(By Joseph Mattera) The prophetic movement and or prophetic leaders have perhaps been the most controversial in the body of Christ the past several decades. Some of it has to do with the fact that many people are afraid of any move of the Spirit and or criticize that which they do not understand. However, as someone who has functioned in prophetic ministry since the early 1990s, I would say that a fair share of criticism against the prophetic is warranted because of either flaky or false prophetic ministries. It is the objective of this article to attempt to bring a distinction between a flaky and false prophet. By “flaky,” I am referring to a prophetic leader who has serious flaws in their ministry, but their heart and motive is generally right before God. By a “false” prophet,
I am referring to a person who is not only erroneous in some of their methodology, but in their motive and ambition. This is the kind of person I believe Jesus was referring to when He told His followers to beware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves (Matt. 7:15). In my opinion, frequent patterns of mistakes and or subjectivity can be a sign of a flaky prophet, but a pattern of intentional deceit for self-promotion shows this particular prophetic person to be false. The former has to mature, get mentored and grow in their prophetic role—the latter has to repent, or they will face the judgment of God and be exposed or removed from their ministry. CONTINUE
