Prophecy: what it is and what it is not

Sound the alarm: During the midnight hour of today (10/29/2024), the Lord put Ezekiel 13:7 in my ears, “Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken?” God told me I needed to sound the alarm and tell people that God is addressing the false prophet/prophetess at this hour. This is for us to know the glory of God and his goodness. He is stopping what has been deceiving His people and releasing His mercy by showing His power in His glory of light. 

I do not know how long this blog post may be; it may be short, but I know the message is one to pay attention too. Prophecy is important. However, what must happen is for us to stop thinking like our enemies (thank you, Holy Spirit, for this). We must stop seeing things from the seeds the enemy tries to plant in us. We must approach God with His way of worship and not the kingdom of darkness's way of worship. We must approach prophecy ready to do the Lord's will instead of seeking it with our emotions.

Prophecy is only meant to be pure by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a connection between God and man to establish His kingdom on earth. As Jesus stated in the model prayer, we are to pray for the kingdom of God to be established here in the earthly realm. We are to mirror heaven.

Matthew 6:9 and 10 KJV

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Unfortunately, in our times, prophets have been idolized; this includes both false prophets and the true prophets of the Lord. The gift of prophecy has been idolized, too, and I believe many parts play a role in this that lines up with the corruption of prophecy that we see in scripture. Prophecy will forever be something that we need here on earth until the day it passes away (see 1 Corinthians 13:9 and 10). However, we need to understand who created it and what it’s meant for so that we can guard our hearts righteously and not be fooled by the devices of Satan. People are not meant to just prophecy 24/7 but to seek the Lord, preach the gospel, and be good stewards of the talents they have been given. These talents can be several things: family, career, business, marriage, being involved in their community, evangelism, spiritual gifts, etc.

2 Corinthians 2:11 KJV

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.

I get it. Prophesy sometimes feels really enlightening; hearing “what thus saith the Lord,” especially for a positive cause, feels like the Lord sees you because of what you are hearing from the human vessel concerning your life or nation. Even when it’s a harsh word, the power of God backing his word grips us in a way that other things can not. The ability to hear the words of God in an audible way when you are only familiar with having contact with Him through His word and Spirit can be thrilling at times. However, prophecy only happens when God commands it; prophets, prophetic people, and the rest of the five-fold ministry (this includes Apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, and teachers) should speak what the Lord tells them or what the Holy Spirit inspires them to speak. It’s understandable to experience these emotions at times. However, it does not justify idolatry of prophecy and prophets. Our actions and words should not contradict the lifestyle we are called to live as disciples and ministers of the Lord. This is extremely important for us to know (emphasis on prophets and prophetic people). Self-control is required to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God. It can be exciting to give a word and sometimes heartbreaking, but it is essential that the flesh and emotions do not interfere with the will of God concerning what He wants to speak through His people. 

I would like to address a couple issues that the Church needs to repent of and begin taking action:

Isaiah 5:20 KJV “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

1 John 4:1 KJV “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

We are called to test the spirit operating behind a person or group in everything. Whether it’s friendship, courting in a relationship, church, non-profit organization, pastor, prophet, prophecy, or even a complaint someone may have against you; Go to the Holy Spirit to test to see if the spirit operating behind them is of Him or is a spirit of error, and to see what the Lord wants you to do. Sometimes, when dealing with groups, God may just instruct you to leave. He's not there, so why should you be? In other cases, he may have you on assignment. In other instances in which it appeared to be with friendships, groups, and ministers, the same may still apply, but there are cases where the person may have had a moment where they fell short, but they are still of the Lord, and a simple conversation or praying and fasting; (see Galatians 6:1 and Jude 23) can solve the issue. This is why bringing everything to The Lord in prayer is vital if he has not yet revealed what you should do. I would like to add that a person can know what they should do immediately, and discernment can happen immediately, everything does not require you to wait, wisdom will let you know that the red flags are definitely not green.

Many people have forsaken this instruction in First John 4:1, and just went by what pleases their opinions and emotions. Because of that, they have lost the conviction of the Holy Spirit to discern correctly, which have led people to speak down on God’s true prophets and say they belong to Beelzebub and calling those who are rehearsing the skits they perform on their defiled pulpit true “men and women of God”. These same people are soothsayers operating by witchcraft for personal gain! Those who follow these people are deceived Christians under a hex of witchcraft power! Lord help us! Have mercy on us! We need your help! This is sad, the same people who have been given power to have authority and dominion are the ones being oppressed by the wicked powers Jesus defeated once and for all. We have to ask God to help us love Him more than anything and not be lured by the things of this life.

Many may even ask, “Well if they are so false and their power is of the devil, how come they have such great influence? How come so many people follow them?” I thank the Holy Spirit for dropping this example in my spirit. 

Let’s say a hunter is hunting for deer in a Western world environment, where there are very few woods and are located in the city. They want to kill the deer so that they can use its antlers for a materialistic purpose, and so they leave a trail of apples in the woods leading up to the right spot so it can shoot it. The deer sees it, and because it’s led by the desires of its heart, it is easily enticed to fall into the trap. Deers who have been in the wild have developed instincts to know you're not just going to find a random line of apples anywhere. They will become alert and look around for any danger. In some cases (see this as God’s mercy), they may start eating the apples, but then the urgency (discernment from the Holy Spirit) kicks in and causes them to stop and begin discerning things; then they too will begin looking around to see if danger is coming. In both cases, they probably will not wait for the hunter to come out and show Himself but will begin to leap away as fast they can. Why? Because they have already seen the situation for what it truly is. This is the same for us when we lean not on our own understanding but instead allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. We do not need to wait for the false prophet to show themselves; all we have to do is ask God, and not only will time be saved, but so will our souls. To put it plainly, they have a large following because people are led by their fleshly desires; they give these people the power or the influence to lead them astray. Not enough people are humbling themselves, asking God if this is His vessel. Or they want the thing so bad, they ignore all the red flags that will tell them to turn away from their teachings. I pray this all makes sense.

James 1:13 through 15 NLT

And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

This reminds me of John chapter 10. Jesus is the good shepherd who will lead His sheep into all goodness; he will never trick or withhold any good thing from us. The enemy is the thief; he acts like He’s the good shepherd, but he’s not. He takes shortcuts to get to the sheep and deceives them for self-gain, harming their sheep. The beautiful thing is that the sheep do not belong to the thief but to the shepherd, so they know the voice of the shepherd and only follow Him. We are to know the voice of our shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ because we will not follow a different voice apart from His. Even if we stumble a little, we will not remain in that spot for long because we are able to receive the correction of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4 verses 5 and 6 says, “ They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we are the spirit of truth and error.” 

John 10: 1-5 KJV, Jesus tells us, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

The Bible tells us in Revelation 19:10 that Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. People have forsaken the Spirit of prophecy for words that comfort their flesh. These same people are able to recieve from others like them but reject those who speak the pure words of God. If they are not able to receive the words of God, then how are they able to receive prophesy? The answer is they can’t.

I want to testify very quickly. I remember there was a minster who seemed to be getting well known at a fast pace. I never heard nor seen anything of him before. I remember he would be recommended on my youtube timeline almost all the time and people who were spirit filled would share him on social media. So I decided to check him out and I watched one of His teachings, but could not remember a thing about it afterwards although I thought it was good. I thought it was strange but didn’t think anything of it. I remember I wanted to share the video with someone and God told me no. By God’s grace, He has trained me to test the spirit of every minister no matter what. So I took it to the Lord in prayer. I remember I would see these false miracles and assumed they were of God, because people appeared to be praising God and getting set free. However, something was always deeply off, like the authority and presence of God was not there. I began to ask “where did this man come from, and how did His church get so popular in such a short time”. I remember the Holy Spirit led me to google Him, and there is nothing in His past that shows God, not even a short testimony of Him encoutering the goodness of God. I remember God kept ringing a question in my spirit about His martial life. Now before I continue, throughout all this I wanted to make sure I was not judging unrighteously, I don’t dismiss people because their ministry grew quickly nor because they were divorced, I actually believe God does great wonders concerning these things, however the Holy Spirit was showing me to not over look red flags in this specific case. So until I got an official answer I stopped watching the minister altogether. Months went by until I finally realized that the man was not of God. Since I remained in the word and prayer, the Holy Spirit helped me see that something was off, even if I didn't know all the what it was yet. Similar situations have happened, where I have a question about a minister that I may want to watch and the Holy Spirit gives me a little nudge in my spirit that would always be enough for me to know to not follow them. Me taking each person to prayer always spared me. Always. Whether the Lord wanted me to watch the minister or not.

Even if it's a trusted ministry, we must never stop testing the spirit; testing the spirit goes beyond just whether something is true or not. It helps us to not agree with misunderstandings and to pray for or even correct our leaders in the Body of Christ in love. Discernment also gives us strategy and prevent us from making mistakes, even decisions prematurely. We should even test the spirit with ourselves and to make sure our decisions are in alignment with the Lord’s will for us.

Prophecy is not to please nor validate our flesh. It is to make us aware of our heavenly father's will and help us know how to remain or get into alignment with it. It is the spoken word of God, the rhema word of God by His Spirit, meant to be carried, held, and received by humans with great reverence. This is why we must pray before we start our day, before we fall asleep, that we have pure hearts and eyes before the Lord, and anything that is in us or is scheduled to come our way to interfere with that, will be uprooted in Jesus name. That Lord preserves us and keeps us from falling into deception and from being both deceitful and deceptive.