And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; - Isaiah 11:2 (ESV)
The false prophetic network that is part of the NAR apostate church system survives despite being unbiblical because people do not know the word and they are constantly making up the new rules as they go. Prophecy is not that complicated. Prophecy is the claim that God has spoken to you directly, a word to give to His people. In the Old Testament days this was needed because people did not have the written word of God. So, when the people strayed for example, God would send a prophet to warn them to come back to Him. This concept of prophecy has not changed in New Testament days either. The bible makes no mention of any such change and you think if God was changing something so important that He would have been very specific about it. What has changed is that His people now have His written word whenever they want to hear from Him. The bible answers every question we may have in this life, if we would pick it up, read it, and believe it. So modern day prophecy must be rooted in and reemphasizing of, His written word. Anything above that is adding to what God has said, and the bible expressly forbids that. This is why most modern prophecy sounds more this carnal clairvoyance. Predicting the future is not prophecy. The above linked article is from renowned false prophetess Kathy DeGraw. She loves expounding on unbiblical teachings of modern-day prophecy. So let us reason once more together:
"You just received a prophetic word and believe it is from the Lord. Your concern is, "What do I do next?" My concern is what you didn't do next." - Kathy DeGraw
Just in this absurd opening we see how little DeGraw understands about biblical prophecy. Point number one is if you believe you have received a prophetic word then there really should be no question who it came from. Kathy says "you believe it is from the Lord?" the clear implication is that some words received are not actually from the Lord, which by default means they are from the Satan. The second point is why is the first question what should I do next? Are you implying that God gives prophetic words to people but refuses to direct them regarding it? Do these people even read the bible?
"The next step is not taking action on the prophetic word you received, but testing it. Ask yourself questions such as "Will this bear fruit and glorify the name of Jesus Christ, or will it distract and detour me from my godly assignment?" With prophecy, your first responsibility is to discern the accuracy of the prophetic word delivered. When receiving a prophetic word that you believe is from the Lord, you should stop and verify that it is from the Lord and not your flesh desiring it or the enemy trying to distract you. Our own desires can seduce us into thinking something is of the Lord when it is not. It is wisdom to verify the word (not analyze it) before you take action. Taking the word at face value without seeking confirmation and direction can detour you from the will of God." - Kathy DeGraw
Really. So, you believe God has given you a word of prophecy for His people but you cannot take action on it until you test it? Then let me offer that it is not from God. Wouldn't you know if it was the creator of the entire universe speaking to you? Does God stutter or talk in whispered tones? The real problem revealed here is the method of communication. In the Old Testament days, God spoke directly to His prophets. These wannabe modern day prophets however "feel" that they are being told something "in their spirit" or "deposited in their heart." I saw a telling training video once from Bethel where they were teaching worship leaders, whom they believed were all prophetic, how to prophesy during worship. They used Eastern mysticism techniques like emptying themselves and "listening" for what God might speak to their hearts. Whatever then popped into their minds they were taught to sing out as prophecy. I kid you not. I saw this technique live once from an itinerant worship leader/prophetess who was visiting my local church. For 15 minutes straight she just kept repeating the ridiculous line, "jump in the river if you want a hug from Jesus." So, Kathy DeGraw and her ilk believe that whatever pops into their wickedly deceitful hearts must be from God! Except they then have to test it to make sure. Is God going to give you a word that will somehow distract you from something else God wants you to do? Will God give you a word that somehow does not bring glory to Jesus Christ? This provides a window into how the devil uses these false prophets. I have heard Christians insist that horrific choices were "from God" because of pagan beliefs on confirmation through happenstance or some sense of "peace in their heart" regarding the matter at hand. There is a reason why Jeremiah says the heart is the most wickedly deceitful thing ever created. We ought to listen.
"We can prematurely act on a word because we feel it makes sense and we have comfort proceeding. We think, I can do this. We are comfortable because it makes sense to us in the natural, but the question is, Do we have peace proceeding forth in the spiritual? We are not natural people; we are spiritual beings. Moving forward with a prophetic word because of our natural comfort is one of the main ways the enemy and our flesh can cause us to proceed in a wrong direction. It must be tested. When you receive revelation, a prophetic word or an answer to prayer, take the next step. Discern it. Dissect it. Don't overthink and don't analyze. Test it. Bring it back to the Holy Spirit through prayer and test it against the Word of God and what you know to be the will of God for your life." - Kathy DeGraw
It is a shame that someone can stand next to the truth and not see it. The issue is not acting prematurely or being comfortable in our spirit. The issue within her paradigm is the acceptance of a false word from the enemy to our souls. Discern means to determine if it is from God or not. If not, then by default it is from the devil. She is right to bring it to the word but if your wickedly deceitful heart has already pretended that the word was from God, manipulating confirmation is a given. Hundreds of false prophets all declared God said Trump would win in 2020. They were all wrong yet not one "discerned" beforehand that the message was not from God? I remember one false prophet declared God said the Denver Broncos were going to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Seattle went on to win 43-8. His apology after was just about "getting it wrong" as opposed to speaking wrongly on behalf of the creator of the universe! This is what is so wildly off with DeGraw and the gaggle of false prophets she represents. There is no fear of God in their eyes.
"God Downloads - God speaks to us through thoughts dropped in our spirits. When God speaks to us, we need not try to figure out the revelation but instead receive the revelation He is giving. You may have heard God's voice before saying, "Don't do that," "Take this road instead today" or "Give this much as an offering." You have heard God as you have prayed and felt you received your answer. However, don't just feel you have received the answer. Instead, know you have received the response. When you receive discernment, ask yourself, Is this the way God usually speaks to me? Verify it. He may speak to you in different ways, but it should witness in your spirit. Ask God, "Why do You want me to head in this direction?" Test the Scriptures to confirm if the prophetic word and revelation you are receiving align with or contradict God's Word. God will not tell you to do something that is against His Word. I once knew a woman God had been convicting regarding giving. She felt led to write an offering check for $5,000. She wrote the check in advance of a business transaction that was being completed. The deal fell through, and she ended up in debt! That contradicts God's Word. If she would have tested the discernment, she would have stayed out of debt." - Kathy DeGraw
Just more stupidity. God does not "download" sound bites to us or drop things in our spirit as it is related to prophecy. Can God provide a nudge to us to take a different road or to give to someone we may not even know is in need? Of course, He is God. These examples however have absolutely nothing to do with the gift of prophecy. She is right of course that we should hold everything up against the mirror of scripture but she still cannot see how her own pre-bias will make that irrelevant. We see false teachers mangle the word of God every single day in their messages so how hard would it be for anyone to convince themselves, even through scripture, that their lie is from God? We see poorly taught Christians misuse scriptures like "I can do all things through Christ," every day to excuse doing things they should not be doing. How about there is now no condemnation? How about pretending we are David fighting our Goliath? Even in the example DeGraw provides, one can easily use the "cheerful giver" verse to think the 5K was the right thing to do. Once again, the problem is not the word or God. The problem is the acceptance that it is somehow acceptable to receive words from the devil and be duped into thinking they are from God.
"Flesh Blocks Revelation - Our flesh gets involved in receiving revelation because we think about it instead of praying about it. When thinking about whether a prophetic word is from God, we tend to overanalyze it and get impatient waiting on God for an answer. Analytical people can plan out the answer instead of praying and receiving the answer. During prayer time, analytical people have difficulty shutting down their minds to receive from God. When analytical thoughts come into your mind, transfer those thoughts to your heart, to the place of love, where the Father is. He will help you accurately discern the word. When you receive the revelation from a prophetic word, ask yourself, "Is this the way I would think?" You may think you heard from God when really what you heard were your own thoughts. Try to distinguish the difference between hearing God's voice and hearing your own." - Kathy DeGraw
She just does not get it. While it is true that analytical people can plan out the answer her solution of "shutting down your mind" is more dangerous! The mind can analyze scripture and hopefully be more honest than the heart. Her theology here is that the Father is only found in our hearts and not our minds. Wrong. The indwelt spirit is everywhere beloved, but we have to approach God honestly. The deceitfulness of the heart is legendary in scripture. Transferring everything there is not the answer. So, what is the answer? Understanding that God would not leave up to you, the decision making of whether a word we believe is from God is actually from God. Degraw's theology is that God just randomly drops things in our spirit that we then have to transfer to our hearts and then play Nancy Drew to figure out if we can proof text the bible into confirming the false word. That is how the entire false prophet industrial complex works today.
"Deceptions and Distractions - If confusion is present in times of discernment, it is from the enemy. "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace" (1 Cor. 14:33, NKJV). The enemy will attempt to distract. When we don't pray about things in advance, it leaves the enemy an open door to sidetrack us." - Kathy DeGraw
