HealingStrong's Around the Word

Episode 27 - The Jehoshaphat Series: Finding Truth Among False Prophets (2 Chronicles 18:3-13 NIV)

• HealingStrong • Episode 6

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Spiritual discernment requires recognizing false prophets and seeking God's truth beyond the crowd of yes-men that only tell us what we want to hear. We examine the biblical story of Jehoshaphat and King Ahab to understand the importance of testing advice against God's word.

• King Ahab consults 400 prophets who unanimously support his desire to go to war
• Jehoshaphat wisely asks for a true prophet of the Lord, recognizing the others as yes-men
• Micaiah, the one dissenting voice, stands apart from the crowd and speaks only God's truth
• We need to fortify our hearts with scripture before battles come, not during them
• Memorizing scripture creates spiritual protection for times of crisis or decision

Take time this week to choose and memorize a scripture that speaks to your current situation. Commit to "engrafting" (plant firmly) God's word in your heart so it will be available when you need divine guidance most.


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Suggested Resources:

BIBLE PLAN - Trusting God's Plan in the Battle: Lessons from the Life of Jehoshaphat

PODCAST - Genesis to Revelation Bible Reading

TOOLS - Refresh Your Spirit through God's Word




Please visit our website at healingstrong.org to learn more about our mission and community groups.

HELP US GROW:

Your donation enables us to continue offering this podcast and other resources for free supporting those facing cancer and chronic illness, caregivers and others. Every donation makes a big difference. Please donate here.

Speaker 1:

Look at the individuals that are giving you advice, and their livelihood does not reflect righteousness and holiness. In a fear of God, maybe we shouldn't be taking their counsel as truth.

Speaker 2:

Hi, it's Cheryl and you're listening to Healing Strong's Around the Word. We're friends sitting around the table that love the Lord and we love digging deep into His Word. It's awesome. Each day you'll hear me reading a Bible passage and then you'll hear us chatting about what we learned from it. Today I'll be reading 2 Chronicles, 18, verses 3-13, from the NIV version of the Bible. So join us Around the Word. So join us around the word. 2 Chronicles, 18, verses 3-13.

Speaker 2:

Ahab, king of Israel, asked Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat replied I am as you are and my people as your people. We will join you in the war. But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel first seek the counsel of the Lord. So the king of Israel brought together the prophets, 400 men, and asked them shall we go to war against Ramoth-Gilead or shall I not Gilead or shall I not Go? They answered, for God will give it into the king's hand. But Jehoshaphat asked Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of? The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, there is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah, son of Imlah. The king should not say such a thing. Jehoshaphat replied. So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said bring Micaiah, son of Imlah.

Speaker 2:

At once, dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah, son of Kenanah, had made iron horns and he declared this is what the Lord says With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed. All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. Attack Ramoth-Gilead and be victorious, they said, for the Lord will give it into the king's hand. The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him Look, the other prophets, without exception, are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs and speak favorably. But Micaiah said as surely as the Lord lives. I can tell him only what my God says.

Speaker 2:

That was our Bible reading for today. That was our Bible reading for today. So now let's listen in on the discussion that Angie, jeff, susie and yours truly had around the word Yesterday. We were kind of teeing up this story, and it was Jehoshaphat being invited to talk to King Ahab and then being invited to come to like go to war with him against another enemy. Today we pick up with King Ahab wanting to seek the prophets His prophets, mind you. He's got about 400 prophets. It doesn't say they are prophets of God. Mind you, they are prophets.

Speaker 3:

I think they're prophets on his payroll. Yeah, they're prophets on his payroll.

Speaker 2:

So they're basically a bunch of yes-men and it gets pretty dramatic, If you notice here. At one point one of the guys is like putting on like iron horns. And did you notice that, Jeff?

Speaker 1:

Yes, well, what's interesting is that we're building off of. You know, jehoshaphat makes an alliance that he should have never made Right, and then he gets that prick in his spirit and he's like we need to check with the Lord. Well, the king of Israel then brings out all of these 400 prophets and they're all yeah, go ahead, do this.

Speaker 1:

You're going to be victorious, yeah, god's going to give you victory, and even to prove that fact. You know, look at this, you're going to gourd them with this horn. You know, and it's like you know, he brings out the props just to show you know, I'm serious about this. You're going to have success, and don't we all love people that are, yes, people, how they will bring out physical items to help prove their point.

Speaker 2:

Yes, props, you're right, he's almost like a really bad car salesman, like some of these, like Kick in the tires. Kick in the tires and everything and it's like and then still, you know that Jehovah Shabbat's like but isn't there like a prophet of the Lord, do you notice that? So he must have noticed that these guys were not from God.

Speaker 1:

They were obviously yes, men, and he saw right through it, because truth is self-evident and he could tell that I mean, he's wise enough in the Lord to recognize these guys are flat lying. And he knew enough to say wait a minute, we've got to get some real somebody that we've got to get somebody that's really serious, somebody that's not inflated with themselves, their personalities, their agendas or just being a paid employee says yes, yes, sir, boss, anything you say.

Speaker 2:

And as a leader. You do not want to have a bunch of yes men. You want someone that's going to tell you the truth about the situation, because ultimately, responsibility falls on you as the leader later on.

Speaker 3:

The 400 implies a crowd. Going along with the crowd usually doesn't pay off. It's usually a voice, a much smaller number of voice, usually one. One voice. That's speaking truth.

Speaker 2:

And it sounds like this voice over here is micaiah, because king ahab is like well, we got this one guy, micaiah, but I don't like him. He never says anything good about me. Yeah, when you know that's because he's speaking truth.

Speaker 4:

He's a true prophet, but yeah, he doesn't like him well, and I think there's people too that can go against you, who are also not from the Lord too. So I love what Jehoshaphat says. He said is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of whether he speaks truth or goes against, or whether he goes with them or against them? He's looking for that prophet of the Lord. And did you notice that they had to go out and get Micaiah? He's looking for that prophet of the Lord.

Speaker 2:

And did you notice that they had to go out and get Micaiah? He's not hanging out with the crowd. They had to go physically seek him, to go get him. He's not with the 400.

Speaker 3:

No, no, and he's supposedly a prophet, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And there's a lesson for us to know that when we see the crowd saying something, we need to turn back to the word of God and, like Jehoshaphat said, wisely, isn't there somebody? Because he recognized that they were just giving him a bunch of yeses. But when we turn to Matthew, chapter 7, verse 15, it says beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Look at the fruits. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. So look at the individuals that are giving you advice and if they are sitting there and their livelihood does not reflect righteousness and holiness and a fear of God, maybe we shouldn't be taking their counsel as truth.

Speaker 2:

Jeff, I love the point about false prophets and stuff. I mean, what made that verse come to your mind?

Speaker 1:

Well, there was something in my life that I was dealing with, where decisions were going to be made that would affect me very personally, and so I had to cry out to the Lord, like Jehoshaphat will see do. And I was saying, lord, I don't have the answers, but I need your word to be revealed to me so that I know what I can do. If I have a promise in your word, I know I can stand on that. And that's where he reminded me of the false prophets and the good trees bearing good fruit and the bad trees bearing bad fruit. And so once I was able to read that and remind myself, I was able to stand more confidently Now. It didn't make it easy because the situation was out of my control, but I knew at least that the Lord and I had made an agreement that I was going to follow his word and not trust the counsel of the others that I knew and saw had lied in the past, had shoddy backgrounds in their life, and so I knew I could trust the Lord's word above them.

Speaker 3:

I love that, jeff, and the reason you could trust that you had studied that before. You had that scripture over in Matthew, in your heart, in your mind, and that's why the word tells us. You got to know the truth, know the word, meditate on it day and night, so when the fiery darts of the enemy come, you've got the protection that you need. You said that verse came to mind, that thought came to mind because it was in there in the first place and the Lord just triggered it. The Holy Spirit triggered it and it's so valuable it's so valuable.

Speaker 2:

And guess who's the best advisor ever too? The Holy Spirit. That's part of His job, literally, and he's a he. He's not a ethereal kind of, he, is a person. He's our counselor, our comforter, our helper. That's his job to be that little prick in your spirit or to remind you of a verse or whatever.

Speaker 3:

But if you don't know any verses, if you don't know any word, what's the Holy Spirit got to work with? You know we got to do our part. Holy Spirit will illuminate it. You know we got to do our part.

Speaker 1:

Holy Spirit will illuminate it, it will bring it back up to you, and that's part of what Jehoshaphat did early on. He was establishing his kingdom, fortifying the boundaries and the borders, and when we put the word of God into our hearts, that's what we're doing we are fortifying the boundaries.

Speaker 2:

You're guarding your heart.

Speaker 1:

We are guarding our heart. And so, when those attacks and those adversities come upon us, we are prepared.

Speaker 2:

The best way to prepare is to prepare before a battle or before you need something when it's desperate and you can't even think straight. So here's a little homework for you all. That would be good this week. Go pick a verse, a verse that speaks to you in the Bible that really you believe will help you in the future, or something you need right now, but a verse that you memorize and start memorizing it. You need right now, but a verse that you memorize and start memorizing it. Commit it to memory.

Speaker 2:

I know sometimes we don't, as adults, do that anymore, but it's so important to we sometimes call it engrafting God's word into your heart. That's almost like putting it like whenever you're grafting a branch of a plant to another plant and then you're tying it together. You're binding it so that it will grow together into one branch. That's what you wanna do with God's word. Put it in your heart, memorize it so for the day of battle you'll have it ready and you can repeat back God's words and pray it over your situation, and I promise you that is not a wasted venture. So do it. Anyway, thank you so much for joining us for Healing Strong's Around the Word podcast. I hope you were encouraged to dig deeper into God's word. Our website is healingstrongorg. If you have a chance, check it out. You can find out more about our mission and our community groups. Until next time, remember faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.