Closely related to this is our final area. When we presume to speak for God we are most definitely taking His name in vain. On a personal level there are two considerations. The first is the propensity for Christians to tell other Christians a word they claim is from God. The Lord is perfectly capable of speaking directly to anyone. Now, this is not to discourage us when God actually prompts us to speak to someone. Perhaps it is a word of knowledge to show the omniscience of the Lord. Perhaps it is a word of encouragement to build a brother or sister in Christ up by reminding them who God is. Perhaps it can even be a word of prophecy, leading them back into His Word for clarity and confirmation. What these three examples share is that they all bring glory to God. They are to glorify Him, not the messenger. I have seen Christians advise other Christians that God told them they should get divorced! God never told you any such thing! We must not be so careless with the name of the Lord as to speak presumptively on His behalf when He has said nothing. Remember there are other spirits beloved and even the emissaries of Satan disguise themselves as angels of light. The worship leader of the heretical outfit known as Jesus Culture loves to testify about how Jesus visited her while awake, and whisked her away to the throne room where she met the Father face to face. Now we know that the Bible says no one can see the Father and live so we can be sure the story is untrue but assuming she is not lying can only leave us with one conclusion. She could not tell the difference between a demonic visitation and that of Christ. You can take the Lords name in vain and not even realize it when you do not hold it in the proper reverence to begin with.
The second personal consideration is the dramatic increase in people who try to divide the Word of God without actually being called to do so. Yes beloved, it is a calling. The responsibility is burdensome. Paul explains to the Ephesian elders that their blood would have been on his head if he had held any part of the Gospel back from them. That is how serious it is. That is why those who labor in preaching and teaching are worth double honor and will be judged by a stricter measure. With the advent of social media however, everyone fancies themselves a preacher. What we fail to realize is every time we break open the Scriptures to preach the Word to people we are saying -- thus sayeth the Lord. We better be right in what we presume to speak on His behalf.
Lastly, as the previous item dealt with false teachers, this area deals with our support of false prophets. There is an entire false prophet apparatus in this country that exists to make money from the sheep and prop each other up. They do not engage in biblical prophecy at all. They engage in clairvoyance, psychic tricks and outright deception. The people from IHOP, Bethel, The Kansas City Prophets, The Elijah List, Charisma News, and the New Apostolic Reformation are all vile false prophets. They claim to speak on behalf of God but they prophesy out of the blackness of their own deceived hearts. They make their living by taking the Lord's name in vain and we ought to not be associated with them. We ought not to seek them out. If we want a "fresh" word, then we need to open our Bible. We show a complete and utter disdain for the name of the Lord when we support charlatans who make merchandise of the Gospel by defaming His name throughout the churches.
Beloved, there is power in the name of the Lord! Anyone who calls upon that name will in fact be saved! They will overcome this world. They will be born again. That is real power! His name is holy. It needs to be set apart. In the garden, God set apart one tree and we defiled it. The spirit is always willing but the flesh is always weak. His name is holy and should be revered. It should cause us to fall down and worship. It is not a Facebook post or a twitter response. We need to stop following teachers who claim direct revelation from God only to preach contrary to the Gospel. We need to not speak presumptively on behalf of God or follow any false prophets who make their living doing so. It is all folly. It is all vanity. Take not His name in vain beloved for He will not hold us guiltless if we do so.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- December 13, 2016
