I think you get the term "prophecy" mixed up a lot Oscarr.
There is prophesying, and there is prophecy.
The gift of prophesying only provides Edification, Exhortation, and Comfort. Either to the individual with the gift, or as a ministry in the corporate setting.
The predictive type prophecy is by a revelation gift (because it is revelation), and that would be the word of wisdom.
I agree with you. I just downloaded a document by Earnest Gruen, a Charismatic pastor about the "Aberrent Practices and Teachings of the Kansas City Fellowship. It features the scandal surrounding the double life of Mike Bickle. It is very enlightening and saddening that so many people were deceived and harmed through the false prophecies of Paul Cain and Bob Jones.
This shows that we really do need to take the Apostle John very seriously when he says, "Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
During my 11 years in the Pentecostal movement, I gave many prophecies, including personal ones, but I knew not to give directional or predictive ones. This is because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to give us personal direction and prophecy does not overrule that, except to confirm or deny a direction already given in the indwelling Spirit of the person.
But in the light of the revelation that the NAR prophets have been exposed as false, that made me nervous because I had compiled quite an extensive library of books on the prophetic, many written by these same prophets. Although almost all the information given in these books was good wisdom about the prophetic, I worried that the .099% of the "rat poison" in them might be making any of my prophecies tainted. I am still having discussions with the Lord about this. I have written a book on prophecy and tongues, but to date after having a re read of the book, I can see nothing to amend concerning what I have written there. I believe that what I have written about prophecy and tongues is totally consistent with Scripture. (I could send you a copy of that book if you like).
I had the same struggle with tongues until I had it out with the Lord and He told me, "I wrote a whole chapter showing you how and when to speak in tongues, and are you going to believe my Word or not?" I asked Him what to base my faith on, and He said, "1 Corinthians 14:2. that sums it up for you. Base your faith on that verse and you can't go wrong." So that is how I know that when I pray in tongues, I am using the gift in a genuine manner and although it might sound like gibberish to me, I have the confidence that it doesn't sound that way to God.
So, I think I am on the same page as you concerning the correct use of prophecy. My "holiness" old school Pentecostal pastor, after a conference where he heard me give several prophecies and interpretation of tongues, at the tea table, got his big black Bible out and said, "Paul, we need to speak to you about those prophecies." I thought, "Oh, here we go..." expecting to be rarked up about them. Instead he commended me, and said I have a genuine gift and I should never let it go. That was a badge of honour coming from that man knowing how strict he was about the correct use of the Spiritual gifts.
I remember once when I remarked about "this tongues business" he rebuked me so hard I thought I was getting a new part in my hair! He said that tongues was a very holy and sacred gift and I should never take it lightly. He has a spiritual warfare tongue that could almost take the paint off the ceiling, and when it happened in a meeting on the two occasions I was present with him, the glory came down and the most hardened people were off their seats, on their knees, getting right with God. Once I experienced that happening, it spoiled me for everything else.
It was a pity that I walked away from my original prophetic vision andleft his church when I got married and went to my wife's church which was a more modern Charismatic church and after seven years became so disillusioned that I left the movement altogether. If I had stayed at my pastor's church, I might still be a Pentecostal today. He died in the late 1970s, and when I went through my storm and stress years during the 1980s, I ditched all my Charismatic mentors and went it "alone", making a general hash of things. When I came right side up again and joined the suburban Presbyterian church in Auckland after 6 years of not going to church, my old pastor's discipleship training came back to me, showing that his teaching stood the test of time.
So I hold to the prophetic and the gift of tongues the way my old pastor discipled me. This is why I am opposed to the modern prophetic taught and practiced by the NAR and Word Faith movement, because it is so different to the way I was trained by a faithful pastor who was a man of prayer and of the Word, who knew how to bring the glory of God down in a meeting, causing general repentance and people getting right with a holy God.
