The prophet's handbook

information they receive and put out as prophecy. Often they just run with what they receive and give little regard to the possibility of its being dispatched by someone other than the Most High God. This practice was shunned vehemently by ancient prophets of God. The writers of Scripture harbored no such misconceptions. They knew that many voices (spirits) are in the world to deceive those who receive not the love of the truth. The Bible speaks often about deceivers, with Paul writing to Timothy that seducing spirits and doctrines of devils were real. (See 1 Timothy 4:1.) Besides other spirits that inspire false prophecy, prophesiers should be very aware of the prospect of their own hearts’, literally emotions’, inclination to deceive them also. It can falsify prophecy in two ways: by picking up and clinging to thoughts that are not from God, or by fabricating images and ideas that qualify as divination because the person wills something greatly desired to be. The distortions of the human soul typically find it easier to be persuaded by what is not of God than to wait for Him to verify what is of Him. The prophets of old learned this early as part of their training. Furthermore, the information unclean spirits can emit in general, and that the prophets can pick up on, can adversely affect the prophets’ nature, even if only by symbiosis if they are not careful. The possibility of impure prophecy was a great concern of Bible prophets for these reasons, and no part of their being, they knew, would remain unaffected by it if they ignored the signs and seductions of divining spirits. They acknowledged that if they left their suggestions and infiltrations unnoticed or unchecked, their likelihood of being contaminated was as real as those so infected. Dreams, visions, intellect, insight, and perception faculties were all open to the spirit world once a prophetic person’s supernatural endowments were awakened and made known. From that time on, the bliss of ignorance gave way to protection and defense. Both became bywords for ministry life. Protecting their minds, hearts, and souls from anything that could render their faculties and gifts unusable to God became the ancient prophets’ highest priority. Every effort was made to ensure all their prophecies were true and sprung exclusively from God’s base of the truth. Modern prophets should accept that their predecessors witnessed false prophecy and false teaching on a national scale. Routinely they were the objects and observers of their fruit. As a result of what they were exposed to, God’s ancient prophets never took the issue or potential of false prophecy lightly—a position many of today’s prophets would do well to adopt.