Are you listening to the Truth?

Read Jeremiah 28.

Just because someone claims to speak for God or uses the words "God told me" does not mean it is true.

Don't we all wish the pacifists were correct?  We could just live peaceably with everyone and talk all our enemies into being at peace all others.

Don't we all wish the prosperity preachers were correct?  We could just enjoy our abundance and live pleasurably.

While many prefer to live in their fantasies and support those who tell them what they want to hear, God's word is ignored to their detriment.

Hananiah claimed to be speaking for God but his message contradicted what Jeremiah preached.  Hananiah said that Babylon's power would be broken in two years and Judah would be restored.  God had made it clear that the captivity would last 70 years.  Jeremiah reminded Hananiah of Deuteronomy 18:22, "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken presumptuously.  You need not be afraid of him."

The proof of whether the prophet is a liar or telling the truth, of course, is in the fulfillment of what was prophesied.  At God's instruction, Jeremiah informed Hananiah that because of his made-up message pretending to represent the LORD, he would die that year.  And, it was so.

Jesus said, "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'  And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, your workers of lawlessness." (Matthew 7:22-23)

We must always check a preacher's message against the teaching of the whole of the Bible.  So many are led astray by a single verse or concept lifted out of its context.  Maturity in Christ means to know the Bible and, therefore, know the truth.  "So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning by craftiness in deceitful schemes." (Ephesians 4:14)