Jeremiah is one of those biblical examples that I find particularly comforting because, at times, his human frailties come to the fore. He begins as someone “too young” to be taken seriously, he is often at odds with the established so-called experts of his day, and he will eventually operate in an environment where he is so numerically overwhelmed that it’s a wonder his voice is heard at all. But through his example we are provided with the most important fact of what makes a prophet a prophet: “I have put My words in your mouth“.

Our present time in the shadow of the Last Days is a direct parallel to Jeremiah’s time in the waning days of Judah. Most people engage in some kind of religious activity, but very few live according to God’s Word; there are thousands of false prophets who make it difficult to listen to the handful of true ones; and there is a wholesale embrace of the deception that the end isn’t really coming. One of the things which makes the small and faithful remnant so very different from the majority of apostate and deceived is how they deal with the Word of God. One clings to it, the other is too intent on holding onto something in its place. Do you think God’s Word is more or less important to the average believer than it was even 20 years ago, much less 50 or 100?

The true role of a prophet isn’t to make bold and new predictions about things which are going to come about. Sometimes this occurs, but it is actually a bit rare. If we pay attention to the Word of God through Jeremiah we will discover he spends far more time calling backslidden believers to live according to the Word of God they already know. The “new” and future events are almost always either a warning of what will happen to those who continue on their path of forsaking God’s Word versus the promises of future blessing for those not willing to forsake His Word in this present life. In reality, a true prophet is sort of like an evangelist to people who have already heard the Gospel but fail to live up to it.

The many false prophets in our midst are easily exposed not only by the fact that the things they predict do not come true, ^[1] but that there is no repentance and return to God’s Word associated with the activities of their so-called “ministry”. They think their false prophecies are enough; they think their false signs and false healings are enough; they think claiming to be something “new” is enough. But over the past 20 years as we’ve seen very bizarre things in Kansas City, Pensacola, Toronto, Lakeland, and so on and so forth, what has not come from any of these false spiritual movements or the false personalities behind them is even the most minimal increase in personal faithfulness, repentance, or commitment to the original Word of God. If God has not put His words in their mouth, then who do you suppose has?_††_†

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