Pastor Adeboye warns pastors, Christians against prophecies

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has admonished pastors and believers to desist from giving prophecies without hearing from God.

According to him, long before the Nigerian elections in 2023, people were agitated about who would become the next president, saying they put pressure on him to tell them what the outcome of the elections would be.

He explained that even with all that pressure, he made sure not to say anything he had not heard God say because he knew that it would be a lie.

He told them a few weeks before the election, “God has still not spoken.”

Pastor Adeboye also pointed out in the latest devotional book, Open Heavens, released on Wednesday, that excitement had pushed him to give a fake prophecy some years ago when he was much younger in ministry, without waiting to hear from God.

He recalled the excitement he had about a particular airline rendering services to the ministry, which made him not wait to hear from God but went ahead and gave a prophecy that the airline would not suffer loss.

“When I was younger in ministry, I recall prophesying that a particular airline would never suffer loss because I was excited over their services to the church. I prophesied based on my feelings without hearing what God had to say.

“Not long after, the airline suffered a plane crash. I should have just prayed for them and blessed them for their benevolence, rather than giving a prophecy in my excitement. I learned my lesson from that — if God has not spoken, I do not prophesy,” he said.

Adeboye stressed this in the widely read Open Heavens family devotional book of today, September 18th, with a theme titled “True Prophecies,” drawing from the book of Ezekiel 13:1-6, while admonishing church leaders on the subject of prophecy.

Adeboye, in the devotional, said, “Whenever a prophecy is given based on feelings, that prophecy is false, and the Bible describes people who do this as fools (Ezekiel 13:3). A true prophecy is an echo of what God has said.”

His message during the devotion stressed that true prophecies come from the mind of God. A prophet hears from God and relays the message to the people.

His words for today reiterated, “Beloved, don’t be too much in a hurry to say ‘God said’ when God didn’t say anything. Don’t allow pride to push you to prophesy; prophesy only according to the will of God. Push pride aside so that you can hear God clearly.

“Until God speaks, I won’t say anything. You must become comfortable with keeping quiet when God is quiet. If you are truly His mouthpiece, when His mouth is shut, yours will be also.

“Prophecy must also be in line with the word of God. If a prophecy does not echo the word of God in the Scriptures, it is false.

“A man came to me and said, ‘I heard that you are a prophet, and anything you say comes to pass. Can you tell me my future?’ I responded, ‘That is easy. Are you born again?’ He said, ‘No.’

“Then, your future will be terrible,” I responded. He asked, ‘How do you know? You’ve not even asked for my name.’ I told him, ‘Isaiah 3:11 says, “Woe unto the wicked.”

“Anyone who has not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour is condemned already (John 3:17-18).

“A true prophecy comes from God and always aligns with His word in the Scriptures.”