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My issue here and my serious concern is how do you know when He does speak to you? How sure are you that you are not mistaking your “gut feeling”, your emotion or your wishful thinking as the word from the Lord? My issue is a people who are not ashamed to presume upon God’s Name; who boldly claim things and cook up stories that He never said. Let me give you a homely example of my concern. There was a US election about a year or two ago, and a whole lot of American “prophets”, including the old men Pat Robertson and Kenneth Copeland, all boldly declared that God had assured them that Donald Trump would win. Of course, they were wrong! A little further than that, a very famous Nigerian prophet, named T. B Joshua also falsely predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 US election. This is the same man who told the whole world, live on camera that God had spoken to him and told him that the Corona Virus would end on 27 March 2020. Another lie in God’s name!
It’s not just false prophecies that I am addressing here, but it seems a majority of Christians mistake anything that comes to mind as a message from the Holy Spirit. How many have you heard say, “God said to me”, yet if you ask them, what language did He use to speak to you, was it English or your mother tongue? How was the sound of His voice; bass or monotone? How sure are you that it was Him, can you bet your life on it? I can stop here and rewind history so as to give you a long list of men and women who have founded false religions and cults, all in the name of “Jesus said this to me.” Some are they who have gone so far as to write books that are supposedly written by God Himself, I guess we must add those books as part of Scripture, don’t you think? I just logged onto the Youtube platform and typed “God spoke to me”, you won’t believe how huge the pile is of video material of folks that claim that “Jesus talked with me” this and “the Holy revealed this to me” that. Do I actually believe that the good Lord really spoke to those people? No, not even in a million years! Do you now notice that many play around with the Holy One and accuse Him of things He never said? This is a major problem; the very thing that deeply disturbs my soul.
Think of it this way, suppose you could not make it to some important meeting where you were supposed to be the main speaker. Then in your absence, I stand up, as straight-faced as I can be, and speak on your behalf and boldly say things that you would have never said if you were present. Now tell me, how would you respond if you hear that some individual spoke on your behalf and told people things that you wouldn’t say in a million years? This is exactly what many believers do to the Lord. They are definitely not ashamed, and certainly not afraid, to stand up, cock-eyed, and say, “Jesus spoke to me” or “the Holy Spirit said this to me” when in fact, it’s all lies. Some are they who made terrible life decisions because they believed that God had directed them when in reality it was all imagined in their minds. I have been to some churches where anyone can pop up from nowhere, disrupt the service and announces “what God is saying”, re-directing people and sometimes even changing the order of the church programs. There is also those ones who rely on their dreams. They wake up every morning hunting after every dream they had and look for its meaning from everywhere, even from under rocks. I even heard that there are now Bible schools, where they “teach you how to hear the voice of God” and of course, you will pay a large sum for it. This is how messed-up the modern generation is when it comes to spiritual things.
In the Old Testament, when somebody came out and said, “thus says the Lord”, he was taken seriously and his claim examined strictly, such that when they realized that he lied in the Holy Name of the God of Israel, he was immediately captured and then stoned to death as a dangerous false prophet. It’s because they understood that God is holy, His Name was not to be taken in vain. Yet these days, anyone seems to have a right to say anything, no matter how ridiculous and even sinful, and hope that people will accept it on the basis of “the Spirit told me.” If this doesn’t bother you, dear beloved, I am not surprised. You are part of that group that doesn’t care about the reputation of the Lord’s Name that is everyday blasphemed among unbelievers because of all the foolishness we promote in His name.
The real danger
When you presume upon the Holy Name, and you happen to be wrong, surely you can get away with it according to the standard of today’s corrupt church, but I warn you, that before Him, the Almighty King, you will be guilty of lying about Him, dragging His Name in the mud. Think like this: if I say to you God told me to quit your job and start a business as soon as possible, then after leaving your good job, the proposed business fails before it even starts, and your kids sleep on starvation, who do you blame? God of course; He led you astray. This is the reason why many people now disdain the Name of God because they believe that He failed them in many ways. Do you see? The second sure danger about lying in Jesus’ Name, is harming the well-being of other people; both physical and spiritual. You tell me that you are a good Christian, but you just don’t care, you loosely throw the name of God around, regardless of how it affects the souls of other people. The final peril hangs on your own soul. When you trust your “inner voice” more than the written Word, what’s to stop you from leading yourself to the damning ditch?
Scripture alone!
Sometimes I ask: so you say God speaks through my heart, how then can I be sure that it’s Him, what’s the difference between Him and my own mind processes? Except for the fact that I never get a clear answer to this, I have heard answers like, “well, you just have to discern through your conscience and “gut feeling”, if it doesn’t feel right, probably it’s not from God.” That my friend, doesn’t solve our problem. It actually makes it worse, because “there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death” (Prov 14:12). The root error is that many look for God’s voice from within their feelings, emotions and what else. Mark my words, this is the reason for the kind of chaos and confusion that we have in the body of Christ today. The best thing you will ever learn is that God has spoken. Again, I say this to thwart the plans of those who say they heard me say that God never speaks anymore. He does speak. So loudly than you know. Yet His true, fresh, powerful, living, clear and authoritative Word is not found in your mind but in the Bible. Just do the world a favour and save yourself a lot of trouble by opening that book, you read it slowly, prayerfully and seriously; I guarantee you that the Lord will speak to you. He will direct your paths and help you with everything you need for life, salvation and godly living (2 Tim 3:15-17). Through Scripture alone! If you are not satisfied with that, if you don’t want it, then feel free to listen to the strange voices of those “God spoke to me” guys. We will see where it takes you. With that, I take my seat.
Sinothi Ncube
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