Eighteen months ago, televangelists Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis infamously defended their use of private jets on the grounds that they wouldn't be able to hear from God on a regular airline. On an edition of Copeland's Believers Voice of Victory TV programme in December 2015, the pair discussed how flying in their own planes allows them – as prophets who often receive direct messages from God – to respond instantly to the Lord's call at 10,000 feet, where they simply wouldn't be able to do so flying economy. Duplantis explained how he once had to unbuckle his seatbelt in mid-air in order to talk with God. 'You couldn't have done that over an airline,' Copeland remarked.
This month, pastor and prophetic teacher Rick Joyner suggested that the world is about to see a new wave of mega-prophets, able to see directly into the near future and correctly predict it. At a 'School of the Spirit' seminar at his MorningStar Church in Jackson Mississippi, Joyner suggested that the world will soon see a new group of prophets who will 'exceed anything that was done by the Old Covenant prophets'. These people, Joyner suggests, will be able to see ahead so accurately, they'll be able to produce newspapers which report the news a week in advance, and even correctly predict sports scores.
Joyner even claims to have experienced a foretaste of this kind of prophetic accuracy in the past, when he and Bob Jones – a fellow prophetic teacher – received the correct scores of baseball's World Series before a pitch was thrown. 'We were having a conference when the World Series was going on,' he claims, 'and Bob and I both got some of the scores before the games were played.' He says they wrote them down and hid them, because they 'didn't want anyone gambling on them'.
It might be easy to sneer at comments like these, but let me begin by saying that I absolutely believe in modern-day prophecy. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 as one of the key spiritual gifts that are given to the church (including saying that we should 'earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy'), and millions of Christians have experienced it first hand.
The problem though is that those who practise prophetic ministry often like to try to mystify it. In the case of Copeland and Duplantis, they can turn it into an elite gift, only truly available to the most important and 'significant' leaders (like themselves). They need private jets because the Lord calls to them almost as he called to Samuel, and by implication that's not the sort of thing that happens to the rest of us travelling in coach.
The issue with Joyner's claim (perhaps made after dozing off to a re-run of Back to the Future 2) is that it suggests a pretty extra-biblical view of prophecy. While Jesus does make a general claim that we 'will do even greater things' than he did (John 14:12), there's never a mention of prophetic accuracy being improved to the point that we can start predicting sports scores. In fact, the kind of activity Joyner describes is more akin to Christian fortune-telling, and while the spiritual gifts are by nature supernatural, they're not magic tricks. God doesn't turn us into wizards by his Holy Spirit; rather we're accessing the divine and limitless power of God himself. Not only do I find the sport results story a bit tasteless, I also think it can unhelpfully subvert our view of what prophecy really is.
In the Old Testament, prophecy appears to be the revelation of God's future, secret plans to a select group of prophets (as explained in Amos 3:7). But after Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to take his place, New Testament prophecy appears to be much more democratic, a gift from God that all of us should eagerly desire and which by implication then is available to all and any of us. In that section of 1 Corinthians 14 when Paul addresses it specifically, he says that "the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort" (verse 3) and says that anyone who does so 'edifies the Church' (verse 4).
In other words, Paul's definition seems incongruous with both the televangelists' elitist, Old Testament version of prophecy, and indeed with the kind proposed by Rick Joyner, who thinks a wave of Christian psychics are going to be able to accurately predict lottery numbers, tell you what's coming up in the news and – perhaps most tellingly – answer our great uncertainties about the future.
Prophecy is for strengthening, encouraging and comfort. These are three positive outcomes, all of them designed to build up individuals and the Church. To reduce prophecy to God-ordained fortune-telling is just spiritualism by another name.
Excitingly though, prophecy isn't just the domain of super-prophets, whether they happen to fly in private jets or predict the Super Bowl. Instead, it's something that every one of us can explore and engage with, because God wants to build up and encourage his beloved people – all of us – and this is a practical, everyday supernatural way in which he does it.
It's not rocket science, and while Pastor Joyner has a lot more experience in training others in it than me, I'd suggest that Paul's instructions are simple. We ask God for the gift, and we listen for his voice, in case he might want to encourage, strengthen or encourage others through us. God speaks, and he can speak to and through all of us. Let's not make it weird.
Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders.
