The Prophetic Realm Part One: Real and Counterfeit: The Prophetic

The life of a prophet

In the Old Testament , the prophet would guide the king, therefore the people, by speaking the will of God, and many times the will of God will include correction, judgement and warnings. Prophets were often ignored in the Old Testament, while even back in those days among the true prophets you found many speaking deceptions and lies. Today, nothing has changed, because God does not change (Hebrews 13:8).

Prophets are still called to lead the corporate church by speaking and declaring the will of God to the leaders (who are like the modern-day kings of old). Prophets still speak to believers. Still today what the prophet utters may contain correction or judgement, or it may speak of encouragement, direction or wisdom. Prophets still speak to nations, or even to a multitude of nations, declaring the will of God not just unto the Church but unto secular leaders as to warn, to guide, to direct and to declare the heart and mind of God. Thus from the old to the new, nothing has changed in regard to the prophet.

Many will say that the prophetic of the New Testament is different to the days of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel, simply because we have a very narrow understanding of the role of the prophet. As the prophet was in the old so he is under the New Covenant. Still today, many are saying that no one should really be saying so says the Lord, but rather to say that I feel led that this is what the Lord is saying ... We are completely misunderstanding the role of the prophet.

To the matter of what is a real prophet, consider that a prophet is a spokesperson for God. The prophet admonishes, warns, confirms, encourages, intercedes, teaches and counsels. His primary function is to speak the heart, the mind and the will of God in order to bring into alignment what has been out of alignment according to God’s will, truth and Kingdom. A prophet is called to stand in the council of the Lord. He stands before the living God. Having stood before God he is sent to stand for God, before his people and speak His word. To prophesy is to communicate the mind and heart of God to a person, a group of people or a territory; therefore, prophecy is linked with the promise of God over our lives. God's promise is an announcement of His plan of salvation and blessing to His people. A promise embraces both declaration and deed.

Prophets in our time will bring the word of the Lord to the corporate church, to spiritual leaders (as Ezekiel spoke to the shepherds in Ezekiel 34) and to the believers. Prophets will give direction and vision in these situations so that God's people know what is happening, and what they should do. This speaks of wisdom, so they may know the way ahead. For example, the prophet Gad provided guidance to David and showed him how to avoid trouble. But the prophet Gad said to David, Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah. So David left and went to the forest of Hereth (1 Samuel 22:5).

Prophets can give direction to those who are seeking the will of God. Sometimes the prophetic word will be for the church as a whole or for the leadership of the church. The prophet thus admonishes, intercedes, teaches and counsels. He encourages, edifies and so builds and plants. Importantly he stands on the walls to see what the Lord is doing that he may call the Body as a corporate or the believer to respond. He may even call nations or secular leaders to heed the Word of God.

The office of the prophetic has often been shrouded in mystery, or it has been misinterpreted or misunderstood over many years. Truly, it is clear that for a long time the prophetic has been either shunned in the church, or it has become absolutely snowed under by misconceptions, distortions and falseness. For a long time, especially in the advent of the Roman Catholic Church, the prophetic office was completely shunned and suppressed. It sparked to life again during the early 1500s with the Reformation and gained momentum with the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.

While this is all good and well, the devil also realised the dangers of the prophets taking their rightful place again. And so today we are inundated and overwhelmed by so many prophetic voices, yet many of these voices are not even speaking as the Lord leads.

Let us remember if the prophet does not speak completely and utterly as the Lord leads, then surely this cannot be a prophet. A prophet is one who is God’s spokesperson, and therefore a prophet must speak thus says the Lord for that is the role and the office of the prophet. The commissioned prophet after all should hear very clearly the voice of God and know the heart, mind and will of the Lord. For the prophet, there are no grey areas when it comes to God’s will, to His Truth or to His Ways. It is either God’s way or no way at all.

In 1 Samuel 9, we find a clear example of how a true prophet functions. This is the account of how Saul and the prophet Samuel met. At the time, Saul was looking for his father’s lost donkeys and was told in verse 6 of an honourable man of God in the city who could help him with his task. We then read (just before the actual meeting):  15 Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, 16 Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel, that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.

So here we find Samuel was in direct communication with God. He had received his command from God. We then read: 17 So when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over My people. 18 Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Please tell me, where is the seer’s house? 19 Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today; and tomorrow I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart. 20 But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them, for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on all your father’s house?

Finding the donkeys was not the primary objective for the meeting between Saul and Samuel, but it was for Samuel to anoint Saul as king. Samuel was completely and utterly in the will of the Lord, being constantly guided, directed and led to fulfil God’s mandate. This is the true sign of a prophet – someone who is yielded and submitted to the perfect will of the Lord. He was listening closely to God and was not distracted by the issue of the lost donkeys. God’s will was for Saul to be anointed as king, and thus set in motion the age of the kings which included the reign of David.

Samuel was thus not thinking about himself. It was not about Samuel’s agenda or his will. For the prophet, it was about God’s purpose and plan for the meeting, which was set in motion when Saul was looking for lost donkeys. So for the prophet, it is vital to always listen closely to the Lord, to yield, and to submit as the Lord leads. For the prophet, it is all about the will of the Lord.

Take note, prophets are both men and women. There are after all nine women in the Bible who are called true prophetesses (Hebrew nbiyah Greek prophetis meaning inspired woman). They are Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), Isaiah's wife (Isaiah 8:3), Anna (Luke 2:36-38) and the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8-9). So we need to understand still today a prophet is both male and female. For the sake purely for singularity, this study will speak of he in the context of the prophet, even though God has called many women today to also be mighty prophets in His Kingdom.

We also need to always remember that the greatest prophet that ever lived is our Lord Jesus, who is also the Son of God and God Himself. He is the Mystery revealed as the ancient of ways, for He is the Way, and He came to prophetically show us the way to the Kingdom, what is the Kingdom all about, the Truth of the Gospel and His very sacrifice on the cross was a prophetic action of death submitting to the life-giving power of the Blood of the Lamb, of sin being swept aside by grace and of a restoration of the lost, the broken, and the captive. And such a way as shown by the Lord as the Son of God and as a prophet speaks no longer of a mystery, but a yearning by the Father for the lost to be restored by the Blood of the mystery revealed so that we all - once lost - may tread the highway of joy and redemption.

Indeed, the Lord prophetically showed the way to the Kingdom to bring us back from disgrace to grace, from the abyss to glory and from death to life. For the Lord showed Moses the prophet the path to freedom and so the mystery revealed, the greatest Prophet, has revealed under the Covenant of Grace the true path of our redemption. 

We find the responsibility of a prophet summed up in Ezekiel 3: Moreover He said to me, Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. 2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. 3 And He said to me, Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness. 4 Then He said to me: Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them ... 10 Moreover He said to me: Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11 And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse."

Ezekiel was called to ‘eat the scroll’; meaning to digest the entire Truth of God and speak only what he has digested. This means he must not speak anything else but the Word that has been planted within him. And so the prophet must receive into his heart all that the Lord speaks and hear with his ears. This reminds of the seven letters to the churches where it is repeated in the Book of Revelations to hear what the Spirit is saying. A prophet must receive, he must listen and he must speak only as the Lord leads. A prophet speaks not his opinion, or judges not by his eyes, or by what he hears, but moves solely as the Spirit leads.

The Lord also said to Ezekiel: 8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9 Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. A prophet therefore must never be afraid of man, or be afraid of what he must speak or do, for God shall be with His servants and messengers. Ezekiel only had to obey, trust and be faithful to the words – the scroll – he had digested.

These days the prophetic office has sadly been reduced to operating in the function of merely uttering a personal word, or meeting a personal need or want. And so, as soon as someone utters a personal word to someone, then that person has become a prophet. This is happening often, and it is allowed to take flight based of the misconceptions of what it means to be a prophet.  We need to remind ourselves that a lot of times such personal word can be uttered as a result of the gift of wisdom, or knowledge or even the prophetic gift. It also can just be that the prophetic word has been uttered as the Holy Spirit moved for that singular purpose. Sadly, a lot of times such a personal word does not even come from God, never mind being a prophetic utterance.

Prophecy is, however, not solely about confirming a personal word or meeting a personal need, but it runs far deeper. While prophets are called to speak also of the future or address the past, when it is, however, not of the Lord, it becomes divination. Almost every prophet in the Old Testament appeared first as a foreteller. Through his fellowship with the eternal God, the prophet has access to the future. He is the seer who has insight into God's purposes for history. However, whatever he sees for the future is always related to the present. He warns of future judgements so that people will change their behaviour now. He speaks of future blessing to give hope for the present. This was also the case with John who wrote the Book of Revelation. The prophet speaks thus to the present, in light of the future that God has revealed to him. Daniel was such a prophet.

Let us remember God’s intention has always been for His children to hear directly from God, and to seek the Lord’s counsel and direction. This is why the Blood of the Lamb removed the veil so that we may have access to the Lord. First and foremost we must seek God to know His will and purpose for our lives. God’s desire is not for His children to be solely led by the voice of the prophetic or those who utter by a gift or by the move of the Spirit. God desires for us to hear directly from Him and to spend time with Him in intimate fellowship. The prophetic thus confirms and guides with wisdom and revelation. Yet this is a big problem in churches these days. Many are content NOT to hear directly from God, but would rather run to someone they believe can speak a word directly to them. We must first hear from God, spend time with the Lord and then allow God to confirm if so desired.

The devil has thus used this opportunity to sow confusion and chaos, for the simple reason that so many within the church are not grounded in the Word, or have a real relationship with God, never mind being led by the Spirit of the Lord. If you, therefore, do not know the Word, how can you test what is spoken? If you are not led by the Spirit, how can you know when someone is speaking or not speaking in the Spirit? If you know not the Lord intimately, how can you know how He moves or speaks? Therefore we sit in this state of apostasy in our churches, because we do not know God, move in His Spirit or know His Word. In this environment of ignorance which is not bliss, the enemy moves and acts, confusing and sowing deception. Yet, the devil is not stopped, because there is generally a great lack of discernment in churches.

Remember, when a personal word is given, it confirms and affirms. Personal prophecy must be treated with caution. The gift of prophecy is not generally directive so it is dangerous to make life-changing decisions on the basis of a prophecy uttered by a person who has not been recognised as a prophet or who has not the gift. Prophets will sometimes give direction, but generally, this should come as a confirmation of something that God has already spoken to the person concerned. God wants to lead his people by His Spirit. He desires that every believer should learn to hear the Spirit's voice. A message from a prophet should normally come as a confirmation of something that the Spirit has already spoken.

Getting confirmation from a prophet before we act can be really encouraging, but we need to be very careful. A personal prophecy can be misleading if we have allowed our own plans and desires to control our thinking. Ezekiel gives a surprising warning about this. When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the Lord will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry (Ezekiel 14:4). If a person has let something that they want to do become an idol of their heart, God may prophesy to them what they want to hear. If the person acts on the prophecy, it will lead to disaster. God does this to reveal the idol and recapture the person's heart. This means that we must be careful with personal prophecy. If a prophecy confirms what we want to do, it may just be a sign that we have made our own plans into an idol in our hearts.

The reality is that even though under the New Covenant God speaks to all man (those willing to listen), the office of the prophet has never vanished or has it become diminished in importance. The importance of the prophetic is underlined in 1 Corinthians 14 when Paul weighed up prophecy versus speaking in tongues: 14 Pursue [this] love [with eagerness, make it your goal], yet earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual gifts [to be used by believers for the benefit of the church], but especially that you may prophesy [to foretell the future, to speak a new message from God to the people]. 2 For one who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to people but to God; for no one understands him or catches his meaning, but by the Spirit he speaks mysteries [secret truths, hidden things]. 3 But [on the other hand] the one who prophesies speaks to people for edification [to promote their spiritual growth] and [speaks words of] encouragement [to uphold and advise them concerning the matters of God] and [speaks words of] consolation [to compassionately comfort them]. 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church [promotes growth in spiritual wisdom, devotion, holiness, and joy]. 5 Now I wish that all of you spoke in unknown tongues, but even more [I wish] that you would prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater [and more useful] than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he translates or explains [what he says], so that the church may be edified [instructed, improved, strengthened].

It is because of the perception that prophets deal primarily with a personal word of clarification, direction, or even telling the future that many believe this office is no longer valid, considering we are called to first and foremost listen to God. Indeed, it is true God longs to speak to us personally, but this does not negate the office of the prophet, for the true role of the prophet is far more than just speaking a personal word into someone’s life. Yet, this is how the prophetic is perceived. A prophetic word uttered is seen as a means to a quick fix, and so people seek out prophets to find a word for a situation, an answer to a decision, a solution to a crisis, an utterance for breakthrough or an impartation for self-empowerment. This is indeed what the prophetic has been reduced to and how so many understand the prophetic. People might as well consult mediums or spiritists if that is their motivation and goal for seeking out the prophetic.

One can seek solutions or answers by simply consulting with God on a personal level, yet believers are simply too spiritually lethargic to spend time with God in fellowship to listen, to heed and to pay attention. And so they would rather seek out a prophet, because surely they will have the answer and they can speak something that will change the situation or bring about change. Is this really what the prophetic has been reduced to? Unfortunately yes, and this is why the prophetic is no longer regarded as the voice of God to lead the Body of Christ in the will, purpose and mandate of God. Prophets are treated like soothsayers, and people with supposed magical gifts to provide personal revelations.

In the 613 Laws of Moses, we find the following laws regarding prophecy: To heed the call of every prophet in each generation, provided that he neither adds to nor takes away from the Torah (Deuteronomy 18:15), not to prophesy falsely (Deuteronomy 18:20) and not to refrain from putting a false prophet to death nor to be in fear of him (Deuteronomy 18:22). It says in 1 Thessalonian 5: 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

As in the days of the old to the days of the new, prophecy must not be despised. And still today, prophets are called to uphold God’s Truth, the order of His Kingdom and His Ways. A prophet absolutely loves the Truth of God. He adores the Kingdom and will stay obedient to God to speak the Truth of God, for in the Truth lie liberty and blessing. On the flip side of the coin, we must remain mindful, aware and beware of the false word, and those who are dealing falsely.

We need to understand God does not change and He will never change. He still uses the prophets to exhort, to lead, to guide, to strengthen, to correct, to shift, to align, to plant, to tear down, to pull down, to restore and to speak judgement. This is why still today the Church must listen to the true prophet, for he or she will speak the heart of God, the mind and the will of God for it shall be a word of intent and purpose to the glory of the Kingdom and not man.

He may speak to the Bride or the believer, or to nations or to secular kinds, either way, he or she speaks as the Lord leads. Still today, prophets are called to neither add nor take away from Scriptures (Old or New Testament), or to twist what God says or to distort the Word be it Logos or Rhema. Prophets today should still be held accountable for every word spoken, for truly true prophesy is all about glorifying God.

The Law of Moses spoke of putting to death a false prophet. Under the New Covenant, we shall not go to such extremes, but it shows you how serious God is about those who speak falsely or who deem themselves to be a prophet but speak not by God’s authority. When a prophet truly moves in the will of God, in God’s Truth, in God’s Spirit, and moves in the office of the prophet to the glory of God, then such a prophet will speak or act in the complete and