“To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” -Isa 8:20
One of the most important things that happened to me in 2020 was returning to the Word of God as my definitive source of truth. I have always had a strong foundation in the Word of God, but without realizing it I had allowed myself to drift, blown about by the prophetic movement and it’s doctrines that I’d been part of. By the end of 2019 I was noticing many troubling things taking place within the prophetic movement, but it was not until 2020 that God opened my eyes and I realized that these troubling things that I saw all around me were actually part of me as well! I had fallen into the very snare others had fallen into and didn’t even realize it!
Such is the nature of deception, and it underlines the importance of the Word of God- it draws a line of demarcation in our lives, separating light and darkness, truth and error.
Although the point is repeatedly made in the Word of God that we should “test the spirits” and not assume that all prophecy is from God, the prophetic movement has, by and large, chosen not to test spiritual experiences.
When spiritual experience is validated by the experience itself, and not by the Word of God, we are in a place of great danger.
When we look at the New Testament writings we find that we should be having an experiential knowledge of God if we truly know Him. This is without doubt, and everywhere in the original Greek.
It’s right that we should value experience and seek God as the Living God He is, but it is absolutely wrong when we fail to test those experiences as the Word of God explicitly tells us to do.
The prophetic church, including Word of Faith, Charismatic, Pentecostal and other experience orientated branches of the church have fallen into a common practice found in the New Age movement- We have exalted experience above the Word of God.
“To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” -Isa 8:20
If we don’t speak according to the Word of God it’s because we have no light in us!
I would like to point out two things that I see going on right now in the prophetic movement that are cause for concern:
1. The widspread failure and unwillingness to test prophecy, words of knowledge, spiritual experiences and revelation.
2. Seeking out prophets instead of seeking God.
On the first point, I would only say, that from the vantage point of the Word of God, we are NOT to believe every prophecy and spiritual experience, rather we are to test everything!
“Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.” -1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
We need to approach spiritual experiences, revelations and prophecies with a watchful eye and discerning heart.
We are not to despise prophecy but we’re definitely instructed not to just blindly believe everything that happens to us or accept without question what we are told by others.
When the scripture tells us to test everything it means exactly that!
Until we begin to seriously take this to heart, and put it into practice, the prophetic movement is in trouble.
I had someone tell me recently that their experience of God is different than the Word of God. They came to the conclusion that it would be better to trust what they feel about God rather than what the Bible says about God. Instead of questioning whether their own beliefs were correct, they decided to question whether the Bible was correct!
The astounding thing about this is that even though Peter was an eyewitness of Jesus and saw Him transfigured before his very own eyes, and heard a voice from “The Majestic Glory”, a voice from Heaven itself, he still pointed to THE SCRIPTURES as being more reliable than what he had personally experienced!
“And we possess AS MORE RELIABLE the prophetic word, to which you do well if you pay attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, recognizing this above all, that EVERY PROPHECY OF SCRIPTURE does not come about from one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” -2 Peter 1:19–21
If this is the exalted view that Peter took of scripture who are we to think otherwise?
On the second point, it is extremely alarming to me how many people are running to prophets instead of to God.
We are never told in the New Testament that we are to seek after prophets. The scripture teaches us that if we’re sons of God we can expect to be led by the Spirit of God.
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” -Romans 8:14
We are also told that we have “an anointing from the Holy One” and that He will teach us.
“But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.” -1 John 2:27
Jesus himself, also told us, that His sheep hear His voice.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” -John 10:27
Why then are so many in the church running after prophets instead of hearing the voice of God directly for themselves?
I will admit that I also fell into this trap.
Even though I have personally made a practice of listening to the voice of the Lord throughout my years as a Christian, because of my more recent affiliation with the prophetic movement, I fell into some of its practices, one of which, is it’s unscriptural emphasis on seeking out prophets.
This is one of the main things that God convicted me of in 2019 and delivered me out of. I had fallen into the trap of seeking out people instead of seeking God directly for myself, and I repented of it.
As I mentioned previously, one of the most alarming things to me is how the prophetic movement in many ways resembles the New Age movement that I came out of before I was saved.
God’s people are seeking out prophets like the world seeks psychics! Looking to get “a word” by running after these people instead of seeking the face of God for themselves!
YouTube is filled with “prophets” who give monthly prognostications just like an astrologer would do!
Is God giving out monthly spiritual horoscopes to the church? Is that the way hearing the voice of the Lord works?
There are prophets who are giving out almost daily “words”, sometimes many paragraphs or pages, or long videos on YouTube, declaring these “prophetic words” to the people of God. They’re telling dreams that they’ve had the night before, or revelations that they just experienced, without taking the time to test the spirits to see whether these declarations are actually from God, or taking the time to discern with wisdom what should be shared and what shouldn’t be shared if it is from God.
Many are streaming out “prophetic words” to the church as if they’re breaking news from heaven! We’re expected to believe and appropriate everything they speak as “the voice of the Lord”.
Who is questioning this stuff? Who is asking, “Is this really God?”
I don’t see anything like this when I look at the Word of God and the New Testament Church.
People did not run after prophets seeking “a word from the Lord” in the New Testament Church.
There is much that I love in the prophetic movement, but there are some serious things that are going on that need to be addressed. We must let the Lord correct us or we will find ourselves in a spiritual ditch. I love the activity of the Holy Spirit in my life and in the church. He is a living God and I expect to experience Him! But He has also authored a “book” that reveals who He is. We would be foolish to ignore what He tells us about Himself in that book!