L-R: Apostle Gerald M. Rovis, Apostle Charles Tumwine and Pastor Charles Kasibante. COURTESY PHOTO.
We are living in a time where the prophetic ministry has been “tainted.”
This is according to Apostle Charles Tumwine who encourages that Holy Spirit led and anointed prophetic utterances must conform to God’s word.
The founder of New Life Harvest Church International explained during a Facebook live presentation hosted by Pastor Charles Kasibante of Destiny Matters that it is crucial for Christians to know if a prophetic word is from the Holy Spirit, the flesh or a contrary spirit.
Quoting Matthew 13 in which Jesus taught the parable of the wheat and the tares, Apostle Tumwine said “a prophet that is not trained can kill an entire generation,” as some often resort to divination, he continued.
“When we teach about the prophetic, we speak about the spirit of hijack, People start well in any gift, but along the way, because of the absence of mentorship, and training and submission, the gift can be hijacked,” he said, quoting Acts 16:16–24.
In the mentioned scripture, a slave girl in Philippi was being used by her owners as a seer or fortune teller.
The young woman was possessed by a demon who rightly identified Paul and Silas as “slaves of the Most High God” who have come to reveal “a way of salvation.” However Paul rebuked her because the foundation and source of her ability was not Christ, it was a demon.
Apostle Tumwine urged that Christians need to recognize counterfeits in the prophetic ministry, as Paul felt this spiritual discernment. He further detailed how some ministers today are using spiritual gifts for personal benefit or selfish gain.
“The line between divination and true prophecy is so thin that if you are not so careful, you could not see it,” Tumwine said.
Can someone be in church and yet still operate under a false spirit?
Apostle Gerald M. Rovis who also graced the live presentation urged that one can have a gift, but operate under a wrong influence.
“Submitting your gift to a trainer or mentor is ok. I don’t think that if someone is mentoring you, they are worried about you being greater than them,” Pastor Charles Kasibante stated.
Apostle Rovis and Tumwine addressed tendencies of ministers to ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit and utter words that please the listeners because they are under pressure.
“The danger is that the prophets in our days want to take it deeper, they want to give a time line to a prophetic word. They want to cause impression to the listeners. And when the prophecy doesn’t come to pass in the time they articulated, they are labelled false prophets,”
“When you have a gift without character, it is witchcraft. Divination will come in because the prophet is not sensitive to the people,” Tumwine said.
The preachers explained that a delay in the fulfillment of a prophetic word doesn’t nullify a prophet. “Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Malachi (who bridges the old and new testament), they never saw the birth of Christ.”
The also addressed the purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and noted that Christians must guard not only against false prophets, but be wary of false interpreters of prophecy.
They revealed that it is the Holy Spirit who gives God’s prophecies, and only with the aid of the Holy Spirit can we understand prophecy aright.
