Processing Words That Are Difficult To Judge

by Teresa Seputis


1. Processing Words That Are Difficult To Judge

2. Judging The Delivery Person and "Mixed Words"

3. Receiving A Word As From God

4. Receiving A Word versus Rejecting A Word

5. Dealing With Potentially Manipulative Words


Processing Words That Are Difficult To Judge

We all know that when we get a word (e.g., a personal prophecy), we are supposed to judge it. But at times that is easier said than done. In fact, at times judging personal prophecy can get tricky, it can be tricky to decide whether we should accept or reject certain words.

There are times when it is easy to judge a word. If the Holy Spirit is all over that word, bearing witness to your spirit as you hear it, then it is easy to accept that word as a God-word. Likewise, it is easy to reject a word when it contradicts Scripture or has obvious errors in it, such as getting some facts wrong. For instance, if a word says, "You have been struggling with fear these past three weeks..." and you have not had any fear issues during that time, you know to reject the word. It is incorrect and therefore it is not from God.

But the "in-between words" tend to be more difficult to judge. What do you do with a word that has some true parts and has some false parts? Do you reject the whole word or do you glean the parts of value from it? (If you reject the whole thing, you might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. E.g., you might be rejecting things that are from God.) But if you chose to "glean" the "good parts" from a word, then you run the danger of being overly selective about what you will or will not receive, limiting what you allow God to talk to you about.

I wish that all words were clean-cut and easy to judge, but the simple fact is that many of them are not. Sometimes God is giving us a puzzle to solve, other times it is a mixed word (congaing some God-stuff and some stuff the prophet added on his/her own) and at times it is simply a bad word that contains some elements of truth. Some words are tricky to judge, but that does not relieve us of our responsibility to judge them.

There are criteria commonly used in judging prophecy. Here are some of the most common ones:

I am not going to cover those criteria in any type of depth in this teaching series, because I want to focus on how to process the words that are a bit more difficult to judge, the ones that this set of criteria doesn't seem to handle. If you would like to know more about the basics of judging prophecy, please refer to our "Judging Prophecy" course.

This course will look at the following questions about processing prophecy:

Let's start with the first question now and we will handle the others in subsequent lessons.

Consider The Source (But Make Room For God)

People often ask me the question, "What if I know that someone is not a prophet, but they give me a word that sounds 'right' to me. Do I receive the word based on the content of the word, or do I reject it because of the source?"

My first reply to them is God can speak through unlikely sources. For instance, God choose to speak to Balaam through his donkey in Numbers 22:28. Another time, God used the high priest, the very one who was trying to murder Jesus, to prophesy about His sacrificial death. Caiaphas, the high priest, thought he was talking about natural things when He spoke this word. He believed that he was explaining how to keep the Roman government officials from thinking they were starting a rebellion. But God used him to speak forth a prophecy about the very Messiah he was trying to crucify. We find that in John 11:49-52:

49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.' 51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. (NKJV)

It is possible for God to speak directly to us through someone who does not move in the prophetic or even at times through a false prophet. But that is not how He usually does it.

The general rule comes out of Jesus' mouth in Luke 6:43-44: "For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush."

What does that mean to us in terms of judging prophecy? It means that most of the time, God will use godly prophets to speak to us. Yes, He can make an exception to that guideline any time He wants, just like He did with Balaam's donkey and Caiaphas. But most of the time God doesn't break the guidelines He set up. For the most part we want to consider the source, and be leery words that do not come from someone with a godly character and holy lifestyle. But we also have to understand that God can make an exception to this any time He pleases.

If you get something that you thing might be God, but it comes from a questionable source, then you need to put time and effort into double- checking the word with God (more so than if it came from a godly source). You need to bring the word back to God and you need to ask Him to please confirm it to you. He is always willing for His words to be judged (as per 1 Corinthians 14:29), and He is always willing to confirm a word that He gives to us. One of His favorite ways of confirming it is to give that same word to us from some other source. But He may choose to speak directly to us in His "still small voice," or He may choose some other way. I recommend that we never tell God how to confirm it to us, just ask Him to do it in some way we will recognize as Him.

There are false prophets who are like the "wolves in sheep's clothing." Those ones are hard to spot. But many false prophets are pretty easy to spot. They tend to have pride issues, or they tend to be stuck on a theme that reflects a character flaw in their own life, or they tend to contradict Scripture, or they have strange theology.

Many false prophets cannot stand for their words to be prayerfully judged and evaluated, because they know the Lord won't validate their word. So they use threats to try and get you to accept their word. They say things like, "God will punish you if you don't receive this word.' A few get even more blatant and use threats of death or damnation: "If you reject this word, you are not rejecting Me, you are rejecting God, and He will send you to Hell" or "If you reject this word, then God will strike you dead like He did with Ananias and Sapphira." Any word that comes with those type of threats should be automatically suspect.

Money experts tell us that the best way to spot a counterfeit dollar bill is to get really familiar with the "real thing." That is true in the prophetic as well. The best way to spot a false prophet is to get to know the real thing very well. Then you can recognize when something doesn't line up with the 'real thing.' With that in mind, let's take a quick look at the genuine article and discuss what a godly prophet looks like.

A godly prophet is God's spokesperson and they should walk in close intimacy with God and be able to recognize and hear His voice. How can they speak for Him if they can't hear Him speak to them? In addition, their words and deeds should line up with Bible standards of godly behavior. Their theology should line up with the Bible, though they may have different opinions than you do on some minor and trivial points of theology. They probably won't be prefected yet, most of us aren't. But they will have already received substantial inner healing on their major issues, and their issues will not run their lives or dictate their behavior. They will exhort Jesus instead of exhorting themselves. They should minister in love and compassion like Jesus did, and they should have a good track record of accuracy in the words they give. In general they should carry a the Lord's presence and the Holy Spirit should frequently be at work to bear witness to the recipient's spirit as they speak forth His word. They won't defend their prophecies and they will not try to coerce people into receiving them--they leave that job to the Holy Spirit. In addition, most of their words will tend to build up, breathe life, equip, encourage and enable people rather that condemning or tearing down.

I heard Bill Johnson speak at a pastor's conference a few weeks ago, and he said something that I really liked. He gave a definition of what he considered to be a true prophet. He said, "Anyone can find garbage or dirt in a person's life, you don't even need a prophetic gifting for that. But the true prophet is the one who can find the treasure in the midst of the garbage and bring it to the surface."


Judging The Delivery Person and "Mixed Words"

Our last lesson talked about considering the source of the word and being suspicious of words that come from an ungodly source. While God can use anyone to give a word, He usually does not give words through seriously flawed vessels. If a person has overt sin in their life, God is unlikely to use them as His spokesperson. When someone has a serious woundedness that surfaces as a character flaw, that person is an unlikely candidate as a prophetic vessel. Why? Because they are more likely to prophesy from their issue than to speak for God's pure word.

An example would be the type of person who is critical and judgmental to a fault. You have probably met someone like that. If this type of person gives words, they will usually reflect his character flaw instead of delivering God's true word. Their words will be critical and judgmental, because this is their outlook on life. A wounded outlook often flavors and mislead one's ability to hear clearly. That makes this seriously wounded person unlikely as a vessel that God would choose God to speak through; God wants His spokesperson to communicate His message, not their own woundedness or issues.

That is why we are to be cautious of receiving words from seriously wounded individuals, flakes or false prophets. Fortunately, they are usually easy to spot a mile off (unless they are the wolf in sheep's clothing type of false prophet).

We want to leery of the obvious unlikely candidate, but we don't want to fall into the habit of judging the "prophets" instead of judging their words. The enemy would like to trap us into erroneously labeling anyone who's words we don't like as a 'false prophet.' We have to be careful not to do that.

What If I Incorrectly Judge Someone As 'Not A Prophet?'

The trick here is that 1 Corinthians 14:29 admonishes us to judge the prophetic words that are spoken; it does not admonish us to judge the prophet who speaks the word. In short, we are not supposed to judge each other, but we are to judge each prophetic utterance that claims to be God speaking.

In Old Testament times, if a prophet made a single error they were labeled as a false prophet, then taken outside of the city limits to be stoned. But that is not the standard for New Testament prophecy. Why? Because there has been a very important change in God's people from the Old Testament to the New Testament. That happened when Jesus ascended up to Heaven after raising from the dead. He sent His Holy Spirit to live inside each and every believer.

Why is that an important distinction in the prophetic? It is important for two reasons. First, the Holy Spirit teaches us all things and brings all the things Jesus said to our remembrance (John 14:26). In short, He helps us to judge prophecy. He also bears witness to our spirit when a prophetic word is from God (Romans 8:16 and Hebrews 2:4).

Old Testament believers did not have the Holy Spirit living inside of them to help them judge prophecy. So God had to set up other protections to help them evaluate what was really His words. The rule He chose was simple, if anyone is caught giving an untrue word, then that person was to be labeled as a false prophet and eliminated. That rule protected the purity or God's word from would-be false prophets. It made it a lot easier to judge the prophetic in those days, because most people did not run around trying to be prophets when they were not--the price tag for getting caught was just too high.

However, God changed the standard for judging prophecy in New Testament times. It is not "all or not at all" anymore, because the Holy Spirit now lives in each of God's children and helps us to judge all prophetic words.

In addition, the Holy Spirit has released a new type of prophetic into the Church: the gift of prophecy. All we had before Jesus' resurrection as the "Office Of Prophet," which is a governmental position limited to only a few people. But since Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit has been giving gifts to the Church to edify it and build it up. One of those gifts is the gift of prophecy. It is a "lower level gifting" than the governmental office (or mantle) and it is given to quite a few more believers.

God no longer requires that His prophets have 100% accuracy to speak for Him. Instead, He allows people with the gift of prophecy to go through a learning curve, where they make small mistakes as they learn to move in their gifting. That is ok, it is safe for the church because the Holy Spirit lives inside of each believer. The Holy Spirit bears witness to God's words and He helps us know what really is from God. That is why we are supposed to judge the word and not the person giving the word.

However the truth of the matter is that at times we do judge a prophet as "not of God." There are a few times where it is legitimate to consider/judge the source of a word. We discussed them in the previous lesson, but let's review the highlights. If the person has overt and unrepented sin in their lives, their words should be suspect. If the person has a blatant character flaw that shows through in their words, we tend to suspect their words are from their own woundedness instead of from God. But other than that, we are supposed to judge the word and not the one delivering it.

In real life, there are times where we can't seem to help making a judgment about the person delivering the word. Maybe we see something in their life, attitude or delivery style that offends us. Or maybe we just don't sense God's anointing in their words. Or maybe we catch them making some minor mistake, such as misquoting Scripture or getting a detail wrong. Or maybe we get a check in our spirit about their word on more than one occasion, so we decide the giver of the word is not ok.

We should be careful about doing that, as it can close us to some things that God wants to say to us through that vessel. Let me share one of my own experiences with this. There was one time in my development when I was a bit too full of myself, and I judged a bunch of local prophets to be "not of God."

God did not like that. Do you know what God did to me to correct me? He set up me! For the next couple of years, He only gave me words through those people who I'd judged to be "not of God." I had a choice--suffer a prophecy drought or humble myself to receive words from people I did not like. God used that to teach me that He really was speaking through these people who I had judged, and to remind me to judge the word instead of the one delivering it.

If you have that tendency to judge the prophet, I hope you will learn from my mistake. That way you won't have to go through the same type of correction and learning curve that God made me go through.

Mixed Words -- The Baby And The Bath Water

Sometimes words are not pure words. They contain parts from God but they also have parts that the prophet added apart from God. You might wonder why someone would do that--why would someone claim to speak for God and then add their own stuff to the message?

There are many different reasons this can happen. Sometimes it is as innocent as an inexperienced newer prophet who has difficulty sorting out what is God and what is their own reaction to what God is saying in the message. Sometimes a person has had something engrained into them over and over again, and if they give a word that touches on one of those areas, they add the engrained stuff to it without even realizing that they are doing it. Sometimes people want to expand on a word to help explain it so it makes sense to the receiver. They are well intentioned and don't realize that they are changing the meaning of the word of their explanation, they are taking it a different direction than what God was talking about.

There are also some impure reasons that people add to words. They may want to make a point, or they may want to manipulate the person who the word is for. They may be strongly opinionated and desire to present their own opinions with the same authority as God's prophetic word. Or perhaps they are just not very good at hearing God's voice, but they want to look like an expert (maybe to feel important) so they make up some stuff to make the word sound good. Or perhaps they open themselves to the voice of the enemy and present his words as though they were God's words.

There are two different approaches to mixed ones. A prophet friend of mine likes to prayerfully discern the word, accepting the parts he feels are from God and rejecting the rest. He calls it "eating the meat and spitting out the bones." He trusts his own ability to discern God's voice, so he is comfortable selecting portions of the word and rejecting other parts that are in error.

Another prophet friend of mine takes the opposite approach. Since the whole word claims to be from God, he feels he must accept or reject the whole thing. If the word contains an obvious error, he doesn't feel he can trust any other part of it and he rejects the whole word. He prays and asks God to bring back to him through some other source anything that he rejected that was really from God.

Personally, I use both approaches, depending on the "sense" in my spirit. If the Holy Spirit seems to be baring witness to parts of the word, I am more likely to "eat the meat and spit out the bones." But if I don't get some sort of clear leading from God about parts of the word, then I assume the whole thing is bad and throw it out...asking God to speak to me again on anything that was from Him that I rejected. Most of the time I end up throwing out the whole word when part of it is bad, but occasionally when I sense God explicitly speaking to me about the word, then I glean the God-parts and reject the rest.


Receiving A Word As From God

"Put it on the Shelf"

One of the most common pieces of advice people give is to "put the word on the shelf." What they mean is that if the word doesn't make sense to you or it doesn't seem to fit you, then postpone judging it until does. In other words, instead of evaluating a word to accept or reject it, you put it in the "maybe" pile and don't worry about it until some future date when you have a better feel for the word.

There are occasional times when that approach is appropriate. It works for the times where God gives an "absolute word"--a word that you can not change and that your acceptance/rejection makes no difference in how that word effects you. In those cases you can "wait and see."

Let me give you an example of what I mean by an absolute word. This example is totally fabricated, but it shows what an absolute word might look like: "Sometime in the next decade scientists will discover a new medicine that will cure cancer and make it no more health-threatening to the average person than the common cold is today. Let that be a sign to you that revival is about to break out in the Middle East." In this case, you can put that word on the shelf and not think about it until someone actually discovers this miracle cure for cancer. When they do discover it, you should pull that word "off the shelf" and respond to it by beginning to pray for revival in the Middle East.

Most of the time, the wait-and-see approach is not the right approach. Among other things, it violates the 1 Corinthians 14:29 admonition to judge prophecy. E.g., when you put a word on the shelf, then you delay judging and prayerfully evaluating it and you are not following 1 Corinthians 14:29.

In some cases, it can hurt you to delay processing a word--some "words" can actually cause you harm or personal problems if you don't reject them outright. Some words predict bad things and are more like curses than words. Here is an example, a prophet friend of mine was given the word, "Your son will be in a near-fatal car accident within the next two weeks, and he will be in the hospital for over a year, but don't be afraid because he will not die."

There are times when God can really give you a warning like that. But there are also times that you get false words, and if something like that is a false word, the enemy can empower it against you like a curse if you don't reject it.

In my friend's case, the Holy Spirit whispered to her that this was a curse against her son and if she did not break it, the enemy would empower it against him. So she rejected the word and broke the curse that was attached to it. A few days later, her son narrowly avoided being in a serious car accident involving multiple other cars. She believes that if she had not rejected that false word and broken the curse, the enemy might have used that "word" as an excuse to cause her son to be in that accident.

Some false words don't carry an overt curse, but they can effect how you move towards your destiny. It can try to mold you into something that you are not, it can steer you away from your God-appointed destiny. For instance, I know that I am called to the nations and to train and equip the body of Christ to do the same things that Jesus did. One time a person gave me a word that I was called to minister to ghetto children in Southern California. If I did not reject that word, it might have started to exercise influence over my thinking and activities, effectively pulling me away from something that I was called to do into a direction that I was not called to.

I try to never "wait and see" with personal words. I do my best to judge and evaluate each word I get. If I think it is definitely from God, or even probably from God, then I accept it. If I think it is probably not from God, then I reject it.

What Happens When I Receive A Word?

After you determine that a word really is from God, then you should receive it. That means you come into agreement with God about what He said to you. You begin to exercise your faith to believe the word.

There are times when God's promises are unconditional, and they will come true no matter what you do, say or think. Those are relatively rare, though.

Most of the time, God's promises are conditional. We see that over and over again in Scripture. Deuteronomy 28:1-2 gives an example of this: "...If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God..." Then the next 12 verses list multiple blessings that they will receive IF they meet God's condition. What is that condition? In this case it was to obey Him and walk in His ways.

There are times when God explicitly spells out the conditions in the prophesy, but there are other times when the conditions are implicit or implied. That means you have to prayerfully figure out with God what they are, and ask Him to help you meet them. Someone once asked me why God would put conditions to their prophecy and not spell them out in the word. I thought it was a good question, so I asked God about it. His answer was, "I want them to come back to Me with the word, to pray about it and discuss it with Me, then I will show them what the conditions are. I want them interacting with Me on the word I gave them."

After you judge a word to be from God, you may need to prayerfully process the word and then take actions to help foster that word. For instance, if God gives you a word that He is calling you to be a missionary to Mexico, you should respond in faith by taking Spanish lessons. If God gives an overweight and out of shape person a word that He is going to help them loose weight, they need to respond by starting to diet and exercise, instead of just expecting the pounds to magically drop off. Diets may not have worked in the past, but once God gives that person a promise of His help, that person will see results as they do their part.

There are other times when God's word to you will only come true when you grasp on to it and fight to possess it. That is more than doing your part, it is "warring for your word." That concept is new to a lot of believers, but it should not be. God has been doing that with His people since the very earliest of days.

When Israel was in captivity in Egypt, God promised to bring them out of captivity and give them a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17). God gave them the Promised Land. But the land He gave them was filled with a bunch of people who did not know Him and did not honor Him. Moses sent 12 spies out to survey the promised land. They returned with this report; "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there..." (Numbers 13:27-28).

There was a problem with the land God promised them: it was filled with giants and soldiers and fierce warriors. Did you get this? God gave the land to His people, but they had to fight to possess it. He did not hand it to them on a sliver platter, He made them do battle to obtain His promise. If they just held on to the promise and did not fight for it, they would have never seen the fulfillment of that promise.

There is a story I love that comes out of Nigeria, because it illustrates the principle of warring for our word:

A country pastor and his wife received a wonderful word from God about how they would serve Him together. Shortly after that, the husband was driving and his car ran off the road and he was killed. The wife could not understand what happened, because God had promised her that she and her husband would do certain things together in ministry and that had not happened yet.

She decided to "fight for her word." She went to the mortuary where the police had brought his corpse, and got her dead husband. They loaded him in a car to take him to a Reinhart Bonke crusade several hours drive away. Rigor mortis had set in, so they could not bend the body to get it in the care. They rolled the windows of the back seat down and slid the pastor's corpse into it. His head stuck out one side of the car and his feet stuck out the other side. The wife sat in front, and the other friends ducked under his body in the back seat.

They drove for hours and finally came to the crusade. When they got there, the ushers would not allow them to take the corpse into the meeting. The lady was still warring for her word, so she began to tell the ushers about the prophecy and how she was sure that God would raise her husband from the dead to fulfill His promise. The ushers finally sent them to the basement with the corpse, where some intercessors were praying for the meeting. They promised to get word to Reinhart Bonke and ask him to come to the basement and pray for the deceased pastor after the meeting was over.

However, the intercessors (who had been praying for the meeting and the friends of the pastor who had come with his body in the car) started to pray for God to raise him from the dead. God ended up raising this pastor from the dead before the meeting ended. When Reinhart Bonke came down to pray for the corpse, the found a living pastor instead!

This story is an example of a woman warring for your word. The wife received and believed the prophesy that God had given to her and her husband. Circumstance happened to make that prophesy impossible to fulfill, because her husband died. She was not willing to let go of the word, so she brought her dead husband's corpse to the Lord and reminded Him of His promise in that word that they would minister as a couple. She insisted that God keep His word to her (not in disrespect, but as a great stand of faith in Him). God responded by raising the man from the dead. If she had given up and buried her husband, the prophesy would have gone unfilled. But she warred for her word, she ignored impossible circumstances and took action in faith, and the word was fulfilled after she fought for it.

There will be times when God will give you a word and the doors will slam shut in your face. If that was really a word from God, then don't give up on it. Begin to war for it and watch to see how God will come through for you!


Receiving A Word verses Rejecting A Word

What If I Receive A Word That Isn't Really From God?

Receiving false words can do a lot of harm, because it will effect your expectations and eventually your attitude towards God. You might get mad or frustrated with God for not fulfilling promise to you that He actually never made. It sets you up for disappointment and discouragement.

The biggest problem area is words about interpersonal relationships or romances. A well-meaning person may tell you, "This person will be your spouse." They want well for you but if they prophesy out of their own desires instead of speaking for God, you can be greatly hurt if you accept that word. Here is another common one given to people in the midst of a divorce, "The Lord says that your spouse will come back to you and your marriage will be restored."

In general I try very hard to stay away from giving those type of relationship words unless God practically shouts them in my ear. There are times that God does give that type of word and He does restore the marriage. But most of the time, that type of word comes from the human heart of a well-meaning prophetic person instead of directly from God. And that type of word can cause a lot of harm in a person's life when it is not really from God.

A friend of mine got that type of "word" thirty years ago. Her husband of 18 years divorced her. A traveling prophet came to her church and told her that God would restore her marriage. As a result, she "held on" to that word and refused to consider dating any other men. Two different men came into her life who were attracted to her. They were both very godly men and either would have made a great spouse. But my friend refused to give either of them a chance because she was clinging to the false word about her first husband (who had since remarried) coming back to her. She finally died 30 years later, and her first marriage never was restored. Her ex-husband did not even come to her funeral.

I believe God wanted to give my friend a new husband, but she simply was not open to that. Why? Because she had accepted a false word about the first husband coming back, and that negatively effected her for the rest of her life.

Let me share another area where receiving false prophecies can hurt people. That is in the area of calling out spiritual gifts and destinies, especially when that is done by someone who tends to give very grand words to people. (Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate prophets who set people in spiritual offices at God's command, but that is more of a rare thing than an everyday occurrence.) Sadly, some would-be prophets minister by making grand promises to people, such as "You are an Apostle" or "You are in the office of Prophet" or "God is going to make you wealthy", etc. I call those type of words "Grandiose words."

People claiming to be prophets will visit a church, call out assorted spiritual gifts or destinies on people and then leave, never to visit that particular church again. In most cases, there is no one to hold them accountable for what they say. That makes it is a bit tricky for the people receiving prophetic ministry to tell a legitimate prophet from a self-proclaimed one who puts on a good show but doesn't really speak for the Lord. The "prophet" is there one week and then they move on to somewhere else and forget all about the people they have ministered to. But the people who received ministry don't forget their words. The sad side effect of a prophet who speaks grandiose words is that you get believers thinking they are in some spiritual office that God has not called them to, or that they possess some spiritual gift that they do not actually have. And that can have a bad effect on them.

Let me give you an example with the "office of Prophet." A lot of itinerant prophets call out two or three people from each congregation they visit and install them in the office of prophet. There are times when God is really doing that, but are also times when the prophet is doing it because he knows the church he is visiting expects him to impart spiritual gifts and set people in office. If he ministers from that type of pressure (pleasing man instead of pleasing God), he can make mistakes and be wrong on who he calls into the office of prophet.

I cannot tell you how many times people have contacted me to tell me that they have been in the office of prophet for the past 18 years, but they need some small assistance from me. They want me to help them learn to hear God's voice because they cannot hear it for themselves--not personally and not to minister the prophetic. (In my opinion, you can't possibly be God's Spokesperson if you don't know how to hear His voice!)

I ask them why they think they are in the office of prophet. I usually get back an answer like, "I don't think I am in that office I know I am!" So I ask them how they know they are in that office. They reply "Eighteen years ago a prophet came to my church, installed me out and installed me in the office of prophet."

Obviously they are not acting in the office of prophet, because if they were it in, they would be moving strongly in the prophetic themselves and imparting that gift into others, as well as training and equipping people on how to hear God's voice and move in the prophetic. Yet they truly believe that they are in this office because someone prophesied it to them, and they received that word. They are living in delusion, pursuing something they are not called to and never learning to move in their true spiritual gift. Why? because they are holding on to that false word the received 18 years ago.

I am not trying to scare you away from receiving encouraging words that God speaks over you. I want you to receive the words that are from God. But when you are given one, test it and judge it. If it is truly from God, then it will hold up to being judged. Don't just take prophetic words at face value, pray about them and bring them to God and ask Him if that was a word from Him.

If you are unclear as to whether or not a word is God, then ask God. You can spend a bit of time (even a couple of weeks) actively and prayerfully waiting on Him for an answer. But at some point you need to either accept or reject the word. If you have struggled over it for a while, then you might tell the Lord something like, "Lord, I think this word is for You and I am going to accept it as such. If I have made a mistake and this is not for You, then please correct me on it."

What If I Accidentally Reject A God-Word?

This is most people's biggest fear about judging the prophetic, they are afraid that if they judge a word, they might accidentally miss (or reject) something word that is really from God.

Let me tell you a secret. God is a "big boy" and He knows how to bring the word around again when we accidentally reject something that was legitimately from Him.

Remember that He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). He can see when you are legitimately seeking Him and doing your best to judge a word. If you make a mistake and get it wrong, He is not going to get mad at you. Instead He will work in your life to confirm the word to you that you had mistakenly rejected. He might work through circumstances or through a dream. Or He might even send a totally different person (who has no natural knowledge of the word you rejected) to you to give you the same word.

God is smart and when He wants to communicate to you, He is completely capable of doing so. He has done that in my own life more than once. He won't get mad at you for missing it the first time. So don't be afraid to judge a word, and to reject one that you don't think is from God.

When I reject a word, I usually tell God something like this. "Lord I have done my best to judge this word, and after judging it, I don't think it is from You. So I am going to reject it. My heart is to obey You and to receive all You have to say to me. So if I make a mistake and reject something that is really from You, would You please bring it back to me again in a manner that I can recognize is really from You?"

Closing Remarks

Remember that we should involve God in the process of judging words. Go to Him and talk to Him about your word. Ask Him what He thinks about it. Ask Him to show you any places where you are misinterpreting or misunderstanding what He said. If you think it might not be from Him, then ask Him to confirm it to you. If there are parts of the word that are troubling to you, then talk to Him about it. Also, ask God if there are any conditions that you need to meet.

Don't assume that a word is not from God if certain doors close on you. It might be that He wants you to stand in faith and war for your word. But don't stand in blind faith, like my divorced friend did waiting for her ex-husband to come back to her. Talk to God about the word and invite Him to confirm it to you or to gently/lovingly correct you if you are receiving something that is not really from Him.

Judging a word is all about going to God and asking Him about it. Yes, you need to bounce it off of Scripture and yes, you should apply the standard criteria for judging prophecy to it. But when all is said and done, be sure to talk to God about the word during that process.

It all comes down to James 1:5: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."


Dealing With Potentially Manipulative Words

When I wrote this series, I expected it to be a four lesson series. However the Lord recently gave me an experience that I felt I should turn into lesson five of this teaching series. It is about how to deal with "words" that you suspect are actually ploys to manipulate you into doing (or not doing) something.

Most of us have experienced this at one time or another. Someone wants us to do something for them that we are not willing to do. First they try to persuade us, but we remain unmoved. Then they come back and give us a "prophecy" that basically tells us to do what they asked. Their "word" often carries some type of threat if we don't comply--e.g., we will loose a spiritual promotion, or we will be punished in some manner, or we are displeasing God and loosing our intimacy with Him, etc.

On first glance, this seems so blatant and so obvious that I did not think it needed to be discussed. Most of the time it is not hard to figure out that word wasn't really from God; it was a manipulation ploy. But there is something inside many of us that really wants to be pliable in the Holy Spirit's hand, we want to be open to His correction. That is a good trait, but it can work against us when we receive false manipulative words.

Our God-given common sense tells us the "word" is a ploy of the person to coheres us into doing what they want. It will be obvious to our friends, and should we consult them, they will tell us to listen to our common sense. But there is that deep passion inside of us to yield completely and cooperate with the Lord's correction. Since the seemingly false word is corrective in nature, that desire kicks in; it wants to double-check and assure that we are not somehow missing God or rebelling against His will.

Let me share a passage from 1 John 3:18-22 that sort of describes this: "18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

The problem is that at times our desire to yield to God's correction can cause our own heart to wrongly condemn in response to false corrections. God knows all things; He knows that we want to submit to Him and He knows that this word was a false word. If we take the time to soak in His presence and wait on Him in response to this word, He will usually tell us that. The problem is that the accuser of the brethren likes to jump in and try to make you feel condemned. One of his favorite tactics is to accuse you of not yielding to God when you don't receive a false correction. That makes two voices speaking to you and you have to sort out which is God and which is the "accuser of the brethren."

Any time a person gives you a word telling you to do something that you previously told them you would not do, that word is "suspect." Most of the time, if God wanted to send you a word to correct you on that, He would send it via some other person who does not have not a vested interest in your decision or prior knowledge about it. God is not limited to just one prophetic source in your life; He has many people who He could use to deliver a prophecy to you. God is highly ethical and He usually avoids doing things that look like a conflict of interest.

Here is a hypothetical example to illustrate the point. Let's pretend that you have a friend named Mark, and he asked you to do him a favor and you said "No." Mark now has a vested interest in this, and if God wants to send someone to prophetically correct you, He is not likely to use Mark to give you that correction. God is much more likely to use someone else. But God is God and He can choose to make an exception to His guideline any time He wants to, so there is a slim possibility God could send Mark to you with a corrective word.

So how do you determine if God really spoke to you via Mark's word? You have to judge the word, just like you would judge any other word. Here are four questions that are particularly helpful in this type of situation:

  1. What did God say directly to me on this topic?
  2. Is this "word" hitting on one of my blind spots?
  3. Did the person have something to gain by giving me this word?
  4. What is the character of the one giving the word?

Let's look briefly at those four questions.

What Did God Say Directly To Me On This Topic?

Remember the context of receiving this type of word. Someone asked you to do (or not do) something, and you said "No" to their request. You either responded naturally or you consulted God and followed His direction.

Think back to the original request. Did you respond out of your feelings or schedule constraints? Or did God speak to you about it before you responded? Or did their request go against a general policy that God had previously given you? If you involved God in the process of making this decision, then He has already spoken to you about it. If you did not involve Him at that time, then ask Him about it now and see what He says to you about it.

If you are not good at hearing God's voice, you may need to get help. You may want to run it by someone who's hearing you do trust--a spiritually mature friend or a prayer partner or a pastor or spiritual advisor. But if you are good at discerning God's voice, then simply trust your own hearing.

But if you know how to recognize God's voice pretty accurately, then you should trust Him to speak clearly to you when you ask Him about it. Personally, I hear God pretty well, so I tend to trust my own hearing over another person's hearing. If I hear God clearly on something, I am not very likely to receive something as "from God" that contradicts what He already said to me.

Sometimes God gives us guidelines to follow and we automatically apply His guideline to the situation. Most of the time we are correct in doing so, but there is always the possibility that this one request was an exception to the general guideline. An example might be when God tells a man to give his wife and family top priority on his time on weekends. A friend of his asks him to help with a church project that will tie him up all weekend away from his family. He remembers God's guideline and says "No." There is the slight possibility that God wanted him to make an exception in this one case. If his friend doesn't take no for an answer and gives him a word to do this anyhow, he can go back and check with God. Why? Because he followed a guideline instead of hearing God speak to him directly on that instance. He can tell the Lord something like, "I said no because You told me to spend weekends with my family. Do You want this one weekend to be an exception to the guideline You gave me?" Then he would listen to what God said to him.

On the other hand, if his friend had asked him and he said, "Let me pray about it and get back to you," then he stopped to listen to God before answering. It is not necessary for him to go back to God for clarification because God already spoke clearly and distinctly to him about that particular weekend.

Is This Word Hitting On One Of My Blind Spots?

It is possible the word is bounding against a blind sport. As I said before, it is very unlikely for the Lord to use someone to give you a word telling you to do something you already told that person you would not do. But you might want to check for blind spots just in case.

The best way to check for blind spots is to run the word past those who know you best and ask them if they feel the word is hitting on a blind spot in your life. If you have an honest friend, they will tell you if you have a blind spot in that area.

Now here is the tricky part: God may be allowing this false word to get you to look at and deal with a blind spot in your life. Let me put it another way: the word may be a false word, but it might still expose a genuine blind spot. The Lord could have prevented that person from giving you a false word, but He may have allowed it because He wants you to struggle with it so that you become aware of your blind spot.

In other words, if the word really does hit on a blind spot, that doesn't automatically mean it is a God word and you should follow the directions in it. You still need to judge the word and validate the directive part via the other three questions. But if a false word does make you aware of a blind spot, you need to present that blind spot to the Lord and allow Him to work on that area of your life.

Did The Person Have Something To Gain By Giving Me This Word?

Obviously, in this type of case they did. Their word is automatically suspect because they have an invested interested in getting you to do something. They may have pure best intentions when they gave you this word, they may had mistaken their own desires in this situation for the voice of God. Or they may have bad motives. They might know that God did not say this and they might just be trying to coheres you into doing what they want you to do.

There is a slight chance it could be a God-word given through someone with a vested interested, but it is unlikely. So if you don't get a conclusive "Yes, this really was Me speaking to you" from God as you judge this word, you should be predisposed to reject the word.

Look At The Character Of The One Giving The Word

In an earlier lesson, I said that we should judge the word and not the person giving it. That is true in general for words, but any time the person giving the word has a vested interest in how you respond to that word, you need to look at their character.

Ask yourself if they are trying to manipulate you through this word, or if they are genuinely trying to represent God and speak forth His message. If you know about character flaws in this person, it becomes more plausible that they are giving a false word for their own gain than giving a God-word.

Summary

God does not usually operate by control or manipulation. He values free will and He prefers that you willingly choose to honor Him and obey Him. His character does not change when the prophetic operates, because God is full of integrity and He doesn't change. That means He is unlikely to direct someone to give you a word that intentionally manipulates you.

If you tell a person "no" on something, and they come back to you with a prophetic word that tells you to do it anyhow, that is probably not a God-word. It is probably a word out of the person's own heart or soul to manipulate you. Unfortunately, you can't always reject those type of words, because occasionally God does things in ways that surprise us. However, that type of word is automatically suspect and it must be carefully judged before you can accept it.

You should remember that God has a lot of prophetic resources to choose from. If you say "No" to someone and God wants you to say "Yes," He is more likely to send a corrective word through someone else. If there are not any other prophets in your area, God can direct one to phone or email you, or He can send an angel to speak to you. God is not limited in how He can correct you when you make a mistake, and God is not likely to threaten you the first time that He corrects you. He is much more likely to simply let you know what He wants and then to see if you will obey Him from a wiling heart.

That is why we automatically become suspicious when the person who you said "No" to comes back to you with a corrective word. It is less suspicious of the correction comes from some independent source. We are also be suspicious of words that carry a threat of some type of punishment if you don't comply to it. Finally, if the same person keeps coming to you over and over again with the same corrective word, that probably is not from God--especially when the word is trying to get you to do something for the person who is speaking the word to you.

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