There is a distinction between the Prophets of the Lord and those who are prophesying based on the illusion of their minds.
The Lord God made that distinction by the mouth of Moses to the Israelites, during his last speech to them before he was received into glory.
He had told them:
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 NKJV
There are those who are prophesying on the basis of the presumption of their minds, and not necessarily by the Spirit of the Lord. They are everywhere on the earth today. As these scriptures says, no child of God is supposed to be paying attention to their falsehoods.
The science of the mind has to do with psyche. It’s from this that the study of psychology evolves. It has to do with the study of the behavioral characteristics of human beings, in the attempt to understand and interpret, why people are behaving in the ways that they often do behave.
It has nothing whatsoever to do with the gift of prophecy or the Holy Ghost. There are however those who are using their understanding and perception of human behaviors from these studies, to speak in the name of the Lord into peoples’ lives.
What they are doing has no biblical basis at all. God’s word is there to help us in exposing them. No child of God ought to be deceived by them. It is God’s word that reveals your identity and character as a child of God to you, and not the social studies by a mere man.
So, therefore take heed to the word of God. Hold on to what it says about you! And don’t you ever be swayed by these evil deceits through the opinions of men; because the real truth is that you are whosoever God’s word says you are.
The world is full of fake prophets like these people, who are creating confusion in the lives of God’s people; instead of presenting the truth of God’s word that saves, heals and delivers to them. What they are doing cannot in any way be affirmed with any biblical truth in authenticating it.
A real Prophet is known for the fulfillment of his prophetic words. There are false prophets and there are also the true Prophets. And both types of prophets had been on the earth for a very long time.
There should be no confusion about this, because the real Prophets of God will always speak in accordance with the Holy Scriptures; and not in accordance with what has been studied and diagnosed by the social scientists.
It’s delusional for anyone to think that he can understand the mind of God based on their own presumption, about Him and about His manner of dealing with His own children. You can’t put the Lord God in the same category as the other gods of this world. The Lord God is the only true and real God. All the other ones are fake and dead gods.
Our God is the One who created science itself. Without His creation of the Heaven and the Earth, which includes everything that’s within it, there is no way humans can be able to make scientific discoveries. Every scientific discovery that exists originates from Him. He is the Source of all knowledge and wisdom of men.
Especially as we are approaching the end of the age the scriptures warned us that, there will be a lot of prophets who are going to be prophesying in the lust of their flesh. And such fake prophets are all over the world already. Guide your heart against them and their words!
The Prophet Jeremiah spoke concerning such false prophets by the Spirit of the Lord to the nation of Israel:
“And the Lord said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.”
Jeremiah 14:14 NKJV
The devil has his own prophets who are prophesying lies by divination, in order to deceive those Christian who are consulting with them out of their own ignorance. If God has a word for you, He will send His Prophet to you, who will speak in accordance with the scriptures that you have been holding on to by faith. He will encourage you with their words, until God does what He has promised you in the Holy Scriptures.
There are Christians who are engaging themselves with the evil activities of these false prophets, while being deceived to believe in their lies and false visions.
And interestingly enough some of these so-called prophets will claim to be using the scriptures in justifying what they are doing. You shouldn’t be surprised to know that many of them do have churches also, from where they are operating in order to cover up for the evil work of their hands.
Jesus revealed to us how we can easily identify a true Prophet when He said:
“ .. A prophet is treated with honor everywhere except in his own hometown, among his relatives, and in his own house.”
Mark 6:4 TPT
A real Prophet is not seeking for honor from men. He is not even often being recognized by his own people.
Humility is the distinctive mark of a true Prophet. He is always seeking to honor the word of God in everything that he does. He is not a people pleaser. That’s why he is often facing persecution for the word that he is proclaiming.
It’s God’s word that often faces persecution from the mouth of the true Prophet. And since his word is being rejected, he is without honor before the people.
But if his word of prophecy comes to pass, his honor gets restored. And in most cases, such a Prophet would have been gone away from the midst of the people who were persecuting him.
“And when this (his word) comes to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”
Ezekiel 33:33 NKJV
Another distinctive sign in identifying a true Prophet is the patience and the ability, that is within him to wait on the Lord. A true Prophet waits before the Lord, until His word comes to him. He can only speak as God has spoken to him, without adding or taking away from it.
As Jesus the Greatest Prophet of all had said:
“He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”
John 12:48-50 NKJV
The nation of Israel never knew that the Greatest of all their Prophets was in their midst, until after they had crucified Him on the cross. The scripture says:
“All the crowds who had gathered for this spectacle, when they saw what had happened, began to return [to their homes], beating their breasts [as a sign of mourning or repentance].”
Luke 23:48 AMP
A true Prophet does not speak except he has been directed by the Lord to speak. Jesus spoke only what He heard from the Father. That’s what a true Prophet does.
Prophets are not only good Preachers, but they are very effective in spiritual warfare also against the evil one.
The real Prophet does warfare with God’s Word.
A true Prophet does not only speak the word of God, but he also wages war with the word that he speaks in resisting the devil. He enforces God’s word with the prophetic anointing over his life, against the devil in spiritual warfare.
The Scriptures has given us numerous examples of this in the lives of the Old Testament Prophets.
But in the New Testament the example of Jesus in enforcing God’s purpose in spiritual warfare, against the evil one was so vivid in His response to the attack on Him by Herod through the Pharisees. The scriptures said after the threat from Herod came to His ears, Jesus wasted no time in responding to it:
“And He (Jesus) said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.”
Luke 13:32-33 NKJV
Jesus is the Master Prophet of all. In His response to this threat, He also proclaimed the purpose of God for Him to Israel. Jesus saw Himself in the Holy Scriptures, and firmly positioned Himself in the scriptures for Herod and the Pharisees to see Him in it.
Jesus is the Greatest Prophet that will ever be. He did one of the greatest spiritual warfare with these words in a quick response, to the attack on Him through the information from Herod to Him by the Pharisees.
The Pharisees had told Him that Herod was seeking to kill Him. We can see that He was not prepared to give a breathing space to them in response to such spiritual attack.
This was a strong and strategic spiritual attack by two forces of evil, that had united together against Jesus. The Pharisees (the religious leaders) and Herod (the political leader) of the people were united against Him.
Jesus went headlong against them with the above statement, so as to diffuse and destroy their spiritual attack. And if we do read the rest of that chapter, we can see that, He went ahead and prophesied God’s purpose and plan for the City of Jerusalem.
In this encounter of Jesus with these two groups (or principalities) we can easily foresee into the future, about what the end times battle will be like between the Bride of Jesus (the Church) and the Antichrist.
We could see these two principalities (the Pharisees and Herod) within Judea, projecting into the future about what should be coming up at the end of the age. Jesus in this encounter showed His Bride (the Body of Christ) how to confront the Antichrist, when the time comes. It’s only by learning from this example of Jesus, that the Church can be triumphant against the Antichrist.
The Antichrist is going to be a man who will have some connections with the Body of Christ. He will also have a strong connection with the worldwide political order. A man who has some religious backgrounds and strong worldwide political power will emerge as the Antichrist on the global stage.
Just as the religious leaders (the Pharisees) had made an alliance with the political leader of Judea (Herod) in coming together against Jesus, the Anti-Christ will enter into an alliance with the political world order of that time to persecute Christians.
If the Pharisees and Herod could join forces together to attack Jesus, the Antichrist will amass to himself a global political power, so as to persecute Christians worldwide.
I personally believe that Jesus would have come back to take away His Bride, before this will happen to those Christians who are compromising their faith. It is however most likely that the Anti-Christ himself will be a backslidden Christian.
He will obviously emerge from among the believers in Christ Jesus; but he will deny his faith in Jesus Christ. He will not only deny his faith in the anointing of Jesus to save, heal and deliver; but he will start going against that anointing with full force.
That’s why he will be called the Antichrist – the one who is against God’s anointing to save, heal and deliver. He is not going to emerge from the world of the ungodly. He is going to have a very strong connection with the Body of Christ, so as to be able to deceive many people within the Body to follow him.
The scriptures tell us:
“Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
I John 2:18-19 NKJV
The Apostle John made it plain for us here that many antichrists are already everywhere. They are the ones who have broken their Covenant by the Blood of Jesus Christ. They are backslidden from following Jesus.
Now, they are going after the Christians who are proclaiming and saving the lost, healing the sick and delivering the captives. That’s what they are doing now to persecute Christians all over the earth.
The example of Jesus in confronting the threat from Herod and the Pharisees, is there for us to learn how to deal with these “antichrists” who are around us every day. We are not to be mincing our words in confronting them at all. We are to be speaking by the Spirit in stopping them, just as Jesus did against the threat from Herod through the Pharisees.
A Christian who does not respond by faith to their threats will find himself being overran by them. Their goal is to silence your voice in a world, that is getting more and more dangerous to live in daily. If Jesus was not silent when threatened by Herod through the Pharisees, He expects you not to be silent as well to their threats.
Jesus is the perfect example of a Prophet. He is the Head Prophet of all prophets.
It’s therefore very important for us to know how and when to be going on the onslaught against the enemy in spiritual warfare; especially while we are praying in other tongues.
It’s a costly mistake for any Christian to miss the target in spiritual warfare, by not knowing the proper timing and what to say against the devil. That’s why the true Prophet waits before the Lord, for the right word to use in spiritual warfare.
It’s important to always listen for the Lord to give the word of knowledge or wisdom before going against the evil one, so as to be able to hit him at the right time and on the right spot. No one can ever defeat the devil alone, without the Lord teaching us how to get him.
Jesus knew what the response ought to be when the threat came. He wasted no time in going after the words that the Pharisees had directed against Him.
The spoken words of Jesus in describing what king Herod was doing with the attack on Him were right on target. A fox scatters the sheep before going after its target. The goal of the fox in doing this is to distract the shepherd from being effective in going after it.
This was what Herod (the fox) was doing when he sent the Pharisees to Jesus. In the same manner the political world order at the end of the age, will hide behind a man who is connected with Christians in persecuting Christians when the time comes. He will do it on a global scale and in a manner no one has ever seen before.
If this strategy of Herod failed, because Jesus could spot his strategy from afar; we can learn a lot from this example of Jesus in confronting every form of persecution.
It is not a good picture whenever you see a backslider getting too connected with the world political system. It should be disturbing to you, if you are watching and waiting for the return of the Lord for His Bride (the Church).
It should be a reminder to you that your redemption is getting closer than ever before. The Lord is coming back soon for His own people. And we shall be joined together with Him forever.
Are you getting yourself ready every day to meet with the Lord in the air? MARANATHA!
