The "Fluff" Of False Prophets

There were prophets running around in the days of the prophet Jeremiah preaching a false message of peace and prosperity. Sound familiar? Is that not the message being heralded from so many pulpits, churches and ministries across America today? We hear so much nonsense from people claiming to have all kinds of visions and dreams from the Lord, and believers are looking to these so-called "prophets" instead of the searching and discipline of the Scriptures.

False hope, false proclamations of peace, false dreams and visions are worthless fluff. There is no substance in them! God says through Jeremiah in Jer. 23:28 - "The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord." Here God Himself compares the worthless chaff of the wheat to the dreams of the prophet, and the nourishing grain of the wheat itself to His word.

Why do I bring this up? Am I against peace in the lives of people? Of course not! But there can be no peace in the lives of people who want to be comfortable in their sin. There can be no peace in the absence of true repentance from sin. There can be no peace where God Himself has not declared peace. There can be no peace where God has declared war and pronounced judgement. The good intentions of well-meaning, but misguided, false prophets and prophetesses are much more damaging to the souls of their hearers than is confronting those hearers with their sins to get them to repent.

First of all listen to what God says about these "prophets": Jer. 23:16,17,21,22 - "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually say to those who despise Me, 'The Lord has said, You shall have peace'; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, 'No evil shall come upon you.'...I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings."

In these words are revealed the dangers of proclaiming nice things, comfortable things to the flesh, when God is not in it. For according to Jer. 23:14, false prophets who speak lies, "strengthen the hands of evildoers," i.e., they prevent repentance by not declaring God's truth, they prevent people from truly coming to life by making them comfortable in their sin. God makes the same accusation against false prophets through the prophet Ezekiel. Ezek. 13:22 - "Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life." Lying prophets keep people from turning to the Lord in repentance so they can live. Their words of peace, comfort and prosperity are false. Non-confrontational, man and flesh pleasing preaching is destructive, not kind. Telling people what they want to hear does nothing to profit them or turn them toward God. It only profits the false teacher lining their pockets with money from sales of their nonsensical, false-hope producing books and seminars.

Beware of the fluff - you don't need it!