Judging Prophecy; 2nd Edition

This lesson is "new" for the 2nd edition, because I want to discuss a few other issues related to judging the prophetic that were not covered in the pervious edition.

Should Beginners Be Allowed To Make Mistakes?

Some churches (and denominations) do not allow room for beginners to learn how to move in the prophetic. They adhere to an Old Testament model of prophecy that requires 100% accuracy, and where any error at all is enough to label someone as a false prophet. (See lesson 2 for more details about the Old Testament model.)

That model was put into place before the Holy Spirit had been given to God's people, back when individuals had no ability to judge or discern a word, to determine whether or not it was from God. And the accuracy of the words was pretty much the only criteria people could use to judge prophecy. And back there, people who could move in the prophetic were far and few between.

But things have changed now that the Holy Spirit has been given to the church. He is able to reveal things to us and to help us judge. He has also released the "gift of prophecy" to the church (see 1 Cor 12:1-11). Furthermore, the Lord intends for people to grow in their ability to move in the gifts of the Spirit. And Romans 12:6 explicitly spells out that they are to grow in their ability to move in the gift of prophecy. It says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith..."

Those churches that take the Old Testament view on prophecy teach that if a person ever makes a mistake in giving any word, they are to be considered as "unreliable" for all future words. That type of stance, according to Romans 12:6, is unbiblical. It also makes it really hard for people to grow in the prophetic and learn how to move effectively in their spiritual gift.

On the other hand, you can't just give a person a "carte blanche" to do and say whatever they want because they are "learning." There has to be some level of accountability and some type of safety net. If there isn't, then anyone could get up and claim to be speaking for the Lord and then proceed to say things that God is not saying at all. You don't want to give a beginner the same level of "authority" as a seasoned prophet, because they are more likely to make some mistakes while they are learning. But you also don't want to hold them to such a high standard that it is impossible for them to 'get started'.

We need to create an atmosphere that is "safe" for beginners to learn, but which is also safe for people to receive ministry from them.

There are many models that provide "safe places" for beginners to learn to prophesy. I am just going to share one of them with you in this lesson--the one associated with the prophetic-school. But I do want to point out that it is not the only model to use for providing a safe atmosphere for prophetic beginners to learn in.

The #Prophetic-School Chatroom "Safe Place" Model

The chatroom is intended as a "safe place" for people to learn to prophesy. As a result, we recognize that our students will at times "stretch" during their learning process, and may occasionally make some mistakes. Even with the purest of intentions, a "prophet in training" may occasionally present something as a "word" when God has not actually said that thing. This is why we tell everyone they will need to prayerfully judge whatever words they get in that room. And, in addition, we officially "give permission" for a learner to make the occasional mistake as they give a word.

In other words, we encourage them to stretch, to step out and take a risk with sharing what they think they heard God say. We do that because, most of the time, they will have heard correctly. They need to test out their hearing and get feedback to realize that they are indeed hearing God. But there will occasionally be mistakes along the way, because God seems to have designed mankind to make mistakes during the learning process. In other words, most of us need to take some risks and make a few mistakes in order to grow; just like babies need to take a few falls as they learn to walk.

So we have a few guidelines in place to make it "safe" to make mistakes while learning. We follow the 1 Corinthians 14 guidelines, requiring that words be encouraging, edifying, comforting, etc. We forbid words of rebuke, correction or judgment. So even if the person "hears wrong," and the one judging it judges wrong, there still should not be any great harm done, and that is what makes it a "safe place" to learn.

This "safe" chatroom environment has been a great place for many people to learn and grow in.

Why Character Is Important In The Prophetic

Most of the people who come to the room have good character and are well behaved. Unfortunately, we also get some people in the chatroom who have serious "issues" that effect their behavior in the room. These issues also effect people's ability to hear God's voice accurately and to speak for Him.

Character is very important in all aspects of the prophetic, it doesn't matter if you are prophesying in a church during worship or if you are in a chatroom or if you are on a platform with a microphone in your hand, doing callout prophetic ministry. If you have character issues, it can effect your hearing and interfere with your ability to give true prophetic words.

Some people come to prophesy with bad or malicious motives, and their words (of course) cannot be trusted. I don't have to say a lot on this, because it is so obvious. But let me give you a real-life example of this from our online prophetic chatroom to illustrate.

One lady in the chatroom has a long history of being argumentative and rude to others in the room. She has had running conflicts with over a dozen different people. She also had the tendency to be purposely disruptive in the room, and she often select "nicks" (names that identify you in the room) that made negative or derogatory commentaries on others. We gave her every chance, because she did seem to have a true (albeit unrefined) prophetic gifting. We warned her several times about rudeness and disruptive behavior, but she continued to be a problem in the room. Finally, we had no choice but to ban her, which means we disallowed her in the room and used the IRC technology to enforce that decision.

Unfortunately, she was technically skilled, and she found a way to get around the bans. She would come in the room under a secret identity, and appear to behave for a short while. But then she would start acting up again and would end up getting banned for misbehavior again. Each time she was banned, she would come back again pretending to be someone else. And each time, the Lord would reveal to one of our more discerning leaders who she really was.

The leader finally contacted her privately and asked her why she kept coming back pretending to be someone else, lying, and causing problems. She said that God kept sending her back to the room and she was only being His obedient servant. She also said that God instructed her to purposely lie about who she was, and to use covert methods and deceit. She also said that God told her He did not honor the leadership of the room because they had "an agenda that was against her," and they did not honor her, so she did not have to honor them either. God also told her that it is ok to be rude to others, especially if they did not recognize her as His anointed vessel or respect what she had to say.

In short, her character issues twisted her spiritual perceptions so that she felt that it was godly to lie, to use deceit, and to dishonor others so that she could speak for the God of all truth. And she was unable to see the contradiction of that "logic," (that it is ok to intentionally sin so we can serve God). She did not recognize that her attitudes and actions are unbiblical. She demonstrated that she can't tell right from wrong on basic issues, so how can we trust her to speak into people's lives with any degree of accuracy?

She is an example of character issues that manifest as bad motives that lead to malicious acts. But not everyone with character issues have bad motives or wrong agendas. In fact, most people with character issues have a real heart for God and a hunger to prophesy. Unfortunately, they have a woundedness or unresolved past issue that gets in the way when they try to prophesy.

For example, some have such a deep woundedness that it negatively effects their interactions with others, and they end up having tensions or hard feelings with a lot of people. Then if they go to prophesy to one of those people (or to someone who reminds them of one of those people), their hard feelings surface while they are trying to give the word. It becomes difficult for them to distinguish between what God is saying to that person and what their feelings and negative emotions are saying. So when they prophesy, even with the best of intentions, they can become "dangerous."

Others have an area of unrepented sin in their life. This type of sin (or intentional rebellion) separates us from God, and it interferes with a person's ability to hear God's voice. If they can't hear Him clearly, how can they be accurate in speaking for Him?

To summarize, people can have a legitimate prophetic gifting and a sincere desire to prophesy. But if they have serious character issues, those issues can get in the way of their gifting; making them a dangerous and unreliable source of prophetic words.

In other words, if someone with an ongoing character issue gives you a word, it is likely to be "favored with their own issues." Some parts of it may be accurate. But it is quite likely that their hearing is flawed and at least a part of what they share will arise from their own personal issues. That is why you need to weight a word much more carefully when it comes from someone who is known to have serious character issues.

But on the other hand, we can't entirely discount a word because of the giver's character, because God is all powerful and He can speak through anyone--one time He even spoke to Balaam through a donkey.