March 12, 2008 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

The following is by Pastor Buddy Smith of Malanda, Queensland, Australia <smiletex@bigpond.net.au> --

One of the old Scottish theologians said, “A prophet is a man who sees what others cannot see, and so he says what others cannot say!”

Vision and Voice! These are the marks that show us who are God's prophets! I doubt if we could describe a real preacher much better than that. God’s men are those whose eyes and mouths are open. God shows them His perspective on their world so that they can preach to their peers.

Enoch's eyes were opened by his faith and God showed him the return of Christ, so he preached it (Jude 14-15)! Noah was given the vision of God's judgment on a sin crazed world and became a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Moses beheld the Lord’s lesser glory and came down from the mount to deliver the Law of God (Exodus 33 & 34). Nehemiah wept and mourned and fasted and prayed over the remnant in Jerusalem until God gave him the vision of rebuilding the walls. Once he had the vision, he shared it with others and the wall was built in 52 days.

 Over and over we see this truth in Holy Scripture. When men catch the vision of what God would do and then preach that vision, the world is changed. What was the amazing ministry of the apostles, but them getting from their Lord His vision, making it their own, and then preaching it all over the world?

Vision and Voice, that’s it in a nutshell!

Sadly, the flip side of the coin is equally true. False prophets are men who do not see what they should and therefore cannot say what they should. Jeremiah warned his people of the false prophets of his day with these words, “Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart” (14:14). “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD” (23:16).

God had given Jeremiah keen insight into the hearts of the false prophets that preached peace to Jerusalem. He perceived their lack of the vision that comes from God and the lies that resulted from their spiritual blindness. The disastrous result of sitting under false prophets is revealed in the last verse. Men without God's vision “make their hearers vain.”

Our prayer, then, must be, “O God give me the true vision of your own heart according to your Word and a voice to preach it without fear of man”!