1 Kings 22:23
Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.
About four hundred prophets at Samaria unanimously assured Ahab that he should go up to Ramoth-gilead because God would deliver it into his hand, and that lying promise of victory was contrary to Heaven's will. Against them stood the true word of the Lord through Micaiah the son of Imlah, whom Ahab hated because he foretold calamity and not good concerning him. Micaiah warned that the joint campaign of Ahab and Jehoshaphat to retake Ramoth, an old city of refuge, from the Syrians by force would end in defeat, leaving all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep without a shepherd with every man returning to his own house in peace. The kings ignored the warning and went up, and it was fulfilled when Ahab was shot in battle and died at evening, and at sunset a proclamation went throughout the host for every man to go to his own city and his own country.
The lying spirit put in the mouth of the prophets illustrates how deception operates through criticism, condemnation, and falsehood. When a church entertains that deceiving influence it rejects the message God has sent. It then accepts unreasonable claims and false theories, and its ministers spread false prophecy.