By Lisa Wilmore
Scripture: And the word of the Lord came unto me saying….Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!…They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word…Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God (Ezekiel 13:1,3b, 6,8).
Are you guilty of bending the truth to win popularity, position, or power? Have you neglected to tell people what thus saith the Lord because you are afraid of losing their friendship? Or, are you afraid that once you share the truth, you will no longer be invited to speak at their engagements. Well, if persons are guilty of not telling people the truth in order to win popularity, they will suffer the wrath of God.
There is always going to be persons who prefer their idea of truth rather than God’s Word. They will bow down to any level to win popularity, position or power. Their ultimate goal is to create a great following for themselves and not Jesus Christ. They disregard the idea to tell people about the One and only true living God and what he has done for us through His Son, Jesus. Some deceivers come and offer promises from God of worldly material wealth, health, and success. However, is this truly what God’s Word illuminates? Jesus, the sovereign one, came to this earth, yet he was of no worldly wealth. He did not have a life of luxury and ease.
In the aforementioned scripture passage, God commissioned Ezekiel to warn the false prophets that he was against them for portraying messages to his people that were not from Hm. They presented lies to people so that they could win popularity by saying whatever made the people happy. False Prophets did not care about the truth. They only told people what they wanted to hear in order to create a false sense of security. They twisted the truth for popularity and power. This twisted truth is unacceptable by God.
Jesus tells us in Matthews 7:15 to “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” In essence, he warns us of false teachers who are motivated by winning popularity to gain money, self-promotion and power. They actually minimize Christ and glorify themselves.
My brothers and sisters, we must please God by sharing His Son, Jesus Christ with others. Anything else is offensive to God. Do not twist the truth to win popularity!
