Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from January 26: Testing the Message
how do we know if a message is truly coming from God? Does He even do that anymore? Certainly enough people have claimed to hear Him. How can we know?
We have always taught that everything should be checked against God’s word. That goes for anything a preacher tells you. That goes for anything you read, and anything that you think that god might be telling you. It especially goes for someone telling you that they have heard directly from the Lord. If it contradicts the written word, it is not from God.
If it passes that test, there is still a question whether it is in fact a word from god for the moment we are in. Truth will always serve us well, but to know what God is saying right now, we need a relationship. We need to be able to hear from the Holy Spirit, who will guide us “into all truth.”
I can’t do that for you, but I can put my own words under the microscope of God’s word. Will they hold up? Did they really come from Him? If I didn’t think so, I would not have said them, but let’s see if the written Word will provide them with any foundation.
We take our queue from the Bereans. When Paul came to their Synagogue and began sharing the good news that their promised messiah had come, they eagerly searched the scriptures to see if what Paul was telling them was true (Acts 17:10-12). As a result, many of them believed. Now we already have the gospel, but this is the same attitude that we should have when someone brings us a message. Check the book. If it checks out, rejoice in the truth that God has revealed to you. If it doesn’t, you have a false prophet in your midst, though possibly well intentioned.
