Listen to the Prophets
21 Aug 22
Richardson TX
YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY! My favorite scene in Planes, Trains & Automobiles is when Steve Martin and John Candy were driving down the freeway after getting spun around and a couple keeps screaming at them, “YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!” Of course, they don’t believe them until they come head on with two semis coming straight at them. By then it’s too late. In the split seconds they are between the two semis, Steve Martin sees sparks flying, his death, and John Candy as Satan. I guess your really have to see it to really get the humor of the scene.
Nobody wants to believe someone telling them their going the wrong way. Oh, come on. We men are notorious for never asking for directions, and when we do get them, we don’t believe them.
Kings 18
15 Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.” 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals.
Elijah was telling Israelites they were wrong. They just didn’t want to hear it. Nobody likes being told they are wrong. It’s kind of wired into us. It’s been studied over and over. According to psychologist Dr. Tim Sharp (1) there are three major reasons that even with overwhelming evidence we just won’t admit we were wrong.
1. They think being wrong means they’re unworthy
? Some people strive so hard for perfection, they just can’t admit the path they were going down was the wrong path.
2. They think never admitting fault makes you look stronger
? They think admitting a mistake makes them look weaker. Even if they are wrong, and proven wrong, they don’t want to back down.
3. They don’t value the truth
? To some the truth is only secondary to winning the argument. They would rather win that muddle up a good argument with actual facts.
In the past couple years, we’ve seen our media play out our leaders with each one of these scenarios. It’s amazing that when faced with objective facts or for just flat-out proof, they simply dismiss it. And it doesn’t matter what social or political identity you look at, everyone denies facts. Even if overwhelming proof is dropped in their lap, they keep their argument and deny the truth.
Just watch the news. Science shows we are poisoning ourselves if we keep using certain things … fake news, can’t be true. It’s bad for jobs. Never mind if it kills everyone who works there or lives in the area. Never mind if future generations will live on toxic land. Or, pure biology show something contrary to popular opinion …what a bunch of haters! Just because someone believes something doesn’t make to true. In our local school, there is a student who identifies as a cat. Speaking the truth upsets him, so nobody it allowed to say any different.
In many cases the debates from either side don’t end up as a debate. They just end up as a battle of beliefs. At that point it’s no longer a debate, it’s an argument.
How are we any different from the Israelites? If a prophet came to us right now, how many people would even listen? We would only listen as long as he was telling all those other people they were wrong. What if he tells us we were wrong? What if your opinions on the climate, biology, wars, or political leanings were different from what they said? Would you no longer accept it as the word of God?
If you think we are a much more evolved society, that we can take the truth, just look at recent history. Reporters get murdered in Turkey for speaking the truth about Saudi Arabia. Health officials from both sides of the argument get death threats because their opinion on masks or vaccinations doesn’t agree with someone else’s version. We even have even seen weathermen getting threats because they didn’t predict the weather the way someone else thinks it’s going to be. How ridiculous is that?
There are so many voices completing with the voice of God. There are distractions and true false prophets are pulling us away from what God it trying to tell us. This has been true for in most of our recorded history.
So, what great oracles do we listen to? The Oracle of Delphi was consulted by emperors for centuries. Some evidence suggests they were just folks, in altered states due to noxious volcanic gases.
Many others believe the advice giving by videos on the web telling them advice, even when it’s been debunked. Our oracles today are the ones with the most online followers.
The average person on the planet spends 5 hours per day on phone screens. People are watching and believing the influencers who are telling them this is right or that is wrong with no basis in anything other than their opinion. There are even folks on the web encouraging people to do ridiculously dangerous stunts.
These include:
1. The Blackout challenge, where someone chokes themselves into blackout while recording it. The blackout challenge is now responsible for 82 deaths.
2. The Benadryl challenge, where they overdose on Benadryl to try to induce hallucinations. This has resulted in at least one death.
3. And who would have ever thought this was a good idea… the penny challenge, where you pull your phone charger out of the wall electrical outlet just far enough to drop a penny down onto the still energized prongs. Not surprisingly to anyone with common sense, this has resulted in building fires. (3)
In modern times we have Google. It seems be that it can’t be true unless the Great Google tells us so. We are so apt to look down instead of up but how trustworthy is what we are looking at?
I know we all go to the internet to find answers to questions. I find it invaluable to look up a video on someone else fixing a mechanical issue that I’m trying to work out. There are so many tricks I’ve learned at work on how to make an office software product do the time saving job I’m trying to coax it into.
But for advice or research, just how reliable are these searches?
According to the Journal of Internet Research they looked at a number of web searches; “In total, websites provided 1125 recommendations, with 487 (43.3%) being accurate.” (2)
So just how reliable is something that is only right 43% of the time? Is that something we can even trust? Is that something you want to bank your opinions on? Could you imagine ever going to a doctor who is only right 4 out of 10 times you see him? But one quick internet search said nearly 3 quarters of us look to the web for medical advice.
Of course, I found all these statistics from internet searches myself, and I just brought up that internet searches are only right 43% of the time. So the odds I’m accurate are actually a little less than half. Like the old adage says, there are lies, bad lies, and statistics.
But you know what doesn’t change? God. And in the scriptures Jeremiah warned us to be on the lookout. In
Jeremiah 23:16 — (NIV) it says
16 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
And in Matthew 24:24 (KJV) it also tells us:
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect”
How to we tell a true prophet from a false one? I found one article with advice to follow the money. A true prophet of God is out to teach you about God, not for personal gain. Jesus was never monetarily rich, neither were his disciples. If the one telling you how to better yourself is getting rich, are they in it for God or for themselves?
Is their prophecy consistent with God’s teachings? God doesn’t change. Neither does his message. If what they are saying doesn’t match what Jesus said, then it probably isn’t right.
Is the person building you up or tearing you down? God will not tear you down. Nor would he instruct his prophets to tear you down. But, don’t confuse this with being told you’re on the wrong path. Neither Jesus or the prophets held back in telling folks they needed to repent and get back on track.
But this one can also mask a false prophet who is more willing to tell you what you want to hear rather than tell you about course corrections you need to be making.
We are warned about this in 2 Peter 2
2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
2nd Peter later says:
12 But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish. 13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[e] 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!
….
Now that we understand the false prophets:
• They are trying to enrich themselves
• They are trying to enrich their ego through likes & followers
• They are trying to justify their own debauchery
• They are trying to normalize their delusional version of the truth
• Or, the bottom line result … they are simply trying to lead you away from God.
What about the real prophets? Why aren’t we listing to them?
Faith! That’s the bottom-line reason…. faith. We simply don’t trust God enough to guide our lives that we take matters into our own hands.
This goes back to the three reasons the psychologist gave for not believing the truth.
1. We think we are unworthy. Why would God care about us? Why would God be telling us individually that he loves us and we are worthy of his love and happiness?
2. We think that it makes us look weak. We think if we can’t do it ourselves and turning it over to God makes us weak.
3. We don’t value the truth. Oh my gosh, these scriptures were written so long ago, they must be meaningless now. I mean, geeze, those people didn’t have all the same pressures as us, or the social media, why does any of that apply to me? Besides; whatever it is I’m doing feels good enough, therefore it must be good enough.
But again, these arguments have no basis when torn apart. We are worthy of God’s love. He made us and it’s a fact that he loves us. True happiness is coming with feeling worthy of what God has given you, and joy comes in sharing it with others.
We all need help. Everyone of us is weak and broken. We may not want to admit it, but we are. We need God like we need air. Many of us thinks that everyone else is doing fine, so we need to hide when we need help. But since we all need help, let go and listen to God.
Finally, the truth is the truth. 2+2 will always equal 4, with or without the internet and our modern pressures. No matter what, throughout history, it was always about God, the love for his children, and the path to return home.
So now that we have explored what is and isn’t the word of God, what are we supposed to do?
Listen! The prophets are letting us in on the mind of God.
Amos 3:7
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets
And there is a difference between hearing and listening. We hear prophetic word, do we actually listen? If you actually listen, the than mean you do. And part of doing is spreading to others.
I close with one more instruction on what to do when we hear the prophets in Matthew 10:27:
What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.
Now that you hear the word, shout it to everyone!
1. This is why some people can’t admit they’re wrong; Jessica Leahy, WHIMN https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/this-is-why-some-people-cant-admit-theyre-wrong/
2. Journal of Internet Research; https://www.jmir.org/2019/5/e13357/
3. https://cyberpurify.com/knowledge/9-dangerous-tiktok-trends/
