Recently, a church member approached me to tell me she had a special word from the Lord for me personally. In a nutshell, here was my threefold message: Get closer to God, fast more, and prepare yourself to be attacked by Satan. I thanked her when she added that she would be praying for me. When I dwelt on my personal message afterwards, I came to this conclusion: (1) Do you know any Christians who can honestly say that they don’t need to get closer to God? (2) Can any Christian honestly say that he or she doesn’t need to fast more? (3) Is it a strange thing that any true servant of God will get tested and attacked by the devil? Did not Jesus say? : “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” (Luke 12:48) I suspect there are many well meaning people like her in most churches today and you may know of one or two who have been known to do and say things like that to other fellow believers and ministers.

       This experience relates indirectly with a feature of the bible study I am bringing presently in our Spanish Bible class. Perhaps the timing is not so ironic. The account keynotes the relationship between Elisha and the sons (school) of the prophets. The prophets at Bethel as well as those in Jericho each came up to let the prophet know in advance that God was going to take his mentor and fellow prophet, Elijah, from him. They did not realize that Elisha already knew that. In fact he knew what was going to happen more completely than they. You see, after Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a flaming chariot, all these prophets wanted Elisha’s permission to go seek the body of Elijah. Elisha knew this would be a useless attempt and they would not find him. They insisted so much that he gave them leave anyway and when they found nothing, Elisha was kind not to tell them “I told you so.”

       We can learn two things from this. First, be patient when someone brings you a personal message from the Lord. Consider the message and the source. Is it something you didn’t know already? And unless it was a confirmation of a message from God you were not yet convinced about, pay it no further mind. Secondly, next time you feel God wants you to bring someone a personal message from Him, make very sure it is from Him and not from you. In this regard, make sure you are being led by the Spirit of God and not by your own feelings.

God’s word for today (Ezekiel 13:3) “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.”