I was reading 1 King’s 22 earlier today and was reminded of this truth that prophecies are always governed by God, but sometimes those “words from the Lord” are not actually … “from the Lord” .. at all.
The scene before us is Ahab, longing to know if he should go to war after three years of peace. Prophets are called forth and they all say it’s a great idea to go to war. One guy even fashions some horns of iron and says, “with these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.” And all the prophets said to go … all except one. That downer, Micaiah. Who refused to speak what everyone wanted him to speak and, instead, would only speak God’s Words.
When he shows up on the scene, he begins by saying the same thing as the other prophets, but the king told him to actually share God’a words to him – the truth.
So, Micaiah did. And it wasn’t pretty. Israel would be scattered, with no shepherd – no master. Apparently this wouldn’t go over too well if he did go to war. And then Micaiah turns the conversation towards God’s true word and shares this “behind the scenes look” at why the other prophets had only spoken peace when peace was anything but what was going to happen:
“Then a Spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now, therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit inn the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.
This leads me to note at least theee things:
1) God is in control, even over the lying of false prophets who make up images in their mind of victory and fashion horns because they are so convinced that the demons that have been speaking to them are “the Lord.”
2) Although all prophets are hearing “words”, not all of them are truly “FROM God.”
3) God brings judgment upon Ahab for his sins by allowing testing to come at the hands of these demons. God is not the one who tempted Ahab, but He did sovereignty allow it to lead to Ahab’s death.
So, in leadership within a local church, it’s important to note a few things:
– just because someone has a “word”, that doesn’t mean it’s from “the Lord.” They could’ve become convinced that it is, genuinely, and go to great lengths to defend it, but it doesn’t mean that it is. So how do we know?
1) We test it according to the Bible (Does the Bible say we should expect such a word? Does this word contradict clear scripture? Is this word clear and direct or a bit more like a fortune cookie?)
2) We pray about it.
3) We wait to see if it’s confirmed. If so, it genuinely was “from” God. If not, then it was from us, or worse, from demons.
As leaders, one must be very cautious, because these “prophets” may be providing “words” that sound great, but are contrary to God’s Word. We must be very careful, and cautious, testing everything against the Bible, and seeking earnestly to see if these “words” are truly God’s words, or if they are simply man’s imaginations, or satan’s temptations, leading to your death.
Aaron Boswell 
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