Revelation, Rejection, and the Test of a True Prophet

When God Gives You a Dream — Get Ready

Revelation from God, true revelation from God, will almost always cause people to hate and reject you. It is what happened to the great prophets of the Bible. Amos answered his critics and said:

Amos is not the exception of this rejection. Isaiah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets were rejected, and at times physically beaten and imprisoned. Today people report that they had a vision or a revelation, and they become big-time preachers and pastors, and even call themselves apostles and patriarchs, and I venture to say that most of the ones that I have heard claim to have seen visions and revelations have seen them in the movie theater or on TV.

Joseph was hated by his brothers, and even his father and mother had serious doubts that his vision was really from God. Joseph knew for sure that it was from God, and the proof of this is that he didn't doubt God's promises, and was willing to appropriate the vision with faith that did not waver at all, and was not lost even when he was in jail in Egypt.

How to Know if Your Revelation is Really From God

The larger things to learn from the story of Joseph and his brothers are these. As mentioned above, revelation from God does not always mean that you are going to be accepted and received in society — and often not even by your closest family and friends. Get ready to face the music when you declare that you have received a revelation from God. This was true for the prophets of old and true to the fathers of the Israelites.

If you claim to have received a revelation, you better be sure that it is really from God. How to be sure is another question. However, if you reflect deep in your heart and are honest with yourself you will know if it is from God or not. One of the tests that is clearest and shortest to explain is the following: Ask yourself, "Am I about to gain something personal — wealth, honor, position, acceptance, friendship, or spiritual authority — by claiming to have heard from God?" The second test is even simpler — after the persecution and rejection grows, do I still claim to have received a revelation from God or was it my stomach gurgling that I imagined that God is talking to me? If your answer to any of these two questions is positive — you are a false prophet, or a profiteering "prophet" that will pay double in the judgment day.

The Narcissism of Faith — Walking the Dream Through

The ultimate narcissism is the faith that one needs to walk through the vision and revelation of God. Some can get the vision and the revelation in dreams, others get it from the study of God's Word and the appropriation of God's Word as a life-giving and life-changing and life-training course. The biblical Joseph received the vision of what God wants him to do and to be, and he believed it, and his faith gave him the strength to walk it through without losing courage or seeking to run away from God's plan for his life. The road is hard, and it would be easy to have second thoughts — "Did the dream I saw come from God?" "Was that dream only a result of my narcissistic disorder of thinking that I am great and divinely chosen?" However, Joseph had the resolve to walk the dream through, to stand by the promises of God at all cost, to be willing to be rejected or even sold as a slave initiated by some of the closest family members.

People sometimes concentrate on the behavior of Joseph's brothers, or on the wife of Potiphar, who tried to seduce Joseph, or on the suffering of Joseph in the Egyptian jail. The bottom line, my dear brothers, is that Joseph knew well that all this suffering and rejection and pain that he has experienced was not less or more than going to school and learning the lessons that he will need in order to accomplish his and God's final purpose.

Even if you are rejected by your friends and family, and persecuted like Joseph, you should know that in the end God's justice and rewards are never forgotten. The Lord is a just rewarder for all those who diligently seek Him and all those who serve Him. Like Joseph, the son of Jacob, you will always be amazed by the Lord and His salvation, that sometimes is slow to come, yet is always on time.