Prophecy

The Keys to Prophetic Accuracy

by Honey Stone
12/19/17
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I once went to a prophetic church where everyone was experimenting with learning how to flow in the prophetic gifts. We had three forums to practice being a spiritual antenna. 

If you gave a prophecy during the Sunday morning service then you better be accurate or you might get the hook. During the Wednesday night intercessory gathering you would get correction if you were off but it was gentle. The First Friday Free-for-all was a place where anything goes. There was a lot of silliness and strange happenings but there was also accuracy mixed in there as well. Nobody got corrected on Fridays on anything. 

Accuracy
Mike Bickle says, 80% of manifestations and prophecy in the church are accurate and it is worth it all for the 20% that is real. That statement definitely applied to that Friday night group. I think Rick Joyner is a little bit kinder when he said that the church has a 30% accuracy rate in prophecy. 

During our Wednesday night intercessory group, someone once invited a guy that nobody knew and we all were to try to see if we got anything for him. It started off in our usual silent waiting on God. Nobody said anything for a long while and then finally somebody thought they got something. They got the nod from leadership and then many went with that flow.   

However, one of the gals had a word that was the opposite of what was being prophesied and so she pulled the leader aside and told him. They took the man into another room where she prophesied over him. The man claimed that the group was off but thanked the gal for her accuracy. 

What does this show you? First of all that even a fairly accurate group can get off on the wrong track and that peer pressure still happens in prayer groups. If one of the more mature and accurate leaders says it then it is likely to be true. Yep, it is likely to be true but everyone is prone to error. Everyone has a bad day or a bad moment or even an off season. 

Timing
One Sunday morning during the service, the apostle of that church gave a word on politics. Right before an election he said that there was going to be a Democratic debacle and the tide would swing to the Republicans. He ran that past Bob Jones who agreed it was true. That word didn’t happen…until the last election which was many years later. 

Right after the apostle gave the word, I took him aside and said that I was getting otherwise but since he was more mature and accurate than me, I assumed he was right. Later, after the Democrat victory, he apologized to me in front of the intercessory group for any harm he did. Actually, that was a very healing moment because most leaders would try to explain themselves or pretend it didn’t happen or ignor it. The fact is that he was accurate but the timing was off. 

Freedom from Familiar Spirits
There are four things that cause inaccuracy in prophecy and they are a lack of purity, a lack of intimacy, wrong timing, and the inability to discern familiar spirits. When I say familiar spirits, I am talking about what the dictionary calls a familiar spirit and that is a demon obeying a witch's direction. Most people confuse familiar spirits with generational curses (Exodus 20:5) and they can be intertwined – most are. 

There are a number of big wig prophets who have not been set free of familiar spirits and so they move back and forth between the real and counterfeit. Just because we hear a voice or see a vision or move in a manifestation, that doesn’t mean it is from the Holy Spirit. We must test everything. 

Purity
I realize that purity is a rare and challenging way of living. People like Wigglesworth and John G. Lake had purity along with a healing anointing. Many people got healed through their ministry. 

I think it is really hard to stay in a place of purity just for the sake of being pure. I once went to a holiness church which emphasized purity but there was such an emphasis on character that the gifts were capped to hardly a trickle. It would have been more helpful if they also emphasized identity as well and particularly the identity of the beloved.

Intimacy
I believe that intimacy with Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit can give Christians the ability, capacity and desire to be and stay pure.

Prophesying accurately is not an easy thing but with intimacy, purity, freedom from familiar spirits, and attention to timing that gift can grow and flourish.