“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thess 5:21
Yesterday, I had two significant encounters. I had to teach, without prior planning, on the subject of God’s unfailing and perpetual faithfulness to Israel and also on the crushing of grain. I had only just started speaking on both subjects when I realised I was not prepared. The Bible passages I needed were not forthcoming, so I had to stop.
Actually, one of the incidents required action, and I was rightly challenged. Yet I was grateful for such an environment where the word of God takes preminence. The lesson from the experience is realising spiritual authority does not make a message true.
A person may have a title, experience, reputation or even a genuine history with God, but that does not mean everything they say is automatically from God. Every message must be tested against the word of God.
We see this very clearly in 1 Kings 13.
God sent a man of God from Judah to Bethel to confront King Jeroboam, who was leading Israel into idolatry. The man of God prophesied against the altar and declared that a future king, Josiah, would destroy it. As a sign, the altar split apart and its ashes were poured out.
Jeroboam tried to arrest him, but his hand became paralysed. When the king asked the man of God to pray for him, God restored his hand.
The king then invited the man of God to eat and drink with him, but he refused because God had commanded him:
“Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.” 1 Kings 13:9
The man of God had received a clear word from God.
Then something happened.
An old prophet from Bethel found him and claimed that an angel had spoken to him and instructed him to bring the man of God back to his house to eat and drink.
The man of God believed him.
But the old prophet had lied.
The Bible says:
“But he lied unto him.”
1 Kings 13:18
Notice what makes this so serious. The old prophet had credentials.
He was an established prophet.
He was older.
He was living in Bethel.
He claimed to have received a message from God.
He claimed that an angel had spoken to him.
He even used the expression:
“By the word of the LORD.”
But he was lying.
The man of God had already received a direct command from God. His problem was not that he lacked a word from God. His problem was that he accepted another person’s claim about what God had supposedly said.
That is why Paul’s instruction is so important:
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
1 Thessalonians 5:21
Paul does not tell us to believe everything because someone is spiritual. He tells us to prove all things.
This principle appears throughout the new testament.
John says:
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.” 1 John 4:1
Paul says:
“Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.” 1 Corinthians 14:29
And concerning the gospel itself, Paul gives an even stronger warning:
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
Galatians 1:8
Even an angel is not above the word God has already given.
That is a sobering lesson.
Spiritual experience must never replace biblical examination.
A message can sound powerful and still be wrong.
A person can genuinely have been used by God and still say something that must be rejected.
Someone can have spiritual authority without every statement they make carrying divine authority.
Even a supernatural experience does not give us permission to abandon the word of God.
The man of God in 1 Kings 13 had witnessed extraordinary things. His prophecy had been confirmed. God had used him powerfully. Yet he still needed to obey the specific word God had already given him.
Know the word. Test what you hear. Obey what God has actually said. And never allow somebody else’s spiritual authority to become a substitute for your own responsibility before God.
