If you listen to my teachings on prophetic ministry for long enough—and maybe even just for a few minutes—you’ll hear me say this: “You can’t put a prophet in a box.”

What do I mean by that? Well, no two prophets are alike. I talk about this at length in my new book, The Making of a Prophet, as it relates to the office of the prophet. But you could take this saying—“You can’t put a prophet in a box”—and apply it with equal truth to prophetic people. In other words, you could rightly say this: “You can’t put prophetic people in a box.”

Think about it for a minute. God created us all as unique individuals—masterpieces. (See Ephesians 2:10.) No two of us are alike, so wouldn’t it make sense that there would be different prophetic expressions?

There are two sides to prophecy: the one who delivers the word and the one who receives it. Last week we talked about receiving personal prophecies that just don’t make any sense at all to the natural mind—or even necessarily bear witness with your spirit. Indeed, some prophetic promises are so exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ask or think that it’s tempting to dismiss them without even praying it through.

Now, let’s flip things around. Have you ever delivered a prophecy that someone flat out refused to receive even though you were convinced it was from God? The prophecy was pure. It didn’t breed fear, seek to control, or violate Scripture. The prophecy exalted Jesus and was delivered in a spirit of humility. Nevertheless, it wasn’t received—and maybe you were even harshly criticized or labeled a false prophet for delivering it.

I’ll repeat what I said last week: I believe in judging prophecy before receiving it as Holy Spirit-inspired truth, but as I explain in my book “Did the Spirit of God Say That,” judging prophecy isn’t always an exact since. That means you could be delivering a perfectly accurate prophetic word that’s perfectly passed over as false. What’s a prophet to do?

Have you ever received personal prophecy that just didn’t make any sense at all to your natural mind? Maybe it didn’t even bear witness to your spirit. Perhaps the prophetic promise was so exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ask or think that you dismissed it without even praying it through.

I believe in judging prophecy before receiving it as Holy Spirit-inspired truth, but as I explain in my book Did the Spirit of God Say That? judging prophecy isn’t always an exact science. Sure, if it violates Scripture, you should immediately toss it out the window. But sometimes you should just put your prophetic word in a drawer, so to speak, because it might begin to ring true years—maybe even decades—later.

That was certainly the case with Sarah, who laughed out loud—and then denied it—when she heard the Lord prophesy to Abraham that she would have a son (Gen. 18:10-12). It was also the case when Jacob heard Joseph’s prophetic dreams. Jacob actually rebuked Joseph for sharing a dream in which his brothers bowed down to the young lad.

Remember how excited you were when you got that prophetic word five, 10 or even 15 years ago? You set your heart to prepare yourself to walk it out. You confessed it out of your mouth. You declared it shall come to pass. You prayed it through.

You did everything you were supposed to do, but that prophetic word still hasn’t come to pass. In fact, it may even look like the exact opposite is happening in your life. It may look like to enemy has already robbed your prophecy. It may seem like the prophetic word will never come to pass.

Now is your moment of decision. Will you give up on that tried-and-tested prophetic word that you know that you know that you know is from God? Or will you go back to the author of that prophecy—Jesus—and remind Him of the prophetic word?

Last week—for the second and third time—some nefarious false prophetic voice hijacked my photos, my name and my very words and set out to do serious damage to believing saints in the name of Jesus. The experience got me thinking about how false prophetic voices are actively merchandising sincere believers looking for a breakthrough online, on TV and radio, and in churches.

Here’s the background: Some hijacking merchandiser created two fake Facebook accounts with my face, name, books and prophetic words plastered all over them. This false prophetic voice then started sending friend invitations to people who were commenting on my real page. (Click here to see my real Facebook page.) One woman—we’ll call her “Sally” to protect her identity—shared her experience with me:

“Just today I ‘shared’ one of your posts only to get a ‘friend’ invitation on FB. I was thrilled to think I could be in touch with you. Could you pray for me, as God was about to do something big in my & my family? Then you ultimately started asking, demanding, and were manipulative with spiritual abuse to solicit for money for the orphanage. It smelled like a rat. Surely this is not Jennifer & was about to ask. But I had already emailed back my suspicions, my disappointment, my sick feeling—and the person knew I was onto them … Oh, it truly was such a time waster, such a disturbing, distressing issue. It really did get me at first because I very much relate to your writings & keenly follow—made me feel very vulnerable & regretful for opening up as much as I did. Such a warning to be more alert, more cautious—have a prowling enemy seeking to devour.”