Prophecy Filter Because God Warns His People

We Face a Warning Hearing Dilemma

There’s a clear Biblical principle—God warns His people. He warns through His Word, Holy Spirit, and human agents. Unfortunately, there are other principles in Scripture that makes receiving those warnings challenging, therefore we need a prophecy filter because God warns His people.

All throughout Scripture we see God warning His people as I wrote in more detail in a previous article. The principle continued into the New Testament as Holy Spirit guides us into all things yet to come.

We should expect God to warn us and that warnings have been given already but compounding the difficulty of even hearing these warnings is that each of God’s avenues of sending warnings are plagued with their own weaknesses. When it comes to warnings in God’s Word, the problem is interpretation. For we now sit two-thousand years removed from the completion of the Biblical canon and there has been tons of false or incorrect interpretations that have snuck into the body of Christ. This reality doesn’t prevent us from reading the warnings in the Bible, but the challenge must be realized. This challenge is best hurdled by throwing off presuppositions and letting the text speak for itself.

Along with the possibilities of incorrect interpretations there are challenges to us correctly receiving warnings from Holy Spirit. Though Jesus said His followers would know His voice, it can be a challenge learning His voice. I believe that when it comes to hearing prophetic warnings, we must not disconnect Holy Spirit form the Bible. I look as Scripture as the guard rails in which Holy Spirit will work. We aren’t going to receive a warning from Him that doesn’t align with Biblical prophecy.

Then with the third avenue in which God warns, human agents, the difficulty comes in that the Bible warns of false prophets.

There’s obvious dilemmas with each of the avenues of receiving God’s warnings. This isn’t a new problem, this issue raged even in the time of the Old Testament prophets.

 

We Face Mixed Messages

We must first realize that we face challenges with each warning path. This doesn’t negate that we will be warned but acknowledges the challenges. The principle that God warns His people calls for some of those messages to be true, but we must know that there are warning messages that aren’t true.

We read throughout the Old Testament that there were false messages being proclaimed at the same time as the genuine God-given messages given by the true prophets. Mixed messages have always been an issue. We see this recorded in Ezekiel.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins. – Ezekiel 13:1-5

This is also seen in 2 Chronicles 18:1-8 and elsewhere.

God warns that there will be false prophets. We see this recorded in Matthew and 1 John as well as about every New Testament book.

Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. – Matthew 24:11

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. – 1 John 4:1

We must expect there are going to be mixed messages and as the 1 John passage commands we must test those.

We’re expected and commanded to filter the warnings.

 

We Can Filter Warnings

First, we must heed the command to filter prophetic warnings. This applies to all three sources. We’re to filter warnings read in Scripture, promptings from Holy Spirit, and warnings given by people. Again, we should be expecting there to be a true warning, but there are also many that are false.

Listen to some of these Scriptural instructions to filter warnings.

Do not despise prophecies – 1 Thessalonians 5:20 (ESV)

This passage points back to the expectation that God will warn. Many well-meaning teachers of the Word have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Because there are so many false messages and there has been so many prophetic warning abuses, they’ve come to despise all prophecies. We take such a stand at our own peril. As we build our prophetic warning filter, we must not despise prophecy from all three agents.

Because there are so many false messages and there has been so many prophetic warning abuses, they’ve come to despise all prophecies. We take such a stand at our own peril. Share on X

but test everything; hold fast what is good. – 1 Thessalonians 5:21

Again, we see admonishment to expect true warnings within prophecy, but we’re told to test them. This is what we saw earlier in 1 John 4:1.

One of the most vital Biblical tools we can add to our prophetic warning filter is found in 1 Corinthians.

Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. – 1 Corinthians 4:29

The context of this passage is given to a body of believers on how to determine whether a message from the Holy Spirit that is spoken through a fellow believer is accurate. The instruction is that there needs to be two or three witnesses who can confirm the message.

Practically this would be two or three believers sharing they had received the same instruction from the Holy Spirit. Yet, even that shouldn’t be seen as the full filter. I’d argue that the two or three witness rules should apply in multiple layers to filtering prophetic messages.

Even with two to three people saying the same thing, there also needs to be multiple witnesses within Scripture.

All three of the avenues in which God warns need to be utilized.

 

The Prophetic Warning Filter

If the prophetic warning message comes from someone proclaiming they have received it from the Holy Spirit, first, it should be compared to Scripture.

It should be asked, does the prophecy fit in the confines of the Biblical text? No, we’re not given every detail in the Bible, but we’re given a clear picture of the end of the age. With that picture we then can trace the possible and reasonable trajectory from the ultimate back to our current position. The proclaimed warning should also not run against clear Biblical principles, therefore secondly it should be asked, does this prophecy align with clear Biblical principles? As it’s been stated over and over throughout this article, one verse or one passage isn’t sufficient to back a prophetic warning, there needs to be two or three witnesses in the Word. Therefore it should be asked, are there multiple witnesses from the Scriptures would allow such a prophetic warning to be true?

If the warning passes the test of multiple witnesses in the Word or at least doesn’t violate the Word, then it should be checked with Holy Spirit indwelling you and other trusted believers. Again, Holy Spirit guides us into what is yet to come. He will give you a check in your Spirit, therefore next ask, does the conviction and guiding of Holy Spirit indwelling in me allow for the continuation of considering this warning? Now you will have to be in tune with Him for this. This calls with us walking in obedience and pursuit of righteousness.  A hardened heart of a believer in sin is dangerous ground to trust their hearing from Holy Spirit, therefore it should be asked, is there anything in my life that would compromise hearing from the Lord? Don’t just check it in your Spirit also ask other brothers or sisters in the faith do the same, therefore ask, have other believers in my network made this warning in the past or are they doing so now?

It would be wise to see if other “human agents” outside of your circle are making the same proclamations. This could involve looking into the past. All accurate prophets of old were in line with their future warnings, therefore it should be asked, have other believers outside of my close network made this warning in the past or are doing so now?

I believe it’s also important to evaluate the testimony of someone who speaks such a warning. This doesn’t mean you should expect them to have a perfect record in following Christ, but rather a witness of seeking the Lord. For me I am most intrigued when someone who doesn’t have prophecy on their radar receives a warning to pass on. Considering this, it should be then asked, what is the life testimony of the first speaker of this warning and what is the life testimonies of others have shared the same warning?

It may seem as if I’m complicating the matter, but I’m trying to not throw the baby out with the bath water, yet at the same time warn that the prophetic bath water can be gross and need of being thrown out.

We have the tools to filter messages. We can do so by regularly being in the Word and walking in the Spirit.

It’s likely you’ve felt this “filter” is excessive, but we must realize what is on the lien.