A Tale of Two Prophets

In addition to writing the Dogtags and Pearls series of mini bible lessons, I have also authored three children’s books. One of them is called A Tale of Two Prophets and is based on the story from 1 Kings 13. I also illustrated the book.

The story is about a young prophet who went to a town in Israel to deliver a message of correction to the king who was not living right. Supernatural things happened in the “church service” that morning. The young man was told to deliver the message and leave town immediately, and he planned to do so. The king asked him to stay for lunch, but he declined. But a message from an older “prophet” inviting him to lunch caught his attention and he accepted the older man’s invitation. The “prophet” claimed that an angel had appeared to him instructing him to invite the young man, but he was lying. There was no angelic message. And so, as they were eating lunch, the older man told the younger man that he had disobeyed God and would not make it back to his homeland. The young man got back on his donkey and headed home and was killed by a lion on the trip. Moral of the story? You must obey what God tells YOU, even if a prophet, or an elder, tells you something different. 

This story proves that every believer must take responsibility to hear God for themselves. In a culture that defers to elders, that may also have played a part in the young man’s decision, or it could have been curiosity. Whatever it was, he did not do what God told him to do and he paid a very high price. This story, and the revelation of what it means, came to me a few years before what I am about to tell you occurred. I find it delightful that our God has a way of preparing us for things that are to come. I always wondered why He showed me this until the following incident happened.

Years ago I was saved during the Charismatic movement of the church. Immaturity in the church had elevated prophets to what I believe was an unhealthy status. One time, a prophet was advertised to be coming to the area. My in-laws and my husband and I went to the church service. I am not one to allow people I do not know to have entrance into my life, but my husband wanted me to go with him to the prayer line where this man would prophesy over us. He spoke words over me that, had I believed them, could and probably would have taken me down a very dark path. Instead of believing them, I set them aside for further light from the Holy Spirit.

A few days later, I was doing some cooking with my grandmother’s stovetop pressure cooker. As the cooker was going, making that “chucka-chucka” sound that the cock always makes (new electric ones don’t do that), I laid on the couch and closed my eyes. The sound of the cooker took me back to my grandmother’s kitchen. It was then I realized  that what the “prophet” had spoken over me was a lie. I never gave them any more consideration.

We must have our own relationship with God. We must get our own instruction and light from the Holy Spirit. The lessons I share in Dogtags and Pearls are lessons that God has personally revealed and taught to me. But readers don’t have to take my word for it…the Holy Spirit wants to impart understanding and light to your own heart, to your own circumstances, so that each person may “see” and understand something based on what they need. Each reader will “get” something different from the lessons in my books.

The children’s book, A Tale of Two Prophets, and this lesson must be important to God because I began to work on it and got bogged down with all the time involved in creating the illustrations. The story part was fairly easy, but illustrations take a lot of time. I set it aside for a while. One night I had a dream. In the dream my brother was asking me about the book. I looked everywhere, but I could not find it…when I awoke, I knew God was telling me to finish it because a demand was going to be made on it. And so I did finish it. I obeyed God.