So your friends accept it too?
Now I feel really alone! Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that you all have friends who accept online prophecy, but I wonder why I don't have people in my life like that.
This morning, I really feel anger stirring up over my pastor for taking away the encouragement I got from people here. Imagine that, in a time that you need encouragement the most, and you receive it, someone tells you to trash it because no matter how applicable the encouragement is, it comes from a stranger!
My pastor needs some prayer, if you guys don't mind. I'm in the process of writing him a long letter to explain why his attitude is not right and how he has deeply wounded me. Also pray for me because I'm really scared that I'm going to blow up at my pastor someday.
but i am led to respond to it in general, because someone may read this and be interested, and it is something that i know about. so please do not feel that i am trying to give advice to you personally. i am not a minister or a pastor, just a sister who has lived.
pastors are watching for our souls, that is what the Bible says about them. if you have a good pastor, he is doing the best he can to look out for your best interests. it does not mean that he knows or understands all things. i don't take every word that i receive to my pastor, although i do tell him some of them, and he is one who will listen and discern everything. he even taught us to keep our eyes open when somebody is giving us a word so that we will hear it completely, we need all of our senses to be open to God. don't start shouting and praising and saying Amen while they are talking, but listen, listen...and listen again to everything they say, then pray about it to make sure it is from God.
he will be the first one to tell you that he is not quick to jump on the bandwagon of anything that he has not tested out for himself by the Bible, and that is a good thing.
someone spoke a word to me once that did not completely agree with my spirit, and i told him about it. he said "it was late...!" i am blessed to have a pastor who understands the prophetic and also does prophesy when God leads him. he does not believe in receiving prophesy from people he does not know either. if i told him that someone prophesied to me online, his eyes would probably get really big,

and he would say nothing, or he would ask me specifically about the content.
i have e-mailed him words of encouragement that i have read online and he said "thanks! i needed that one". so, it all depends on the pastor, and what he believes.
if your pastor does not believe in online prophecy, then don't hold it against him. you really don't have a right to blow up at him because of what he believes is protecting you, and if a word is really from God, keep it in your heart, and meditate on it like Mary when the angel spoke to her about Christ. you or anyone else would be out of line for writing him a letter telling him about his attitude, when maybe it is yours that you should be checking. sorry to say that, but somebody may think that is the way to go and it's not. he may not fully understand, but he is still the pastor and he has to answer to God for whatever he allows or gives consent to.
no one can take what you don't give out. it's good to share things with the pastor, on the other hand, some things you can hold onto for a time, at least until they come to pass.
the information superhighway is full of drivers, some are good, some are reckless, some should not drive. it is not a bad idea to err on the side of safety.
let me share one more thing about pastors and what they think. i am a trained dancer. when i first started going to my church, i was dancing at my seat during praise and worship having a good time, just me and God. one of the men who i thought was an elder (i later found out he was a choreographer) pulled me out of the congregation and up to the front of the church and said "go forth" and there i was, dancing away in front of the whole assembly. i thought i was in big trouble when he stepped aside from the pulpit to watch...later on when i spoke with him he began to question me about what happened. he admitted that he did not understand it, although he believed it was from God and told me to do a study on it and explain it to him. later on when i did, he admitted that i had given him the clearest explanation about what prophetic dance was.
if i had gotten upset with him i would have messed up any further opportunity to talk again, and he would not understand something that he did not know.
blessings to all
and Merry Christmas
bithiah2