Deuteronomy 18:18-22 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 ‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. 20 ‘But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 “You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ 22 “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

There are two warnings in this passage: a warning to those who do not listen to God’s prophets, and a warning to those who pretend to be God’s prophets.

It is a dangerous thing to ignore God, even when he speaks through other people. It is an even more dangerous thing to speak for God when God has not spoken to you.

How do we tell the difference between the two types of prophets; the true prophets of God and the presumptuous usurpers? We wait to see if what they say becomes true.