FireSide Chat II

Dear Teresa

I am relatively new to the prophetic, and I am still learning. I recently had something happen where I was stretching in specific words of knowledge, and I think that I may have accidentally upset someone.

I was in a prophetic group meeting and the leader encouraged us to seek the Lord for words of knowledge for each other and share them. I got one that was specific to one lady. I shared it and she said that it fit her really well.

Then I got another word of knowledge for a man in the group. The Lord showed me a tumor in a specific area of his body. I felt like God wanted me to share that there was a health problem, but to avoid the word "tumor." So I shared that I saw a health problem in this area of his body and he said that was not aware of any problems. He did not seem upset about this at the meeting, but a day or two later, he approached me and shared how my word made him quite anxious. He was unable to sleep at night worrying about it, because my word for the other lady had been accurate. Someone encouraged him to see a doctor and have it checked out, but he does not have medical insurance and cannot afford expensive tests.

He seemed to want/expect more from me, but I did not know what to tell him or what to do. How should I handle this?

- New To Words Of Knowledge

I do agree that there were mistakes made in how this situation was handled. You contributed to the mistake, but so did the leader of the group. I am not trying to blame or criticize either of you, but it looks like you guys got in "over your head" and did not know how to handle this situation. As a result, the man given the word of knowledge was not taken care of very well. No one wanted to intentionally harm or alarm him, but no one watched out for his feelings/emotions/concerns. As a result, he was "harmed" by the word given to him at this meeting. In short, the release of the prophetic word of knowledge without proper handling did some amount of injury to him. That is not good because in the prophetic, we should strive to "do no harm."

Technically the phrase "Do No Harm" is part of a doctor's oath, but it also fits God's intent for New Testament prophecy. Paul gave us some guidelines about how God wants the gift of prophesy to operate in 1 Corinthians 14. Some of the key words in that passage (from the NKJV translation) include: "comfort," "edify," "encourage" and "exhortation." If you look at that passage in the NIV translation, you get words like, "build up," "comfort," "encourage" and "strengthen."

Do you see a pattern here? The main reason that God gave the gift of prophecy to the church is to build up the individual believers, to encourage them--it is intended as a constructive gift. But if we are not careful of the heart/feelings of those who we minister to, we can inadvertently turn it into a destructive gift. That is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:2, "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."

Paul went on to expand what moving from a love motivation looks like in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." That is what our motivation and behavior should look like when we prophesy to people. We need to be kind and to humbly minister God's word in truth, keeping their best interest at heart and protecting them from harm."

We have to use care when we release prophetic words of knowledge that could have a negative impact on a person. It is one thing to release a word of knowledge about something God wants to heal in a healing meeting, where the response is to pray for the person with the condition, with the expectation that the condition will be supernaturally healed. In those settings, the leaders usually encourage people to be as specific and detailed as possible regarding words of knowledge for healing. The detailed word of knowledge is intended to help build the faith of the person with the condition. It is along the lines of, "God would not mention the condition in detail in a healing meeting unless He intended to heal it."

But even in those types of meetings, the words of knowledge given are usually specific to a sickness and not to an individual. You go up to the microphone and say, "The Lord is showing me that someone has a ..." and then specify what the condition is. Then the person with the condition responds in faith by identifying themselves and coming up for healing prayer.

You don't generally point out a specific person and say, "The Lord is showing me that you have this horrible disease." If you are accurate, it will certainly build the person's faith to receive healing. But if are wrong, it could cause undue anxiety or fear in the person you pointed out. (Please don't misunderstand, there is a certain level of proficiency and maturity your gifting where where it is ok to do this type of thing if God leads you to--it is the type of thing that someone like Randy Clark or Todd Bentley or Benny Hinn might do on occasion.) But it is not appropriate for someone new to the gifting to try as a "prophetic statement," because it has the capacity to do harm to an individual if you are wrong.

Of course, if you do get that type of word of knowledge for a specific individual, you should not just suppress it. You can find a non-hurtful way of exploring it. For instance, you can approach the person after the meeting and strike up a conversation. Then you can ask some sort of non-specific question that moves them in the direction of that word. For instance, if you thought the Lord gave you a word of knowledge about a person having a tumor in their shoulder, you could ask if they've been noticing any pain or problems in their left shoulder recently. If they say yes, you can explore it farther and possibly use it as a launching place to pray for the person one on one for physical healing.

The other thing you can do, in the meeting itself, is to release the word generally instead of specifically. Even if you are positive that you know who the word if for, you can leave it general. E.g., "There is someone who is having problems in the left shoulder, even a known possibly a tumor. If the person identifies themself, then you can minister to them and pray for their healing. If the one who you believe the word is for does not identify themself, you can always add that person to your prayer list for when you have your private prayer times with the Lord.

But you have to give space to the idea that the word is for someone other than the person who you think it is for. I remember one time when I was ministering at a healing conference. I got a very specific and detailed word of knowledge about a rather unusual medical condition. In addition, this glimmer of light seemed to shine from above on to a certain person, almost like a spot light. I was pretty sure the word of knowledge was for him. But I did not want to embarrass him, so I released it as a "Someone has this condition..." type of word instead of identifying the person. I did look directly at him as I gave the word. Guess who stood up to receive the word? No, it was not that man; it was the lady sitting directly behind him. I hadn't even noticed her because he was tall and blocked my view of most of her face.

We want to always minister in love, and part of ministering in love is because careful not to release words in a manner that might hurt someone, embarrass them, or cause them undue anxiety. Think about how you would feel if someone gave you the same word you are about to release. If you thought you were perfectly healthy and someone said, "The Lord is showing me that you have a serious and incurable disease," how would you feel?

My own personal response to that type of word would be to look quickly for some witness from the Holy Spirit and to think back over my recent health to see if there was some indication of that condition that is present but not officially diagnosed yet. If neither of those conditions are true, then I would immediately reject the word.

Why would I do that? It is because there is a possibility that the enemy could empower that word against me as a curse on my health if I receive it. One of the characteristics of the prophetic is that it speaks things that don't exist into existence. For example, there are times when the Lord has one of His prophets call forth a spiritual gift in someone's life. The person did not operate in the gift before the prophet called it forth, but then it starts showing up afterwards. In short, a true prophetic word spoke something that "was not" into existence.

The same thing can happen with a "false" word, or with an error, such as giving a specific health related word of knowledge to the wrong person. If we give a word of knowledge about a sickness or crisis in a healthy person's life, and that word is not "rejected" or counter-acted, then the enemy is free to empower that word as a curse against them. In short, we can speak the bad thing into existence in a person's life if the person receives it. That is why we want to be very careful about how we deliver things.

There is one more aspect of giving specific words of knowledge that we need to mention. I don't think this applies specifically to you, but it is an issue for some prophetic types. That issue is self- promotion. There are some people who are more interested in impressing people with their prophetic skills than they are in ministering to the person that God wants to speak to. These people tend to emphasize their skill over caring about the person's feelings. They would rather impress a room full of strangers with an accurate word of knowledge for a specific individual than care about how the person may feel about getting the word. When they do that, they may be accurate, but they are missing God's main point. They are not building the person they are ministering to up, they are building themself and their own reputation. That is not a good thing and that doesn't please the Lord. It should be avoided at all costs.

At the beginning, I suggested that the mistake that accidentally harmed someone was shared. It was not just the person who gave the word of knowledge, it was also the group leader. There are two important things that they did not do. If they had done these things, then it would have nipped the person's anxiety in the bud, and it would have undone the harm of the specific "negative" word of knowledge. Both of those things are prayer.

Since the word was given and the person did not receive as a known health condition, the leader should have covered this in prayer two ways. First, a prayer for complete physical healing in the event that if there is some unknown problem. (The leader could have prayed himself, or asked you to pray.) Second, the leader should have done an authority prayer to break off any curse or enemy empowerment of this "word" in the event that it is not revelation from God. For the sake of the prayer, let's call the man "Mike" and assume that the specific area of his body was his stomach. Here is an example of how that prayer could have gone:

Right now, in the Name of Jesus and through His power and authority, I break any curse that may have been inadvertently released against Mike's health through this word of knowledge. If there is any enemy empowerment against Mike's health (especially his stomach area and digestive track), I cancel the assignment against him and break the power of any harm that is released. In Jesus' name, I command any spirit of infirmity or curse-enabling spirit to leave him right now, and I forbid you to return to trouble him later. I put the blood of Jesus and the cross of Jesus between Mike and any enemy empowerment of the word of a possible health problem in his stomach. And I release the blessings of God on Mike and on his physical body in Jesus' name. Amen.

As to your question of what to do now, that will depend on how much contact you have with this man. You could try praying for him one on one for "healing in the event that there is something that needs healing," and also to break off any potential curse of future health threat. Or you may want to go your leader and let them know about his concern, and ask her to please handle the situation.

Also, in the future, I advise you to shy away from giving alarming or negative sounding words of knowledge specifically to a given individual. It is better to give them as a "someone in the group" type of word instead of identifying who you believe it is, then give them the chance to respond to the word. However, do keep mental track if the person who you think the word is for responds to the word. It will help you to privately evaluate how accurately you are healing the Lord on words of knowledge. There may come a time in the future when you will be able to give them specifically to a given individual.