Dangers of prophetic seeing: sexual sin

One major danger that comes with prophetic seeing is that we can often see people the way Jesus sees them—but we aren’t Jesus. Once the anointing lifts we are left with an impression of beauty and false sense of intimacy that can make us vulnerable in the area of sexuality. Being tempted in the area of sexuality isn’t uncommon, but what makes the prophetically gifted people particularly vulnerable to sexual sin is the false security that comes from seeing into someone’s soul with Jesus’ eyes.

In Luke 7 Jesus is invited to eat with the Pharisees, and a woman comes to wash his feet with her tears and hair.

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,  and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’” (Luke 7:36-39)

Jesus let her wash His feet with her tears precisely because He was a prophet. Unlike the Pharisees, He could see into her heart, and He could see all the beauty hidden in it. He knew that she was desperate for forgiveness and He released it into her life. 

When you begin to see with Jesus’ eyes, you will begin to see so much beauty. John 3:16 says,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

I believe that God loves people simply as He finds us loveable. This is hard for us to understand, as we have preached so much about sin. Yes, sin is a reality, but so is the fact that God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son for us. It is hard for us to understand that in God’s eyes all people are beautiful.

In my book Five Movements: Winning the Battle for Your Prophetic Gift I tell a story about a demon-possessed woman I once prayed for. Once her possession was lifted, what was under felt like a beautiful little girl. For a moment I could see her the way Jesus saw her. And she was beautiful.

But that ability to see people the way God sees them—their beauty and potential—is both a blessing and a curse.

Often, when I pray for people, I can see them the way God sees them. And they are all beautiful, even when some need more deliverance and redemption than others!

Sometimes, when I pray for a married couple, the prophetic gift gives me the ability to see deeper into the woman’s heart than her husband has ever seen. In a way, I know them more intimately than the person they have been married to for years. But that is false intimacy, for it’s not really I who’s seeing but God; I only feel the intimacy God desires to have with that person.

In those situations I will always try to bring the husband into the prophetic promise spoken over her, and lead her toward genuine intimacy with her husband. 

At other times I pray for an individual woman. It doesn’t matter that it is a public space, and we are surrounded by many people. God doesn’t know anyone less just because they are in public space.

It is all good when I am full of anointing. But what happens when the anointing lifts? And although the Holy Spirit won’t ever leave us, the anointing will ebb and flow simply because we are unable to bear the fullness of it 24/7.

We are left with a beautiful impression of someone—and a false sense of intimacy that can open our heart to deception.

Not one of us is sinless. We all suffer from sin in our body, spirit and soul. The apostle Paul writes,

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Romans 7:18-19)

Added to that, the enemy will attack us relentlessly through violence, seduction and deception.

I don’t think that most people understand the dangers related to spiritual intimacy. For a moment, we act as mediators of God’s love so that the purposes of the Father would be released and fulfilled into someone’s life. This has an effect in the natural, as people begin to see us in better light than they should. They will trust us more. But our flesh is never trustworthy, and we must reject any false intimacy in our lives. For the intimacy people have experienced was never with us but through the Holy Spirit with the Father.

What is paradoxical about this is that without seeing other people with God’s eyes we would never ever be tempted; we would never have seen the beauty in the first place! Spiritual intimacy is beautiful. It is also dangerous because it can fool us. The list of prophets who have been destroyed because of sexual sin is long.

How can you protect yourself?

Many people have a long list of regulations when it comes to ministering to people of the opposite sex. Today, they should also apply the same list to ministering to people of the same sex! But although there are some sensible precautions everyone should take, such as not ministering to anyone one-to-one in private space, I’d rather challenge people at the area of the root cause—our way of seeing.

Paul said to Timothy: “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers,  older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.” (1 Timothy 5:1-2)

Paul reminds Timothy that each Christian is part of our family, hence Timothy should always see them as such. If you see someone as your sister, you will always protect her—even from yourself. It is important to understand that anointing itself doesn’t protect us, but the way we see other people.

Pedophiles have stopped seeing children as children; instead they have begun to see children as sexual objects. This kind of seeing has always demonic root. But we must be careful with all kind of seeing, even when the sin in it is not immediately obvious.

Many years ago God showed me a vision. I account for that vision in my book Five Movements: Winning the Battle for Your Prophetic Gift.

“I saw a realistic vision when I was twenty-four. I was in the kitchen of my flat in Finland when something like a short movie clip suddenly filled my sight. In the movie clip, I looked around thirty-five. I stood on a large stage in a large auditorium, wearing a white shirt and navy trousers. I felt like time-travelling! A little girl climbed on the stage. I asked her, ‘What do you want?’ I felt the compassion Jesus had for her. I knew that I had the power to give her whatever she needed.”

Through this vision God let me feel and experience His compassion, but He also showed me how I should perceive the people He’d send my way—like my daughter.

I don't have a daughter but I have a son—and I'd die to protect him. You should always pray for other people as if they were your brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. That will always restore the way you should see them.