Lester Sumrall went home to be with the Lord in 1996, but his legacy continues—and his God-breathed prophetic words are still alive.

In a 1987 video capture, Sumrall, whose spiritual father was Smith Wigglesworth, shares seven prophetic insights God revealed to his heart earlier in his walk with the Lord. I wish they weren't accurate, but it seems he heard rightly. You can watch the video to see all the warnings. I'm going to focus on just one of them.

“I said, 'God, I don't understand this at all.' He said, 'You're going to see it and here are seven things to watch.' And God gave me seven things to observe. Number one was, America will depart from its historic faith. Now at that time, the Supreme Court hadn't done any of those strange things, such as permission to kill unborn babies and giving such rights to homosexuals. See, none of that happened.”

Have you ever received a prophetic word that you absolutely, 100 percent, clearly no-doubt-about-it knew was from the Lord—only to have the one you share it with forcibly reject it?

If you've been operating in spiritual gifts for any length of time, the answer is likely yes. What you do next will reveal your maturity in the prophetic and how much the Holy Spirit can trust you to rightly exercise the His gifts. 

And remember, they are His gifts and He distributes them individually as He wills (1 Cor. 12:11). If you consistently misuse a spiritual gift or bring others harm when you exercise prophecy, the Holy Spirit may stop talking to you about other people until you learn how to steward the gift responsibly.

Prophets and psychics can both make accurate predictions. Accuracy is not the only test of a true prophet. Test the spirit behind the word because there are many false prophets making true predictions (1 John 4:1).

I posted that on my Facebook page last week, and it stirred up a hornet's nest I never would have expected. I thought I'd get a few thousand hearty “amens,” open the eyes of some people who had not thought to judge prophecy in this crucial hour and stir up a few devils. As it turned out, it stirred up more than a few devils who seem to enjoy swimming in impure prophetic pools.

Several people asked me to give Scripture to back up the comment. Of course, the Scripture was listed in the comment. In 1 John 4:1, John the apostle clearly states by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

I've heard plenty of flaky dreams and visions in my day. In fact, not a week goes by when some friend—or absolute, complete stranger—doesn't send me an unsolicited message about a prophetic dream, vision or word they have for or about me. Honestly, it's somewhat bizarre that so many people are dreaming about me.

Anyway, some of these dreams are extremely accurate and especially helpful. Others are so far off the mark that you have to wonder what they ate before they went to bed (read: pizza dreams), yet the prophecy is relatively harmless. Still others are clearly inspired by a spirit other than the Holy Spirit.

I have to admit, there are times when I wanted to do more than break a word curse—I wanted to issue a rebuke. Up until now, though, I've held my pen and tongue except to teach prophetic protocols. You can read more in my book, The Making of a Prophet.