I’ve seen a troubling trend in the prophetic movement—a spirit of divination is masquerading as the Holy Spirit. There’s such a fascination with the gifts of the Spirit in this hour—particularly the gifts that know something and the gifts that say something—that many don’t stop to consider the spirit behind the words or the motive of the person releasing the impressive prophetic utterance.
Time and time again, I’ve seen people’s jaws literally drop when someone can tell them when their birthday or their name (or the last four digits of their bank account number… scary!). People will stand for hours watching people operate in prophetic gifts, perhaps hoping they are next to receive a revelation. Sadly, a failure to unknowingly judge the source of the gifts of the Spirit leading many to idolize diviners instead of the Divine One.
Case in point: I recently saw one prophetic pretender manifest with what looked like King Nebuchadnezzar madness in an online video. He was singing mocking words about curses and vindication with a crazed look in his eyes that grieved my spirit.
The number of people who laughed and cheered him on in the lunacy was not only shocking, it was yet another confirmation of the lack of discernment in the Body of Christ—and how many blindly follow personalities instead of following the Person of the Holy Spirit wholly.
Who Was Nebuchadnezzar?
Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen many troubling manifestations of the Nebuchadnezzar spirit—the spirit that was on the king who lost his mind in Daniel 4 after he took the glory that belonged to God:
“At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke, saying, ‘Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?’
“While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.’
“That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.”
I couldn’t put a name to what I was seeing in the prophetic movement until the day I witnessed its full manifestation in that video I mentioned and I heard, “Just like Nebuchadnezzar.” Since then, I’ve seen false deliverance ministers using divination to call out accurate information that brings people to tears but leaves them in a much worse spiritual condition. They come to get set free and walk away more demonized through the diviner’s impartation.
Discerning the Nebuchadnezzar Spirit
Now that I have your attention, let’s look at what the Nebuchadnezzar spirit is. In researching what I heard the Holy Spirit say in watching these videos, I found an article from Jane Hamon at Christian International. She explains the name Nebuchadnezzar means “the power of the prince Nebo.” Nebo is a principality and Nebuchadnezzar’s guardian God. Now catch this, Jane writes:
“It comes from the Assyrian word that is related to the Hebrew word ‘nabi.’ The word ‘nabi’ means ‘the far hearing; an inspired prophet; one with intelligence who teaches.’ CI often uses this word to describe our prophetic ministers, so it is no surprise that we would be harassed by this false prophetic principality Nebo.”
Jane outlines a few things Nebuchadnezzar, led by this false prophetic principality, did in his reign. I’ve used her points in black and commented underneath.
1. Nebuchadnezzar took God’s people in Israel captive and carried them away to Babylon, which means confusion.
When you receive or connect to the Nebuchadnezzar diviner, you enter into a form of bondage and confusion. You are believing a lie instead of the truth. Your spiritual senses are dulled and your discernment damaged. It becomes harder to hear from the Lord for yourself so you become more dependent on the Nebuchadnezzar diviner, which is exactly what they want.
2. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, the house of the Lord, which represents the corporate body of Christ. He also destroyed many individuals, whose bodies represent the temple of Holy Spirit.
When you connect with a Nebuchadnezzar spirit it can bring destruction into your life and relationships. A young man connected with this divining spirit and lost his pastorate, lost his house, lost his wife and appears to have lost his mind, same as Nebuchadnezzar.
3. Nebuchadnezzar carried away the palace treasures, which locked up the wealth of God's people.
When you sow into someone operating in Nebuchadnezzar spirit it can bring you into financial distress or even financial ruin. The Body of Christ must stop supporting false prophetic and false deliverance ministries. It’s not good ground and we are forwarding the agenda of diviners in doing so.
4. Nebuchadnezzar brought death to the king and nation of Israel, the government and the people of God.
When you connect with a Nebuchadnezzar spirit, it unlocks death instead of life. We are called to walk a prophetic life. Nebuchadnezzar may seem to speak lifegiving words but the source is a spirit that ultimately wants to steal, kill and destroy you.
Ask the Lord to give you discernment about prophetic ministries and deliverance ministries you connect with. Don’t be impressed with accuracy for accuracy’s sake. Look at the fruit—not the Facebook fruit with the Gucci shoes and slick graphics—the fruit of the word that is sown into your life.
Fruit can take time to bear out, but discernment should give you a red flag about divination. It didn’t take Paul months to discern the girl in Thyatira was operating in a spirit of divination. His spirit was immediately troubled. Spend more time with the spirit of Holy than you do listening to other ministers and you’ll find yourself sharper in the spirit.
King Nebuchadnezzar finally came to his senses and repented. I hope these Nebuchadnezzar prophets do as well. Pray for the prophetic movement. We’re in the midst of a reset and the enemy is sowing perversion.
