Don't Provoke the Message

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

Jeremiah 29:8 (NKJV)

What prevents us from fully enjoying God's blessings in our lives and receiving the message He sends us through the preaching of His Word is our carnal tendency to prioritize the part of the message that satisfies our ego and to reject the part that should lead us to fully submit to His will and walk according to His voice.

When we listen to the messages of the Word, we often neglect the divine dimension of the message. This dimension reveals our spiritual laziness to the point of leading us to live in sin. This dimension warns us and reminds us of what God expects of us. Instead of prioritizing this dimension, we choose the part that pleases us, the one that guarantees God's sure promise to satisfy our carnal desires and take revenge on our enemies.

It is this compelling need to satisfy our own desires that God reveals through Jeremiah. The people preferred to listen to false prophets because they made grand promises. We find this same attitude in our churches today. God's people prefer to listen to those who preach prosperity by faith, ignoring God's call to them. In verses 12-14, God concludes His call to the people. With this in mind, I encourage you not to provoke prosperity messages, but to seek God with all your heart and identify the passages in these messages that speak to your soul rather than your desires.

May God's grace and peace be with you all.