God told me?

He said to him, "I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.' " (He was lying to him.) – 1 Kings 13v18

I have to admit something here. No personal offence is intended. I am not casting aspersions or doubts. But there is something that I am always leery of when I hear it. What could it be?

I always stop and wonder when I hear someone say – ‘God told me so and so.’ Now it is one thing when it is followed with, ‘I was reading my Bible’ or ‘I was listening to a message’ or something like that. But when I just hear ‘God told me so and so’ I get a little anxious.

Here we have a prophet who used ‘God told me to get what he wanted.’ It was a dangerous claim to make. A little later a true prophet died because this guy lied about God's will.

Now, I don’t think God is going to kill someone today for saying, ‘God told me’ when He didn’t. But, I think there is a lesson on not using ‘God told me lightly.’

There are indeed times when I felt like God told me something. I remember sitting on a blue bench on our canal about eight years ago and feeling like God told me that we were to stay where we were until He moved us. However, He backed that time after time over the next few weeks as we read His word.

I am not questioning everyone who says ‘God told me so and so.’ However, I do question it when someone says or implies, ‘I know that the Bible says, but God told me so and so’ when ‘so and so’ is in opposition to scripture.

I’ll just lay it our here. This is my opinion. If you disagree that is fine. I may be proven wrong one day, but here it is.

Before I say ‘God told me’ I want some Bible support to back it up.