“Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.” -Jeremiah 23:16
There seems to be a widespread belief among those in the prophetic community that if a person has a prophetic gift they can simply prophesy whenever they want to.
I do not find a bibilcal basis for that belief.
There are also many in the Body of Christ who are teaching various methods to “activate prophetic gifting”. Many of these methods of “activation” are also built on the idea that we can prophesy on command. In order to train ourselves to prophecy we may be told to go up to random individuals and just speak the first thing that comes to our mind. We may be instructed to use our “sanctified imagination” in order to train our faculties to better visualize prophetic pictures that God may give us. The details vary, but the common theme is that by practicing these various methods we learn to release our prophetic gift and strengthen our ability to move in the prophetic.
To be honest, I find some of the methods being employed to be disturbing. These methods very much remind me of the New Age Movement. I was delivered from these kind of practices 40 years ago when I gave my life to the Lord and it concerns me to see them openly employed by the church.
There is no biblical justification that would indicate that we may prophesy at will simply because we want to at any given moment.
The concern that I have is that by teaching these New Age methods we are actually encouraging people to prophesy out of their own minds rather than by the Spirit of God. Or worse, we may be giving ourselves over to a spirit of divination!
The Spirit of God is not at our command!
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? -Isaiah 40:13
We’re not the ones in charge. That means that unless He initiates prophecy, it’s actually not authentic. How can we claim to be speaking prophetically for Him if we haven’t even heard what He has to say?
Any teaching method that encourages people to speak whatever is on their own minds rather than waiting on the Spirit of the Lord is encouraging soulish carnal independence rather than dependence upon God.
What the bible teaches on this subject can be summed up in this verse:
“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” -2 Peter 1:21
Oh, please read it again and let it sink in.
“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will…”
In other words we cannot prophesy just because we want to! Prophecy does not start with us. True prophecy originates from God and we’re only able to prophesy as we’re “carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Because true prophecy originates from the Holy Spirit I cannot practice prophesying to people by just going up to them and speaking the first thing that comes to my mind. True prophecy does not come from using my imagination.
Tell those who prophesy out of their own imagination: Hear the word of the LORD! They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message. Haven’t you seen a false vision and spoken a lying divination when you proclaim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ even though I have not spoken? -Ezekiel 13:2,6,7
I encourage you to go to Ezekiel and read this passage in context. If you consider yourself a prophetic person you must wait on God in order to prophesy. Anything other than that is just your own vain imagination, or you channeling spirits of divination like a psychic would!
We also need to realize that just because a thought comes to us does not mean the thought is from God. Mental images and visions need to be examined and weighed. There are often many things that come to my mind that need to be set aside. Sometimes there will even be bible verses that come to my mind and I will be tempted to speak them to the person I’m praying for. They may come with great boldness, sound very encouraging, and yet, not actually be from the Lord! It is never wise to just speak what is on our mind. We need to use discernment and ask ourselves…
- Is this word that’s coming to me accompanied by His presence? Do I actually sense the Holy Spirit in what I’m about to say?
- Does it agree with the Word of God?
- Is it meant to be given now or is it something that I should be praying over and delivering later?
- Should I be sharing this publicly in front of everybody, or should I be sharing it privately with the person it’s for?
- Is it actually meant for other people or is God just trying to teach me and speak to me?
There are many other questions we could be asking ourselves to try to verify whether a word is from God or not. What we should not be doing, however, is just flippantly speaking out whatever comes to our mind!
Often if we will still ourselves and wait we will come to the conclusion that although the thoughts, impressions and words that we are about to speak may seem good, they may not actually carry the weight of His presence, or even be biblical!
I have had people come up to me and ask me to prophesy to them, but I cannot prophesy on command! Perhaps, I will be given a word from the Lord as I am praying for someone, but that’s up to God, not me.
Possessing the gift of prophecy does not mean that I am independent of God in the use of it. Unless the Spirit of God speaks through me, it is just me speaking!
The word of God through Jeremiah makes a clear distinction between those who “speak visions of their own minds” and those who speak “from the mouth of the LORD”.
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. -Jeremiah 23:16
Do you see see yourself as dependent on God, or are you an independent agent?
The answer to that question is critical.
Without question Jesus put Himself in the “completely dependent on the Father” category.
“So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” -John 5:19
“I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.” -John 12:49
I propose to you that the way we learn how to prophesy is by living in close communion with our Heavenly Father. It is in that place that we learn to hear His voice, know His heart, and share His mind.
Developing a prophetic gift takes time because relationships take time!
The alternative to spending time with God, and knowing the Bible, is to simply speak the visions of my own mind and the imaginations of my own heart.