Throughout scripture, God has used His servants to speak His word. At the same time, you had false prophets speaking the words of satan. God’s servants were usually outnumbered as we saw with Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Also, many prophets who spoke the word of the Lord were killed. Even though the true prophets of God were being killed off, they spoke truth. Jeremiah said, Jeremiah 26:15 “Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.” He would also say to those who disobeyed God’s word spoken through him, Jeremiah 44:28 “Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.” They found out Jeremiah spoke truth. Though outnumbered, the power of the false prophets was no match for the true prophets of God because God was with them. 1 Kings 18:20 “So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. 22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.” Obadiah had hidden one-hundred prophets in cave because Ahab’s wife Jezebel was killing the prophets. After the people saw the power of God and the false prophets defeated by Elijah, 39 “all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

    We also saw this with Micaiah. The false prophets were in agreement with each and spoke the opposite of what the true prophet spoke. Once again the false prophets outnumbered the servant of God. 1 Kings 22:7 “But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?” 8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” So they went to Micaiah and returned to king Ahab. On the way they told Micaiah 12 “All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.” 13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.” The king had brought together about four-hundred prophets who were all saying the same thing. Micaiah’s word was the word of God and opposite to what the false prophets were saying. Micaiah’s word was death and defeat for king Ahab.

    False prophets tell you what you want to hear. Jeremiah 29:8 “Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.” Paul said to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” There will always be someone in the church telling you what you want to hear. Tomorrow we will be talking about testing the spirits.