The prophet's handbook

crave and need most in these last days—answers. Answers from the spiritual, unseen forces manipulating or maneuvering the natural world. This job, Isaiah 19–20 tells us, is the work of God through the prophets He assigns to His people. If you read 2 Chronicles 33:1–13 and 2 Kings 21:1–15, you will learn several things about this. Among them is what is presented today as popular insight and innocent counseling. They recall the tools and intents of the same ancient eastern religions condemned by Jehovah for natural Israel. Look at 1 Chronicles 33:6. Soothsaying, witchcraft, sorcery (magic), mediums, and spiritists are all condemned by God and cursed by Him. He forbids His people to even entertain them. Yet, modern-day advertisements have these people brazenly peddling their message as hope for a better life on earth. Still, the end result is the same: death. Death by deception, in fact. Since the false prophecies rival God’s ordinations, they cannot help but fail, being overruled by the eternal and living word of God. Recognizing False Prophecy Prophecy, God’s divine communications medium, was designed to give voice to His thoughts and actions in our world, not to entertain or appease those to whom it comes. When prophecies are uttered outside the Almighty’s legitimate script decreed on a life, it is designated as false prophecy. Deuteronomy explains it best: But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20–22, emphasis added) This passage begins an extensive list of what constitutes false prophecy. •First, it speaks in the name of other gods. Do not be confused by this statement and think that it does not apply today. Besides the inrush of other gods’ names into the world, what they peddle and promise is just as indicative. Anything that is prophesied that distorts the Lord’s character as revealed in His Word, or purports to remove the hearer from His will or household, reflects the words of another god. If the word or subject of the prophecy does not follow after it has been