The Third Commandment

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."

I've always heard this commandment applied to blasphemous speech. You know, you shouldn't swear, curse or cuss using the words "God" and "Jesus Christ". You should never use them in exclamation, as in "Oh my God" or "Jesus Christ!". You should never, never say, "I swear to God". And I absolutely agree with all of those...you should not use the Name of God in a careless or blasphemous way. But there is an ever deeper application that I believe has been neglected in the church because so many Christians are guilty of it.

Taking the Name of the Lord our God in vain is not simply using His Name as a swear word; it is invoking His Name to bless something in which He has not been consulted. It is invoking His name to proclaim something that He has not said. It is invoking His Name as an authority in a matter which He has not approved.

It's the constant danger we face among people who believe we can currently and constantly hear directly from God. When we pray, we expect Him to answer. When we inquire, we expect Him to direct. When we seek, we expect to find. However, we also need to realize that His is not the only voice that can be heard in our hearts.

Sometimes we hear ourselves talking and mistake it for the Lord. Our imagination can sometimes impose His voice in a dub-over of our thoughts, and thereby we convince ourselves that what we are thinking is truly the mind of God. Sometimes, the devil can employ a deception that sounds almost God-like, and if we are not discerning, we can fall prey to his lies. Sometimes we hear the words of someone else, spoken to us in advice or at times as a prophetic word from the Lord for us, and we mistakenly assume that just because someone says, "Thus says the Lord," we should always take it to heart as direction from on high. People can be just as guilty as our own imagination and the devil of trying to manipulate and control our lives.

This is why the Apostle John says, "Don't believe every Spirit, but test and try the spirits, holding on to that which is true." We need to be discerning when we think we hear the voice of God; and we need to make absolutely certain that we have indeed heard from God before we start using His name and saying, "God told me so!"