In my daily reading, I Kings 13 jumped out at me like a wild, merciless Tik-Tok prank. The headline for the chapter read as “The destruction of a young minister by lying to him about God’s words.” Indeed, a man of God is told to do something and also NOT to do something. A miracle ensues in the Temple and verse 13 finds him under an Oak Tree. Another man rides up to him and asks him to come and eat with him (which he was explicitly told NOT to do by the Lord). The man of God refuses. Then, we find the juggernaut in verse 18. “He said unto him, I am a prophet also AS THOU ART; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. BUT HE LIED UNTO HIM.”
You mean that somebody would LIE about God telling them something? Absolutely. It happens quite frequently. The story goes on that the LORD spoke to the man of God at the imposters house and judged the man of God quite harshly. He took his life at the hand of a lion on his way home. What a price to pay for not doing what God told you to do in the first place.
I remember succumbing many years ago to a very similar thing. I got to looking around at everybody else religiously and thought “who am I to be preaching such hard things?” I saw the prosperity gospel preachers and saw what I thought were admirable traits and since they seemed to be good people, therefore, “who was I to judge?” I was put on the shelf for several years after that. It is by the Lord’s mercies that I am here today even writing this blog post. Lesson? If God gives you a conviction that something is wrong, or something is holy, don’t let another “godly man” talk you out of that conviction. Conviction is something that you would die for!
Don’t let anybody rob you of your crown with a “voluntary humility.” The people of Israel wanted the prophets to prophecy unto them “smooth things.” The Bible says that those wolves in sheep’s clothing in the last days would deceive the people by “good words and fair speeches.” At the same time, they are bringing in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them. That can happen to a Christian and is actively occuring all over America. The Bible says that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” In other words, the people fleecing the flock, selling books and prosperity, health, wealth and happiness, instead of the Gospel of the Grace of God, are actively seeking a Bible believing Hellfire and brimstone preaching young man to convert OUT of his faith. I have had preachers offer to pay my way through bible college so that (in his own words) “my faith in the King James Bible would be destroyed.” The Bible says that it were better for a millstone to be hanged around his neck and that he were cast into the sea, rather than to face the kind of Judgment that awaits him.
God told you something to do? Do it. Don’t let anybody talk you out of your faith in the King James Bible, or your faith in the virgin birth of Christ, or that Christ died for ALL sinners, or any other host of doctrines that God has called YOU to believe in, stand by and preach.
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