Presumptuous Prophecy

It needs to be understood that as we embark upon the Kingdom Movement that God is getting ready to release in the earth, that we are now operating in what I would like to describe as a Prophetic Season. If you're going to be a worker in and for the Kingdom of God in this next Move, you must have some degree of understanding of the Prophetic Ministry of God. Without this understanding, you will not be spiritually attuned to what the Spirit is doing in and through this Season.

The challenge sometimes with plugging into the Prophetic is that it's hard to discern sometimes when you're dealing with a genuine prophet of God, and when you're also receiving an accurate prophetic word. This requires, first of all, faith in God, and a certain level of spiritual discernment that the Holy Spirit is faithful to reveal; He will bear witness with our spirit (Romans 8). Let us first clarify what the prophetic spirit entails.

Most of us (if you've been in the church all of your life) have probably been exposed primarily to a pastor and the preaching of the Word. Let me first clarify that there is a distinct difference between preaching and prophesying. When a word is being preached, the preacher is Divinely allowed to proclaim the word of God through the filter of their own personality. That's why you have a lot of different "preaching styles" and a lot of different interpretations of various scriptures and biblical texts. Such is not the case with the prophet of God. When a prophet declares a prophetic word, they are not allowed to filter that word through their own personality or give their "personal spin" on what God is saying. No. The prophet is declaring "thus saith the Lord". What the prophet says, if it is in fact a prophetic word and a prophetic declaration, is speaking directly from the mouth of God. This is the difference between preaching and prophesying.

Unfortunately, there are times when a prophetic word goes forth and it is wrong. Yes. As the Body of Christ we need to wrap our minds around the fact that there are prophets, who are genuinely anointed and called of God to the prophetic ministry that don't accurately say what God is saying. How do we know this? The scripture says in Deuteronomy 18 (New King James Version), "when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously". Notice, the word doesn't say that the reason it doesn't come to pass is because it was a false prophet. It says because the prophet spoke presumptuously. What this means is that a prophet of God can speak in the "name" of the Lord, but actually be speaking out of their own soul or their own spirit, not the Spirit of the Lord. I believe this can happen more often than not. Particularly with individuals who may be operating in a prophetic gifting or anointing but haven't been established in the Office of the Prophet (Ephesians 4). For this reason, as the people of God, it doesn't mean we need to start criticizing people or calling them false prophets. It means we need to ask God for discernment, and at the end of the day, make sure that our faith and trust is in God, not a man or woman or even a gift or anointing. If we trust God to give us discernment and revelation in regards to the prophetic messages that He has ordained for our lives, we can avoid being deterred by Presumptuous Prophecy.