We are in the end times and so many things are happening. Are you close to God? Do you hear him when He speaks to you? Are you sensitive to His nudge? What do you do when someone senior to you in the faith is saying the contrary? I was reading the story of the young prophet and the old prophet in the Bible and these words kept coming to my heart. Do you remember the story in 1 Kings 13: 1-end? The young Prophet got a message from the Lord to prophesy against the altar which king Jeroboam had built and God gave him specific instructions as to what to do in Israel and what not to do. When King Jeroboam asked him to go back home with him to refresh himself after he had restored his arm back, he specifically told him in verses 8 and 9:
8” And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: 9 For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.”
He was obedient to that point and verse 10 told us: “So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.”
There will always be an old prophet
An old prophet heard all what happened through his sons and he went after the young prophet, not to encourage him, but to destroy him. When he got to where the young Prophet was, he invited the young prophet home and the young prophet answered him, not affirmatively, as he answered the king, but compromisingly. He said in verse 16 “And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: 17 For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.”
Did you notice here that he had changed “I will not” that he told the king earlier to “I may not”? That was what got him into trouble. So, when he told the old Prophet that, the old Prophet used that opportunity to sell him his poison, and because he was tired and hungry, he fell for it. The old Prophet said to him in verse 18: “… I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.” The bible told us that as they were eating, God used the same old prophet to prophesy his doom and he died uncelebrated.
Lessons from this story
- When you have heard God specifically on any issue of life, whether by prophesy, word of knowledge, revelation of the word, conviction of the Holy Spirit, audible voice or through whatever means God decided to speak to you, never, never allow anyone, no matter how spiritual, make you doubt the message you got from God.
- Never allow what is happening around you or what other senior people or more spiritual people around you are saying, to make you doubt what God has told you.
- If God says, “don’t drink water” and all the senior Apostles are telling you, “What is wrong in drinking water? What is this? What is that? Don’t answer them at all. Nothing may be wrong with drinking water, but God has a reason why He told you not to drink water, and He didn’t tell them. So, they will never understand you, but the onus is on you to obey God and not fall to the pressure from men.
- When God sends you on an errand and He didn’t tell you to rest on the way, don’t rest. If the young prophet had not taken off time to rest on the way, the old prophet wouldn’t have caught up with him.
- After delivering any message God has given you to deliver, always ask God for a refill of energy and grace, because virtue would have gone out of you and a refill will always be needed.
- Never doubt what God has told you, no matter the pressure from whosoever. Never change your “will not” to “may not”, if God did not tell you Himself. There will always be old prophets in our midst. People that God has abandoned because of one reason or the other. Why would God send a young prophet from Judah when the old prophet was on ground in Israel? The old prophet must have compromised his stand in Israel. God might have spoken to him several times to tell the king the message and because of fear, he had disobeyed, until God had to raise a young prophet from Judah to come and deliver the message.
- God’s work will always get done. Instead of it not to get done, it is the man that will be changed.
- God may still use abandoned vessels when he needs to use them and He showed us an example here in the case of the old prophet. God used him to prophesy the death of the young prophet and it came to pass. Be careful that you don’t fall for the tricks of the old prophets around you.
There are so many old Prophets now who have because of ‘fear of whatever’, can no longer speak the truth of God’s word in simplicity, and would want to silence any young prophet that God wants to speak through. Are you a young prophet? Refuse to be silenced. Deliver whatever message God has given you, even at the risk of losing your life and after delivering your message, don’t rest on your oars, continue to obey God to the letter; put your hands in His hands every day in prayer, in reading His word, in living holy, and you will not die before your time.
Read 1 Kings Chapter 13 again and may God open your inner eyes and inner ears to see and hear what He wants you to see and hear, in Jesus name. Shallom!