Beloved, believe not every spirit…

EDITOR: Of late there is a rise of prophets and apostles. Almost on a daily basis we would hear of a prophecy supposedly coming from the Lord. With the rise in the Coronavirus cases, the expected explosive eruption of La Soufriere and to a lesser extent the Dengue Fever, there seems to be prophets giving prophecy as coming from the Lord concerning these aforementioned. As a result there are much discussions about these prophecies. Some are saying that they are false, while others are accepting their word.

A prophet is someone who speaks forth the mind of Christ. Interestingly, we never heard of these predictions and prophecies before these aforementioned. Noah in the book of Genesis chapter 6 did warn of the flood, having received the word from the Lord. Jonah was sent to warn of God’s destruction except they repented.

In Hebrews 1:1 we are told, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds”. This is one of the many verses that talk about Prophets. It is for us to consider these verses and draw our own conclusion concerning prophets and prophecy.

The reality is that we are living in the days before the closing of the church age. Therefore a lot of what we are seeing and hearing will take place and it is for us to be guided by the scriptures concerning the existence of prophets or not and their prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 13:8 it tells us that amongst the things that shall cease is prophecy. There are different theological views as to whether it has cease or not.

However, what we have to bear in mind is what 1 John 4: 1 says to us: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”. From this we gather that there would in these times be false prophets. The main determining factor about the false prophets is the word of God. He does not lie and whatever He says will definitely come to pass.

I, therefore urge us to look upwards and be students of the word so that we will be guided by Him.

Kennard King