Some years ago I was visited by a Christian lady who claimed to have received a prophecy, a message from God, for me and our church.
The message was this,
“Your church will enter a time of unprecedented miracles, signs, wonders, blessings and conversions. However, you shouldn’t limit God. You need to open yourself to the work of the Spirit.”
Angus Buchan, famous for his prayer meetings in South Africa, also regularly shares prophecies from God.
How should we respond to the increasing claims of prophetic words and messages from God?
THE 1st CENTURY, NEW TESTAMENT RESPONSE
Beloved, do not believe every spirit (every person who claims to be filled with the Spirit and speak on behalf of God), but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1
There will always be those who make very sincere, confident claims, but who are sincerely wrong. 1 John 4:6 says that they speak, not from the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of error.
How would the readers of John’s letter know what is from God and what isn’t?
No false prophet has ever hung a board on their necks saying, “BEWARE, FALSE PROPHET!” Every false prophet claims to speak from God!
How do we test the spirits?
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God…
1 John 4:2-3
If the person makes much of Jesus, that person is from God and worth listening to.
John has told his readers a lot about this Jesus who came in the flesh. He is the righteous one (2:1); he is the propitiation for our sins (2:2) in order to placate God’s wrath; and he appeared to take away sin (3:5).
If there is a preacher who talks about the Jesus who came into our world to die on the cross to take away sin, he is from God.
The sign of a spirit-filled preacher is not that they do healings, or miracles, or signs, or wonders, or speaks in tongues, or has glitter from heaven. Many do all these things in Hinduism, Satanism and in the New Age Movement.
The first test for true teaching is that the sin-bearing cross of Christ is central.
The second test for true teaching is that it is in line with the Bible.
We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 1:6
The “we” and “us” of v6 refer to the original Apostles who saw Jesus and were commissioned by Jesus (cf. 1:1-4).
If anyone did not listen to the Apostles, they were not from God. God revealed himself in Jesus. Jesus, in turn, commissioned the Apostles to write down his words and teach his people.
We don’t have the Apostles with us anymore, but we do have their teachings in the New Testament.
Therefore, the second test of true teaching is this: Is it in line with what the New Testament (by implication, the Bible) teaches? It’s the “Scriptural” test.
WHAT IS PROPHECY OR THE GIFT OF PROPHECY?
In Old Testament (OT) times, a prophet or prophetess was someone who spoke God’s word to God’s people. God gave them a message and they relayed that message (Deuteronomy 18:18).
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Deuteronomy 18:18
The message, of course, had to be 100% correct (as it was from God who never gets anything wrong), and if it was found to contain error, the prophet or prophetess was put to death (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
The reason for this was largely to prevent all kinds of people with all kinds of messages, claiming that they have these messages from the Lord when they actually didn’t.
But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
By the time we get to the New Testament (NT), the definition of a prophet has not changed. Prophets were men and women who related God’s Word to God’s people. The prophecies were to be 100% correct and perfectly in-line with the rest of Scripture, otherwise the prophets were deemed to be false prophets.
When the NT commends Christians to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1), it does not mean – as many Christians today think – to test which parts of the “prophecy” are from God. Instead, it means to test if the messenger is from God: is he a true prophet or a false prophet (with same criteria as in OT). If he was a true prophet, the listeners had to treat the entire message as from God.
Ephesians 2:19-20 is a massively important passage.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone…
Ephesians 2:19-20
It says that the church is built on the foundation of the Apostles and NT Prophets (cf. Ephesians 3:5). And because a foundation is laid only once, we don’t expect Apostles and Prophets today. With the completion of the NT canon the need for and role of prophets (i.e. gift of prophecy) was not necessary anymore and subsequently ended.
God speaks to us through his Word, the Scriptures, as the Spirit helps us to understand the Bible. We are to obey the Bible as best we can and leave the future to the providence of God, knowing that God works in all things for the good of his people (Romans 8:28).
This truth is so freeing; much more preferable than being burdened and troubled by the supposed predictions and words of those with the alleged gift of prophecy; forever wondering if your decisions are in keeping with the “prophecy” or not; forever wondering if you are being disobedient or not.
2 Peter 1:3 says we have all we need for life and godliness – we don’t need another message from God. Jude 3 commends us to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Prophecy is no longer available because it is no longer need.
CONCLUSION
“Prophecy (and tongues) are revelatory gifts, temporarily given to the church during its foundational apostolic era. They are inseparably connected to the ministry of the apostles and have since been permanently withdrawn, along with the apostles, from the life of the church…this is not to be “against the Holy Spirit” or to quench the freedom of the Spirit, but to respect the way in which the Spirit has sovereignly chosen to reveal the will of God and so insure the freedom of the believer.”
Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. in “Perspectives on Pentecost: New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit”
If you do happen do get a “word from the Lord” from a Christian friend:
(1) Ask how that person is sure that message came from God and is not just their strong opinion, or even a message from another spirit? After all, the Bible says our hearts are deceptive above all things.
(2) If you want to take the “Word” as from the Lord, check if it agrees 100% with the rest of Scripture because the Bible is our highest authority.
(3) If the prophecy is not 100% accurate or does not come 100% true, go back and tell that person that they’re a false prophet and should be very grateful they’re not living in OT times!
For more info on prophecy: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-gift-of-prophecy/