The Intimidating Prophets

Transcript:Good morning & Greetings in Jesus name. It is a joy for us to come into the presence of God and to grow in a relationship with Him, to grow in our understanding of how God works: what He says and what He does and what He is doing in our lives in this season. I believe God wants to give us a discerning Spirit. A Spirit that will help us to see all the tricks and traps that the enemy puts before us. I believe in this season the sons and daughters of God cannot be fooled easily, they cannot be taken for granted, they cannot be misled. God will cause the eyes of His sons and daughters to shine forth bright light because of which they will be able to see good from bad, the dangers before them. The Bible says in Nehemiah 6:10, that Nehemiah goes to meet a prophet named Shemaiah who had confined himself to his home. It seemed as if the prophet was in fear of something or afraid of his enemies. When Nehemiah goes to meet this prophet, the prophet gives a prophetic word saying, “Let us meet together inside the Temple of God and bolt the doors shut. Your enemies are coming to kill you tonight.” Shemaiah as a prophet is supposed to encourage Nehemiah in times of distress, but on the contrary, he is asking him to hide and escape. He is asking Nehemiah to fear as the enemy is coming to kill him! Nehemiah responded courageously saying, “Should a man like me run away to save my life?” Verse 12 is very profound; Nehemiah realized that God has not spoken to Shemaiah, rather Shemaiah has uttered this prophecy against Nehemiah as he was hired by Nehemiahs’ enemies. If we go on to read we see so many prophets that came to Nehemiah just to cause fear to grip his heart. They were prophesying to him, they were speaking on behalf of God, they had the right posture, the right language, everything was correct and yet the byproduct of this prophesy was fear. The outcome of these prophesies was that it was causing Nehemiah to be afraid and that was a sign to Nehemiah. He said it is not possible for someone who is speaking on behalf of God to bring the fruit of fear inside of me. When a man or a woman of God brings word to you, it cannot cause you to run away, or hide and live in fear. Because God does not give us a spirit of fear. He gives us a Spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. God doesn’t want you to be afraid. Whenever God releases his voice-over us, that should cause faith to arise in us and not fear! That’s a brilliant way in which we can discern between a false and a godly prophet. If your exposure to God’s voice or God’s people is constantly creating panic inside of you rather than creating encouragement, faith or trust in the Lord then you might be listening to the wrong voice or interpreting the voice in the wrong manner. The voice of God released over our lives should cause faith to arise inside of us and not fear! Share on X It is necessary my dear friends that we will have the right response, even when it is God speaking or response will be that of faith. Whenever a man or a woman of God tries to intimidate you, tries to shut you down, put you in a box, shut you inside a system and say that you cannot speak or express, that for me is a big red flag. Nehemiah brought all the intimidation that he received from prophets before the Lord. Today let’s bring those voices that are trying to intimidate you, threaten you before the Lord. Don’t fall for the traps. Rather bring those voices to the feet of Jesus. Let Him trample those voices. Let Him have a final say over those voices.