By Elizabeth Prata

Jackie Hill Perry (JHP) is the latest platformed/celebrity teacher to come out and claim that she hears directly from God. She was hesitant at first to claim this, she wrote on Twitter, because the saints “get weird” when you state such things.

[For good reason, says this saint].

But she felt confident enough at last to come out and say that God prophetically deals with her through dreams. She quotes what God has allegedly said, and claims that he has given her information about other people for whom she has interceded. God had told her the gender of her baby.

Her thread is here in Thread Reader Unroll, and it is also below:

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I really be wanting to share how the Lord deals with me prophetically but the Saints get weird about stuff like that.

Ok ok. I’ll say this. God primarily deals with me in dreams. I’ve been enlightened, warned, and led to intercede for others through them. But lately, I’ve had an increase of “inner unctions” by the Spirit, that arise in prayer, about people I know and don’t know. It’s deep. 

At the beginning of my walk, I was in a Pentecostal church that gave me room and space to explore this part of myself but after leaving, I haven’t embraced the prophetic out loud as much. Out of fear mainly. But God really does speak to and through His church and I love it. 

One scenario I’ve told folks out loud is how the Lord (through an inner knowing/unction) told me I’d have a son in 2019. Got pregnant w/another girl in 2020 and I was thrown because I was KNEW what God said but I just chunked it up to me being off… 

After I had Sage, we scheduled Preston’s vasectomy because I had no intention of having 4 kids. The night before it, I had a dream that I was holding a boy that was “half dead”. Not because he was dying but because he was being kept from life. As I held him, I felt fear… 

and literally, in the dream, God said “Do you trust me to have a fourth child?” I told the dream to Preston, who’d also had a similar one, we canceled the vasectomy and a few months later, I was pregnant with…a boy. I say all of that to say, we serve a LIVING and SPEAKING God. 

Before this moment I said to myself “If I don’t see blue powder, I’m a false prophet and I’m never claiming to hear from God again.” 

I have yearssssss worth of stories. Not even primarily about me either. God has placed me around a lot of prophetic people and trust me, if you get you some friends that are sensitive to the Spirit, life will forever be interesting.

end JHP Twitter comment

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Let’s put this in a larger context than just ‘tsk tsk another one is going out from us’. Which in itself is worthy to note and very sad. There are four points here, maybe more but I want to address these four.

First, let us define terms. JHP uses the word “unction.” It’s an old-fashioned word meaning anointing.

UNCTION—(1 John 2:20, 27; R.V., “anointing”). Kings, prophets, and priests were anointed, in token of receiving divine grace. All believers are, in a secondary sense, what Christ was in a primary sense, “the Lord’s anointed.” Defined in Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature (p. 679).

We see the word used in 1 John 2:20. “But you have an anointing [unction] from the Holy One, and you all know.“

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: But ye have an unction from the Holy One – The apostle in this verse evidently intends to say that he had no apprehension in regard to those to whom he wrote that they would thus apostatize, and bring dishonor on their religion. They had been so anointed by the Holy Spirit that they understood the true nature of religion, and it might be confidently expected that they would persevere. The word “unction” or “anointing” (χρίσμα chrisma) means, properly, “something rubbed in or ointed;” oil for anointing, “ointment;” then it means an anointing. The allusion is to the anointing of kings and priests, or their inauguration or coronation, (1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Samuel 16:13; Exodus 28:41; Exodus 40:15; compare the notes at Matthew 1:1); and the idea seems to have been that the oil thus used was emblematic of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit as qualifying them for the discharge of the duties of their office. Christians, in the New Testament, are described as “kings and priests,” Revelation 1:6; Revelation 5:10, and as a “royal priesthood” 1 Peter 2:5, 1 Peter 2:9; and hence they are represented as “anointed,” or as endowed with those graces of the Spirit, of which anointing was the emblem.

So in fact, believers are ALL anointed. We ALL have ‘unction’. But we do not have special, direct revelation as JHP claims she possesses.

Now to JHP’s claims and my points-

1. JHP mentions her first “knowing” from God, calling it unction. But it was wrong. The first time, she “knew” she’d have a boy, but it was a girl. If her knowing was from God, then JHP does not address how or why God failed to deliver the correct information. According to Deuteronomy 18:22, this alone would be enough to disqualify her from prophetic service (which expired in the Apostolic age, anyway).
2. JHP mentions she has been hesitant to reveal her uncommon relationship with God, though it has been going on for many years, because the “saints get weird”. But note that now she feels comfortable to admit it. This is an indictment on the church and on husbands both of whom are supposed to have built for their families strong hedges against false doctrine. If a false prophet feels comfortable enough to reveal her revelations, it is not only the false prophet to blame, but her followers who have heaped her up (2 Timothy 4:3) and a weak church that lacks both discernment and discipline to maintain that hedge.
3. This is the other #MeToo Movement- “I hear from God too.” It is becoming a scourge. Numerous women with large platforms are running around waving prophecies, predictions, and revelations from a God they obviously don’t know, but still are deceiving many. (Matthew 7:15). Birds of a feather flock together, (1 Corinthians 15:33), so more and more women feel secure enough to add their voice to the clamor. Because, who’s going to rebuke them? No one, it seems.
4. Claiming private revelations displays a lack of discernment, declares the Bible insufficient, and makes the even ground at the cross among the saints a two-tiered hierarchy between those who hear God and those who don’t. It leaves them all open to accepting errant theology.

All of the above is a huge problem in the church. John MacArthur has said several times over the years that the greatest issue in the church is lack of discernment. This leads to biblical illiteracy, which in turn leads to false doctrines creeping in. Here is MacArthur:

Another way to approach the subject would be to ask the question, “What is the greatest need? People ask me this all the time, “What’s the greatest need in the church today? What is the most compelling need? What do you see as the biggest problem in Christianity, the biggest problem in the church? It’s simple for me to answer that. The biggest problem in the church today is the absence of discernment. It’s a lack of discernment. It’s the biggest problem with Christian people. They make bad choices. They accept the wrong thing. They accept the wrong theology. They are prone to the wrong teaching. They’re unwise in who they follow, what they listen to, and what they read. SOURCE

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Ladies, God is living and He is speaking, but He speaks through His word, not in dreams telling you the gender of your baby, and other ‘unctions’ as claimed. We “get weird” because it’s false. Please do not feel left out if you also don’t hear from God as these other women claim. There are a lot of them, not just the fringe ones at the crazy edge of the faith, but women in the so-called conservative fold, like Jennie Allen (founder of IF:Gathering), Joanna Gaines (of Magnolia everything), Beth Moore (formerly of SBC & Lifeway), Sarah Young (of Jesus Calling), Priscilla Shirer (of the movie War Room), JHP, and many others. God spoke in His word through His Son. The same Son who descended from glory to live a perfect life on our behalf, die excruciatingly on the cross, be buried in a stinky tomb, and raised again to be ascended to the Father. Isn’t that enough? The Bible is enough.

When you claim the prophetic voice you hear is from God, you are saying “the Bible is not enough. I need more.” It’s as simple as that.

What can WE do?

1. Pray for JHP that the Lord would graciously deliver to her a discerning mind.
2. Pray for ourselves that the Lord would graciously keep us in our right mind and away from deceiving lusts and false doctrine.
3. Keep reading the word of God. It’s the only weapon against wolves and their doctrines of demons.
4. Be brave. Brave enough to point out false doctrine when it comes your way. Don’t be afraid of the “Tone Police” as Phil Johnson expertly encourages here (start at 22:40, sermon is aptly called “Fortitude“).

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

Yet in the same way these people also, dreaming, defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak abusively of angelic majesties. Jude 1:8

In this 9-minute video Spencer Smith opines about Jackie Hill Perry’s recent rejection of the American Gospel documentary and where she regrets her participation in it. (Sure enough we regret your participation in it, too!). Smith also opines about his bemusement as to why JHP was included in the first place, lol. His opinions were insightful to me. (Disclaimer: I do not know who Spencer Smith is, nor have I vetted the body of his work, but I liked and agreed with this particular video).

FURTHER RESOURCES

Does God speak to us audibly?

Beware of false teachers

The miraculous gifts have ceased