How to Know if a Prophetic Word is from God

Many times, people approach me and say, "Dr. Ray, I have a prophetic word for you," and then they share what they believe is God’s message. However, I often sense that the prophecy does not come from the Lord; it is likely from their imagination. This situation raises crucial questions: How should you handle such instances? What if the prophetic word you receive truly is from God? In this show, Dr. Ray will address these questions and discuss how to navigate these experiences. 

1 Corr 14:29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.  

Help Dr. Self continue this show - partner at www.icmcollege.org/donate  

Answer your call by enrolling with the International College of Ministry at www.icmcollege.org/enroll 

Purchase Dr. Ray's latest book, "The Call." God called you, and you answered: this is what you need to know! Click Here 

Follow and subscribe to Self Talk With Dr. Ray Self at our podcast website  - https://www.icmcollege.org/selftalk.  

Click here to purchase Dr. Self's book – Hear His Voice, Be His Voice, or visit Amazon.com. 

Click here to purchase Dr. Self's book – Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land, or visit Amazon.com. 

Or our new podcast website at https://www.buzzsprout.com/2249804  

For show topic suggestions, email Dr. Ray Self atdrrayself@gmail.com 

Enjoy free courses offered by the International College of Ministry Free Courses 

Show host bio - 

Dr. Ray Self founded Spirit Wind Ministries Inc. and the International College of Ministry. He holds a Doctorate in Christian Psychology and a Doctorate in Theology. He currently resides in Winter Park, Florida. He is married to Dr. Christie Self and has three sons and a daughter. 

Transcript

Hey, I'm Dr. Ray, and welcome to my show, Self Talk. I appreciate you being a part of this show, and today, I want to talk about something I've experienced a lot of times in, you know, moving and preaching and teaching in the charismatic, Spirit-filled churches. Uh, the gift of prophecy is a very common gift, and people come up to me many times and say, Dr. Ray, I have a prophetic word for you. And they share the word for me. Sometimes, however, ehh, I'm not quite sure that word is from God. And I've had some times where I know the word is from God. But the question is, you know, how do you know? What do you do in, in these cases? And the gift of prophecy is thrown around a lot and…sadly, it is misused and counterfeited, which is not unusual. As a matter of fact, a counterfeit tells me that there must be something real and valuable close by. Anyway, pay attention to this show, I think it'll be a blessing to you. If you've ever experienced somebody claiming to give you a message from God, how do you handle it? This is Dr. Ray, and thank you for being a part of today's show, sponsored by the International College of Ministry at icmcollege.org. God bless you.

[Music]

Welcome to the show, I'm Dr. Ray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this podcast. I pray that I can be a blessing to them. Holy Spirit, I ask you to speak through me. Use me for this time, Father, and forgive me for anything I would say that would be displeasing to you. And Father, I ask for a blessing and an anointing on everyone listening to this broadcast now. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. 

So, I'm a former Southern Baptist guy, traditional guy who got filled with the Holy Spirit around 1986 and began to move and circulate in the charismatic Spirit-filled church world, and it's been a wonderful experience. I know we could argue theology, all about some of these things, but in the churches that, that I circulate around, the operation of spiritual gifts is very common, and uh, it's a wonderful thing. Spiritual gifts are mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, they're known as the manifestation gifts, and in that chapter, chapter 12, Paul writes about the gifts of a word of knowledge, word of wisdom, faith, healing, prophecy, uh, tongues, interpretation of tongues, discerning of spirits. And these are gifts of the Holy Spirit, which absolutely are still active today. They're still working today; do not believe anyone who says, “Oh, that's only for then and not for now.” If you cannot believe that there's supernatural going on now, how can you believe that a person could be saved, which is the most supernatural thing that could ever happen? 

Anyway, not going to get into a big argument, but with the spiritual gifts, it's not unusual if you're in a…around Christians who have been– are full of the Holy Spirit, the gift of prophecy, whereas you go up to someone and you say um, you know, “Susie, I believe the Lord has given me a word for you and here it is.” And so many times I've been the recipient of prophetic words where people will come up to me and say, Dr. Ray, the Lord's given me a prophetic word for you, and here it is. And they share a lot of things with me. And I have been on the other side of the coin. I've been the one who has shared prophetic words, and I pray that when I do share a prophetic word, that it is coming from the Lord because you know, I'm, I'm fallible. I am fallible. But how do you handle this? How do you navigate this? And it's a very interesting and important question. And I'm going to make it kind of relaxed and easy for you. So, if a person comes up to you and says, “Would you mind if I give you a prophetic word?” Now, what I do, just speaking for me, I will nearly always, if it's appropriate, say, “Sure.” Now, I want to preface this with…I like to be in order. If I'm in a church, I do not go around giving prophetic words unless I know it's okay with the pastor, or the elders, the church is okay with that. I do not walk out in the hallway and give prophetic words to people, or in the parking lot, unless I have permission to do that. It's very important that you stay accountable to the church in operation of spiritual gifts because the church can actually be held, be liable for these things. But anyway…

So someone comes up to me, says, “Dr. Ray, I've got a prophetic word for you. Can I give it to you?” I will– I nearly always will say, “Sure, sure,” you know, as long as it's appropriate, you know, we're in the right time and place for it. And so they will say, “Dr. Ray, I hear the Lord saying to you, um, that you're going to be ministering in um, Arizona. I see you ministering in Arizona and, and doing a great ministry out there.” And then they'll say, then I'll say, “Well, well, thank you,” uh, uh, “thank you very much.” Now that actually was a prophetic word that came to me. Now that particular prophetic word sounded very strange for me. I had– why would I be in Arizona? At this point, I was actually in North Mississippi and, and also in Memphis and, why would I be ministering in Arizona? That's a strange word. So what I did with that particular prophetic word is I remembered it, um, I may have written it down - that's a good idea by the way, to record prophetic words - and I just sort of set it aside not, not really worried about it one way or the other, because it didn't really make sense to me. I didn't reject it, I didn't say, “No, you fool, that's not from God.” I just set it aside. Sometimes we call it putting it on the shelf. Lo and behold, this was probably, maybe 17 years ago, I got this word. Guess where I was ministering last summer? I was ministering to the Navajo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona last summer in a very powerful time. So that word actually came true, and it, it, it really built my faith that I knew I was where God wanted me to be. And that's another thing: One of the primary purposes of the gift of prophecy is to build our faith because when, when the Lord gives us a prophetic word, and that word happens, our faith is built, and we know it's God, it's a confirmation. So many times, prophetic words are simply confirmations of something God has been trying to tell you all along. 

But back to the topic at hand, what do you do if you know a prophetic word is not from God, and how do you know it's not from God, and what do you do? Well, for me, and I've had a lot of people pray prophetic words over me. When I get a word that I know is not from God, I absolutely don't worry about it at all. Do not worry about it. I just, I just let it fall to the ground. Sometimes I might do a little prayer to myself. “Lord, uh, I'll receive whatever is from you. Anything not of Jesus Christ, I just let it fall away.” And I may say that prayer under my breath. But, if I get a prophetic word that's not from God, I just simply do not concern myself with it. I do not, okay? Now, on the other side of the coin are…many instances I've had– you know, I'm always teaching and ministering with a lot of students. I've had people come up to me, students and, and church members, come up to me, “Dr. Ray, Dr. Ray,” they're all upset because, “I got a prophetic word and it's not from God. Oh my gosh, they told me this, and thism and oh, oh, go…” and I'm going, you know, “Calm down. It's okay, it's not from God. Don't receive it in your spirit. Just let it fall, just let it fall. It's okay, it's all right.” Because see, people are human, and so many times we're trying to hear from God, and we may say something we think is from God, but turns out to be our imagination. You know. “Well, these people ought to be stoned because,” you know, “They gave a false prophecy.” Well, that's the Old Testament. 

You see, I have the Holy Spirit in me; you have the Holy Spirit in you. So we all have a responsibility to be able to discern what is of God and what is not of God. So if I give you a prophetic word that is not from God, you should be able to tell if that word is from God or not because you also have the Holy Spirit. The way I like to explain it is this: the Holy Spirit recognizes His own voice, so if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you from another person, the Holy Spirit in you is in agreement with that, there's a, there's an agreement. If somebody's speaking a word to you, they call, call a prophetic word, and it's not from God, the Holy Spirit in you does not agree with that, and there's no peace in your heart about that. When there's peace in your heart or an agreement in your heart, more than likely that is from God. 

So, how do you discern, you know…for sure, if somebody gives you a prophetic word, is it from God? Well, key thing is does it line up with scriptural principles? Is it something the Bible is in agreement with? Does it contain love? You know, God is love. Is it something a loving father or Jesus would say to you? If it doesn't contain love, okay, God is love, if it's not something a loving father would say to you, it's not from Him. If it contains condemnation or judgment or guilt, it's not from God because Jesus took condemnation and shame and guilt to the cross. So if a prophetic word is condemning or shaming or trying to place guilt upon you, more than likely it's not from God ‘cause that's something Jesus handled at the cross. I'm not saying we're not ever guilty of something. 

So, you can judge a prophetic word– as a matter of fact, we have a responsibility to be able to discern, or tell, if someone is speaking, if they're speaking from the Lord or not. If you have the Holy Spirit and they have the Holy Spirit, there's an agreement, okay? If the Holy Spirit in you is in disagreement, you're, you're, you feel disturbed about it. There's kind of a confusion, and it's like a– it just doesn't register with you, and in that case, more than likely it's not from God. If it is unscriptural, uh, for instance - it's been years ago, a pastor came to me and said um, “The Lord told me,” which is like, prophetically, “The Lord told me to divorce my wife.” Now I said, “Really?” I said, “Did she commit adultery?” “Well, no, I just know it's time to move on.” “Has she been abusive? I mean, has she left you? Uh, has she been violent– committed violence against you?” “No, I just know it's time to move on.” “Yeah,” I said, “Well, that just doesn't really sound very scriptural there, and I just don't think that's from God, okay?” So you can tell if a prophetic word given is from God or not if there's peace in your heart about it or if it lines up– it's a– it lines up with a Biblical principle. Like when I got the prophetic word I'd be ministering in Arizona…it didn't really have peace about it, but I didn't wasn't disturbed about it. It didn't violate scriptural principles at all, you know, ministering, you know, in another state doesn't violate scripture at all. So I wasn't sure, so I did a wait-and-see, and it turned out to be true, okay? So many– I had so many prophetic words about marrying my, my beautiful, beautiful wife that, that all came true. Supernatural prophetic things that came true. 

So if somebody gives you a prophetic word and you know it's not from God, I really want to encourage you, don't worry about it. You– if, if you're worried it's going to give you– cause some kind of harm, just say a little prayer, “Lord, I claim the name and the power and the blood of Jesus over me.” You can always do that, okay? Now, I don't usually rebuke the person giving me the word - that's not from God - unless it’s something that's um, obviously harmful. Um, I use the expression, no harm, no foul. We used that in basketball years ago. If a prophetic word is given that is causing harm, yeah, I, I'm going to correct it. But a prophetic word is giving– and it's not causing harm, it's just not very accurate, I'm really just going to let it go, and I'm going to pray about it. But know this too, that nobody is perfect. And sometimes what prophetic words are, they are a mixture of the Lord speaking and us speaking, and that's not unusual either. Sometimes people give me a prophetic word and I have to sort of um, it's kind of like take the meat and spit out the bones when you're eating catfish - I'm kind of country so excuse me there - and you can say, “Well, I knew that part of that was from God, part of that I think was just their imagination speaking,” and I can kind of, kind of dissect it and, and take what I want. But it's important to write these things down, and again, if the word that's given to you is not from God, don't worry about it, okay? Just let it fall to the ground. 

But I've seen people take prophetic words without waiting for confirmation, and that's another key thing, is when God speaks a prophetic word to you, normally there will be multiple - it's important - multiple confirmations, that's very important, multiple confirmations. Look at how many times the Bible confirms prophecies about Jesus over and over and over and over and over again. 

So God loves to give us multiple confirmations. I saw a, a prophecy, a prophecy was given - I was in a church many years ago. There was a really pretty young lady in the church, and this lady was up front, you know, claiming to be a prophet of God. And actually, this lady turned out to be a real false prophet. She did some really horrendous things with her gift, which was very perverted. But she looked at this really pretty young lady and said, “God says you are to– that this man is your husband,” and she looked at the man, “This woman is to be your wife.” So they thought they were obeying God by getting married. Well…you know, I was kind of a little bit young in the Lord in, in this– in the spiritual gifting at that point. I, I actually was a witness to, to that. I didn't say anything, but it just didn't feel right; it just did not seem right. Um, they ended up feeling like they had to obey God and get married. They were not in love with each other, they were not compatible. It turned out to be a horrible, abusive, terrible marriage, and they did this by obeying a false prophetic word without waiting for confirmation and without the gift of discernment, and without seeking help.

Another thing you can do when you get a prophetic word and you're not sure about it, like you're supposed to marry so and so, um, and those words are very rare, be careful of those words. Go to a pastor who's full of the Holy Spirit and tell them the prophetic word. Let the pastor look at it, okay? Maybe an elder, somebody who understands the gift of prophecy, full of the Spirit. Seek help, seek a c– seek counsel on it. And that will also help you tremendously. But don't jump and run with any prophetic word you get unless you know that it's from God and you have had confirmation is from God. Sometimes a prophetic word has already been confirmed to you multiple times. You know God's been trying to tell you this, and He tells you again through another individual something He's trying to tell you all along - that way, you know it is from God. And I could tell you countless stories about this. But the main thing is don't be overly concerned about words that are not from God, just let them fall to the ground. If the person’s intent was honorable, they're not trying to cause harm, just - I would say - just let it go. If the person speaking to you is actually causing harm, causing division, uh, creating havoc, yeah, they may need to be confronted, you may need to report it to the church, okay? So you know if the Holy Spirit is talking, because you have the Holy Spirit and there's an agreement with you. Again, the Holy Spirit will recognize His own voice. 

So if someone is talking by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in you will be in perfect agreement, and there'll be peace about it. If someone is talking to you, claim it's the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit in you is just going uh-uh, no way, check, check, check, check, check, be careful with that, be careful with that, okay? Hope this show has made sense. I'll talk more about it in further shows; there's a lot we can do with this gift. The gift is real, the gift is real. And yes, remember, it will be perverted, and it will be counterfeited; that's what the devil does with anything that is important and valuable. Don't let the counterfeit people, you know, they get on TV, “I heard the Lord say you're to send me $1,000 today.” Don't let the misuse of the gift and the perversions of the gift destroy what is actually real, okay? Amen. God bless you, and thank you for listening to my show today. This is Dr. Ray Self himself. I'm very self-aware, I take real selfies, I'm self-conscious. Have you seen my companies? Self-service companies? Okay, I'll stop with the self jokes. Bye.

[Music]

Thanks again for being a part of the show. I appreciate you very, very much. Don't forget uh, you– there's a website for this show at icmcollege.org/selftalk. There's links to that, also in the show notes you can, you can get every episode, you can subscribe, you can also give me a review, uh, that will help a lot with us reaching more people. Don't forget to share this with folks and get the word out. Trying to be a blessing. If you'd like to donate to help me continue this show, that would be…uh, be grateful for that. You can do that at icmcollege.org/donate, but listen, that's up to you and God. No pressure there at all. Thank you for being part of the show. This is Dr. Ray. And just, thank you so much for listening. I just pray you'll have a blessed day, and the anointing and the Spirit of God will never leave you and never forsake you, which He will not. In Jesus’ name, amen.