire” for God. The people become disillusioned when they keep doing what they are told they need to do to see the fulfillment of the promise and they don’t understand why they are not seeing it. Some leave and go where God is said to be moving. Some leave the faith because it wasn’t what they thought it was and God doesn’t seem to be who they thought He was. Some die-hard pastors and faithful few remain, holding on to false promises and passing them down to the next generation.
Do you want to make sure that your prayers are the prayers that God wants to hear? And your prayer requests are things that God will respond to you, in His timing..? Do you want to pray with this assurance? Pray according to what God says in Scripture. Know Scripture. Know what God has promised, not based in false promises [or] false prophecies that were made by human. No! … God’s not committed to that kind of thing: ‘God told me’ [or] ‘God told me to tell you.’ I always say, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if God told me first and not you? What [dol you have to do with me? You don’t even know me? Don’t believe that. God will speak to you and He will do that through the revelation of Scripture. So, if you pray according to what’s revealed in Scripture, God is committed to fulfill it. Why? God remembers His promises.” ~ Ivan Chagas, Wading River Baptist Church, Exposition of Genesis 8
Better Promises
The Holy Spirit works through the faithful preaching of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit works in regeneration and sanctification. If we are careful to learn how to correctly study God’s Word, we will be greatly humbled by the truth and find that greater than all those things we lusted after that led our hearts away from this Word, could never satisfy. As we learn good hermeneutics, we begin to realize how often “descriptive passages” and promises that were for a specific people at a specific time are perverted to be made to be for us and leading our hearts after things God has not said, rather than leading us to trust God for what He has said and what He has promised.
What Word can we be fully confident in? We have the prophetic Word more sure!
False Prophets Are Part of God’s Judgment
False prophets are part of God’s judgment on those who do not want God, despise His Word and want something other than God. While many self-professed prophets are in our world today claiming they hear from God and are defended by their faithful followers, this is not a sign of God’s blessing but of God’s judgment. These false prophets speak what men want to hear and Scripture makes clear that they cannot endure sound doctrine. They heap up for themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear.
But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ Now you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. Deuteronomy 18:20-22 LSB
Jesus warned us (Matthew 24:11) that in the last days many false prophets would arise and that they will deceive many. Not a few. Many who have been trained not to think Biblically and are easily led astray by false teachers and false prophets often cannot name even one false prophet. Can you name one?
Those who sit under false teaching and who seek false prophets are not victims; they love it.
Have you ever spoke a word in God’s name that perhaps now you realize you spoke presumptuously or that you put words in God’s mouth that He did not say? There is Grace for you in Christ. It can be a fearful thing to learn that you have blasphemed God, that you have brought His name to worthlessness, that you have put words in God’s mouth that He did not say. Trust the promise that God’s grace for you in Christ is sufficient. He bore the wrath of God for our sins, even the sin of falsely speaking words in His name that He did not say. Repent!
How men treat God’s Word and Christ’s bride says all we need to know about what they think of God!
God has given us His Word! It is sufficient! His promises are true and we can trust He will fulfill them.
Grace and Peace
Soli Deo Gloria
April J. Buchanan
Find you a local church that exposits God’s Word that has a plurality of Biblically qualified elders, that practices church membership and church discipline according to God’s Word and where sound doctrine is not only taught but demonstrated in the life of the believers. Join it!
Helpful Resources: G3 Ministries, Justin Peter’s Ministries, Fighting For The Faith, download the American Gospel TV (AGTV) app
Leaving Beyond - Grounded In Scripture 
Leave a comment