Ezekiel 13:1-9, 20-23

In the Old Testament and especially in the book of Ezekiel there are two kinds of prophets. They are the ones truly sent by God faithful to the word given to them by God, and those who just make up something and say that God sent them. It is these that Ezekiel tells us about in today's verses. They prophesy out of their own heart, but you couldn't call it a converted heart. They were there in the days of Jeremiah too. It seems they always say the opposite of what God is going to do. They talk about a way out of a calamity when there is no way out. Another phrase worth noting is that they follow their own spirit. All true prophets acknowledge that the movement of prophesy is from the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that is to move us if we are children of God. In those days prophets were what we might call forth tellers yet what they said was to square up with all the rest of what is said about the same subject. In our day since the whole word of God is now complete there is no such thing as someone who claims to be foretelling something God has not already said something about. When I want to judge what someone now says I ask myself one question. Is it true to what is said in the Bible? Since the Bible is complete there are no new things that come from God. My work if I were even to call myself a pastor or even a so called prophet is to take this book, what God has spoken, and properly interpret it and give the truth of it to the people of God.