This month I really felt pressed on my heart, especially by the Holy Spirit, to address false prophets and teachers. Today is about false teachers, false prophets, and knowing how to use our spiritual gifts. I think now more than ever, we keep seeing these words floating around and calling people out regarding them.
But what does it mean to be a false teacher? What do we look for what is a false prophet? Because they’re two different things. Also, let’s talk about prophecy. Lindsey is so gifted in prophecy, and she knows this topic. Do we understand prophecy, what it looks like.
Lindsey Falls is going to be sharing that with us today. I couldn’t think of a better person to talk about prophecy and really kind of describing what it is and just also giving definitions so that we can understand what a false teacher is a false prophet, helping women also to be able to walk in their spiritual gifts so that we can discern that, I think now more than ever, everybody is taking their emotions, biblical knowledge of what you know, we interpret the scripture to be online.
What is a false prophet?
What is a false teacher, and what is prophecy?
I’m gonna go first with what is prophecy, so prophecy can foretell or foretell. The future is a word that brings about by divine revelation from God, events of the future, encouraging people, giving them divine comfort, giving them divine insight, Revelation, exhortation for the future, it can speak into the present as well. But it’s also giving words that are going to release comfort are going to release, exhortation or encouragement and going to release honestly, just like the courage needed to go forward into the future that God has for them.
There’s a distinction between people that operate in the gift of prophecy, and people who have the role of a prophet in a church government type of situation. And so that’s an important distinction to make is that the gift of prophecy is available to everyone. The Bible says that we should earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that we should prophesy. So you can give a prophetic word to someone without being in the role of a prophet or prophetess of a church and using your gift in a governing sense. This is a gift it’s available to everyone just because you have been given a prophetic word or you can prophesy it doesn’t necessarily make you a prophet.
False teachers
In our discussion between false teachers and false prophets, I want to start with false teachers. I would say these are people who are using their gifts and their role as a prophet, or teacher on that governmental leadership structure in a church, and Ephesians four it says that God has given the church apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists to equip the saints for the work of ministry. People that are in one of those roles in a church, maybe it’s defined. And maybe it’s not defined, but they tend to just function in that way, because that’s how God’s designed them to function as the leader.
If the person who’s in the role of teacher says something that’s clearly out of line, the Scripture, and what I want to even further clarification on that, because there can be someone who might hold a slightly different position as a teacher. And that doesn’t necessarily make them a false teacher, I feel like what a false teacher does, is they are letting go of the core things that really is more black and white, and not gray. They’re saying, Jesus Christ might not be the Son of God, the Bible might not be scripture, there, the Bible might not be truth, Jesus might not be the only way the truth, the life, or they are, they’re teaching things that are explicitly against things that we learn about and read about in Scripture. That’s kind of the false teacher.
Someone who’s teaching something like that, that is leading people astray.
False prophet
This is someone who is releasing words to the body whose words and whose revelation is not accurate or coming to pass there. There can be a different agenda attached to it. Or can be their own personal desires for the future attached to it, rather than what is actually the word from God. I want to clarify just because a Prophet’s word isn’t coming to pass, or has not yet come to pass there need to be space to grow. If someone I think is prophesying falsely, I think it’s, it’s consistently over time, yeah, speaking out their own agenda, rather than a rare time have hundreds of times or you know, however many times they’ve given prophetic words, and just one thing being off.
What would it look like if you heard from a false teacher or got a prophetic word
I think one really important thing to know is that character and gifting are not the same things. So someone can have an amazing gift in their life but be weakened character, and someone can have strong character, but they haven’t exercised the gift. Yeah. So when you really want to give weight to someone’s prophetic words, it’s you have seen their character over time, be trustworthy, and they have cultivated their gift. And so that’s an important thing to consider is what is the character of this person? behind this word over time, who have we seen them? Who have who are their marriages strong is are their relationships with their children strong? Are they in a community where they’re accountable to these words, where they’re accountable to their whole life, really?
Look at character, looking at community. Make sure because sometimes if someone is a false prophet it could be a rogue YouTuber that id not a part of a community. And then they’re just being like, Well, I’m just gonna go find people on the internet or whatever, when really, you want to be looking for people that are rooted and grounded in the local community where they have had to walk out accountability, with maybe less risky words. When they’ve shown you know, they can be accountable with maybe less risky words that they can speak out. Things that may be deeper and more challenging, but from a place of having kind of earned that trust through their character.
Now that you know more about false teachers and false prophets let’s talk more about prophecy.
Foretelling and forth telling
Foretelling can be just something practically in my own life. And I can really see God using that ability, or that gift that you have, or that, that burden that you have here. And I really feel like that’s something that he’s leading you into, before telling. Either challenge, or call to courage to like walk into that, and that would be a prophetic word. Or fourth telling would be like, you speak something into them, like, Hey, I see just your pure and simple devotion to Christ.
I really feel like you would lead so well as a worship leader, or something like that. It can be something that feels kind of out of left field for people, but it wakes up something in their soul. And they attach their faith to that word, and they pursue that. A fourth telling role is more awakened something that was maybe dormant or just not realized. I think the foretelling is in line with where I’m going.
Timing of prophetic word
If you receive a word, and it doesn’t settle and your heart like, this doesn’t seem like it lines up with what God’s doing in your life right now. Put it on the shelf for later. Like, pull that word out in a year, two years, three years, and see if it lines up with where God has you in directs you in a later season. And even just a lot of the words that we hear for our families, maybe for our lineage, maybe it’s not even a year, but it’s, it’s decades from now. A lot of those words we receive. Because we have work to do between now and then a prophetic word doesn’t necessarily mean okay, there’s nothing for you to do here. It’s just all up to God to just magically make this happen.
A lot of times God gives you that prophetic word that is for decades to come or is for the next generation because he wants you to partner with him. It also gives me direction, like, where do I need to build and partner with God? Now, that will lay a foundation and really get this soil ready for this word to like, take root and grow and bear fruit? It’s just so important for us to write these things down, we have to write or record or voice memo are prophetic words, because you’re gonna want to keep it and look at it and play it again.
What about the prophetic messages that we hear that aren’t necessarily personal
I think there’s two ways to go with this. I release sometimes prophetic words for my own church over our own our students. So we have a discipleship school, and I’m the prophetic trainer there. And so sometimes I’ll say like, Hey, guys, this is the season of this for all of you. Or this is like our time for this for all of us. If it’s your pastor, your local church, and maybe it’s not really sticking with you. It’s just not deeply resonating with you as a personal word. Would I still really attach my faith to that because of the trust that I have in this person, because of the relationship that I’ve built with this person. And for who I’ve seen their character to be over time.
Sometimes, if this is like, someone’s prophetic word that they released in a blog or YouTube video, I might read it. And if it feels like, Hey, this looks like it might be fitting with what is what God’s doing in my life, or what God is kind of stirring.
Do you do kind of believe that certain people only get certain gifts
I say that all the gifts are available to you in seed form. So seed form means you could have the gift in a very small measure. And the thing is, is God rarely is going to give you just in an instant download of this massive ability, because that’s what a gift is it the divine ability to do something, he grows things little and little by little. So this is what I tell people is if you want the gift of prophecy, start hanging around people who prophesy. If you want, you know, discerning of spirits, find out someone who has that, ask for it, you know, ask God like God, I want this gift. And honestly, think about why you want this gift.
A lot of these gifts can feel like corsets until you learn how to use them. Because they take just wisdom that is going to be outside of you. So I feel like if you want a gift, you can pray for it, you can ask for it. Find someone who has it and who is using it well, and see how they would lead you to grow and that gift. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a gift. It’s okay, let’s give one person a word.
Our battle is not against flesh and blood
Our battle is not against the false prophets, our battle against is not against these people who we believe are causing destruction with their words.
The battle is in the spiritual realm
That’s what the enemy wants is for us to just be like aiming our missiles and our words and everything at each other. Instead of where it’s supposed to be, which is at the enemy in prayer, you know, and reminding myself and anyone who is lured in by these calling outs and things like that, that, you know, we’re called to be gentle restores, but slander, like never gently restores anyone, you know, it just causes division. And it just, it never brings about, like the true healing and the true restoration that we want for the other person, and only just makes us really, it really just like taints our witness for Christ, you know.
False teachers and false prophets is something we need to discern through as believers.
False prophets prophetic word
If this person that is, is prophesying something falsely, or teaching something falsely, if that’s something that you’re in a relationship with, I say, bring them aside, gently restore them in conversation, and then love because battles are rarely won in the comment section.
We need to be in relationship with these people in order to bring them to gentle restoration. If this is someone that you’re not in a relationship with, I would say you need to fight that battle in the spiritual realm for them. You need to aim your weapons of destruction, your weapons of warfare, in the spiritual realm, because that’s where this battle is going to be won. And also just let your heartbreak for them. I really think that the more humble we are and aiming our weapons in the spiritual realm, instead of at each other, that’s how we know the battle is won.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode with Lindsey falls. I pray that it helped you understand what false teachers are, false prophets, what prophecy is and how to use your spiritual gifts.
Lindsey Falls is a wife, mom, and communicator. She considers herself a life-long student of Scripture, yet teaches what she knows along the way. Lindsey is a big believer in the local church, and loves serving as the prophetic trainer of Antioch Discipleship School in Austin, TX.
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You might also enjoy the episodes titled Learning Discernment And Knowing The Critical Spirit with Phylicia Masonheimer
