Prophet of God

I grew up learning about the prophets of God in the Bible. These people were interesting characters in their day.  As I grew older and hopefully wiser, I began to study these prophets more consistently. There were some “big time” prophets who are well knows like Elijah and Jeremiah, to name a couple. There are a lot of “lesser known” prophets who served the Lord faithfully.

I came across a “lesser known” prophet this morning. He was called before King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah. These two kings had joined forces and were planning to go to war against the king of Aram to take one of their towns back. Ahab called all of his “prophets” and they said “yes”. Jehoshaphat insisted that they consult with a prophet of the Lord. (I thought it was pretty cool that Jehoshaphat was in his late thirties when he became king and he seems to understand the value of counsel from the Lord.) This guy Micaiah was known as a prophet of God. A messenger was sent to bring him to the two kings to hear from the Lord. Check this out….

¹³ Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, “Look, all the prophets are promising victory for the king. Be sure that you agree with them and promise success.”

¹⁴ But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what the Lord tells me to say.” (1 Kings 22:13-14 NLT)

Prophets of God speak ONLY what the Lord says. I think this is tough because of the “noise” of our culture.  I’ve since heard people who were “self-proclaimed” prophets of God and it’s a bit of a challenge when discerning whether they are indeed a prophet or if they are bogus.  The Word of God encourages us to listen to the Spirit of God, Who dwells in us to discern a true prophet of God. Check this out….

¹Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. ² This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. ³ But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here

⁵ Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. ⁶ But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. (1 John 4:1-3,5 NLT)

I’ve learned that I don’t need a title to serve the Lord. I spent just over 20 years in full-time ministry, but my ministry on behalf of The Lord continues today in my business. I believe that ALL FOLLOWERS of Jesus should be in “ministry” to our lost and decadent world. We need to show the world His Love, even before we speak a single word. I do not consider myself a prophet of God, but I would call myself a follower of Jesus. I want Him to live through me. I want Him to give me words of wisdom and insight that He can speak through me.  I want to be keenly aware of self-proclaimed prophets who are all around us. I want to be careful to not condemn, but their very lives will speak louder than their words as to what is going on inside their hearts. There will be fruit from their walk with the Lord. I want people to see Jesus through me instead of just seeing me.

Pressing On!

Dwayne