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For 30 years, Christian leader and spiritual adviser Billy Graham has been offering advice to the thousands of readers who share their problems ...
Read more about By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services.
For 30 years, Christian leader and spiritual adviser Billy Graham has been offering advice to the thousands of readers who share their problems ...
Read more about By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services.
Is God Speaking Through My Friend?
By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services
Q: I have a friend who is always reading those prophecies about the
future that you see in supermarket tabloids and magazines. She really
takes them seriously and tries to follow them, and says God is
speaking to her and guiding her through them. Is she right? -- Mrs.
M.R.
A: I'm sure your friend is sincere when she says this -- but unfortunately she is wrong. I may follow a roadmap when I'm taking a trip, but if it's the wrong roadmap I'll never arrive at my destination -- no matter how sincere I am.
In my experience, such "prophecies" are usually the product of someone's vivid imagination, and nothing more. They often are rather vague and open to all kinds of interpretations -- but even when they are specific, they seldom come true. If you looked at these "prophecies" a year after they were written, very few of them actually took place. The Bible speaks of a time when "impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13). Perhaps we are living in those days.
The main problem, however, is that these things have led your friend away from God and His truth. God has given us His Word, the Bible, and it alone tells us how to live and gives us hope for the future. It also tells us how we can have our sins forgiven and come to know God in a personal way. No man-made "prophecy" can ever do this.
Pray for your friend, and encourage her to put her trust in Christ alone. And if you have never faced your own need of God, turn to Jesus and give your life to Him. Jesus said, "Whoever follows me ... will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
========
Send your queries to "My Answer," c/o Billy Graham, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, N.C., 28201; call 1-(877) 2-GRAHAM, or visit the Web site for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: www.billygraham.org.
(c)2008 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
This news arrived on: 09/05/2008
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Posted Comments:
09-08-2008 13:47
wrote:
THE BIBLE,GOD'S WORD is a lamp unto our feet and A Light unto our path!It is past, present and future-Forever settled in Heaven and Changes Not!Psalms 32:8 says: I WILL instruct YOU and teach YOU in the WAY YOU should go;I WILL guide YOU with MY EYE.Heed the counsel-(Godly advice) given through Dr. Graham and other's comments and above All-> TRUST GOD'S WORD!
09-05-2008 13:03
ANDREW OLIVER SATCHELL wrote:
ANDREW OLIVER SATCHELL
I PARTICIPATE WITH MY GOOD AND EXCELLENT FRIEND
09-05-2008 13:02
ANDREW OLIVER SATCHELL wrote:
ANDREW OLIVER SATCHELL
I PARTICIPATE WITH MY GOOD AND EXCELLENT FRIEND
09-05-2008 12:12
Granny Pam wrote:
Tabloid Prophecies
Tabloid is exactly what it is. "Bad News"...The reporters really are not interested in publishing the truth...they print "speculation" and untruths. I don't have to speculate about Jesus' returning or the signs of his coming. He confirmed what to look for with the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, Matthew Chpt. 24 and throughout Matthew. If you feel uncertain about getting into this conversation with your friend, pray that someone will come into her life who will open her eyes and heart to the truth. I love the Book of Revelation for alot of info. Pray to the Lord for help for your friend. God Bless you....
09-05-2008 10:48
Revmark wrote:
Tabloid Prophecies
Remember Nostradamus?
Those tabloid prophecies work the same way. They give a message that anything that happens can be read into it. It doesn't make it true, just because something can be applied to it.
True prophecy tells you that something is going to happen, a certain way, and then it happens, that way.
Remember, when confused about something that people say comes from God,
33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1 Cor 14:33
If it comes from Him, it will be plain and clear, and obviously from Him.
Same thing with the word of knowledge, which some people confuse with prophecy, it will be plain to understand, and obviously for you, and you will know it is from God.
I have operated in these various ministrations of the Spirit, and they are always plain, and right to the point.
And if you want more examples, look at the prophets in The Bible, such as Elijah, and Elisha, in 1st and 2nd Kings. You will see that they are very plain, and to the point, and that it cannot be confused for anything else.
Elisha told Ahab, the dogs will lick your blood, and it happened, exactly what he said.
And these ministrations do not come with an on and of switch either, the Holy Spirit decides when I will operate in it, and I cannot just turn it on and off as I please. That is another false teaching.
God Bless
Those tabloid prophecies work the same way. They give a message that anything that happens can be read into it. It doesn't make it true, just because something can be applied to it.
True prophecy tells you that something is going to happen, a certain way, and then it happens, that way.
Remember, when confused about something that people say comes from God,
33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1 Cor 14:33
If it comes from Him, it will be plain and clear, and obviously from Him.
Same thing with the word of knowledge, which some people confuse with prophecy, it will be plain to understand, and obviously for you, and you will know it is from God.
I have operated in these various ministrations of the Spirit, and they are always plain, and right to the point.
And if you want more examples, look at the prophets in The Bible, such as Elijah, and Elisha, in 1st and 2nd Kings. You will see that they are very plain, and to the point, and that it cannot be confused for anything else.
Elisha told Ahab, the dogs will lick your blood, and it happened, exactly what he said.
And these ministrations do not come with an on and of switch either, the Holy Spirit decides when I will operate in it, and I cannot just turn it on and off as I please. That is another false teaching.
God Bless
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