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By James Quansah
GOD’S WORD tells us to believe in the prophetic words of His ministers as it is written “…. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.” (2 Chronicles 20: 20).
This is one of the most quoted scriptural verses which pastors often use to get believers to commit to their words. They encourage them to believe in them or their directions, counsel, teachings or instructions.
But does the verse above tell Christian believers to believe in every prophetic utterance or direction of every prophet or pastor they come into contact with? Certainly not! Believing in every minister or his words will be a big mistake and an irresponsible response.
It is, therefore, sad and surprising that most Christians in many parts of the world easily believe in everything their pastors tell them. Now, the scriptural passage above must be understood in context.
Firstly, Christian believers must know the genuineness or otherwise of the prophet, who Jehoshaphat was referring to. His name was Jahaziel and he was a genuine prophet as he spoke to the congregation of Israel by the Spirit of God.
And Jehoshaphat knew that the prophet’s words were true and worth believing because they were inspired by the Spirit of God.
You see, as children of God, we have a duty to discern the genuineness of a minister and examine the truth of all teachings, prophetic utterances and appeals pastors make to us. We have a duty to test all spirits and identify the spirit by which the minister speaks.
And we also have a duty to search the scriptures to see if the things pastors tell are so or not as the Berean Christians did in the ministry of Paul, the apostle.
“And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth,” (Acts 17:11)
If Christians fail to abide in the Word of Christ, and be exposed to the truth they will always fall prey to the schemes of money-loving preachers in our generation.
James Quansah is the Executive Director of Christ-Conscious Leadership Centre (CLC) and lead Pastor of End-Time Christ’s Commissioners (ECC), Kumasi, Ghana. James is also a journalist by profession. He is married with four children.
