Wrong Prophets

There are false prophets.

And there are wrong prophets.

False prophets give you prophecy that has not come from God; meaning that they will misguide you for the most part.

They may give you joy when God intends you to be sad as you will see in Jeremiah’s interactions with them.

Or they might send you to death as happened with Ahab.

And it is because they are giving you directions they do not have.

A wrong prophet is worse by far because he is many times a destiny shaper, but from the wrong direction.

And I will have us look at one such, Balaam.

When Israel was leaving Egypt, it was very clear the nations they were to dispossess, nations that even Abraham had been told about centuries earlier.

Then there were nations they were not to touch. And they were told under no uncertain terms who they were.

God’s word was that they should not molest them or challenge them in any way as He would not give them even an inch of their territory.

Edom, Moab, Ammon, Midian.

And it was because they were family.

But those nations did not know that.

When Israel therefore came close to their nations, they felt threatened because of what Israel was doing to the Canaanites who were their neighbours.

They therefore looked for a prophet for spiritual intervention, offering a handsome reward for his services.

Offer for reward messed the prophet.

When he was given the reason to refuse the assignment, he openly refused to give God’s word, thus communicating the message that he was looking for a better reward.

What would you have done if you were Balaam?

The right thing was to give the correct message.

Then seek for a word for the seekers from God.

Had he done that, he could have known that Moab and Ammon were safe from Israel’s expansion; and that from the One who was leading them on and giving them the lands.

But he didn’t do that.

His greed led him on a downward spiral to the point that he became a soothsayer when he discovered that He could not manipulate God to get that elusive coin.

But the saddest part in that is that he led to brothers being converted to enemies.

Contrast this.

And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. (Deuteronomy 2:9)

And this

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: (Deuteronomy 23:3)

The prophet was the catalyst for that.

What am I saying?

A greedy prophet is more dangerous that a false prophet.

You see, Balaam was not a false prophet.

He knew God, listened to God and spoke as God told him.

But greed made listening difficult. Because it is impossible to hear God in a hurry or under pressure.

Remember Elijah?

And the giver of that gift is also not very patient because he wants his money to do the pushing and shoving on his behalf.

That is why ministry and money are on opposite sides of spirituality.

I am saying this as a minister. And I will leave you to fill the gaps.

And that because our generation are more like Barak than they are like David.

Barak sought results.

David sought God’s will and orders.

And that desire for results is the reason he dangled rewards that completely obliterated Balaam’s sensitivity and pursuit of God’s will.

This also brings up another reality I have written about; prophets who revolve around power as we saw with Ahab.

And you remember one of them slapping Michaiah and asking him when the spirit left him to get to Micaiah.

We can assume that Zedekiah fell into Balaam’s error when he became a royal prophet.

He was twisted by royal dainties to the point that he was unable to know when the spirit had completely left him.

Ministry rewards are dangerous, infinitely more dangerous that we may imagine.

This means that this post is not only about prophets.

It also concerns me who is a teacher of God’s word.

It concerns every single person God has called into ministry, even hidden ones like intercession.

Rewards will blunt the edge that is clarity about God’s orders.

However, rewards are not the culprit.

I think the expectation and reception of the same are the issues of concern, especially expectation.

This is the driver of the motivation craze running the bulk of the churches nowadays.

It is the driver of toothless sermons from our pulpits.

It is the reason heaven and hell, sin and sanctification, obedience and judgment, have been exiled from most pulpits for the longest time.

Nobody wants to scare givers with hard Biblical truths.

No wonder harlots occupy front row seats in churches baring their wares for all to see because confronting their sin would chase their tithes and offerings, to someone not as ‘radical’.

No wonder sex toys and drugs are traded in the church compounds because the peddlers are big givers.

No wonder politicians who are known for all the wrong things and celebrities who openly display their sin can sit next to pastors in forums.

Should I slow down?

But I hope you get the point.

But the point is that the gift you represent will kill the greedy minister’s spiritual sensitivity.

This means that any word he gives you could actually mess your destiny completely as Balaam did with Moab, Ammon and Midian.

That is what we see with Jeremiah’s confrontations with those prophets.

By listening to those paid prophets, the completely lost the plot that was God’s restoration because repent cannot be a paid prophet’s word.

And it is very difficult for restore to come before repent.

What is my conclusion then?

If your closeness to your minister is dependent on what you have or represent, it is time to run away because he is a Balaam that represents great harm to your destiny.

And I am talking about your pastor, bishop, prophet, encourager, even me.

Your money does not define you.

Do not be demeaned to the point that your value is tied to what you have or represent.

In any case, why look for prophets when God has released His word for all of us to consume?

And He also released His Holy Spirit to guide us to understanding it?

You can know and obey God without those imposters.