I’ve mentioned in one previous article the issues around Shawn Bolz and specifically false claims of prophecy when it comes to words of knowledge that were apparently based upon social media data mining. Now, as it happens, I think that there is a potentially charitable view of how someone could get into such a situation. I can see how someone might start out having genuine prophetic insights but then the pressure to deliver, to have those big words of knowledge, week in, week out might kick in. In such a scenario, you can see how someone might be tempted to start to rely on some resources like social media and convince themselves that this is okay.
Yet, this begs the question about where that pressure would come from. It seems to some extent that the supposedly supernatural insights were the stamp of authentication giving this man permission to go on and speak into people’s lives. What we are also hearing is that some of the advice he gave, dressed up as prophetic words was outright destructive and wrong.
And this begs a further question. This is the elephant in the room. How have we reached the situation where people, in large numbers opt to take the advice of a man on a platform in a large auditorium because that man is able to give them some facts and stats about themselves? Surely the test of what he had to say was not in whether he knew your postcode but whether the advise was itself wise and in line with God’s Word. Why were his words prioritised over the words of those who knew the people and were walking the journey of life with them. That might be good friends and relatives, small group leaders and/or the elders and pastors that were responsible for them.
This is not about the rights and wrongs of a prophetic gift. I believe in prophecy and have seen it’s value. Rather, it is first about how we discern and check what people say and secondly about the kinds of people we prioritise. Do we prioritise the celebrity with the small ‘c’ charismatic flare or do we prefer the solid safety of the local church?
Faithroots 
Hi Dave,
I don’t believe we’ve ever met, but I have appreciated your thoughtful blog posts from time to time.
In my view, there is another (related) major elephant in the room – one that I first saw clearly articulated somewhere when someone was discussing Mike Pilavachi.
How is it that, time and again, these frauds are exposed through ordinary methods, after many years? (As Mike Winger did here). Given that they are, supposedly, moving in circles in which there are people with an extraordinary gift of discernment from the Holy Spirit, such as enabled Peter to know by immediate revelation that Ananias was lying to him without any further investigation, why were they not previously exposed at any point during that time?
Note that this question doesn’t require anything more than that there is one single individual with a gift of supernatural discernment around. It doesn’t matter if many or most such claims are false; as long as there is just one legitimate person around, that is all that is needed. (Neither is this question any sort of criticism of Mike Winger or anyone else, for using ordinary means).
And yet, these frauds manage to go from church to church, conference to conference, building their platforms and names, apparently without the slightest fear of being exposed. They don’t, it would seem, themselves believe that there’s a single person who is going to exercise such a gift to reveal the reality of their sin; not even one. They believe and act in the confidence that no such person exists, or at least, that they will never encounter one, no matter how many years they operate for.
Somehow, if we suppose that there are some, somewhere, then it seems like God hides all the actual frauds from them, and leaves their exposure to people working through ‘ordinary means’. But what is the point of such a gift if it never gets used – what kind of gift is that?
As I say, this is not just the case here with Shawn Bolz and Mike Pilavachi; it’s the norm. I am not an expert on the history of the charismatic movement; but are you aware of one single well-known figure, who was actually a spiritual fraud, who has been stopped, exposed and then judged, New Testament-style, by a word of supernatural discernment? If the Holy Spirit is present today through direct words of knowledge, discernment and/or prophecy, then how can these things be?
If this is not an elephant in the room, I find myself wondering what might qualify as one.
Thank you!
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thank you David, an excellent point and question. Yes it is an elephant in the room. I would put it alongside the issue if a lack of verification of healings. I wrote as a charismatic! Some quick thoughts
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