A Prophet's clothes Zechariah 13

No one will be boasting then of a prophetic gift! No one will wear prophet's clothes to try to fool the people. Zechariah 13:4

There have always been false prophets. I can't tell you how many people predicted the second coming happening before the turn of the millennium when I was a child...how many called for economic doom and gloom by certain dates and times...how many named Gorbachev or others as the anti-Christ. It is no small thing to speak for God as a prophet, and not be a prophet from God! The verse before this one states that those who would prophesy lies in the name of the Lord should be stabbed by their parents! Other passages say that false prophets should be stoned. Those who don't have their predictions come true are not to be feared...we have touched on that in a previous post.

But who should wear a prophet's clothes? And why?

Most of those who prophecy in this day and age do it for 3 reasons: power, money, or panic. How many tv preachers do we see, how many mega churches or cults raise up because men are power hungry? We watch people follow these men to the grave because they bewitch them into thinking they are the only ones who hear from God. They distort the scriptures, call themselves Christians when Christ is NO PART of their lives, and get their psyches fed by having control over people. They will be cursed of God.

Then there are those who seek to profit from being a prophet. I will tell you fearful things, and you will send me money so I can continue to tell you fearful things...or promise you blessings of God because you support me and my ministry. I have seen few instances in scripture where prophets were worshiped and adored by the masses. Few had money, and many were tortured for their faith and words. If a large following of people is being promised ANYTHING besides hearing the Word of the Lord, you can bet the motives of the speaker are not pure. Not that men of God can't have a ministry following...but if it is not based on the feeding of the flock from the Word itself in Spirit and in Truth, RUN LIKE THE WIND in the other direction! God does not bless such a one with His Word. He knows their hearts are full of greed and desire to make a living, not a life, off the gospel.

Panic and fear usually send men into a tizzy. The worst case scenarios that fly around are amazing to me. God lets us know that He is coming back, that there will be crazy things like marks, signs, and wars, etc., but until they happen, we can't put dates and times on them. Christ Himself said He didn't know when these things would come to pass, but to be ready. For 2 millennium people have lived thinking their generation wouldn't make it through. The signs are closer...Israel exists again, the means to get the gospel to every nation exists now more than any other time, but for me to say it's going to happen in my lifetime is presumptuous. We just know we are one day closer, and the signs are coming faster than we care to imagine some days, but it could still be centuries before the second coming. But the call to be ready, to be on our guards against the false teachers of the day, to live pure and holy lives dedicated to God and lived through His Spirit never cease. That we can count on, and the panic of man will not change God's timeline.

There is a LOT of debate going on now about “Strange Fire” and other issues of teachers of the Word (or not) making stuff up or misinterpreting scriptures and therefore prophesying falsely. We MUST be careful to study the scriptures in light of the teachings of ANY man, seemingly reputable or not. Any preacher that doesn't call us to be Bereans and search the scriptures to see if these things are so should not be given a hearing. Any one scripture can be distorted into a LIE. Jesus scolded and condemned the Pharasees because “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about ME, and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you many have life.” John 5:39-40 If the teachings of any man do not point us to life in Christ, they are a false prophet. Keeping the law, even the rules of the New Testament, are not the point of salvation...the blood of Christ is. So any man can use the Scriptures and still be a false prophet. All of the Scriptures hold together, and if we do not look at them as a whole that point to the Savior, we can deceive and be deceived.

The call of God on a man to be a prophet is HIS call, not our desire to be one. Those who most desire this gift are most likely the ones who shouldn't have it...and those who He tended to call were those who wanted no part of it (see Moses, Jeremiah, and others who said WHO AM I to do this?). So beware of those who don a prophet's clothes...for your own soul's sake. Watch carefully any man's life, his ideas, and his use of the scriptures. If they don't line up, just turn around and run. Read the Word yourself, hear those who stick with the gospel of Christ, and don't heed new “revelations” that some speaker claims God gave him. When in doubt, read Galatians over and over and over. And 2 Peter. God loves you too much to let you be deceived. Stand on the truth of Scripture and don't try to make it say what it doesn't. And God will guard your heart.