A "Now Word" — or an Old Lie in a New Suit?

Where this started

I had a look at a church that describes itself as an apostolic and prophetic ministry, and I wanted to see what they actually meant by "prophetic". Here is the explanation I found, word for word: "Prophets offer immediate, personal, or corporate guidance — a now word — intended to help people navigate daily life and major decisions." Read that again. Not one mention of the Bible. Not one line about Scripture. No reference to what God has already said, no appeal to the written Word, no test, no measure, no authority beyond the man standing at the front with a microphone. Personal guidance for daily life and major decisions — delivered by a man, sourced from nowhere you can check. You could not make it up. So let me say plainly what that is. That is not the Holy Spirit. That is fortune-telling with a worship band behind it.

The Bible already has a word for this

We are not guessing here. God dealt with this practice long before any modern church put it on a website. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD [Deuteronomy 18:10-12 KJV]. Divination is exactly this: seeking hidden knowledge about your life, your future, your decisions, from a spiritual source outside of what God has revealed.

Think of Saul. He had the LORD, and he had the Word, and when the answer he wanted did not come he went looking for another channel: Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her [1 Samuel 28:7 KJV]. That is the witch of Endor. And the sobering thing is that Saul did not stop being religious when he did it. He simply went round the back for a word he could not get from God. That is precisely what is happening in churches every week. People who own a Bible are queuing up for a word they will not look for in the book God already gave them. And in the New Testament it wears an even more familiar face. Paul met a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination … which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying [Acts 16:16 KJV]. Notice what she said about Paul and his company — it was accurate. It was flattering. It was true. And it was still a devil, and Paul cast it out. Accuracy is not the test. Impressive is not the test. Something being right about you does not make it of God.

That is why I call this devilish, not merely mistaken. I do not use that word lightly, but I will not soften it either. This is a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit, and a counterfeit is the enemy's speciality: And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light [2 Corinthians 11:14 KJV]. The devil has never needed to get you to deny Christ if he can get you to seek direction from him instead. He has no interest in being obviously ugly in a church building. He is far happier being warm, personal, uncannily accurate and loved by the congregation.

And we have first-hand accounts. People have come to us, genuinely shaken, repeating things they were told about themselves from a platform or in a prayer line — things about their marriage, their money, their health, their calling, their children. Some of it was oddly specific. Some of it did not come to pass and left them in pieces, wondering what they had done wrong. Some of it did touch on something real and private, and that frightened them more, because the plain question then is: who told him? It certainly was not God, because the counsel that followed contradicted Scripture, bound consciences God has not bound, and left people leaning on a man rather than on the Lord. When the fruit is confusion, fear, dependency and debt, you are not looking at the Holy Spirit. You are looking at another spirit, and that is a fight with more than flesh and blood: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [Ephesians 6:12 KJV]. God saw this coming and named it: Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD [Jeremiah 23:16 KJV]. A vision of their own heart — that is the honest description of most of what passes for a "now word" today.

Why are we even looking for it?

Here is the part that grieves me most. Why is the church asking men about personal matters at all? We have been given the Word of God, complete and sufficient: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works [2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV]. Throughly furnished. Nothing missing. And for the decisions Scripture does not spell out, we have a Father who invites us to come ourselves: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him [James 1:5 KJV].

We look for the "now word" because it is quicker than reading, easier than praying, and far more exciting than obedience. It flatters us to be singled out. But the Holy Spirit does not compete with the Word of God — the Holy Spirit agrees with it, always. Genuine prophecy in the body of Christ is not a personal horoscope; he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort [1 Corinthians 14:3 KJV]. Build up, stir up, comfort — all of it in line with what is written, none of it steering your private life by secret knowledge.

And if we are honest, there is something else in it. A word from a man takes the weight off us. If he told me to do it, the decision is no longer mine to carry, and if it goes wrong I have somebody to blame. But God never handed our decisions to another man: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God [Romans 8:14 KJV]. Led by the Spirit of God — not led by somebody else's private revelation about your life. It works the other way round too, because it flatters the man at the front. Being "the prophet" gathers a crowd who wait on your next word, and it puts you beyond question, because challenging you can be dressed up as challenging God. That is not ministry. That is manipulation, and no voice in the church is above examination.

What to do with this

Try it. That is the command, and it is not rude to obey it: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world [1 John 4:1 KJV]. And God has already given us the measure to test it by: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them [Isaiah 8:20 KJV]. Not the atmosphere in the room, not the confidence of the speaker, not the size of the ministry, not whether people wept or fell over — the written Word, and nothing else. The Bereans were called noble for doing exactly that — they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so [Acts 17:11 KJV]. If a word cannot survive your Bible, bin it. If a man resents you checking, that tells you everything. And if you have already been marked by one of these words — carrying fear, or shame, or a decision you never should have made — take it to your Heavenly Father tonight through Jesus Christ, hand it back, and let the Word wash it off. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path [Psalm 119:105 KJV]. You have a lamp. You do not need a fortune-teller...

Key Takeaways:

• Seeking hidden guidance about your life from a spiritual source outside God's Word is divination, and God calls it abomination — [Deuteronomy 18:10-12 KJV]
• Accuracy proves nothing; the soothsaying damsel spoke the truth and was still a devil — [Acts 16:16 KJV]
• The counterfeit always comes dressed in light, never in horns — [2 Corinthians 11:14 KJV]
• Men who speak a vision of their own heart make their hearers vain — [Jeremiah 23:16 KJV]
• Scripture leaves the believer throughly furnished; nothing extra is needed for godly living — [2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV]
• For wisdom you lack, go to your Father yourself — [James 1:5 KJV]
• Real prophecy edifies, exhorts and comforts the body; it does not steer your private decisions by secret knowledge — [1 Corinthians 14:3 KJV]
• Trying the spirits is commanded, and searching the Scriptures daily is noble — [1 John 4:1 KJV], [Acts 17:11 KJV]
• The written Word is the measure; what does not speak according to it has no light in it — [Isaiah 8:20 KJV]
• The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, not by another man's private revelation — [Romans 8:14 KJV]

Where to go from here:

Read Deuteronomy 18:9-14 and Acts 16:16-18 slowly, with your Bible open, and mark what God calls the practice and what Paul did with it. Then take one word that has been spoken over you and test it line by line against what you have read. Keep what agrees. Refuse what does not.

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➡️ Next — Friday: Part 7 — Still Standing

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