In 1st Kings chapter 22 there is the account of when Ahab (king of Israel) and Jeshoshaphat the king of Judah called a prophetic "conference" of 400 prophets to ask whether or not they should go up to battle against Syria at place called Ramoth- Gilead. All 400 prophets affirmed the choice. They each gave the green light to go up to battle.
But, Jeshoshaphat had 'a check' in his gut. Something wasn't right. Before agreeing to go into battle against Syria he asked the king of Israel to first inquiry of the Lord to make sure that going to war was the right thing to do! Instead of seeking God as he was told, Ahab went to the prophets. Isn't that amazing? He behaved just like a lot of Christians do today. Instead of going into your own prayer closet to seek God fervently in prayer, some folks seek the big-named television prophets. Didn't it ever dawn on anyone that if a television prophet gave bad news, a word of warning or a stern call to repentance, their days of popularity and fame would be over. People don't want the truth, they want their ears tickled. They want to hear about success, prosperity and how to get blessed. They have no tolerance for a genuine prophetic word. It's no wonder the church is in such a mess.
As the story in unfolds, only Micaiah stood against that decision. He truly heard from God, they other prophets didn't really hear from the Lord at all. This is a 400 to 1 case of conflicting discernment.
Only Micaiah had the Word of the Lord because he truly sought the Lord on the matter. He was a man of uncompromising integrity, willing to speak 'what thus saith the Lord' even if it made people uncomfortable.
CONCLUSION
In the end, Ahab gets himself killed. That's what he gets for not seeking God. I'm not being mean, what I'm doing is seeing his heart the way Father God saw it. In other words, did you know that God will allow disaster and havoc to ruin your life 'if' you choose to walk in the path of foolishness and rebellion? God will let you have what you pursue!
In the book of II Thessalonians 2:12-17, the Lord promises to send a strong delusion to those who would not love the truth, but rather have the lie. It is God sends them what they want!
Thessalonians 2:7-12
(7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains (controls) will do so until he is taken out of the way. (8) And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Master will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. (9) The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, (10) and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (11) And for this reason (Elohim) will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, (12) that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
The word “delusion” used here is translated from the Greek word, PLANOS, #4106 — and means; a wrong opinion, errors in morals, a leading astray, a working of error.
So, we learn from this bible story that the false prophetic word came from the mouths of the 400 because; it was what the Ahab and the kings prophets WANTED to hear. Their hearts were not after truth. In the end, they lost the battle and it cost Ahab his life. All because of an unyielded heart, bad motives and a massive lack of discernment.
In Jeremiah's day so-called prophets prophesied deliverance from the yoke of the king of Babylon and people "heard" the supposed voice of the Lord in it because it was what they wanted to hear. So much so, in fact, that when Jeremiah prophesied that they must submit to the yoke of Babylon because it was the Lord's will, they threw him down a well and fed him on bread and water.
But Jeremiah was right and Jerusalem suffered a hideous destruction for their failure to hear the voice of the Lord through him and their insistence on listening to the prophetic voices that spoke what they wanted to hear.
We have a distressing tendency to hear the supposed voice of God through people who speak what we want to hear and to filter out those whose words that conflict with what sounds pleasant, sweet and exciting to us. What's realy amazing is that all along, many of us truly believed the prophetic word was from God!
