(For the rest of the Spiritual Warfare series, click here to go to my other blog.)
There are a couple videos I recently linked to of someone sharing the spiritual warfare they've gone through. It was good advice and on-track biblically. But since then, she's done videos more along the lines of "prophetic messages," sharing dreams she's had and what she thinks God is saying through them to the people watching her videos, including the prophecy that God is going to bring someone an unexpected business opportunity. This makes me leery, and it makes me want to share a quick warning about those kinds of "prophetic" messages.
I don't want to quench the Spirit or limit His work, or anything like that. And I don't know exactly what this specific woman is experiencing (so I'm not writing this specifically about her, but about things like this). And I don't know exactly how the Spirit works nowadays through spiritual "gifts." So this is just my opinion, a word of caution. (There's a note about the "gift" of speaking in tongues, which has nothing to do with this woman's messages, near the end of this post.)
I think "prophetic messages" are something we should be discerning about, especially as the New Age and the occult has seeped into churches more and more over the years. When do things cease to be strictly biblical and start to blend into New Age or the occult, especially when it comes to supernatural things?
Personally, I am very wary about messages or promises from other people (even if they're Bible-based) that extend beyond what God has said in His Word, especially when it's about earthly blessings and opportunities or about predicting the future.
It's one thing to say that God blesses those who trust Him, which is biblical: "... blessed is he who trusts in the Lord." (Proverbs 16:20)
It's one thing to say that God will guide us as we faithfully follow Him, which is biblical: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
But it's another thing to say exactly where and how God will guide someone.
It's one thing to say that God will care for us and provide for us as we rely on Him, which is biblical: “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19)
You get the picture. It's one thing to encourage someone with a Bible verse, a Bible promise, but it's another to predict how it will be fulfilled.
The Bible gives us general ideas of how God moves in our lives, general principles of how He responds to us and broad promises of what He will do for us. This gives Him maximum flexibility, the option and ability to fulfill these promises as He chooses, depending on the circumstances.
But telling someone exactly how God will fulfill His biblical promises goes outside of what Scripture says and promises. And to me, it tip-toes awfully close to fortune-telling, instead of being solid biblical advice.
Not only that, but when we listen to other people's extra-biblical and specific "prophecies," we risk putting our faith in them (the people and the prophecies), our focus on them, and our hope in their fulfillment - instead of putting our faith in, focus on, and hope in God and His Word and His more generalized promises. We risk evaluating God's Word according to other people's prophecies, instead of evaluating other people's prophecies according to God's Word. We pursue information instead of pursuing God. And we learn to let others tell us how to interpret and apply God's Word when we should be reading God's Word for ourselves (learning to be discerning and mature in our spiritual understanding of it) and asking Him what He wants to tell us through it.
Basically, my concern about "prophetic messages" (especially ones based on the murky world of dreams and what God supposedly spoke to someone else's heart) is that we're going to other people for truth, for wisdom, for advice about the future and what we should do ... instead of going to God Himself and being content with the things He reveals in His Word. And anytime we seek spiritual information or knowledge about the future or the unknown from someone other than God (through His Word), it could open the door to the occult or the New Age, to demonic deception and practices. And we might be led astray.
And if what the person prophesied isn't from God, if it doesn't happen, it might eventually lead to our faith being shaken, because we thought it was from God and so we blame Him that it didn't happen. And if it's not from God but does come true, it might cause us to listen more and more to these kinds of "prophecies," getting more and more ensnared with the New Age or the occult, getting further and further away from God and His truth and His Word.
But like I said, this is just my opinion. But the more that witchcraft and the New Age and the occult seeps into society, the more careful and alert we need to be about it seeping into the church and into our own lives too.
[Note about tongue-speaking churches: I myself would not be comfortable in a church that exercises the more questionable "gifts of the Spirit" such as prophesying and speaking in tongues. Personally, I think there's too much risk of things going off-the-rails in these churches. I fear that people would end up pursuing these "gifts" more than God Himself, desiring exciting, emotional experiences instead of the solid word of God. And they would judge each other's level of faith based on if they have these "gifts" or not, becoming prideful if they've got it and shaming those who don't, making them feel like less of a Christian.
Personally, when it comes to talking in tongues, I see it this way: Talking in tongues was about the disciples being equipped by the Spirit to speak various known languages of the day but languages they themselves didn't know, and it happened so that the various groups at the Pentacostal Feast of Weeks could hear the gospel in their own language. It would be like if someone who couldn't speak Russian was equipped by the Holy Spirit to speak Russian so that they could share the gospel with a Russian person they met. The point is, these were known languages, not some mysterious, supernatural, angelic babble. "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven ... each one heard [the disciples] speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language?...'" (Acts 2:5-8)
And tongue-speaking churches think that talking in tongues is a sign that you've been "baptized in the Spirit." But I believe the Bible says that all believers are baptized in the Spirit when we believe in Jesus. "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." (1 Cor. 12:13) There is no further "baptism" that needs to happen, and you can't get more of the Spirit than you already got at the moment of conversion, when you believed. "There is one body and one Spirit... one Lord, one faith, one baptism," (Eph. 4:4-5, emphasis added).
And so talking in tongues is not a sign that you've got the Spirit, because all believers have the Spirit. But what it is instead, in my opinion, is a distraction from pursuing God Himself and His Word, and it's a tool for virtue-signaling ("Look, I can speak in tongues; I've got the Holy Spirit") and judging other people's level of faith ("If you can't speak in tongues, you haven't been baptized by the Spirit yet").
I bring this up because there are a lot of churches caught up in this. Our smallish city alone has several tongue-speaking churches, one of which my son was invited to. Since he's an adult, all I could do was gently tell him my opinion, but then I had to let him go and decide for himself. Thankfully, he found it as shady and "off track" as I do.]
Once again, I don't know about all this, but it does raise some red flags for me. At the very least, be very cautious and discerning about prophetic messages and promises that come from other people, that are not found clearly and directly in God's Word. And run it all past God, through His Word, to see what He says about it all.
And at the very most, stay away from them entirely. Listening to "prophecies" that aren't directly found in God's Word is an opportunity for Satan to potentially deceive us and lead us astray, to get into our heads. And consequently, we might inadvertently give him permission to come into our lives, to lead us in certain directions, to influence our thinking, which influences our actions, which influences our circumstances, which influences our futures. (Self-fulfilling prophecies: causing it to happen because we believe it will happen.)
And it might be easy for Satan to get in this way because "prophetic messages" seem to be biblical, appearing to be messages from God, told to us by another Christian (or "Christian," in quotes). And it might be an especially easy trap for Christians who want "more," who are bored with the commonplace experiences of faith and tired of finding God in the Word, and they want to kick it up a notch, to experience "the next level." And since these experiences appear spiritual and biblical, they let their guard down and willingly open the door. Because it sounds so much like truth.
But like I said, this is just my opinion.
Maybe I'm wrong about all this. Maybe God really is speaking these messages through other believers. Maybe I am squashing the Spirit's work here and am too cynical and skeptical (which may be why I don't get these messages but others do). But I don't know. Just be careful. Be discerning. Satan's best tricks and traps are the ones that appear so "godly" that you don't stop to question if they're really from God or not.
2 Cor. 11:14: “… Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light."
2 Timothy 4:3-5: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations..."
2 Peter 2:1-3: "... there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies ... Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up."
If you're not sure about all this, ask God to show you the truth. I believe that's a prayer He'll answer, especially since it has to do with His truth, His Word, His character, and His glory. Run everything past God, in prayer and through His Word. And be willing to give up the things God tells you are wrong. The short-term thrill these things might give you is not worth the damage it might do to your faith in the long run.
Once again, be discerning.
And be a Berean.
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11, emphasis added)
Don't believe me that the occult and New Age (and let's add false-god worship like yoga) is seeping into churches? Look it up online for yourself in articles like these:
Brittany Muller combines Christianity and the cards in 'The Contemplative Tarot'
Study: Gen Z doubles down on spirituality, combining tarot and traditional faith
"New Age" beliefs common among religious and nonreligious Americans
Christian witch claims Christ-followers can practice witchcraft, despite biblical warnings
What is a Christian Witch and Why is this belief dangerous?
New Age Christians and the danger they don't know they're in
Is your church doing Spiritual Formation? (Important reasons why it shouldn't)
my post: An Open Letter to Christian Churches Doing Yoga
Concerns raised after T.D. Jakes' wife posts photos of yoga sessions at The Potter's House Church
my post: Is Yoga Ok for Christians? [Here's a hint: It's not!]
An informative article: Yoga: the Dangers of Spiritual Deception
