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.”

“We must now have the courage to take the final step and call homophobia and heterosexism what they are. They are sin. Homophobia is a sin. Heterosexism is a sin. Shaming people for who they love is a sin. Only when all our churches say that clearly and boldly and courageously will our LGBT youth be free to grow up in a culture that totally embraces them as they fully are.”

These aren’t the words of an outspoken gay activist at a rally. Or, well, maybe they sort of are. These words came from the lips of Rev. Gary Hall, the dean of Washington’s National Cathedral, in a recent Sunday sermon. Hall was speaking during a weekend that honored lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and commemorated the 15th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. Shepard was murdered in what gay rights activists call an anti-gay hate crime in 1998. Others claim it was gay propaganda.

But Hall’s sermon wasn’t an isolated instance or any sort of departure from his standard theology—and it wasn’t taken out of context. Earlier this year, Hall announced the Washington National Cathedral would start celebrating same-sex marriages.

In his weekly Prophetic Perspective on Current Events broadcast, Rick Joyner predicted the destruction of America’s republic—maybe even during President Obama’s second term.

Joyner prefaced the Internet broadcast entitled “Has Democracy Failed?” by warning viewers that he would say some things that may be shocking. The segment was filmed on the day before the government shutdown.

From Joyner’s prophetic perspective, the republic of the United States of America is crumbling because of tyranny from the government and from the people.

The anointing at the altar was strong. Words of wisdom were flowing. People were getting healed. We were seeing a genuine outpouring. The Holy Spirit’s manifest presence was undeniable. God was using Mark (not his real name) to set the captives free.

But Mark wasn’t free—and he wouldn’t admit it. Mark was like one of the Sons of Thunder who wanted to call fire down from heaven to consume the people who rejected Jesus (Luke 9:54). He frequently threatened to rebuke those who didn’t live up to his standards. He had dreams and visions of people dying because they wouldn’t come to church. His behavior was controlling, impatient and self-righteous.

When Mark’s co-laborers confronted him, he suggested they were the problem. He said they didn’t have enough faith to live on the edge like he was; that they weren’t sold out to God like he was; that they weren’t fasting and praying enough like he was; that they just weren’t holy enough like he was. So he cut off relationship with those co-laborers and took his spiritual gifts somewhere else.

Since I was first born again, God has allowed me to witness spirits of error and full-blown deception over and over. And He’s called me to confront it more times than not. I’ve wept over souls falling headlong into pits of deception and been persecuted for walking away from ministries where strong delusions were leading people away from Jesus.

But make no mistake, there’s a huge difference between discerning a spirit of error that keeps people from a full understanding of Jesus and accusing people of full-blown heresy that keeps people from receiving salvation. Even though deception is running rampant in the body of Christ, I shun the work of heresy hunters who have made it their mission to discredit anyone and everyone with whose theology they some small a point of contention.

I get emails from heresy hunters every day suggesting I expose some ministry or another (and sometimes calling me foul names for hitting “delete”). Most of the Christian personalities these heresy hunters are working to expose aren’t heretics at all, though most flow in a measure of error because none of us have it all right all the time. Some are clearly deceived, but they still don’t quality as heretics. I also get emails from heresy hunters who sometimes disagree with what I write. But an email last week from a woman named Yvonne took the heresy hunting to a hellish level.

What’s your prophetic reputation? Are you known as the prophet who refuses to water down—or, worse, manufacture—a prophetic word to tickle the ears of those listening, or will you speak the prophecy boldly despite the persecution it may bring you?

Would you be willing to go to jail to maintain the purity of your prophetic ministry? Or would you instead go along with the hundreds of other prophets who give way to spirits of divination, Jezebel spirits, witchcraft or lying spirits in order to make hearers happy (and keep the offerings pouring in)?

Put another way, will you be like Ahab’s prophets or like Micaiah?

When Jesus said that false christs would arise, I don’t think He had the likes of Alan John Miller—or the many others over the years who have claimed to be Jesus—in mind. Miller has set the Twitterverse ablaze with his claims to divinity.

An Australian, Miller claims he arrived on the earth for the first time just more than 2,000 years ago. The 50-year-old former information technology guru—who also happens to be divorced—is making some wild claims on his Divine Truth website about himself and his second wife, Mary Suzanne Luck:

“My name then was Yeshua ben Yosef, or the Jesus of the Bible, the son of Joseph and Mary. Mary’s name then was Mary of Magdala, the woman identified in the Bible as Mary Magdalene. Mary was my wife then, and the first person I appeared to after I was crucified.”