I've been in plenty of churches where I've seen
plenty of
what is called prophesying going on. I know the gifts
are real and are still for the church today,
but I am very skeptical of most of what I see.
There is a lot of psychic soothesaying being foisted on the church--being
mascaraded as the gift of prophecy, and most of what
I have seen, over the
past 25 years, has been exactly that.
One thing that confirms this to me personally, is the incredible
opposition I receive whenever I make both the above and the following statement.
The scriptures are clear--if what a prophet says "comes to pass",
that person is a genuine prophet--if not, that person is a false prophet--period.
There are false prophets today convincing God's people that a prophet
only has to be correct 60% of the time in order to be credible. That is a lie and we won't find scripture to back it up. Below is a quote concerning prophetic accuracy as taught by
Bill
Hamon at Christian International Ministries in Florida:
- Prophecy and prophetic utterance is only one method of discerning God's will and
direction and it is recognized that none of the methods or channels of prophecy will always be 100 percent accurate
Robert J. Winters wrote in his prophetic training syllabus:
- personal prophetic words are subject to error
Pastors are instructed to allow budding prophets time
to mature--that they will "make mistakes" (prophesy falsely) as they learn to "operate" in this gift.
- Pastors are to mentor budding prophets by ...
standing with them in their failures ...
But the scriptures reveal that almighty God is not nearly so
liberal and forgiving when it comes to speaking
in his name. Deuteronomy 13:1-5 dictates that anyone who does not speak with 100% accuracy is false and should be put to death.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 is a second scriptural witness that every word spoken in the name of the Lord should accurately come
to pass or else the person who spoke is false and should be put to death. Those are serious admonitions and should serve to
clarify for us the Biblical position on what does and does not constitute a prophet.
If a person has the audacity to speak in the name of the Lord--that
person had better be certain they have heard the Word of the Lord--or they had better keep their mouth shut at the risk of
being labeled, by the authority of the Written Word of God, as a false prophet--no matter how sincere they might be.
There is no scriptural provision for a "safe environment"
in which a presumptuous person can "develop" their gift.
Another thing people are commonly deceived by, is the fact that
many of these false prophets will reveal knowledge of things "no body else knows" about a person.
Well, stop and think about this... Satan Knows.
Don't fall for it!
All I can say is this, read your Bible every day--always picking
up today where you left off yesterday. It is much more difficult for Satan to deceive us if we are full of the Word of God.
Be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. Those who are hearers
but not doers, expose themselves to deception through spirits of rebellion (and many others) that gain access through disobedience
to the known Word.
