daily java

Daily Java:

I have not sent these prophets,
      yet they run around claiming to speak for me.
   I have given them no message,
      yet they go on prophesying.
If they had stood before me and listened to me,
      they would have spoken my words,
   and they would have turned my people
      from their evil ways and deeds. (Jeremiah 23:21-22)

Worship is going well and all, and then somebody stands up and says: “I have a message from God.

The first thing is that sometimes the “word” is nothing more than a rehashing of something already said, couched in such vague  generalities as to render it totally incomprehensible. It is like the horoscopes in the newspaper, so vague and general that it could be applied to several completely disparate things.

Sometimes the “word” is so nice. It consists of nothing more than the person saying God loves you and wants what is good for you and all. It is so treacly that it is virtually meaningless, like the baby talk a parent gives to a baby.

Sometimes it is meaningless, just gibberish. You sit there trying to make sense of it and there is no sense to be made.

Did you ever read a real word from God? Real words from God were strong and powerful. When someone said them, everybody knew it and everybody was afraid. God never came to groups of people and said “You are fine and great and I love you and everything will work out.” It was not in the nature of his pronouncements.

When God came to people it was generally to tell them they were about to die, or that he was going to punish them. Words from God were full of God’s power, not full of saccharine.

Second is that it is often apparent that the person with the word wants nothing more than to be noticed. They will even come to you and say, “I have a word from God” and then expect to be treated with deference because of it. Some have even gone so far as to tell you to kneel while they give it.

Any time the “word” comes in such a way as to exalt the giver, it is wrong. The real word comes to exalt the One who gives, not the giver. All the giver is is a conduit. God used anyone and anything to give his word. He ever used a donkey at one time (Numbers 23). The one who gives only does the will of the One who sent him.

In the passage above, a real prophet, the prophet Jeremiah, had this word from God: Everybody shut up. I am sick of you and your fake words. If you have heard me and given my real words, they would have changed things, people would have turned to me.

I believe God speaks to us today. But he doesn’t speak as often as many claim.

That is problem with a “word from God.” It becomes such a vague generality that the it is hard to dispute without you sounding like you know it all. If you turn it down, you appear as though you are turning down something holy.

A real word from God you when you hear it. It resonates in your soul and touches that part of God that lives within you. It makes a connection. Fake words may sound good and everybody will applaud making the giver of the “word” feel so good, but they do no real good.

And God hates them.