DO YOU PROPHESY THE TRUTH, OR ARE YOU A PILLOW PROPHET THAT PLEASES MAN?

Jeremiah was a prophet who didn’t care what others thought about him.  He chose to obey God and to prophesy what had been given to him to speak, no matter what the cost was.  He confronted many of those who presumed to speak for the Lord during his time.

There was a plot to even kill him, and yet he continued to speak the truth.

“⁵ To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;  ⁶ Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
⁷ So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.
⁸ Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.
⁹ Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant?  And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
¹⁰ When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house.
¹¹ Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.
¹² Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.
¹³ Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
¹⁴ As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.
¹⁵ But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears”   Jeremiah 26:1-15.

It would certainly have been much easier for Jeremiah to not speak ill concerning the city or the inhabitants.  However, he chose to set his face like flint and to let the chips fall where they may.  Jeremiah wasn’t one to just speak pleasant things so that others would love his words and speak highly of him.

How many of us today would be as bold as he was, and not give in to the status quo of the prophetic community?  My friends, it’s a lot easier to speak the easy words that come from the Holy Spirit.  It’s easy to not offend others.  It’s easy to let the money changers continue their duties in the synagogues and churches of today.  It’s easy to speak words of edification, exhortation, and comfort.  But when it comes to speaking of impending judgment, of the violence in the streets, of the circus mentality in many of our churches, then one isn’t perhaps as ready to speak.

Jeremiah spoke of Judah’s impending captivity to come.  They had refused to believe it could ever happen to them.  They found their own false prophets to tell them that everything was fine.  They ridiculed Jeremiah and others who warned of the devastation to come.  The Lord spoke through Jeremiah and put it this way; “Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north… and I will send Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon… against this land and against its inhabitants… and this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:9-11).

And their captivity came to pass.  The very strong and difficult words given to him to speak, found themselves taking flight in Judah’s capture under the rule of Babylon.  It was decreed by God that they would be prisoners of Babylon for seventy years.  There were other prophets during this time, that gave false hope, and declared that their time of exile wouldn’t be that long.  But as we know, their false prophecies only gave the people a sense of false hope.  And as Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

How many today in the prophetic community are giving the people a sense of false hope?  How many today are spreading beautiful accolades and proclamations of bright and sunny days ahead for our world?

It’s good to know of God’s promises and we can trust knowing that He will always be with us until the end, even if the mountains fall into the sea.  It’s good to know that He will always provide for us and that He will lead us on the path ahead of us.  We need encouragement, we need to know the simple and deep truths found within His word and spoken to us through His Holy Spirit.  But we can’t live like ostriches in a world that is quickly running towards judgment.  We can’t bury our heads in the sand thinking that if we just speak beautiful things from His Spirit, then the world will surely be a beautiful place.  It’s time to wake up.  It’s time for those who speak His word to grow up unto maturity.

It’s time to not be men-pleasers, but God-pleasers.

Selah,
~ Stephen Hanson

Stephen Hanson of In His Truth Ministries came to the LORD is a special way in 1975 and has prophesied regularly since.  In these end-time birthing pangs we are reminded that judgment must first begin with the household of God.  Will we be prepared and ready?

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