What the Presidential Election Revealed About the State of the Prophetic Movement

Early in the morning on Election Day, I released a prophetic word titled: “On Election Day, a Kingdom Will Be Toppled.” The next morning, the Holy Spirit told me the Jezebel curse had been broken off America.

With that, Brandon Showalter, a Bethel graduate and a new reporter over at the Christian Post, called to talk to me about the prophetic ministry in light of the presidential election. Below is part of that discussion from his article: “What Was the Role of Prophecy in the 2016 Election?”

“I think one of the reasons why people have disregarded many modern prophetic voices is because of the clamor and the renegade people who call themselves prophets who aren’t really prophets; or those who are really immature prophets who aren’t letting their words be judged before releasing them and therefore missing it badly,” I told Brandon.

Brandon wrote: “Many non-Pentecostal Christian denominations do not have a theological grid for the prophetic because they hold to cessationism, the doctrine (that) states that the supernatural gifts of the spirit, like prophecy, ceased with the death of the last apostle or when the Canon of Scripture closed. Even those who do believe that the gifts continue today are commonly functionally cessationist because often little equipping is done and even less space given in public services for this to be practiced. These views are reinforced when the abuse of such supernatural gifts appear, of which there is no shortage via televangelists.”

I shared with Brandon how several Christians staunchly asserted God told them Hillary Clinton was going be the next president, while others were equally insistent that the Lord said that Trump would emerge the winner. 

What did I make of this, he asked?

“Clearly, now we see someone wasn’t hearing correctly,” I told him. “Now, I wonder, will those people come out and repent and say, ‘You know what? I missed it.'”

But I also told him I think the fact that Trump did win, “should open the eyes of those who were on the fence about modern-day prophetic unctions. It should confirm to those who have long believed in the prophetic and that we can have accuracy.” 

“From here we have a real opportunity to say, ‘You know what, the prophetic is real; prophets really are for today. Let’s take another look and do some equipping,” I told him. “Let’s teach believers how to hear the voice of God, how to discern, how to judge a prophetic word. We have an opportunity in this moment to do Ephesians 4:11-12.”

In conclusion, I told Brandon: “I think we have to handle the prophetic realm with integrity, we have to let our peers, our contemporaries judge the word if it is going to be impactful and speak to something of this nature, we have to have accountability. And if we would all do that you would see a lot of this flaky stuff being rooted out of the prophetic and people would take it more seriously.”