In commerce, having middlemen in transactions is an acceptable practice. It could even be unavoidable in some instances. However, in spiritual parlance middlemen may be counterproductive. God wants His people to relate with Him directly. Back to the story of the young prophet sent to Bethel, he committed a grave error by allowing a middleman’s interference in the line of communication between him and the Lord. The directive to go to Bethel was given to him directly, so was the instruction not to eat there. Later, an old prophet told him of a contrary word supposedly from the Lord through an angel. One of the attributes of God is order. Another of His attribute is consistency. If God would alter His earlier instruction to the young prophet, it would be by the same means He passed the first one.
You must know God for yourself. Secondly, it is high time we took seriously the injunction of the Scripture that we should test every spirit to determine which one is of God.
Instead of cross checking details with God who sent him, the young prophet subscribed to a middleman who happened to be lying at the time. That error cost him his life. There are two critical lessons to learn from this occurrence. Firstly, every child of God should strive to have a personal walk with Him. There are believers today who always want to outsource their spiritual life to others. Such people become easy prey to wolves who come in sheep’s clothing. You must know God for yourself. Secondly, it is high time we took seriously the injunction of the Scripture that we should test every spirit to determine which one is of God.