Scripture or prophesy?

Let me explain a scenario to help you undersatnd what I mean. I currently worship in a Baptist fellowship :-(. The pastor is very open to prophetic words etc. but his Scriptural teaching is often flawed. A friend, who has really been my WOF mentor, said that she is no longer so bothered by his teaching but is really pleased about his openness to the prophetic cos she feels that's more important especially in terms of attracting unbelievers. Now, I am very open to all things prophetic and have experienced dreams, visions and angelic encounters myself BUT I cannot give anything more importance than the word of God. I am unaware of any biblical references to back up how I feel but I just was curious as to what you all think on this subject?

Lv Heather x

P.S. I am not sure this is entirely WOF topic but I have posted here as I am only interested in what like-minded people have to say!!!

The Word of God always is our highest authority. Every prophetic word must be judged against the known will of God (the Bible). There are churches and ministries that put an undue emphasis on the "prophetic" and by that I mean, it is often the focus of all their ministry. The simple gift of prophecy is for edification, exhortation, and comfort (1 Cor 14:3), not for divining the will of God for the individual.

Thats not to say that there are no personal prophecies, because there are. But the Bible teaches us that "as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God" (Rom 8:14). As Christians, we are to seek God for ourselves, and be led by the inward witness, not by another mans inspiration. There is a time and place for that. But when young or immature believers seek after leadings other than the written Word and the inward witness, they become vulnerable to much error.

If a person lacks a solid Biblical foundation, then they would do well to avoid a lot of external leadings, because they have nothing to measure it against in their heart. Many cults and heresies have been started by someones angelic visitation, or personal prophecy they received. For example, if Joseph Smith had been at our church when he was visited by the "angel" boni maroni, we could have shown him from the Word how invalid that experience was, and prevented him from starting the Mormon church.

Ok, I feel like I'm off on a tangent and not sure if I addressed your question or not!

THanks!

Think that is all helpful. It's pretty much how I feel about it all. There is always the risk with prophetic stuff that our own human side gets muddled in and so I always look to the word to back up anything that I hear or that others speak to me.

Think if we become so focussed on this kind of stuff then it's very easy to start seeking after experience instead of God!