BE CAUTIOUS LEST WE BE FOUND SPEAKING FALSE PROPHECIES

 

We have to be extra cautious not to turn our own New Year well wishes into a prophecy lest we be found to be giving false prophecies (see video).

        I believe God has also used the US presidential election to confound many so-called popular "prophets" and "apostles" who claimed that Donald Trump would become a second-term president. Religion is used as a tool towards a political agenda.

        One even said he was asked to look into God’s scroll and urged people to pray: 

"Between Nov 3 and Jan 20, anything can happen to overturn, right? So, you want to don't stop praying till Nov 3, you want to continue till Mr Trump is safely installed (inaugurated) on Jan 20." (1)

       Watch how this jerk from India speaks:

        I am not a fan of Trump and I didn’t even know who Joe Biden is until the election but I saw how false prophets were making all sorts of declarations that Trump would win. One even used Divine Code to make such predictions.

My Own Silly Example

        Let us all be warned not to use God’s name in vain. I, too, am guilty of this recently when I felt that God was speaking to me about the political situation in Malaysia, when I wrote:

Kali ini angin perubahan akan bertiup dari negeri Sabah ke Sarawak dan Semenanjung kerana rakyat jelata sudahpun lihat ketamakan PN, Muafakat, BN, GBS, terutamanya Bersatu, Pas dan Umno. Angin akan semakin kencang apabila tibanya PRU15 kelak.

(Now, may the wind of change blow from Sabah to Sarawak and to Peninsular Malaysia, because we, the ordinary citizens (of Malaysia) have seen the greed of (various political parties). The wind of change will grow stronger unil the coming 15th General Election). 

        Note that even at that point in time, I had stopped using God's name to such a vibe that I shared out. Today, as I revisited this one statement I made, I cannot help but feel ashamed -- and even laughed -- over it. Some are just personal vibes, not from the Holy Spirit! I repent of such false prophecies myself.

        If the Sabah election had turned out to be what my personal vibes predicted, would pride not have entered into me and if I had continued to make more of such prophetic words, would I not be guilty of being a false prophets? Would I not be using God’s name in vain?

Warning!

        As I study Zechariah using the original Hebrew text, there is one strong warning that the Lord has given:

“And if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD’; and his father and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.”

(Zechariah 13:3 NAS95)

        This is how serious the LORD views the words of false prophets in the Old Testament, who spoke in His name but were found to be full of lies. This is one reason why I have stopped even mentioning things like, "God spoke to me..." including a word that I thought I received some 30 years ago that I would have a son and a daugther. Instead, I would say, "I think this is what the Lord is (may be) saying to me..."

        To me, the definition of prophetic gift or gift of prophecy is not about making predictions of what will come. Joel 2 has often been quoted out of context, and this has opened the floodgate to all kinds of false visions and prophecies.

        No doubt there were times when I "saw," by my own insticts, things that were coming to pass, or I felt strongly the "vibes" of what would happen. Sometimes, these things did happen as what I had predicted. But to say that God spoke to me this and God spoke me that is too far-fetching.

What Tickles the Ears

        People like to know what will happen in the future. This is why a lot of believers have become so gullible as to follow after false prophets who make a mockery of God's name by giving their own predictions. Jerks such as Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj would that God showed him His scroll to see what was written in it. The moment we hear the word 'prophecy', we suddenly become attentive.

        While listening to a sermon recently, my ears pricked up when a senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the Klang Valley said, "I prophesy"; but then, as he continued, I am relieved to hear him speaking nothing but what was already written in the Word of God. Listen to how he continued with his sentence: "And, I predict that the spirit of the antichrist will be more dominant and more prevalent worldwide...." 

        In another sermon a week later, he said the Lord spoke to him, but as I listened on, the message is nothing but a direct quote from the Scripture itself about building a firewall (see Zechariah 2:15, 'wall of fire'), and he was merely applying it to the church, the family and our loved ones. To me, it is fine to speak prophetically (to the masses) provided it is the word of God.

        This has given me a new dimension to the word, 'prophecy'. I believe the office of the prophets and apostles no longer exists today but the gift of prophecy is still given to people. This gift is for us to speak forth from the inspired, written Word of God to the masses. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that the gift of prophecy as it is understood today is speaking the voice of the conscience to the nation. 

        In other words, it is the job of the people with the gift of prophecy to speak forth God's word to the masses. It is not a bunch of predictions or foretelling (which is no difference to 'fortune telling' and what a feng shui master would do at the end of the year), but putting a voice to the written and inspired word of God.

A New Year's Resolution

        Let us, therefore, be more careful when we use His name unless, of course, it is written in black and white in His Word. I find this all over the book of Zechariah. 

        With the use of the Internet, I am seeing an increase of such kinds of ‘prophecies’ that conveniently put God's name to what would otherwise be just the human instinct or some personal vibes. 

        Let us be resolved from 2021 onwards to handle His Word with greater care. 



Footnotes:
(1) Nov 3 is the date of the US presidential election and Jan 20 refers to the date of the inauguration of the newly-elected president.