Prophecy and control

Prophetic words and revelation that communicate can make an amazing difference to a life or a situation and probably in the next post will develop that side. However… and sadly I also have to touch on the levels of control that I have confronted – blatantly in the numerous years when I travelled to Brazil and perhaps not so blatant in other places.

I still respond to requests from certain situations to bring some prophetic revelation and always make sure that the person on the receiving end knows they are the ‘boss’. They have every right to reject what is being brought, and they are not about to receive something that is controlling or manipulative. Paul describes one of the ‘works of the flesh’ as witchcraft and anything that seeks to control, manipulate or dictate in the context of interpersonal relationships is indeed a work of the flesh. It might come in the form of a charismatic gift… in the form of prophecy, but nevertheless it is ‘false prophecy’. False prophecy is not that which is wrong, it is a spirit. If someone consistently gets it ‘wrong’ then they need help and probably need to take a step back for a season – but that in itself is not false prophecy.

[An aside: one of the theological errors I believe, and something that has been popularised in many charismatic / third wave circles is that the prophets of the Old Testament spoke the very words of God, and the apostles of the New Testament did likewise, whereas the New Testament prophets spoke relatively. This does not stand up to biblical examination and I am sure the original proponent of this was operating from a presupposition concerning the inerrancy of Scripture – similar to one of my earlier posts about my days in New Testament introduction classes and the ever-present drive to prove that each and every NT book was ‘apostolic’. The Bible does not need our help!!!]

‘We had a person through who to each person he gave out their social security number and then what followed was a prophetic word, but each word was manipulative – even some at the level of threat’… ‘if you do not receive this word then this will happen…’

The above was reported to me. Perhaps the person received the numbers from heaven (I question that) but irrespective of the source the response was not one of faith and freedom but bondage. In Brazil I always held one session on false prophecy and at the close always held a response time seeking to insist that if they had been subject to such an experience that we would pray. I tried to make the response very tight so excluded where they had received something that was not accurate, or they knew that whatever they had received did not have a hold on them. On average 25-35% of those present would respond. The biggest battle was getting people to the place where they verbally rejected what had been given as they had to confront the fear of ‘but if I reject this what will happen’. Following the renunciation I would always call for healing – and sometimes as many as 50-100 people would testify to healing – such as being able to move their arm, leg or body in a free way for the first time in a decade or more.

Prophecy is never about the person giving the ‘word’. As soon as that becomes the case a door is open to all sorts of problems. Peter was asked to ‘feed my sheep’. The ministry platform has opened up the reverse of that… those listening, listen with awe and are impressed (‘duped’) and the person (ego) being fed is the platform person.

I believe in prophetic gifts. We are in a new time, a new situation, and this requires new protocols and also (re-)new(ed) people. Being impressed by the superstar is not what will bring the kingdom of heaven into reach but will only serve to keep the body immature and the remainder of society bereft of heaven’s perspective.