Prophecy/Deception/Occult ............... Brenda UK

I have emailed.

Sister,

I believe any prophets who are emphasizing dates, times and other things like this are usually false. Perhaps a true brother can feel the temptation to label things exactly for sense of recognition, ie if it comes true then they are popular and the "man of the hour" etc. This is a great danger of PRIDE and many can fall into this area in public ministry, especially prophetic ministry.

Jeremiah 14:14 New International Version (NIV)

14 Then the Lord said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries[a] and the delusions of their own minds.

I believe you have an excellent point towards the occult and the enemy can deceive some to say things that are revealed by demons and this is obviously an abomination to the Lord and a pseudo of the true work of the Holy Spirit.

I believe you are right that some like Balaam can start to error to prophesy and say things for the sake of MONEY and writing books. May God preserve His people from such in this day. They will play off peoples fears and insecurities. True prophets will never seek financial gain for their words.

No doubt the most counterfeited & attacked/assaulted gift/office is that of the prophet. But it doesn't then nullify the true gift, but in fact verifies it all the more. That's like why counterfeiters counterfeit 100's & not 1's, because the true 100's have real, substantial value. In my (limited) experience, Z3 is a "free for all" for any/all things which purport to be prophetic. So while there may be a genuine prophetic word here or there, it may be buried in dozens of "wannabe prophets" words. Pride is such a danger in prophesy that I do believe that most often (if not always) a truly prophetic man will be crushed & humbled repeatedly by the Lord.

And yes, even a true prophet doesn't always understand all the details & may (through either an earnest & honest desire to know rightly or a wrong desire to "go farther than the Lord has shown") go too far. Discernment, knowing the Word, & a real, vibrant, deep & true life of prayer & walking with the Lord by the Spirit is what is needed. I heard someone speaking of Z3, knew a truly prophetic man of God was highlighted on there before, etc. & so checked it out. I found it to be a "free for all". So there could be sincere, but sincerely wrong believers in there, true prophetic words, wolves in sheep clothing, demonically inspired "visions/words" sent to cause confusion, & everything in between., etc. I'm not trying to be critical, just honest. I haven't gone back. For some of the best teaching on the True Prophetic Gift out there, IMHO, Art Katz' messages on "True vs False Prophets", Micheal Brown's teaching on "The Prophetic Gift", & John Paul Jackson's stuff are all very good - FYI.

God Bless,
Jeff

Sister Linda,
I think you will do well to listen to and take the advice of brother Greg. I had to delete my facebook account because of the distractions from all of the false prophets and end times news links that had become like a flash flood...overrunning my news feed. It was a huge distraction, a huge waste of time and had started to become a source of great anxiety to read through this stuff.

Some people revel in it though and it is their life...it consumes them but it also changes them as they think on it incessently, rather than on Christ. And you can tell because they seem to live for fruitless and endless arguments about end times topics.

I was headed in that direction until the Lord gently prompted me to shutdown facebook. It was a very, very hard thing to do. Without knowing it facebook and other websites had become an idol to me.

Very few will admit that this is the case for them though. Pride is a horrible thing.

May we all come back to a simple and pure devotion to Jesus and make it our number one pursuit to "know Him". As Paul said, "this ONE thing I do..."