Don't lead them astray!

Jeremiah 23:28

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream,

but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully

Faithfully- 1. In a loyal manner.

2. In a manner that is true to the facts or the original

     Really quickly lets take a look back at what was going on here. Jeremiah was writing at a time when people were prophesying "Thus says the Lord" things that God was definitely not saying. God was confronting this issue in a very big way. You see God has never been a fan of false prophets! The people were living lives that were slapping God in the face, yet these prophets were telling them that it was okay. Not just telling them that it was okay, but they were telling them that God was saying that it was okay! GOD DID NOT, NOR DOES HE NOW LIKE THIS!!!! The people were being led astray by the prophets. Led eternally astray by them. All the while, God was speaking through Jeremiah telling of the destruction that would come to the people if they kept living the way that they were. 

     People were worshipping idols. Man made idols. They would actually offer their babies up to one particular god known as Baal. They would burn their own children in hopes order to worship this huge statue, and the prophets were saying this was okay. 

This is what God has to say about that

Jeremiah 23:16-17

Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the words of the LORD, 'it shall be with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you."

     Understand that what God is calling out here are the words of FALSE PROPHETS! Something huge stands out here. in verse 17 God calls out a lie from the false prophets "And to everyone who stubbornly FOLLOWS HIS OWN HEART, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'" 

Woah woah wait wait wait

    If that's the lie, then the truth must be that those who stubbornly follow their own hearts shall soon find disaster... But we live in a world that tells us all the time to follow our hearts. Don't we? In fact, don't some of us(Christians) tell people it's okay to follow their hearts? 

     I'm reminded of the last youth camp that I played at. The speaker was talking on this matter, and made it a point to say "I can't stand when people say to follow your heart." Can I just say I completely understand and agree with this statement. You see when we tell people it's okay to simply follow the heart, we become false prophets. We lead people astray! Just as these prophets were leading God's people into disaster, so do we when we tell people it's okay to follow the heart. "Why?" you ask. 

Genesis 8:21

"......For the intentions of a man's heart is evil from His youth."

The honesty of the situation is that

our hearts are just not fit to lead us in a good direction

because apart from Christ....

our hearts are busted and filled with evil desire

     As the people of God, we must first of all be willing to follow Christ and yield to the Holy Spirit regardless of how we feel at the time, secondly remember that in Him we've been given a new heart one that is no longer busted and is filled by Him, and finally we must be truthful about God's word. We must not twist it to fit what we want others to hear lest we lead others eternally astray into disaster and away from abundant life!

Don't be a false prophet

That just aint cool 

In our words and our actions

let's lead others to Christ and not astray