ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO DISCERN INTERNET PROPHECIES
 

At times, people have privately forwarded me prophecies to tell me that they discern something amiss and ask me what my thoughts are on it too.  While I am by no means an expert on it, it is probably time I share some guidelines about how one might discern these prophecies.

First of all, it is difficult to discern through the typed word alone. I have often felt that if I could just be there as the prophecy was given, I could discern a whole lot better. We've got to remember that in the New Testament meetings, a prophecy was given amongst the people and the 'elder' prophets judged (discerned) it. A lot can be heard or felt when it is a taped voice, because at least then you can hear the word emphasis, the emotion, the concern-- and negatively-- the spirit (meaning a demonic one) as a person is speaking.

And so the difference between a typed prophecy and a taped one is almost like the difference between hearing someone over the phone speak and reading their words in a type written letter, instead.  Therefore, I find it hard to act as though words alone will tell everything, because the fact is--they won't. Yet that is all we have with internet prophecies, and so we must do the best we can. This we can do knowing that God can make up for some of the limitations of the internet, as He wills and as we pray.

What I am going to do here is give some common-sense guidelines. By doing so, it is not my intention to encourage easy dismissal. I have known people who preoccupy themselves with ruthlessly finding excuses to ditch a prophecy or the prophet over any small defect (as they define it, of course!). On the other hand, others seem to have such open minds that it is worrisome. You feel as though at any moment, they might drift away after a false prophecy or after their favorite immature or false prophet. If they are not careful, that is exactly what they will do.

What Christians need to remember is that discernment is a gift of the Spirit but it is also a thing of some spiritual 'common sense', as it were, often earned by good old-fashioned Bible study. Some of it is learned by experience and prayer. If our minds and spiritual senses are not engaged and active, then we will not be able to avoid the "trickery of men."

To that end, below are some general qualities that should alert the reader that the prophecy or prophetic ministry is definitely suspect:

• Scripturally unsound: Some prophecies seem to have a preaching or teaching woven into them. Christians need to notice any 'gospel' or message that is being preached within a prophecy. Some prophecies are 'tainted' with a particular personal doctrine or the newest fad in their group, which often means the prophecy is not true at all but was generated as a group pleaser. 
• Repetitiveness: Repetitiveness or sing-song within the prophecy is a technique of convincing. The Lord will repeat Himself when necessary, but only when necessary.  He does not have to wear us down with an avalanche of words or with repetitive words. Similarly, if a prophet has prophesied something already and then says it again and again, repackaging it as if it were ‘new’ from the prophet--Beware.
• Constant changing or readjusting of time-frames in order to justify something that has not come about: After a prophecy has not come true in the prophesied time frame, some charlatans simply issue a 'new' proclaimation that puts the time frame out further. Or, they give some excuse for it not having come true when they said it would.   
• Double-minded, or so generalized and vague that we are left wondering what was really said: The Spirit of the Lord is not a spirit of confusion. Confusion might manifest in the following ways: Slight contradictions, reversals within the prophecy, and/or an important part of the prophecy is so vague that it is virtually meaningless. This is by no means an exhaustive list of how confusion or double-mindedness can manifest itself, but if you feel like you are doing flip-flops in your mind just to try to follow what "God" is REALLY saying, then that is probably a bad sign.
• Christian ‘cursing’: Pay attention to any "if this, then that" messages, however they are said. For instance, there were ‘renewal’ prophesies spread around which promised the 'death' of ministries or persons who opposed the renewal. This was manipulation. God does not have to threaten people into blind cooperation with some 'move' of the Spirit. Threats are not healthy ("No matter what happens, you accept it... or else...") As a matter of fact, any condemnation messages, guilt-tripping, or authoritarian 'warnings' or teachings woven into a prophecy can fall under this same kind of manipulation (Obey our man of God for the hour, etc.,... or else!)
• Reoccurring, excessive or obsessive focus on fears, sexuality, nudity, lust, demonology, or any other 'dark' issue: You'd think this would be an obvious clue to the mental instability of the 'prophet', but amazingly these kinds of 'filth' 'prophecies' have been passed around as if they were from God! Dreams or visions of demons or other disturbing issues are not necessarily for the Body of Christ at large. Not everyone is fighting hordes of demons, nor will the same spiritual attacks apply to everyone's life or relationship with God or to each other. Often, a person is just having a dream or vision that applies to THEIR life, and THEIR issues, and theirs alone. To automatically assume everyone struggles with the same sins is the ultimate in ego-mania. No one should share a dream or vision lightly, just for the thrills and chills.
• Directives: Directives are not necessarily always false prophecies. However, we should take great care with them because a controlling spirit can be involved.  Christians need to pay attention to whatever God is saying to them, personally, rather than depend on another person to hear from God for them or tell them what to do. The quality or 'spirit' of a directive or instructions is extremely telling.  At the end of one prophecy, for instance, there was a specific and urgent directive to sing 'Just as I am' every morning.  This is a formula/ritual-based directive… I personally would not advise anyone to make worship a ritual, because we worship in Spirit and in Truth. Ritual worship is prophesied against in the Old Testament, so we need not fear what might happen or what we might miss if we do not follow such a directive. False directives are often anti-scriptural or anti-your OWN leading of the Spirit. That particular instruction had both problems, and was spread around by a 'popular' prophet with many followers (too many, obviously).
• Excessive focus on word-play, numerology, and timings (Hebrew calendar/Gregorian calendar): First of all, it is sad yet funny how many people cannot read or understand a Hebrew calendar, yet will speak as though they are experts on it. Second of all, God is not an astrologist and so He is not exactly tied to the moon, the leap year, a certain Hebrew festival, or any other timetable for His workings or for Jesus' return trip back to Earth. As far as numbers go, it's not that God cannot use them, it's that He is not a numerologist. As far as circumstances, God does use circumstances or coincidences to verify something for us. However, these things are just 'shadows' of the 'substance'. If God has to "thrill" us all of the time by using these things to "get our 'attention', then we should be insulted indeed, because it might just mean that He cannot just come straight out and say something to us! My point is, we do not need to be superstitious to hear from God, and in fact it hearkens back to medieval times, and we all know how good the Dark Ages were to the Spirit of God.
• 'Me too' prophecies: These prophecies are more easily discerned by the prophets or prophetically gifted who have been given revelation along with their prophecies. Some of the 'new' prophecies are clearly released without the intrinsic knowledge necessary to understand the prophecy. To understand what I mean here, think about the Apostle Paul. He was given a revelation regarding the Gentiles, but he did not tell anybody about it. Eventually through other events (and these events are in the book of Acts), it could become a little obvious that the new "trend" of the Holy Spirit is to "preach to the Gentiles". But that would be about all an astute observer could discern. "Me too" prophecies are similar to that. These 'prophets' speak without really knowing what they are talking about. They have not prayed about, researched it in the scriptures, or weighed their words before they speak. Paul did, though, and eventually wrote the epistle of Romans. I believe that 'Me too' prophesies are the product of prophets who feel pressured to produce something, and so they produce it before they understand it, or even worse---they steal it from the lesser knowns. 'Me too' prophecies may seem harmless, but they lack the "depth" that God wants to impart. Worse than that, their simplistic, one-dimensional, black and white thinking, or other problems in their 'revelation', can lead to a deadly poison that could have been avoided if these 'prophets' had done their spiritual homework.

Presently (as of year 2004), I could easily say that if a person were to disregard the prophecies that have any of the above warning signs, about 75% of all internet prophecies could be safely ignored. If you were to hit the delete button on all those who engage in obvious ego-mania and self-promotion, you'd be able to get rid of 95%! Go with God.

Love in Christ,

Teri Lee Earl
(rewritten from earlier 'rough draft' Feb, 2004)
 
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