By Martin Luther Akor

Disclaimer: This piece is not meant to judge for judge not, that ye be not judged and with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again (Matt. 7:1-2). Take thee also notice that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can take turns (1 Cor. 14:32, New Living Translation) . However, let one prophet speak and let the others judge 1 Cor. 14: 29 .

The primary source of reference in this piece is the Holy Bible and certainly, a quick reference to Galatians 6:7 would help clear the stage.

When my pastor prophesied in Dec. 2012 that "Akuffo Addo will become Ghana's president after that election or else he is not a man of God" (Pastor Eric Asamoah, all night service, Moscow: Dec. 2012) and Prophet Obrempong Kwabena Agyei of the Jesus In All Ministry Church, Ghana prophesied that the Black Stars of Ghana will reach the semi-finals of the 2014 Fifa World Cup (http://ghanasoccernet.com/world-cup-2014-pastor-predicts-ghana-will-reach-semi-finals) , I swallowed their words without any utterance or pessimism for I believed or failed to reason beyond their words as some, if not most African believers do. Even after their predictions had failed to come to light, I was mute and feared my utterances could touch “God’s anointed” or “His prophets”.

Then came several other prophecies and recently that of Prophet T.B. Joshua who predicted that he had seen Hillary Clinton win by a slim margin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Kxz4Pp_r4). The ‘man’ of God, as some believers prefer to call him and other religious leaders alike, further proceeded to post on his official Facebook webpage to reiterate the revelation that he had received apparently from “God” (see image below).

For reasons best known to Prophet T.B Joshua, the above post has vanished to an unknown destination (source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37924086 )

Being a proponent of some of the views shared by the Democratic Candidate Clinton and wanting to see her become the 45th POTUS, I received the prophesy with so much excitement and in fact was very confident that Hillary had won in advance especially when a confirmation is coming from the one and only Prophet T. B Joshua – a man who had succeeded in predicting the outcome of several events (if the various official Facebook posts and videos are anything to go by).

Some were probably a little bit smart to add certain preconditions to Hillary clinging on to the American throne. (Rev. Owusu Bempah: 2016) . Even after his prediction had not yielded fruit, I held unto my breath and sighed for I did not want to touch God’s anointed and do His prophets any harm (Psalm 105:15). But how can I identify God’s anointed and how do I identify His prophet(s), I inquired.

Francis Bacon is quoted to have said that “scientia potentia est” literally meaning knowledge is power (Bacon, Meditationes Sacrae:1597). "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge....," so sayeth also the Book of Hosea chapter 4 verse number 6. I decided therefore to do a pilot research as to why some so-called prophecies do not come to pass or better still as to how to differentiate between God’s spoken words and man’s deceptive prediction(s).

Unknowns to me, my thirst to know the truth would give me much more than I envisaged and would give unto us (believers) a very simple but yet detailed and non-philosophical guideline as to which revelations are from God and which are not. For those of us who are yet to come to the utmost conclusion as to whether or not T. B Joshua lied or perhaps did not hear from God, perhaps a quick glance at 1 Cor. 14:33 KJV would enlighten us before the truth is finally revealed. Yes! you saw it that indeed God is not the author of confusion. So then by their fruit you shall know (Matthew 7:16, KJV).

Perhaps Deut. 18:21(KJV) asks the same question some of us may still be puzzling about: “and if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken”?

Do we have an answer? Yes! the verse 22 goes on to say that “when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follows not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Let them continue to prophesy and surely Deuteronomy will give us the light to see through the path and let thee reading take some seed out of this.
And maybe one need not to talk about the message in the verse 20 of the aforesaid citation (Deut 18) as we all have sinned and have fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23). Amen!

Writer's e-mail: mlakor.92@gmail.com