For the better part of my Christian life, I have been an ardent student on issues related to Bible prophecy. One of the key takeaways I’ve had from all those years of study is that nothing about our human nature—and Satan’s tactics for manipulating that nature—has changed since the beginning.
In our desire to understand what God is saying about future events and our place in prophetic history, we must realize that we can be easily swayed in what we end up believing. We may believe that we are being authentic in our search for prophetic truth, but unless we are first loyal to seeking truth, with a humble heart, we will always be in danger of being led away from knowing God’s revealed will.
In Jeremiah 29, we see God telling the prophet Jeremiah to give instruction to the people of Israel to what they must do while in Babylonian captivity. His instructions are quite shocking, and are not what the masses of people expected, or wanted, to hear.
We also see other self-proclaimed prophets prophesying conflicting instructions to the people—words that satisfied the emotions and desires they wanted to hear. It was at this point God made it clear there was a choice to be made, and each person’s worldly fate would be decided as they discerned and chose which voice they followed.
Today’s chorus of prophetic voices is no different than it was 2,600 years ago when Jeremiah wrote these words. While it is apparent to most Spirit- sensitive believers that we are in some of the most prophetically significant times since the birth of Christ, we are equally in danger of missing God’s perfect will during this time because we are unskilled in knowing how to discern the narrow gate of God’s truth verse the wide highway of misdirection and deceit.
We must be in tune with both God’s prophetic voice and God’s established Word. We must be willing to search for ourselves what the Scriptures say, and not just listen to those we deem superior in knowledge of these issues. We need to compare and verify today’s prophetic words against the settled foundation of God’s written Word. In other words, we must take personal responsibility for what we believe.
In Scripture, we see there are true prophets and false prophets. Both go by the same title, “prophet.” This alone should let us know we have to take personal responsibility to discern the difference.
God has given us His Spirit to lead and guide us into all truth. But we must be seekers of truth, as we will be held personally accountable for our participation. We must lay aside any predisposition and narratives we have come to believe, even ones we’ve had our whole lives, and be ready and willing to exchange what we believe for what God reveals. God’s will is not dictated by what we believe, and as is made clear in Jeremiah 29, we will have no valid argument to make when God fulfills His word and we are found on the opposite side.
These are without question exciting and supernatural days to be living in. God’s form and involvement in this world and concluding point in history is apparent to all with eyes willing to see!
Our assignments for this time are ours to accept, but we can only be successful if we are following the instructions of God alone. And these instructions may look very different to what we always assumed they would.
Just as God used the voice of the prophet Jeremiah to give new instructions and revealed what He was doing, He continues to use prophets today. And just as there were prophets providing alternative revelation through insincere hearts that would lead the sheep astray, we must also be wise to recognize the same today.
It is not my purpose to tell you which prophet(s) to believe, but I do believe it is part of my greater purpose in these prophetically historic days to help teach you how to discern truth for yourself, by the help and guidance of the Spirit that dwells richly within you.
Once you learn the tactics of the enemy, and how to identify them in your own life, you have unlocked the gates of freedom to pursue and achieve all that God has purposed for you in this time. You will start to clearly hear the voice of the true shepherd and filter out all other voices intent on leading you astray.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). {eoa}
Tracy Manno is an author, speaker, worship pastor, recording artist and founder of His Way Worship, where he provides artist coaching and teaching resources on practical application for living the new life we have in Jesus Christ. You can find more resources available at HisWayWorship.com.
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