How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet?

My mentor taught me this three-step method when it comes to prophesying:

1.) Does it line up with Scripture?
2.) Does it line up with God's principles?
3.) Does it give you peace?

The third one may be hard to understand. A few pieces of Scripture that comes to mind are 2 Chronicles 20:15, Deuteronomy 31:6, and Jeremiah 29:11.

I hope this helps. Take care, stay safe, and God bless!

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

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Hananiah (false prophet) vs. Jeremiah (true prophet)

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

Click to expand...

James Chapter 3 last half speaks of the two types of wisdom, from heaven, and from hell. The qualifying factor is the quality of the interactions when speaking.

There hasn't been a real prophet since Malachi, and possibly John the Baptist as a prophet appointed kings, and Jesus would fall in that category.

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

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In Deuteronomy 13:4-5, they way that God instructed His people to determine that someone was a false prophet who was not speaking for Him was if they taught against obeying the Mosaic Law.

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

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Our Lord answered, in Mathew chapter 7. I strongly recommend the entire chapter, to help understand. Then Galatians chapter 5 from verse 13 on.


Matthew 7 NIV

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

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A real prophet will base their prophecy on the testimony of Jesus Christ.

A false prophet may even be correct in their prediction, but will draw people's eyes away from Jesus.

Jonah: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Didn't happen But Jonah wasn't a false prophet because he didn't point the people away from God.

Sometimes the lesson is - will we obey what we're told

All the above plus emphasis on the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

2 Peter 2:15 (KJV) Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

Jude 11 (KJV) Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of people who try to be prophets in the church. And often due to a lack of understanding they prophesy incorrectly. Don't ever link a false prophecy to a person's salvation, a saved person can falsely prophesy. But we need to stop listening to a person's "prophecies", if they say "the LORD said", and the thing did not come to pass. Also, God's plans for us are good, if the prophecy predicts our doom, it is likely false.

Why do people think they are to be prophets? They were specifically told to forward the good news of the Kingdom, that God would once again govern them, with no more governance of man. Forwarding a prophecy is not the same as acting all prophetic. We forward His good news, not make it up as we go along.

I'd say, false prophets always address issues of the flesh, e.g " You will get rich by such & such a time, you have been bewitched by your great aunt or you will buy a house by the end of the year. On the other hand, true prophets are always out to win souls for Christ. Their sole purpose is to enlighten and enrich the spirit man, in preparation for the kingdom of heaven, because the power of God is alive in them.

splish- splash said:

On the other hand, true prophets are always out to win souls for Christ. Their sole purpose is to enlighten and enrich the spirit man, in preparation for the kingdom of heaven, because the power of God is alive in them.

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But that is a misnomer. Prophets give direct commands from God and named kings. Hasn't been one since the Baptist. Today's brand that like to call themselves that are posers, and perhaps should stick to messengers.

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

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Test it's spirit with the word of God and discernment of the Holy Spirit. You can't know for sure if you are not led by the Holy Spirit.

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

Click to expand...

Is his name Emmanuel Macron?

One easy way to tell:

"And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'-- when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him." - Deuteronomy 18:21-22

That doesn't mean that everyone who makes a prediction that comes true is a prophet of God, but it does mean that if a prediction does not come true, then God did not speak his will to or through that person.

Similarly, if the received message is a command to worship another god, or to assassinate someone or molest someone, that is not from God either. God has already given us firm commands in the New Testament to avoid idolatry, witchcraft, murder, sexual immorality, harm to one's neighbor, and harm to children. God will not tell his people to break these commands that he has given to us.

If the received message is contradictory to the revealed nature and will of God, such as what Mohammed received when Islam was being founded, that is also not of God. Denying that Jesus came in the flesh is another example of a message that is not from God.

And if it's something like "God told me that you need to give me $1000 dollars," that's most likely not divine instruction, but manipulation.

LuvJesus87 said:

How can you tell a false Prophet from a real Prophet? I need to tell this to my friend. Give me example of a false one vs. a real one.

Click to expand...

A false prophet is one who claims to speak for God - about future events, typically - and whose prophecy(ies) fail to come to pass. This makes many - if not all - modern day "prophets" false ones.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22
20 'But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.'
21 "You may say in your heart, 'How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'
22 "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

For a clear example of a false prophet, read Jeremiah 28 where the story of the false prophet Hananiah is recounted.

Today, God has given to us His word in which we find all we need to know about His will and way, about how to walk well with Him.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

As possessors of God's word, we have no need of "prophets." By Scripture, we are "equipped for every good work." And so, as others have likely already told you, one of the ways today you may distinguish a false prophet is by their departure from Scripture and their unwillingness to be under its authority, setting their own proclamations on par - and even above - the Bible.

I would say, as well, that a promotion of the sensual is also a mark of the false prophet.

James 3:14-18
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.
15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Jude 1:17-19
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, "In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts."
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

A man (or woman) proclaiming himself a prophet who acts to divide the Body of Christ, creating strife and disorder within a local community of believers, who seeks to elevate himself, who urges other believers to a sensual pursuit of God (constant high emotion, sensual practices: "toking the Spirit," being "drunk in the Spirit," etc., being slain in the Spirit, fire corridors, and so on) and who acts, in word and deed, to draw attention to superficial, fleshly things (physical appearance, charisma, wealth, enjoying worldly pleasures, etc.) is clearly a false prophet.