Should we ever question what 'the man of God' says?

This may sound like an stupid question with an obvious answer but I have found out that for a lot of Christians, it is not. After my post about being ‘Blinded by false promises’, I was gently ‘warned’ by my friend about speaking against the man of God so I decided to do what I always challenge others to do and that is to be a Berean (Acts 17:11) and see if he had any biblical grounds for his arguments. So here we go. This is what was said

A word of wisdom which is spoken (and hope received) in love – we have to be very, very careful concerning talking about “God’s servants” (and I don’t use that phrase lightly). Sometimes its very advisable to say “I don’t understand…BUT if it is God it will come to pass…  ” (Acts 5:33-35) .

Acts 5:35  says “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men” and then verse 39 says “… if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

So I would ask the question how do we know if something is from God or if we are fighting against God? My answer would be (as it always is), look at scripture and ask am I fighting against scripture? i.e. is what is being said biblically sound, as God does not separate or do anything contrary to what he has revealed in the written word. The Bereans in Acts 17:11 did not just swallow what the apostle Paul said but they searched the scriptures to see if what Paul was saying was true. If we had a ‘whatever will be will be and if its from God it will come to pass’ attitude, then there would be no reason for the Bereans to search the scriptures in the first place. There must be an absolute standard outside ourselves by which we have to measure everything by. His comments continues as follows

The Bible is full of examples where “prophets… ” or a person operating in the office of a prophet would declare what God had told them AND WHERE THE PROPHET PROPHESIED WITHOUT CONSULTING GOD .
Examples of prophets/leaders prophesying without consulting God could be found (but to name a few) with Elijah calling fire from Heaven(2 Kings 1:9-11) and Joshua commanding the sun to stay still (Joshua 10:1-14). This can be explained by what Paul says about us operating according to the level of our faith (Romans 12:4-6), and could this be simply the reason why we (yours truly included) do not reach our potential because we simply limit God as did King Asa (2 Chronicles 16:12)???

First of all we must remember that the old testament saints did not have the written word as we have it today. To me, this comment (and correct me if I’m wrong) seems to be saying that the ‘man of God’ can say whatever he wants without consulting God and I believe that the scriptures used are all straw men arguments. The question about if what was said biblical has been totally ignored. That is unless it is being implied that it doesnt have to be biblical because we must trust ‘the prophet’. If we do anything ‘according to proportion of our faith’, that does not give us license to do it unbiblically.

The next comment was

God does not have a “specific” way of doing things…if He did, we would then become too familar with him, boastful, & not give him the respect and honour, and give him the dependancy He deserves (nb: that is why manna was provided only provided on a daily basis whilst the Israelites were in the wilderness).

Again, even though God can do abundantly above more than we can ask or think, he still does everything within the confines of his written word. In fact, God DOES desire for us to become familair with him more and more and this is by becoming familiar with and studying his word. God is not into playing hide and seek with us in our knowledge for him. I understand what the person was trying to say but again, it all comes down to do with, is what is being preached biblical?

HOWEVER, we have to exercise exteme caution as we know that these last days will reveal persons being deceived and in turn deceiving others (2 Timothy 2:2-4). Therefore we have to “try the spirits…  ” by using God’s Word and see if their prophecies/teachings come to pass.

It is not about just checking to see if their teachings come to pass because some of the tarot card readers’ predictions come to pass. Do we say that because it came to pass it must be of God? Of course not. So the same thing we would do with tarot card readers,we should do with those who name the name of Christ and that is line everything up with the authority of scripture.

In Closing – In my humble opinion, we should adhere to a man/women of God who we know to have a proven track record (2 Chronicles 20:14-20), because the consequences of disobedience when he/she is operating under the anointing could be somewaht devasting (1 Kings 20:35-36).

So the question we have to ask here is what is the definition of a ‘proven track record’? My answers would be this: Do they know how to interpret and rightly divide the word of truth and do they exposit this truth faithfully and consistently?

The conclusion

When it comes down to spiritual matter, dont let anybody spoon feed you all the time. Always, and I mean always examine the scriptures for yourself to see if what is being taught lines up with the Word of God. This will take skill and time as a lot of people appear to be preaching the word of God but they are not rightly dividing the word of truth as we are instructed to do (2 Tim 2:15). Understand some basic rules of biblical interpretation. This will save you a lot of pain and will help you greatly in discerning truth from error. Maybe use some of these free tools.

There is a lot of deception out there, even on so called ‘christian’ television. We have no shortage of preachers or teachers but there is definitely a famine for the word of God. I would say that most popular tele-evangelists on TV do not preach the word of God. The bible consistently warns us about deceivers and admonishes us to test EVERTHING.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (Matthew 24:11)

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans 16:17-18 ) 

Test all things; hold fast what is good. (1 Thes 5:21)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Do not even take my words as gospel but line up my postings with scripture and if they do not match up, reject it.

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