When we say that God only speaks to us through His word, there are those who tend to not believe this because they know they have been urged by the Holy Spirit to do something or maybe feel that God has spoken to them audibly. Yesterday, I heard a pastor explain this in a way that may help us make sense of it.

He said God only speaks to us through His holy word. The Holy Spirit may urge us or lead us or guide us to do something. When we hear from the Holy Spirit, we know it’s from the Holy Spirit if it doesn’t contradict what is in God’s word.

The Holy Spirit will not give us some new revelation. He will not “tell” us to do something that contradicts what is in God’s word. A good example of this comes from these false teachers or “preachers for profit” that we are dealing with in these last days.

If they say something like, “God told me I need a new jet and you must donate 2 million dollars to my ministry so I can do this.” They are lying. These lies are obvious.

Pastor Greg Locke of the Global Vision Church in Mount Joliet Tennessee has made some outrageous claims. Spencer Smith recently pointed some of these out. He says, “God told me…” a lot. God told him Trump would serve a second term in January 2021, but this didn’t happen. God does not lie, so we what’s going on here? Obviously, God didn’t tell him that. Maybe he should check his sources.

Be very careful with pastors that prophesy. If a pastor tells you if you don’t repent and get right with God, you will go to hell when you die this is not a prophesy. This is the truth from God’s word.

But if a pastor tells you you will have your throat cut or die some other horrific death if you don’t come to their alter, you better step back! Where is this in the Bible? How many people leave that service and don’t die? Whose lying? It’s not God.

This is a false prophesy. How are we to discern false prophecies, well, let’s use Greg Locke for an example. He told everyone Trump would be sworn in for a second consecutive term as president, but we all know this did not happen. There are other pastors who have predicted Christ’ return on a certain date and that did not happen.

In Deuteronomy 18:21-22, it says, You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the LORD has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the LORD’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the LORD has NOT spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

We are told to fear God, which means we are to have a reverential awe of Him. False prophets will use your emotions like fear to get you to follow them. This is not the same type of fear. Be very careful.

There was a time in my life when I was not in God’s word and I felt God was telling me to do something. I made a huge mistake. The devil lies. The devil will try to convince you it is God telling you to do something.

When this mistake led to sin in my life and I got in God’s word and began to pray and study my Bible and attend church and Sunday School regularly, I felt I heard God tell me to let go of my sin and give it all over to Him and follow Him. Is that something that lines up with what He tells us to do in His word? Absolutely!

I believe we are in the end times. We who are hungry for God’s word need to be careful. We must continually pray for wisdom and discernment. Stay in God’s word. Don’t get caught up following a man who says, “God told me…” only to discover it’s a lie. GOD DOES NOT LIE!

These are false prophets. We are not to fear them. We should keep away from them. We are not to believe the lies they spread. Stay in God’s word. This is the only way we will be able to know when we are being misled by the devil or a false prophet.

Have a great day!