What is the difference between a Prophet who foretells
according to the Holy Spirit and a person that is merely a
fortune-teller who claims to be practicing Christian
Prophecy? There are many differences, and the distance in
holiness between the real-thing and its fake model is
unfathomably large. While we know that the holiness of God
is only present among those who practice true Christian
prophecy, the difference between what merely looks like
true prophecy and true prophecy is more subtle. Why is
this? Because mankind is fallible but God is not. God knows
what true prophecy is, the church needs the assistance of
God in knowing the difference.
One major difference is a prophet is touched and truly
motivated by the Holy Spirit. We especially know where the
Holy Spirit is by knowing what it is not. An example of
motives not touched by the Holy Spirit: money, fame, power.
Let us see how these three influences are not of the Lord:
Money: The New Testament has several unkind words on greed.
The love of money has absolutely nothing to do with the
Holy Spirit. The two are completely opposed.
Fame: God does not care about the amount of fame that a
prophet has. Fame for its own sake is as bad as the other
bad influence on a prophet:
Power: This is similar to fame. Power manifests itself in
fame as one way, money as another. Another might even be
high status in the family or status in the church due to an
ostensibly prophetic gift. If the reason why this church
member practices Christian prophecy is that they want more
power in the church or any other group of people, this is
not prophecy!
These are the ways to tell what Christian prophecy is not.
Another way to find out if someone practices Christian
prophecy is to ask...
What is Christian prophecy motivated by?
A true prophet is motivated by bringing glory and honor to
Jesus. The central question to ask when wondering if a
person is truly practicing Christian Prophecy: what is the
motivation? If they sound like the famous Jerry McGuire
line show me the money! they do not have the power of
Christian prophecy. In a nutshell: if a prophet benefits
from anything except the glory of the Lord, it is not
prophecy.
What makes for authentic Christian prophecy is not always
dependent on the content of the message of the prophet but
also the focus that the prophet puts on his prophecy inside
of the church; the context that the prophet speaks under.
The emphasis on prophecy is actually not to predict the
future; the focus is communicating Godly principles to
Christians. This is one of the most misunderstood elements
of Christian prophecy. Christian prophecy might predict the
future but it might not. The message of God has much more
to do with the purpose of your life and the way that the
church can reflect his glory than it has to do with simply
predicting the future.
Basically this criterion boils down to this truth on
Christian prophecy: if a church treats prophecy like a
parlor trick: the prophecy is a parlor trick.
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A lot of people are unaware about the power of Christian
prophecy in a true sense. It gives hope to the hopeless. Do
not ignore the power of prophecy and its supernatural
empowerment. Check out http://propheticnetworkblog.com and
how you can benefit from it.
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