God's Description Of A False Prophet
There are many ways in which the Bible defines false prophets.
False Visions
Interestingly the mention of false visions in the Bible is always coupled with "divinations" or "lying divinations". (Jeremiah 14:14, Ezekiel 12:24, 13:7, 13:9, 13:23, 21:29, 22:28) Apparently false visions are always associated with those involved in divination. Divination is covered in the next section, but it is basically assigning some kind of communication from God to things in the natural. False visions or "lying visions" is "sheqer" in Hebrew. It is defined by Strong as: lying, false, vain, wrong, deceitful, fraudulent. The Hebrew word for visions is "chazown" defined as vision, oracle, prophesy.
So a false vision is a lying vision, a wrong oracle, a deceptive prophetic dream. But the fact that it is linked to "divination" in virtually every instance gives us another clue as to what this type of false vision is all about. Certainly a vision could be a dream, something paranormal or supernatural. But this type of "false vision" seems to be linked to divination; something more like a daydream where the person is associating something they are seeing in the natural, looking for some confirming evidence of something they already desire.
Most people who call themselves "prophets" or get "prophesies" today often relate how they saw something and they just knew that God was trying to tell them something by it. For instance, they may claim to have seen a bird fly over a mountain and they assume the Lord sent the bird over the mountain to tell them that they would gain victory over the valleys of their life, or that a church would gain new members, or some similarly subjective observation. I heard a self-proclaimed prophet once tell the elders of a church before the church service that she saws a bag of M&Ms and the Lord told her this meant that though the people in the church were from many different backgrounds, that God had them all in one bag and there would be a greater measure of unity. These are just a few examples of how some notion comes into the mind of the would-be prophet and they readily begin to visualize a whole scenario, which they eventually attribute to God. This is often followed up by a public proclamation of how God "spoke" to them or the Holy Sprit "told" them something. If their assumptions are confirmed in any sense, they use it as evidence that it was a word from God, that they are a true prophet, and that the Lord speaks to them directly.
The fact is that there is not one evidence that the Lord has EVER communicated with believers in Scripture through divination or daydreams!
Yes, God has sent angels, in reality (Luke 1:26-38) and in visions and dreams (Matt. 1:20-24). He has sent dreams to convey His message to kings like Nebuchadnezzer (Dan. 2:28). He has made the prophets do things as a sign (Hosea). He has certainly spoken directly to His prophets (1 Sam. 3). He has even spoken through a donkey (Num. 22:28-30).
But today He speaks through the Scriptures which contains the Word of God through His true prophets, Apostles and Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:19-21, Heb. 1:1-2). There is no biblical evidence that He has EVER used some divination or daydream to convey His message.
When you hear someone claiming to have direct communication with God, but they are using a false vision, a daydream, and divination, you can be sure they are a false prophet!
We are not to "divine" the will of God by daydreams and visions we think we see or by what comes into our heads. We are to find the will of God through His Word. Even if, on the rarest of occasions, an angel from God shows up in your room, you must still default to the written Word for verification of any message received (Gal. 1:8, 2 Cor. 11:15). False prophets are defined by God as those who are known for their false visions.
On this basis alone you can see that people like Rick Joyner and virtually every other "prophet" in the Third Wave is a false prophet, because they traffic in false visions and divination almost constantly. When their visions are proven false, they claim they just made a "mistake". Was it then a mistake when they told people they had a message directly from God? If so, when were they going to confess their sin? False prophesy is not a mistake, it is a sin. God regards false prophets as sinners (Lam. 2:14) and fools (Is. 44:25) in need of judgment (Deut. 13:5, 18:20).
Divinations
The next word is "divinations". This word in Hebrew is "qecem" meaning divination, witchcraft, divine sentence. It is a word associated often with Balaam who led Israel astray and who was known for divination. As mentioned above, divination is linked to false visions. False prophets who prophesy and do signs and wonders are also linked closely to "diviners" (Jeremiah 14:14, Ezekiel 12:24, 13:7, 13:9, 13:23, 21:29, 22:28) .
Isaiah 44:25 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,
To "divine" something is to propose that God has spoken through the natural realm. In the occult it is usually identified with things like reading tea leaves, animal bones, bird entrails, signs in the heavens, and all manner superstitious practices. But divining is not limited to the recognized occult. It was used and is being used today as the most common method of "prophesy" in so-called Christian circles. Many modern Christians take almost anything they see or idea that comes into their heads and automatically assign some message from God to it. They do this because they are being taught by false prophets in the Third Wave to be diviners, shamen and sorcerers. In fact they go out of their way to try to notice signs and all manner of unusual things around them to try to get messages from God, when their Bibles sit idle. Usually when they perceive the answer they want in the natural or via a dream, they then credit God with that message.
The problem is that the true believers do not use divination to receive messages from God!
Again ... on rare occasions God may send an angel for a very important message effecting the whole church, or speak directly to His true prophets, but the written Word of God is the primary vehicle by which God is speaking today. And in any case, the only time God spoke to a diviner in the Bible, as in the case of Balaam, was for His own purposes and not because His will was discovered by divination or because He was summoned, invoked or ordered to appear.
God's will cannot be forced. He is sovereign. We can and should ask, seek and knock. (Matt. 7:7) But we must ask according to His will (1 John 5:14) while remaining in Christ and in His Word (John 15:7) and we must also wait on His will and answers (Ps. 27:14, 37:34, 38;15, 130:5, Lam. 3:24, Mic. 7:7)
Is. 40:31 - But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (KJV)
Divination is ultimately an attempt to control God. Therefore it is a denial of His Deity and sovereignty, and is an evil heretical practice.
Idolatries
This is a particularly interesting word to describe false prophets. It is translated in various translations as: idolatries, a thing of naught, a worthless thing, and vanity. One translation combines idolatry with divination to make the term "worthless divination". The Hebrew is "eliyl" and Strong gives it the following definitions: idol, image, no value, things of naught, good for nothing, worthless, of false gods. So it caries the meaning of worthless idols. The false prophets make the people idolatrous, following idols of no value that are worthless. Alternatively the Hebrew also uses another word "‘eluwl" with almost the same meaning: thing of naught, worthless, ineffective, worthless gods, idols.
We know from the Scriptures that idol worship is not just the worship of demons and idols made of metal, wood and stone, but idols can be anything that takes the place of God as Lord of our lives.
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
False prophets today aren't just those who lead people to worship other gods, they are those who lead people into sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. False prophets lead people into a lust for power to be able to "impart" the Holy Spirit to others and cause them to fall backwards. They teach people to be greedy by preaching confession doctrine and telling Christians they are guaranteed health and wealth. They make them impure by mixing truth with error.
The false prophets also get people to put their faith in "another Jesus", the one of Word-Faith who is not sovereign, took on the nature of Satan at the cross, had to be born again, and was only an anointed man. This is idolatry.
Delusion of their own minds
Delusion is from the Hebrew word "tormah" meaning deceit, treachery, fraud. Mind is the Hebrew word "leb" meaning heart, mind, understanding, inner man, will, heart, soul, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, seat of appetites, seat of emotions and passions, among others. This phrase is also translated "deceit of their heart" or "minds".
False prophets make up things out of the treachery, deceit, delusion of their minds, hearts, souls. They assign Godly meaning to anything that they think or that comes into their minds from without. Today in the Third Wave many people are being taught that since they are a Christian they cannot be deceived, so whatever is apparently "good" that comes into their minds must be from God. They are also being taught that if they have manifested the "anointing" they are virtually the same as Christ, therefore their mind is the same as Christ. That being the premise, they let their minds run free and claim to be in constant contact with the Lord and receiving personal messages from God on a daily basis. They claim they are prophets, in fact the Third Wave claims everyone will be a prophet soon.
The problem is that, according to the evidence in Scripture, God has never spoken to man through ideas in the mind!
The Holy Spirit can lead a person through circumstances and ideas, but God does not speak prophesy through that means. When God speaks, He speaks - either through His Word, audibly or by angels. And, of course, we are to even test any audible voice or angelic presence by the written Word of God. We have to be very careful about thinking that our thoughts are a way that God communicates to us. The reason is that we also have our own thoughts and we are often and easily self deceived. Others can deceive us and start thoughts in our heads. The enemy can also place thoughts in our minds. God can also put thoughts in our heads, but the leadings of the Holy Spirit do not constitute the biblical form of "prophesy". True prophets in the Bible received their communication from God directly or by angels, or they were expounding upon the Scriputres.
So if you see someone who is claiming a thought came into their head and they are saying it is a prophetic word from God, be aware that God calls the "delusion of their own minds" false prophesy. We are not trying to "put God in a box" here, but to allow the written Word of God to dictate the way in which God communicates to man. God is consistent, never changing. God has spoken to us, in our day, through His Son, Jesus Christ and that is written for us in the Bible. We need to understand that God is communicating to us through the written Word which holds the proven words of the prophet, Apostles, Jesus Christ and the Father.
Conclusion
Among other ways, the Lord speaks through true visions without divination, idolatry, and delusions of the mind. The Lord has not spoken through those that relay false visions using divination, who get people into idolatry and who make up things out of their deceived minds. Where you see alleged prophets into these things, you are seeing false prophesy.
The best ways to test a prophet are to (1) see if what they say comes true (2) see if what they say is biblically accurate (3) see if the way in which they got their message is biblical. Hopefully this verse in Jeremiah will give you one more tool for testing the millions of false prophets who have gone out. Be aware that true prophesy does exist today, but it is rare by comparison to false prophesy. Don't disdain prophesy, but test all prophets rigorously. Think through what they are saying, how they claim to have received the message, and whether or not it comes true. When someone like Kenneth Copeland claims that close to one billion Muslims will be saved in a matter of months, test it, even though it's obvious that it was a false prophesy from the beginning. When Hinn claims that Jesus Christ will show up bodily in His crusades, you can discount that Scripturally before he claims it happens because Jesus Christ already stated that He would come back one way and one way only. When a person comes to you or stands up in church and claims God spoke to them in a daydream, through circumstances, gets you to become greedy or lusting after power, or claims God spoke to them in their mind or heart, you would be well advised by the Lord Himself to test that person. and what they say. The chances are millions to one that they are a false prophet who is "prophesying lies in God's name" and "He did not send them or appoint them or speak to them".