Jeremiah 23:22
But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
If messengers had stood in counsel with God and caused His people to hear His words, they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. Standing in His counsel means hearing and heeding His word, receiving His warning, and faithfully proclaiming and teaching it to guide His people, in direct contrast to those who fail to hear and speak His word. When leaders fail to give God's word, the people are left without the warning and guidance that would lead them to repentance.
Apparent success, merely speaking truth, or the fact that people receive truth through a speaker's words does not prove that God called and sent him, since people may be moved to receive truth even through one who is self-sent and does not stand in God's counsel. The mark of a message truly from God is that it leads people away from evil and their evil deeds, while false visions that deceive and mislead rather than produce that change do not bear the mark of God's counsel. Self-sent teachers who do not stand in God's counsel do not turn people from evil but bring confusion, trouble, and spiritual trial. Applied to a teacher of confused seekers, he could have guided them toward the light if he had stood in God's counsel, but instead Bro. B increased their confusion and hindered those seeking to walk in truth. Applied to the church and the Institute, standing in God's counsel would have enabled the church to guide and influence the Institute rightly, but because the church was spiritually unhealthy it spread moral darkness and spiritual death instead. Applied to watchmen, they should receive God's warning and pass His words to the people to turn them from evil ways, but unfaithful watchmen asleep at their post failed in that duty and were among the last to accept the truth while the people received the warning before them.