Prophets Are Not Psychics or Witches or Shamans

Every day I get at least a handful of digital requests from precious people all over the world desperately seeking a prophetic word. As I’ve said before, some come begging. Others come demanding. Still others come with money in hand to buy a prophecy or dream interpretation.

I don’t sell prophecies and dream interpretations. I’m not a psychic. I don’t read crystal balls. I’m not a shaman. I don’t divine the hidden. I’m not like Buddha. You can’t rub my belly for good luck. Honestly, as much as my heart goes out to people who are desperate to hear the voice of God, if I endeavored to “go to the throne” to get a word from God for everyone who inquired, I’d have to isolate myself in a cave and live on bread and water.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not against personal prophecy. I prophesy over people at the Awakening House of Prayer and various conferences all the time. But as I’ve said many times, prophetic ministry doesn’t operate like a gumball machine. You can’t put in a quarter—or send an email or Facebook message—and out comes a prophetic word. It just doesn’t work that way.

Phony, Fake Prophets

True prophets don’t work to make you dependent on their gift to guide you. Phony prophets specialize in this area. True prophets live by the Ephesians 4:11 model: to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Phony prophets specialize in clever marketing schemes to put a quick buck in their pocket in exchange for a prophetic word that may of come from their spirit—or a familiar spirit—but isn’t likely to have originated with the Spirit of God.

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I recently ran into one of these phony prophets. We’ll just call her Jade. Perhaps ironically, this all-powerful Internet prophetess purchased prophetic training materials from my website. Apparently, the post office dropped the ball and delayed the delivery. My office checked the tracking and let Jade know that the materials were definitely in transit and apologized for the delay.

We didn’t hear back from Jade until seven months later, when she suddenly surfaced with a complaint that she hadn’t received the printed materials. Jade also shared how she felt stuck and had so many issues to deal with in her life. She was frustrated and unhappy. We tried to minister to her and checked on the order with the Post Office.

Meanwhile, we noticed Jade sells prophetic words on her website. Shocked to come email to email with an Internet prophetess, we asked her how much she charged for personal prophecy. To our amazement, Jade then offered to “get a prophetic word” for us but warned that “I own my own business and work day and night, so sometimes it takes me a long while to deliver the prophetic words.”

According to the Post Office, the package was delivered over half a year ago! Nevertheless, we refunded her money immediately for the entire order, including the digital materials she had already received. Then we got our prophetic word, but it was word curses from the pit of hell. We broke those words, in Jesus’ name. But that got me wondering, do phony, fake Internet prophets offer a satisfaction guarantee for their prophecies? Selah.

Thankfully, we didn’t pay for any prophecy, but I know many people do. They pay prophets for bogus words and make major life decisions based on those words and wonder what went wrong. I talk about this in my book: Did the Spirit of God Say That? Again, I don’t sell prophecies and dream interpretations. I’m not a psychic. I don’t read crystal balls. I’m not a shaman. I don’t divine the hidden. I’m not like Buddha. You can’t rub my belly for good luck.

The Holy Ghost Is Not for Sale

Of course, not all fake, phony prophets are on the Internet. I recently heard of a well-known prophet who would not prophesy at the altar until he received an offering from each individual who wanted a prophetic word. There were even credit card machines for easy swiping so folks wouldn’t hold up the line. Yes, really.

When I get phone calls, emails and Facebook messages begging, demanding and offering to pay for prophetic words, it grieves me because I can see clearly that there is still a major misunderstanding about prophetic ministry in the body of Christ. And that can put these precious believers in danger of getting merchandised, deceived and otherwise steered in the wrong direction in the name of sincerely “seeking God.” I don’t have time to respond to each and every one in detail about the role of the prophet, why it’s inappropriate for prophets to charge for prophecies or how to hear from God.

But let me assure you of this: God wants to speak to you. In fact, He’s probably speaking to you more than you realize. I have a free prophetic teaching series on YouTube about how to discern the voice of God. It’s old and the quality isn’t the greatest, but it may help you. There are also many books on the topic.

Precious saints, God wants to speak to you directly. Don’t run to a prophet—and don’t pay a prophet—for prophetic words. Run to God and sow your time into fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. You won’t be disappointed and you won’t walk away with a manufactured poor prophecy that leads you in the wrong direction. The Holy Spirit will lead you and guide you into all truth (John 16:13). That’s a promise from King Jesus. Amen.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening; Mornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of God; The Making of a Prophet and Satan’s Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.