In yesterday’s article I shared a dream which I had toward the end of February this year, on the same night that I had several other dreams which I felt gave me real understanding about what’s been happening in the prophetic movement (in particular with the prophets who played a role in prophesying Trump’s re-election in 2020). In this dream which we began to discuss I saw a compound raided by policemen who were looking for illegal weapons (which happened to be short-barrelled rifles). Only long barrels were permitted according to the law. I shared how I felt that the people holding the short barreled rifles represented prophetic ministries who compromised their long distance accuracy (similar to how the long distance accuracy of a shotgun is compromised when it’s barrel is sawed down). I felt like the Lord was saying that many compromised their accuracy, their honor, even their integrity for the immediate temptation to be short-sided with their prophetic words, being caught up in the emotion and excitement which the Trump wave brought. I feel the Lord is telling us that big problems in nations take decades to fix, not years, and that like Jeremiah of old we need to have a longer term vision for restoration and a turn-around just like the prophet had for Israel when they were given over to the dominion of Babylon. In today’s article we will continue this discussion, breaking down truths related to the elements of the dream, asking the Lord to help us hear and understand his word in this hour.
A WIDE SPREAD INACCURATE SHOT
I feel the shortening of the barrel, which in the case of a shotgun, refers to what we call in the prophetic movement “shotgun prophecy”. This term is used when prophets find themselves bouncing all over the place prophesying a variety of different things, on a variety of different topics, and there seems to be no discernable pattern. It’s very random, it’s all over the place, hence the term “shotgun prophecy” like how a shotgun releases a wide spread of lead pellets, especially when it’s barrel has been shortened. I feel like the Lord is addressing this issue because there has been a level of integrity and character that has been lost in this operation. Let me explain.
If you study biblical prophecy, there appears to be a lot of shotgun prophecy. But upon further evaluation you find quite the opposite to be true. Biblical prophets may seem to jump all over the place speaking to Israel in one verse, speaking to the church in another, then speaking of the coming of Messiah in the middle somewhere, but what seems like random prophecy is not random. It’s spoken mysteriously in a poetic artistic type flow, but it is the handwriting of God. The prophecy of Scripture is not random but very precise, and when you look at the prophecies from the bible which have been fulfilled according to history in a supernatural way, it becomes very clear. Take for instance the prophecies of Jesus’ first coming. What seemed like random prophetic tid bits scattered throughout the Old Testament proved to be very precise and accurate words containing key information about the birth of Messiah, the town He’d be born in, where He would flee to escape Herod’s genocide, how He would heal the sick, even how He would die upon a tree in the manner of crucifixion (even though crucifixion had not been invented as a form of capital punishment at the time of these prophecies). It’s all there, very specifically written proving to not waste any space with prophetic gibberish. I believe the Lord would tell us that the opposite is happening today in the prophetic movement.
Today we have prophetic ministry which may seem to match externally some of the prophetic styles of Scriptural prophets, that seem very random, artistic, and eccentric, but what we have in many cases is shotgun prophecy. What we have is an abundance of non-sense being flung out by prophets, and the prophets wait to see what sticks. Like a shotgun they make a lot of noise, they explode on the scene with boisterous prophetic booms, but also like the shotgun they throw so much stuff out there with such a wide spread that they’re sure to hit something every now and then just by the sure laws of probability.
If someone gets up and prophesies a ton of stuff, eventually something is going to hit, Just like if someone gets up and aims a shotgun at a target that’s not too far away, a few of those pellets are going to hit. But what’s happening today is all the prophets use the power of social media and digital platforms to “magnify” the hits, while using the power of the same platforms to minimize, and in some cases erase altogether, the misses. That’s the issue. There’s a distortion of reality when it comes to the truth about their accuracy, and I think God is using this whole season which we’ve been in to address such issues.
If a prophet is throwing out multiply words everyday for years, and within each word are hundreds of details, it stands to reason that here and there (maybe even quite often) the prophet can correlate the words/details given with current events happening in the news, or headlines coming out on the internet or in newspapers. With confirmation bias being a factor, someone can get a pretty smooth operation going with shotgun prophecy which ultimately holds no real weight in the prophetic according to God’s standards.
Tomorrow we will finish up this series based on my dream of the short-barreled and long-barreled prophets.
In His Service,
Stephen Powell
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