False Prophecy & Second Heaven Revelation

What About Intercessors?

We discussed second heaven revelation in the context of the prophetic. I hope that did not give you the impression that this only happens to prophets and not to intercessors. The fact is that the devil can (and does) also release second heaven visions of destruction to intercessors. In fact, he likes to do that to get them to stop praying their assignments and to pray against some non-existent threat.

Let me share an example from my own nations history (the USA). The enemy released two second heave revelations in 1999, just before the turn of the century. They were divert intercessors from their real assignments, and get them to spend all their prayer time on non-existent problems. The first was that soldiers from Cuba were going to invade the USA and overthrow our democratic from of government, bringing lots of bloodshed to our nation and martyring most believers. The second was that the Y2K software bug was going to bring modern technology to a halt and create an apocalyptic madhouse when all of our computers failed. They prophesied that the banks and financial and legal systems would all stop working because of this computer bug, and people would scramble to stay alive--to find food, water and the basic essentials and lawlessness would abound.

Most prayer groups put more emphasis on the Y2K bug than on the Cuban invasion, but some intercessors spent hours and hours praying into both of those things. That was a waste of prayer, because the direction for that came from the demonic realm, not from God. While the intercessors were busy taking their prayer direction from the devil, their real assignments from God were not being adequately covered.

The devil wants to do whatever he can to divert God's prayer warriors from rising up in prayer and intercession. Second heaven revelation is one of the tactics that he likes to use to accomplish that.

Pasturing Those Who Have A Second Heaven Vision

As a pastor, don't act upset, angry or "freaked out" when someone in your congregation comes to you with a vision of mass destruction. Instead, pray with them and help them bring what they have seen back to God, to ask Him for greater clarity and revelation. You should also rebuke any "spirits of false revelation" or "spirits of second heaven prophesy" from getting involved in this prayerful evaluation process.

You should also encourage the prophet to draw and remain very close to God. A lot of times the second heaven revelation comes when the person is out of balance. In other words, they are fighting at a higher level of spiritual warfare than their personal walk/intimacy with God merits. That leaves them more vulnerable to enemy attack and/or deceit, similar to how a soldier is more vulnerable to injury if they go out into battle without their helmet. So help them (in a very encouraging way) to get balanced again, to draw nearer to God, to come into a deeper place of intimacy with Him.

If you pastor a prophetic person who receives what looks like it might be second heaven revelation, encourage them to draw very close to God and to press into Him for more details about what they saw. If the revelation is from God, they will need to be really close to Him to fine-tune their hearing so they can get more information or details or directions from God. If the revelation is from the devil, the intimacy with God will form a screen of protection over them to shield them from receiving additional false revelation. So regardless of the source, a person needs to really press into God when they get a large-scale vision or revelation. That is why you, as a pastor, should encourage them to press to God regarding their own personal walk with Him.

How To Judge Visions/Words that Might Be Second Heaven Revelation

Second heaven revelation can come to you in either of two ways: you might get it directly from the devil, or someone else might get it from the enemy and bring it to you as a "word." Either way, it needs to be judged. Here are a few hints you might find helpful in judging it.

1. Test it against what the Bible says. If it contradicts the Bible, then reject it. We must never accept revelation that contradicts the Bible.

2. See if revelation is out of your scope of authority. In other words, if it asks you to speak at a level that you don't have a prophetic platform for, that probably is not God. If it is God, then He will open the doors for you to speak the message. But if it isn't Him, then you will have this big message that you have no way of acting effectively on. That is usually an indication that the revelation came from the devil instead of from God.

3. See if primary purpose of revelation is to induce fear and to get you or others to do a bunch of fearful responses. Example: the false Y2K prophecies had believers building underground shelters, storing up food, etc. On the other had, the true prophecies from God were telling people not to fear, but to put their trust in Him.

4. See if revelation has a redemptive side. If it doesn't, then it probably isn't from God. When Jonah went to Ninivah, the redemptive side was that if the people repented and changed their behavior, God would not destroy them. The redemptive side was that they had a way to get in right relationship with God and avoid destruction.

5. See if revelation is trying to steer your prayer resources off of kingdom business onto a tangent. There are times that God gives intercessors visions of upcoming disasters and then gives them authority to do something about it in prayer. We have examples of that in Amos chapter 2, where God showed Amos visions of upcoming disaster and then showed him how to intercede for them. As a result of Amos' intercession, the disasters were turned. We don't want to minimize or ignore God's legitimate leading. But at the same time, we don't want to take prayer assignments from the devil that detract us from what we are really supposed to be praying for. So how do you tell which assignment is real and which isn't? You go back to God and ask Him to direct your prayers, to show you what He wants you praying for.

6. See if this revelation is trying to lead you astray from God's will for your life. If it is leading you away from things He has already revealed and spoken clearly to you about, then it probably isn't from Him. Some second heaven revelation is released merely to get us to stop doing what God has asked us to do. We always need to evaluate the current word in the context of what God has been speaking to us repeatedly over time.

Some Second Heaven "Words" Can Look Like Personal Prophecies

Most second heaven words will be corporate in nature, addressing large groups of people. But it is also possible for someone to get a personal "word" for an individual that originates from the demonic realms. At times the wording can sound flowery and attractive, but the underlying message is death. The characteristics of that word will include things like:

1. It may incite you to disobedience by trying to get you to stop doing what God has previously told you to do or to get you to do something He told you not to do. God is not dyslexic. He is not going to speak one thing to you in a series of words and then come along and reverse it all. He can take you a new direction as you follow Him, but He will never lead you to disobey what He has previously commanded you.

   I know some of you are thinking about Abraham, who was first told (as a test) to sacrifice his son. Then when he was about to kill the boy, he was told not to do it, but to sacrifice the animal caught in the thicket instead. That was not a contraction, but a refinement--Abraham still made a sacrifice, but God changed who the sacrifice was to be.

   We have to be aware that God will sometimes change our directions, but we must carefully judge any word that appears to ask us to do an abrupt u-turn. It could be God, but it probably isn't. That is why we need to carefully judge the word and take it back to Him for confirmation.

2. It will try to discourage you with an emphasis on a long drawn out spiritual battle that you will have to fight, or with details of many upcoming attacks of the enemy against you. It puts them in the guise of a warning, but the warning sounding overwhelming and disheartening.

3. It may ask you to throw away everything you know about God and start over in learning what He is like. That is fallacy. God has already spent a long time building personal relationship with You and teaching you what He is like. He doesn't want you to throw it away and start over. He wants to build on what He has already revealed to you about Himself. If you have a misconception about some aspect of God's nature, He will correct that misconception. But He will not have you throw away all you know about Him and start over from scratch. In fact, that is quite dangerous because the enemy will come along and try to give you some misconceptions of what God is like.

4. It will often "rebuke" you for something vague with a threat of being disqualified or punished. At the same time, it won't specify enough detail to identify and fix whatever is wrong. Often you won't be aware of any areas of sin or rebellion in your life when you get this rebuke. For instance, it may claim you are walking in sin or have bad attitudes, but won't tell you what they are, and when you prayerfully search your own heart, you wont' be able to find any. Or it may accuse you of not being yielded or submitted to God even though you are doing your best to be and are not aware of any areas of disobedience in your live.

5. It will often tell you that there is something you need from God before He can start using you, making you feel disqualified until you get it. That will usually be something that is intangible and hard to obtain, like pure character or more maturity. The reality is that God is constantly refining our character, but we won't be perfected until the day we leave our physical bodies and their carnal nature behind and stand perfected before Jesus. God does not expect us to be perfected to use us. In general He starts using us where we are and also at the same time, causes us to grow and mature and be transformed to be more and more like Jesus.

6. Sometimes the second heaven word will ask us to isolate ourselves from our brethren, mentors and spiritual covering. It does it in the guise of learning to trust only God and no one else. But the truth is that Jesus prayed for us to be one in Him and the bible commands us to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together. God wants us in loving unity with others, not in isolate from them. The devil wants to isolate us so he can pick us off.

7. Sometimes the second heaven words ask you to jump ahead of God's timing and to do something He wants you to do now in your own strength instead of waiting for God's timing and God's empowering. We have an example of this in Genesis (through it is not a prophecy, but a request from a wife to a husband). God had said that Abraham would be the father of a nation. Sarah was barren and His word did not look plausible. So first Abraham suggested he "adopt" one of his most trusted servants as a son and God said, "No, you will have a son from your own lions." So Sarah came up with a strategy...apparently she was barren but Abraham wasn't. So Sarah suggested he use her slave as a surrogate mother. Abraham tried to fulfill God's promise from his own limited resources and in the process he created Ishmael. He jumped ahead of God's timing to fulfill God's word from his own limited resources, and that caused all sorts of problems.

   The devil will try to get us to do that today. He will try to put ownership of God's command on us in a manner that doesn't allow us to be empowered by God for what God has called us to do. When we move in His timing and in is anointing, all things are possible because He strengthens us. But when we move from our own impetus and limited strength, then we will most likely fail. The devil wants to get us to move out too early and fail so that we will be hesitant to move out again in God's timing and succeed. E.g., he gets us to jump the gun and fail in hopes that we won't get back in the center of God's plans and end up succeeding.

In Closing

The devil imitates many of God's things, including the prophetic. The true prophecy that comes from God is intended to breathe life into His people, to draw them close to Him, to encourage them and cause them to grow in Him. It may identify an area of inappropriate behavior that needs to be corrected, but it will show you how to fix it towards the goal of being restored to right relationship with God. It is to build our faith and make us stronger in Him.

Demonic false prophesy will pretty much do the opposite of what true prophecy does. It will breathe death and discouragement and hopelessness and despair. It will make you feel like God is pushing you away instead of drawing you close. It will make you feel that you are disqualified and do not measure up. It is intended to isolate you from God and to cause you to try to stand in your own limited strength. It is intended to destroy faith, not to build it up. It is intended to make you insecure instead of being secure in His love for you.

True prophecy is life-breathing. It is a good thing; we should not shun it or be afraid of it, for fear that the enemy may sneak in a false word. But at the same time, we need to be aware of how the enemy perverts it for his twisted purposes, so that we can recognize false prophecy and not be harmed by it.

Hopefully this teaching series has given you some useful tools to help you recognize and reject the false prophetic.