I felt led to share some guidelines that have helped us immensely in discerning prophetic words. While not exhaustive, these points have given us a baseline for healthy operation and interaction with the prophetic.

Prophecy is foretelling and forth-telling the Word of God. When you speak words from the Bible over someone’s life or over a situation, you are forth-telling the Word of the Lord; speaking forth life.

When you are foretelling the Word of God, you are speaking forth things that God has revealed to you that are not just from the written Word, you are foretelling the now (Rhema-inspired) Word of God which can sometimes mean you are seeing the future to come. The Word of God is alive today (Hebrews 4:12) so while it is a Logos-written word- it is also a now word because it lives and breathes.

To prophesy is to have the Holy Spirit in you giving you that specific gift to operate in. Any prophecy apart from the Spirit of God is wrong, even if the word is correct.

What is prophecy used for?

Prophetic words are given to exhort, encourage, and build people up in their faith. If there is no hope within a prophetic word it is never from the Father.

It is good that you are enthusiastic and passionate about spiritual gifts, especially prophecy...But when someone prophesies, he speaks to encourage people, to build them up, and to bring them comfort.

1 Corinthians 14:1, 3 TPT

The Father is longing to lead us into all truth. He has good plans that He has prepared in advance for us to accomplish!

Each of us have a scroll in heaven with the Father’s good plans for our lives! Prophecy reveals those things to us, gives us divine direction, and gives us insight into His heart.

The gift of prophecy requires the gifts of discernment-seeing or perceiving beneath the surface to the true activity of the spirit realm- to rightly judge prophecy and can also be accompanied by words of wisdom and revelation knowledge.

Who should prophesy?

The gift of prophecy is not exclusive to those the Lord has called to be prophets. Every believer has a call on their life to prophesy. Prophecy is when God puts His message in your spirit for yourself, for others, for the Church, etc. Prophecy releases God’s now Word.

“This is what I will do in the last days- I will pour out my Spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will experience dreams from God. The Holy Spirit will come upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy.” Acts 2:17-18 TPT

What’s the difference between a prophet and operating in the prophetic?

Prophets are people God has given as a gift  to His Bride to be His mouthpiece.

“And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.”

‭‭Amos‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Lord calls prophets and sets them in their positions. This is never up to man.

Prophets do not need to be around the spirit of prophecy to prophesy. They can prophesy anytime, whereas those who are not prophets, but prophetic often need to be around the atmosphere and spirit of prophecy to receive prophetic words.

This happened twice to King Saul. We know Saul was NOT a prophet, but when he came into the presence of the atmosphere of prophecy, he began to prophesy.

“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” - Revelation 19:10

“When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, they saw a group of prophets coming toward them. Then the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy. When those who knew Saul heard about it, they exclaimed, “What? Is even Saul a prophet? How did the son of Kish become a prophet?” And one of those standing there said, “Can anyone become a prophet, no matter who his father is?” So that is the origin of the saying “Is even Saul a prophet?” When Saul had finished prophesying, he went up to the place of worship.”

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“When the report reached Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah, he sent troops to capture him. But when they arrived and saw Samuel leading a group of prophets who were prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s men, and they also began to prophesy. When Saul heard what had happened, he sent other troops, but they, too, prophesied! The same thing happened a third time. Finally, Saul himself went to Ramah and arrived at the great well in Secu. “Where are Samuel and David?” he demanded. “They are at Naioth in Ramah,” someone told him. But on the way to Naioth in Ramah the Spirit of God came even upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy all the way to Naioth! He tore off his clothes and lay naked on the ground all day and all night, prophesying in the presence of Samuel. The people who were watching exclaimed, “What? Is even Saul a prophet?””

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭19‬:‭19‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Prophecy should always contain redemption. Sometimes prophetic words can be warnings, mostly these will be words from those the Lord has called to be prophets.

Prophets are specifically called sometimes to tear down old things so rebuilding can happen whether in hearts or within institutions. We see this a lot with the Old Testament prophets.

Even so, there will always be the revealing of redemption included with the warning if it is truly from the heart of the Father. There is ALWAYS hope! God is redemptive in every way!

How do you know if a word is from

God?

Just because something sounds good doesn’t mean it’s God. We have to spend time in His Presence getting to know His voice so that we can discern His voice from all others.

Prophetic words should always be in agreement with the character of the Father and in alignment with His Word. You will get to know His character and Word better the more time you spend reading the Bible and communicating with the Father in prayer.

This is an essential part of prophecy! The Word also tells us how to handle prophetic words.

“And the same with prophecy. Let two or three prophets prophesy and let the other prophets carefully evaluate and discern what is being said.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭14‬:‭29‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel different than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“Never restrain or put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. And don’t be one who scorns prophecies, but be faithful to examine them by putting them to the test, and afterward hold tightly to what has proven to be right.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“Delightfully loved friends, don’t trust every spirit, but carefully examine what they say to determine if they are of God, because many false prophets have mingled into the world. Here’s the test for those with the genuine Spirit of God: they will confess Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh. Everyone who does not acknowledge that Jesus is from God has the spirit of antichrist, which you heard was coming and is already active in the world.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭TPT‬‬

How are we supposed to respond to prophetic words?

Bring it to your prophetic community for testing. Isolation in the prophetic never leads to health. We were designed for community!

Sometimes God may ask us to keep a word close to our hearts for a season like Mary and Elizabeth as they stewarded their promises, but oftentimes trusted prophetic community can help discern the word.

If it’s from God:

Steward the word- write it down.

Pray over it.

If it’s from God it will be fought against so we cover it with prayer from the beginning. We ask the Lord what steps we need to take in wisdom and obedience to partner with the prophecy He has given us.

If it’s from the devil:

Rebuke it. Bind it. Cast it out.

If it’s your flesh:

Ask the Holy Spirit to come in and heal what needs to be healed so you aren’t bleeding on others or yourself with prophecy.

Unhealed wounds can be spiritually messy. It’s important to take care of forgiving others, and to be walking out a sanctification lifestyle so you can prophesy from a healthy place.

If you just don’t know:

Shelve it. Write it down, pray, and wait. It may be a word for a future season.

You will find out in due time.

How to release words in due season?

Sit with the Lord and ask His timing. Sometimes what He shows you isn’t to be shared right away. This is where discernment comes in. It’s also important to be aware of delivery of prophetic words.

We are responsible to deliver prophetic words with grace, truth, kindness, and love.

What about false prophets?

Someone can give a correct word and still be a false prophet. Witches can get it right, but they’re wrong because they have the wrong spirit.

Motives matter. Getting something wrong isn’t what makes a false prophet in the New Testament, it’s prophesying from a wrong spirit.

“One day, as we were going to the house of prayer, we encountered a young slave girl who had an evil spirit of divination, the spirit of Python. She had earned great profits for her owners by being a fortune-teller. She kept following us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Great High God, and they’re telling us how to be saved!” Day after day she continued to do this, until Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit indwelling her, “I command you in the name of Jesus, the Anointed One, to come out of her, now!” At that very moment, the spirit came out of her! When her owners realized that their potential of making profit had vanished, they forcefully seized Paul and Silas and dragged them off to the city square to face the authorities.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭16‬:‭16‬-‭19‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“And when God chooses someone and graciously imparts gifts to him, they are never rescinded.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬ ‭TPT‬‬

God gives gifts without repentance. Jeremiah speaks about how he was chosen before he was even born to be a prophet of the Lord.

It’s up to us to use those giftings and callings in the right kingdom with the right Spirit.

Fortune-tellers likely would be very prophetic or prophets for God if they were in His Kingdom.

Any word that would try to manipulate would be a false prophecy. Manipulation is the definition of witchcraft.

Like Paul we need to be discerning of the spirit behind the word.

What if you get it wrong?

“During our stay of several days, Agabus, a prophet from Judea, came to visit us. As a prophetic gesture, he took Paul’s belt and tied his own hands and feet with it as he prophesied, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘The one who owns this belt will be tied up in this same way by the Jews and they will hand him over to those who are not Jews.’ ””

‭‭Acts‬ ‭21‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Agabus was a New Testament prophet who seemed to get a word wrong and was not considered a false prophet.

False prophets lead people away from Jesus, try to manipulate, distort the gospel, etc.

Everyone gets it wrong sometimes- it’s part of being human. The Bible is filled with people getting it wrong!

It’s helpful to practice. Let people know you are practicing hearing the voice of the Lord when you share with them.

Ask them to come back to you when the word is fulfilled or if it isn’t. Keep a record of the words you are giving so you can come back and keep track. It’s important to build a history in the prophetic.

Make a note of how you felt when you were prophesying- was anything significant going on for you during that time, etc. As you build a history you’ll be able to see what God sounded like when you were right, and what happened when you got something wrong.

A lot of the prophetic has to do with timing and partnership too. It’s hard to know the timing of God. I’ve quit trying to date things like that. He operates outside of time and space. Some of the prophetic words in the Bible took hundreds of years to be fulfilled and some we are still waiting on to this day! They weren’t wrong words, they were just early.

The prophetic also requires partnership. If someone is given a word that they’ll be a bestselling author, they’re going to have to sit down at some point and write a book. If they choose not to, that doesn’t make the prophecy false, it just means the person chose not to partner with it so it could come to pass.

What does it mean to activate the prophetic?

The Spirit of the Lord is within you, you just need to activate the gift of prophecy. His Word is living in you. In Hebrews He tells us it is even written on our hearts by His hand.

God can speak to us anyway He wants to- through any of our natural or spiritual senses.

-seeing-dreams, visions, manifest Presence

-hearing-audible voice of God, or the sound of your own voice but sharing Gods thoughts

-feeling-often experienced as emotion, or intuition

-smelling

-tasting

-knowing-the deep understanding that resonates in your spirit, feeling of intuition

When we surrender our senses and imagination to His Spirit, we can begin to discern the voice of God pursuing us.

Jenny Johnson

2.18.2026