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Wow! What a relevant topic! For years, false prophets have been stirring up dissension in order to dismantle what God is building among His people. To make a clear point, God compares a false prophet to a fox among ruins.
‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing. 4 “O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins.
Ezekiel 13:3-4 NASB
To the ancient Jew, this would have connected on many levels. Consider what a fox is like. They are scavengers who are passive aggressive and rarely show their faces during the day. A fox roaming in the desert would come in as a scavenger looking for anything they could find to benefit themselves among the destruction. They would ignore the ruins in order to sufficiently provide for their own needs. This is precisely the opposite of how Paul would instruct people to operate in the New Testament.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3-4 NASB
How do we recognize false prophets today?
People who say they have had a “word from God” but their advice doesn’t come true or contradicts Scripture. This kind of pseudo-Christianity has infiltrated the church. It’s one thing to counsel someone with the actual Word of God and another thing to counsel them with thoughts from your head.
There are many today who believe everything they hear in their minds is directly from the Lord. Prophets of the Old Testament did not have the full canon of Scripture so this type of communication with God was much needed. Today, we have the Scripture in its entirety and so we can “test the spirits” by referenced God’s Word and evaluating a prophetic message with the Truth. In fact, Paul tells the church in Corinth that prophetic messages must be judged by the body of believers (1 Corinthians 14:29).
They do not exemplify the love of Christ. We all know people like this. They claim to have supernatural encounters or specific gifts of the Spirit. They talk a lot of Christianese. They quote promises from Scripture left and right and they are quick to judge others who don’t meet that standard.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1 NASB
A noisy gong or clanging cymbal is exactly what comes to mind when considering those who are false prophets. Your spiritual gift means nothing if it does not exude the love of God. I would go as far as to say that spiritual gifts do not necessarily guarantee Salvation as many claim. This is because the devil masquerades as an angel of light and disguises false works as true works. Evidently, this problem was rampant in the early church as well.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:13-14 NASB
They don’t edify the body / it’s all about them. False prophets are easily recognizable by their emphasis on what they are doing. It’s a pride thing that places priority on “their gift” and “their Word.” In 1 Cor 14, Paul drew special attention to the fact that a lack of edification among prophets is a major red flag.
In conclusion, Scripture has given us many tools to use in our defense against false prophets. Here are several other great questions you can ask when evaluating false prophets.