The Trump prophecies and the urgent need for prophetic reformation

It is with great sadness that I have watched the rapidly accelerating demise of the mainly America-driven prophetic movement—prophecy is rapidly degenerating into entertainment, ambiguous oracles, astrology, daily horoscopes, speculation and unfulfilled prophecies that are pushed away into forgotten-land with new ‘prophecies’ whose main purpose is to make us forget the previously unfulfilled ones. 

Prophecy as propaganda: the Trump prophecies as political persuasion

There are two main reasons why the prophetic movement as a whole has become corrupt:

1) Trying to serve two masters

Looking at the prophetic movement as a whole, it is attempting to serve Jesus and money, media or politics. But Jesus says in Matthew 6:24:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Over and over again, new prophets rise who think that they will be the exception to the rule. But soon they will prove that there are no exceptions.

2) Not valuing discernment 

In one sense, number 2 is a logical conclusion from number 1 but it needs to be listed separately both as a reason and an outcome.

Why is it that the prophetic movement seems to have such a low level of accountability? Why is it that prophets don’t publicly repent when their prophecies are unfulfilled? The reason is simple: they aren’t serving the truth but money, media or politics. And if they make money, fill the necessary media slots and their political party gains from their unfulfilled prophecies, their real master is being served, hence there is no real need for an apology.

No one can serve two masters. If you are loyal to one you will despise the other.

You see, discernment has to do with truth, and discerning the spiritual source. And this gift isn’t much liked in the charismatic movement today, as we worship the supernatural without any discernment.

Take Bill Johnson who writes about William Branham who according to Derek Prince had two spirits—the Spirit of God and an evil spirit:

Bill Johnson, Senior Minister of Bethel Church, Redding, writes in Momentum,

“William Branham was an extremely humble man with a most unusual gift in miracles. If ever a man was anointed specifically for the miracle realm, it was he. The stories of trusted men and women of God of his day who watched the Spirit of God come upon this man are to be taken seriously. It is very possible that no one since Jesus Himself carried this particular measure of anointing. But he was not without faults. The strangeness of his doctrine later in life has caused many to once again 'throw out the baby with the bath-water'. It seems easier to reject a person for error than it is to learn eat the meat and throw out the bones. One response only needs an opinion; the other requires maturity.”

Now, I don't agree with the two spirit theory—a better explanation is King Saul whom God's Spirit had left but who still retained some of his positional authority given by God. But it seems to me that, in the charismatic movement, discernment has been relegated to a status of an opinion, whereas accepting supernatural in any form, regardless of the source, is considered to be maturity. If you study William Branham's life, you quickly see that most of his prophecies have been proven to be false, he ministered in freemason’s temples, his gravestone is a pyramid, and he has been credibly accused of child abuse. 

Branham was a prophet whose belief was that if he got people to believe in him (rather than God), they would be healed.

But such is a grave state of the charismatic movement that rather than calling things what they are, we need to be ‘mature’ and not voice any opinions, even when they are based on research and facts, and accept the gospel of the supernatural, rather than the gospel of Jesus. 

Fundamentally, the failure of the prophetic movement that we see today comes from trying to operate in the prophetic without valuing discernment. The gift of prophecy is a separate gift from the gift of discerning spirits, but it is impossible to operate in the prophetic successfully over a longer period of time without discernment, as operating in the prophetic makes you also generally more open to spiritual dimension.

The Trump prophecies

A case in point are the many Trump prophecies that started to come out after he had a surprise lead in ratings. 

First, Jeremiah Johnson prophesied that Donal Trump will be “God’s trumpet” because “he possesses qualities that are even hard to find in My people these days.” According to the prophecy, Trump would stand for the truth and expose darkness, and God had “given him the tender heart of a father that wants to lend a helping hand to the poor and the needy, to the foreigner and the stranger.”

Around the same time, an earlier prophecy by Kim Clement about Trump becoming the trumpet was unearthed by his friend and repurposed for presidential race.

Charisma removed the prophecy from their website after a deluge of negative criticism but it didn’t stop them from publishing another similar prophecy by Lana Vawser. This was after some charismatic leaders gathered to anoint Trump, safely after he had been leading the ratings for a few months. 

Lana's Prophetic Dream: From Trump to Triumph

I had a dream recently where I was in a political arena and I saw Donald Trump and he was passionately putting forward his policies. In this dream I could not "hear" what he was saying, I just remember seeing him speaking with great passion.

Suddenly, I was lifted above the United States of America and I saw the nation as if I was looking at a map. Written across the United States of America was the word "TRUMP" in big letters.

As I looked at this word suddenly the letters began to rearrange and the word went from "TRUMP" to "TRIUMPH." 

I then heard the Lord speak loudly in my dream "TRUMP SHALL LEAD THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO TRIUMPH!!!" 

As I was waking up out of the dream I heard the words "TRUMP SHALL LEAD THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTO VICTORY!"

As I came to the end of typing this dream I heard the words "Angels of triumph have been assigned to Trump."

What is so remarkable about this “prophecy” is that there are no references to discerning or prophetic process of interceding over the word before releasing it. It seems that it never occurs to this prophet that this dream might not have come from God at all. It is worth reading Jeremiah 23, if you aren't sure what I'm talking about.

This is a clear instance of a “prophecy” serving another master than God—politics. Although this prophecy stops short of predicting that Trump will be the President, it nevertheless attempts to give Trump a divine mandate, as if God was saying, “This is my son, and I am well pleased with him. Vote for him.”

So, here we have a religion where God has become just another political endorser rather than the Almighty God who holds the destiny of all the nations in His hands. 

You can’t serve two masters. If you serve politics, you despise God. 

I have written about the prophetic process in my book Five Movements: Winning the Battle for Your Prophetic Gift. 

I have already written about many losing their prophetic voice because of partisan politics and how the change of the media environment has affected prophecy. 

Also I have written about reasons why the prophets got 2012 elections wrong, and about how to discern when someone is a false prophet. 

Also, I’ve written about why I believe God is removing the covering from some charismatic leaders. Also, I have written about the coming money revolution. These are all topics linked to what we are talking about.

Now let me give yet another reason for the failure of the prophetic movement. We are waging pseudo battles against sin everywhere else (Obama, liberal media, church in apostasy etc.) and yet we are blind to the sin in our own camp (sexual immorality, worship of money etc.)

But when Jesus deals with sin, he comes to us first! And the first person He deals with is the minister. Malachi 3:1-3 says,  

“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.

Deceiving spirits

Often, prophetic leaders fight against deceiving spirits in the world but they are completely ignorant of the work of the deceiving spirits in the church.

We can see this complete lack of prophetic process when Rick Joyner goes on TV the day after he has seen a dream about ISIS coming to America from Mexico.

If there is one thing I have learnt is that you can’t believe just any dream. Not all dreams are from God, no matter how vidid and real they feel. The second thing I have learnt is that complex dreams, even when they are from God, take a lot of time in prayer and reflection, before they are ready to be shared.

There is absolutely no time to process a dream, if you go on TV the following day to tell it to the the world. No time to reflect on it in the presence of God.

What causes anyone to go on TV the day after? The answer is simple. The media schedule and politics have become the master rather than the slave. 

In 1 Kings 22 the kings of Israel and Judah want to go to war. But before that they consult the prophets who all prophesy victory and prosperity. 

1 Kings 22:19-23 says, 

Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.” 

As you can see here, there are deceiving spirits whose main target are the prophets. And the deeper and deeper I get into prophetic ministry, the more aware I am of their existence. I am less worried of any violent, visible attacks by the enemy, and more worried of deception I might not be discerning.  Hence I am worried for the prophets and charismatic leaders who celebrate everything that is supernatural. 

The apostle John says in 1 John 4: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Right now, the prophetic movement operates like the popular music market. New "stars" take the slot of the older stars that fail to make a new hit. Some of the older "stars" survive over decades regardless of failed prophecies. The appearing of new prophets gives an appearance that things are changing and that we are moving forward. And the benefit of "prophecy business" is that it usually takes some time before people figure out that you are a fake, or that your one successful prediction was a fluke! In the meantime, the "prophetic" entertainment industry makes a few dollars. Regardless of apparent changes, the business remains the same. But what is absent is God. 

The prophetic reformation starts when the prophetic people begin to take discernment seriously. After all, prophets are the ones who are supposed to be the specialists in discernment. That is their gift. 

Prophetic reformation starts when prophets begin to take accountability seriously. Not getting everything right might not mean that someone should shut down their prophetic ministry, but not reviewing and acknowledging mistakes means not learning from them, and that means that eventually prophets become agents of deception rather than truth. And to remain in truth, we need to able to handle the most uncomfortable of truths, including our own failure.

The prophetic reformation starts when prophets—who are supposed to be friends of God—reject any other master—money, power, politics—and make a decision to speak for one Master alone—God.

The Trump prophecies are uncomfortable to many, as they expose our lack of discernment and slavery to money, politics and media logic. But they are also an opportunity to wake up before prophets are relegated to position somewhere below soothsayers and astrologers in church.

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