Importance Of Listening To The Prophets, 7/14

God loves us, he raises up prophets and watchmen to warn us of coming troubles and help us prepare so that we can prepare both spiritually and naturally. The account of Genesis 30-47, which tells of God preparing Joseph to save the people of Egypt and surrounding areas by storing up grain for 7 years is a great example. But perhaps the best example in scripture of preparation for impending disaster is the story of Noah where God led Noah to build the ark to survive the flood and repopulate the earth after God purged the earth of great wickedness. In that account(Genesis 6-9), God was only able to save 8 people from the distraction but he wanted to save more. How do we know this? Because the scriptures tell us so:

2 Peter 2:5

and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

So we see that for the 120 years that Noah was building the ark he was preaching righteousness. This shows how God was trying to save more than just Noah, but nobody listened. We live in a time like that. God has raised up many prophets to tell us what is going on and are warning and preparing us for the things that are coming, but it is up to us to LISTEN. If we do not, we have only ourselves to thank for the disaster that will come upon us. When the flood came, Noah was fine! He and his family were borne over the rising waters, safe and dry, sheltered from the storm, with plenty of food and water and lots of friendly animals to pet and play with. I love animals, I rather think I would have enjoy that sea voyage. But this only happened because Noah LISTENED TO GOD an OBEYED! And outside the ark ALL who had not listened his preaching lost their lives at least and most lost their souls and were swept into eternity in a moment's time and went to hell, never to experience a moment's peace ever again but only to suffer unspeakable agony that will never ever end.

Are you ready for God's judgements? Are you listening to God? Are you listening to the warnings of the prophet? There are many prophets who are much more mature at being a prophet than I am. I am new to this and have a lot of growing to do but I seek to be faithful to he prophetic calling on my life and help SAVE people from what is coming. I am only what I call a "budding prophet" and am not in what the bible calls the "office" of prophet. God is training me to be in the office of prophet eventually and I would not dare to claim to be there yet. But there are many fine mature prophets out there telling the truth about what is coming. Are you listening to any of them? Please consider what the word of God says about listening to the prophets:

2 Chronicles 20:20New King James Version (NKJV)

20 ... “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

Jeremiah 26:4-6New King James Version (NKJV)

4 And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 5 to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”’”

So we see that there is a blessing of prosperity attached to believing the prophets if we refuse to listen to the prophets there is no blessing, and beyond that: judgement if we do not listen to the prophets. God raises up prophets to lead, deliver and preserve his people:

Hosea 12:13New King James Version (NKJV)

13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,

And by a prophet he was preserved.

The prophets are God's personal friends and he shares his plans with them, that is how they know the future:

Amos 3:7New King James Version (NKJV)

7 Surely the Lord God does nothing,

Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

The prophets are people who have cultivated their personal relationship with God well enough that he considers them his friends and so he shares his secrets with them just as we would do with our earthly friends. So we see the absolute necessity of listening to the prophets and following their direction. Who knows how many might have been saved through the flood if the people would have listened to Noah's prophetic preaching. God wants his people to know what is coming so they can be ready so he tells his friends the prophets so they can tell the people.

Choosing not to listen to the prophets haw serous consequences. This is how the children of Israel got themselves under the judgement of God and taken into captivity in Babylon. They were not brought out of that for 70 years and it happened primarily through the ministry of the prophet Daniel who began to confess the sins of the people and repent for their sins as a nation. Notice how importantly NOT listening to the prophets played into how they came under judgement:

Daniel 9:4-12New King James Version (NKJV)

4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. 8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

Are you listening to the prophets? Do you know who they are? Each of us is responsible to find out who are the true prophets speaking the true oracles of God and to listen to them and heed them. Those who do not are begging for trouble. Very, VERY serious times are ahead and God wants to save us all if we will let him. If you have not been reading my posts like this one then please go back through the previous posts and take in what I have been saying. SERIOUS CALAMITY is at the doorstep of America: total economic collapse, civil war, foreign invasion, massive geophysical upheaval, astronomical catastrophes, famine, 10's of millions of American deaths, etc. Only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and TOTAL submission to his perfect divine will for your life can keep you safe and at peace in the times ahead so please give ALL of your heart to God unreservedly today. God bless you.

-Stephen Pursell, 7/14