Wow! What could happen when we know God’s express instructions yet disobey them because of what another supposed man of God said? This is quite a story because the man of God who got deceived by the old prophet, had clear instructions from God but this other old prophet lied that he too was instructed by God and thus led the former to break God’s express instruction to him and suffer such a useless fate. 😢💔
Lessons:
- God isn’t a god of confusion and never contradicts himself. The problem is always with us and our interpretation of what He’s said. Whatever contradicts God’s word, we can be sure has roots in the grand deception of the devil.
- The story also underlines the problem with following a ‘man of God’ vs relying on the pure truth of scripture as our foundation.
- A good test is always to see if what is being taught or practiced lines up with God’s word as opposed to tradition, popularity or convenience. Study to show thyself approved, rightfully dividing the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15), testing everything that is said, holding fast to what is good (1 Thes 5:21).
- It also shows the kind of attitude we should have towards obeying God’s instructions. We are saved (from the curse of sin) by faith (in the redeeming death of Jesus who we haven’t seen, yet), through grace (Eph 2:8-9) but we will all be judged based on the truth/revelation we have and what’s reflected in our works (Rom 2:11-16)!!! Our faith needs to be evidenced in our works otherwise it’s dead/fake (James 2:17-18). If we say we know/love God, we will keep His commandments, otherwise we are liars (1 John 2:3-5).
With so many versions of ‘truth’ and Christianity in the world today, how timely a reminder to yearn for the truth of God and nothing but the truth in scripture! 🙏🏾😇
The Langford Files 