Test 2016 election prophecies

Should we pay any reasonable attention to prophecies and predictions flying around concerning the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections? The high political season each time around churns up varied religious prophets and prophecies.

This doesn’t happen only in Ghana. In  Naija Dailies, a Nigerian News Editor wrote on religious leaders who predicted the 2015 Elections woefully: “Nigerian Presidential election has come and gone. But there are lessons to be learned, especially from our supposed “Men of God” who claimed that God himself revealed the outcome to them before the election.

“What are these men thinking now? Are the revelations really from God? Could He possibly be sending them contradictory messages? I know there are already explanations for all the false prophecies. I must leave you to judge for yourselves”.

Naija Dailies went on to list some key religious leaders who issued flawed predictions and their prophetic statements on the 2015 Elections.

They included the following: Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) Prophet Joshua Iginla and Apostle Johnson Suleiman.

Others were Primate Theophilus Oluwasaanu Olabayo, founder Evangelical Church of Yahweh; Apostle Dr. Ogochukwu Tochukwu Amaaukwu, Guru Maharaji, Josiah Chukwuma Onuoha and Dr. Okhue Iboi.

Dr. Okhwe Iboi, National Coordinator and spokesperson of Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria predicted and remarked, “I don’t see General Buhari ruling this country (again). We don’t have a political party but if anyone seeks our help we render it”.

Clearly we see different spiritual sources from which the flawed predictions and false prophecies had come. 

Jehovah God through Jeremiah indicts those who prophesy by the spirits of idolatry; “I saw that the prophets of Samaria were terribly evil for they prophesied by the power of Baal, and led my people of Israel into sin” (Jeremiah 23:13).

You see it is not all prophesies and predictions that come from God Almighty and His Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, critical for us to examine the life of the prophets who speak up and test their message.

We believe in authentic prophecy and revelations! The Bible says, God “Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until He reveals His plans to His servants the Prophets” (Amos 3:7, NLT).

There are authentic prophets gifted by the Holy Spirit who issue divinely inspired revelations. But even here we are to test every prophetic utterance to see whether it is from God and that it is in harmony with the word of God. So we need to test all the 2016 Election prophecies. 

We draw attention to the fact that, Pentecostal practice scholars research have indicated that over 85 per cent  personal prophecies   issued have missed it. This would include personal prophecies from some otherwise very respected godly prophets in the Church.

Recently, some key African prophets’ predications on the outcome of the 2016 America Presidential elections was flawed.

Bible teachers compare and contrast true and false prophets in the Bible as follows:

• False prophets: worked for political purposes to benefit themselves; gave false messages and spoke only what the people wanted to hear”. They were not people of moral integrity and ethical leadership.
• True Prophets: Worked for spiritual purposes to serve God and the people; spoke only what God told them to say, no matter how unpopular. They lived godly, exemplary lives of integrity.

As the old adage goes, “all that glitters is not gold.” And the quality of prophecy depends on the source of the prophecy and the trustworthiness of the prophet.

That is why we need to be very cautious in putting weight on any election prophecy.