8 ways to prevent prophetic abuse in your church

Eagerly desire it. Do not despise it. Use it for the building up of one another.

These are just some of the instructions Paul gives in the New Testament for how and why Christians should value the gift of prophecy. The ability to discern what is on God’s heart is incredibly valuable. Look at how Jesus told Nathanael what he saw in him and where he had seen him. Two short prophetic words utterly transformed Nathanael and changed the direction of his life (John 1:47-49).

I was personally encouraged when a friend and I received a prophetic word naming a specific nation we would be invited to visit and how we would be described in the invitation. Within days, an email arrived exactly as the prophecy had said. As you can imagine, we went on that visit built up.

Next month, many Christians will mark Pentecost and celebrate the outpouring of spiritual gifts on the early Church. Prophecy can be incredibly powerful, revealing plans in the heart of God. I remember the time a church leader received a prophecy that God would use him to bring “inward investment” to his small town. A while after this, he unexpectedly became mayor. Stirred by the prophetic word, he did indeed go on to do what that prophecy had said.

It should be a red flag when the only thing someone talks about is their latest vision

But sadly, we also live in a time where stories of prophetic abuse are widespread. Shawn Bolz, a well-known prophetic figure in the US, was recently accused of looking people up online to find out information he would then ‘prophesy’ back over them (he denies wrongdoing). Meanwhile, a woman has reported of the International House of Prayer (IHOP) founder Mike Bickle: “He told me the Lord has spoken to him and that [his wife] is going to die and that we’re going to get married.” Closer to home, accusations of spiritual abuse against Mike Pilavachi – who would commonly utter prophetic words from platforms – have led many leaders to self-reflect on best practice. 

Of course, any of God’s good gifts can be misused, mishandled or abused. Those of us who deeply value the prophetic gift must be honest that there is also the potential for this to go wrong in the local church. Abuse in any form can have devastating consequences, so what steps should we be taking to prevent prophetic abuse? 

1. Start with love

Before Paul instructed the Corinthians to “desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy” he first told them to “pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1, NKJV).

I have often seen adverts and promotions for prophetic conferences or training events that emphasise the second part of this verse, but miss its opening focus on love. If we make it all about the gift and forget love, the apostle Paul tells us we are nothing – literally like a “clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

As we encourage people to develop the gift of prophecy, we must always measure their growth in the gift alongside how they are growing in love. I have found that the more God trusts me to share his precious words with people, the more he has shown me how to develop love, alongside the other fruits of the Spirit – “joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5: 22-23). Prophetic people should be known for these fruits as much as their latest revelations.

2. Teach on it

If a church doesn’t teach its congregation how to handle prophecy responsibly, the gift can easily be abused. If we don’t provide teaching, people will get it elsewhere – or simply be unaware or ignorant. 

The prophetic must never become the centre of the Church. Jesus is. It’s the gospel and the cross which are central. Paul cautions that it is possible to “lose connection with the head” (Christ). In Colossians he teaches: “Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind” (2:18) 

The prophetic must never become the centre of the church. Jesus is

It should be a red flag to any believer when the only thing someone talks about is their latest vision. It’s very easy for such people to draw others around them through their supposed gift. I once knew of a congregation where every week the message was based on a spiritual vision one of the leaders had received. It did not end well for that place.

Think about teaching people how to process words given to your church, or to them personally – or even on YouTube and other social media. In 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, there is an instruction about how we are to respond to prophecy. We are told to: “not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil”. How do we test prophecy? Ask questions such as: Does this prophecy cause me to love God more? Does it cause me to love my neighbour or people that are not like me more? Does it stir faith or stoke fear? Does it grow love or hate in me? Does it make God or the devil look bigger in my eyes and heart?

3. Write easy to follow guidelines

I was working with a church recently. The leaders wanted to see more of the Holy Spirit and his gifts released throughout their community. The first question I asked was: “Have you got any prophetic guidelines in place?” You can maybe guess the answer. So, I invited them to create some. I suggested they start with a simple one-pager, split into three sections: What do we (in this church) believe about the gift of prophecy? What do we ask of you? What can you expect from us?

You may want to draw on the following paragraphs to help you, but remember to use the language that your own congregation would use – every church is different.

When thinking about what your church believes, you may write: “We desire to make space for God to speak to us through the Holy Spirit” or: “Healthy guidelines provide a way for spiritual gifts to flow, while ensuring they do so safely and effectively.”

When you are thinking about what people in your congregation can expect from you, perhaps consider something like: “We will provide feedback to you for any contribution you give, in order to help you grow in your gifting (note this may not be on the same day).” This basic caring commitment has helped in many churches. It nurtures open conversations and builds friendships and understanding of each other.

It took these particular leaders a few months to create their guidelines but, interestingly, on the Sunday after they completed their first draft there was a noticeable uplift in the sense of the Holy Spirit and his gifts among them. A coincidence, perhaps? Or maybe heaven recognised their diligence, focus and thoughtfulness and responded as only heaven can. I’m so pleased to see that congregation is continuing to steadily grow into an awareness and use of the gifts of the Spirit.

If your church does not have any prophetic guidelines, start now. Whatever you create will be better than nothing. If people in your church do not know what you believe, what your expectations are and how you can guide them, it’s very easy for things to end up in a downward cycle.

4. Get your feet back on the ground

Encourage people who are growing prophetically to do normal life. This may seem obvious, but I meet many people who have a prophetic gifting yet who seem disconnected from reality. Often, they only hang out with others from the prophetic community or spend all their time listening to the next untested prophetic word on social media. Living in this kind of bubble, it can become hard for them to understand how their words can impact others.

For example, a few years ago I was asked to help a church leadership team. Someone in their church had returned from a prophetic conference and now felt they had the God-given right/compulsion/authority to issue warnings to the church based on words that were publicly shared at the conference. These words warned of numerous cataclysmic events, including the collapse of all money systems, with specific dates – all of which have now passed. They also urged the church leaders to set up 24/7 prayer in the church – plus disaster management plans and stockpiling – as an immediate response to this revelation.

After praying and carefully considering these words, the leaders felt they were not accurate. They gently and lovingly talked it through with the person, who gradually saw how much damage could have been done had they publicly shared these predictions. In this way, the leaders protected their church and helped the individual mature in their faith. 

5. Create opportunities

It’s important to deliberately create opportunities for the safe use and practise of the gift of prophecy. Without this, people can become frustrated and look for ways to ‘force’ their gifting onto people and places. Well thought-out opportunities can develop people quicker than an occasional Sunday or midweek microphone grab. I am incredibly grateful for the leaders along my journey with God who encouraged me to step out, learn, fall on my face and be picked up; to grow and be stretched and also be part of a loving, caring team. It helped me realise that I was not an island. I learned that it was never about me and my gifting. It was about God and his purposes. It meant that I experienced healthy growth (most of the time!).

Prophetic people should be known for the fruits of the Spirit as much as their latest revelations

If your church creates careful, intentional opportunities within your own context, it will enable leaders to see how people are growing – or if they are not. You can observe how much love is shown when speaking words of prophecy, and ask people on the receiving end of any prophecies for feedback on how they felt afterwards. You can avoid ‘secret’ prophecies or controlling ones. In an open environment, the church can all learn together in love.

6. Regularly communicate red lines

As part of the guidelines you create, make sure you include a list of no-nos. And regularly communicate them to your church, so they fully understand the damage these things can cause. This will safeguard everyone. Here are a few examples that may help you get started:

Please do not prophesy to anybody:

• specific calendar dates or timings;
• pregnancies, births or names of future children;
• marriages, or the specific person someone might marry;
• on your own to someone not of your gender;
• anything that benefits you financially; 
• anything that ties a person to a geographic location, eg: ‘You must stay in this church or you will miss God’s plan for your life’;
• a word that carries a specific consequence, such as: ‘If you don’t do this, this will happen to you’; 
• anything that would suggest a form of immorality is acceptable to God (This might seem basic, but some of the issues exposed in recent scandals were in part caused by this being allowed to happen); 
• anything which contradicts scripture or permits an exception to it.

The Holy Spirit is not at all contained by having wise boundaries in place. If anything, he responds to these efforts to protect people by trusting us with more from heaven.

7. Be aware of the past

Many people seem to think that hearing God and the prophetic is a new thing for the modern age. This saddens me deeply. They claim that, somehow, those of us in the 21st century are particularly special — ‘the chosen ones’. That mindset can easily lead to arrogance and being unteachable. It can cause us to slowly slide away from mainstream Christianity – eventually to isolate ourselves and possibly be drawn to questionable practices and even lead others astray. 

Church history is full of wonderful saints of old who had dreams, received visions, followed the leading of God and saw amazing things happen. Ignoring this can cause people to assume they have authority where they don’t. It can lead them to think they are the only ones with revelation from God and everybody should listen to them. They often develop extremely dominant personalities and extreme beliefs. This can create a wide-open door for prophetic abuse. 

While there are many high-profile examples of this dominance happening that we are already painfully aware of, let’s not forget that this could also be playing out right now on a smaller, lower -profile way in many local churches. It is just as destructive to people as the famous ‘celebrity leader’ cases are, if not more so. We are wise to be aware of this in our own context.

8. Be lifelong students of the Bible; stay teachable

All disciples of Jesus should be humble, teachable students of the Bible. This is even more true for those who claim – or want – to be prophetic.

Being committed to reading and studying the whole Bible gives us a rounded understanding of the fullness of God’s nature, as revealed in scripture. It means we won’t just focus on a few favourite verses, which may well give us a skewed perspective and will eventually affect any prophecies we give to people. Ultimately, cultivating this habit could keep us and others from prophetic abuse. Not only will we know when things given to us from others are ‘off’ but we will also learn to communicate what we receive from God with his love and his character.

It’s shocking how many people who start to grow in the prophetic seem to stop studying the Bible. It is almost as if some believe that revelation and gifting trumps the historic, revealed word of God. That when we hear him speak today, we can ignore what he has already said. If we do this, we become vulnerable to the risk of suffering abuse as well as abusing others.

Is it worth the effort?

Some have shied away from the prophetic because of harmful things they’ve seen or heard about. Perhaps that’s you. Prophecy may not be something that you even do in your own church. However, in my experience, across all expressions of Christian faith, there are people wanting to learn how to communicate more of God’s heart of love through the gift of prophecy. 

Prophecy, handled well from a good understanding of scripture, given humbly and carefully in love can bring strength, comfort, encouragement, confidence, assurance – even direction – into our lives and the lives of those around us, for our churches and our communities in ways that no other gifting from God can. There was something about this gift that the apostle Paul understood, that made him consider it the one to go after. That is why we he urged us to “pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that [we] may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1, NKJV). He could not have said it any clearer.

In a way it may also explain why this gift also is the most abused. Because of its inherent power.

So in the midst of the awful stories, let’s not give up on this amazing gift. Let’s still go after it together, but let’s do it well.