If the prophet speaks in the LORD's name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the LORD did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared. Deuteronomy 18:22
How could so many have got it wrong over the last US election? I’m still perplexed about this. I suppose Taylor Marshall had the right of it when he counselled us not to believe in what tickled our ears. I think this may be why people get it wrong over prophecy. I’m now most conscious about accepting something because it “tickles my ears”.
If I am strictly sticking to that, I have to say that only one alleged prophet that I heard of has been right so far. Even then I hesitate to assert she is a true prophet because so many people more knowledgeable than me have written her off. At the beginning her prophecies seemed absurd but as of today she’s predicted so many things that I can assert she got her knowledge either from heaven or hell. So many alleged seers speak of dire things, but none of their prophecies pan out.
I wrote a topic a few months ago about how to discern apparitions and locutions/messages. I'll paste it here. This is my thoughts, so keep in mind that I may be wrong on certain points. How to discern apparitions and locutions/messages: The message : It must be in perfect accord with the Gospels and the teachings of the Church, and therefore cannot introduce new theories. It is therefore out of the question to affirm that the Holy Spirit is part of us and can be given to anyone by the simple imposition of hands, that mortal sin doesn't longer exist, or that Christ died in the arms of His mother once taken down from the cross. Never in the history of the Church has an apparition been seen extoling a human being. The Blessed Virgin and Christ will therefore never sing the praises of a man - was he Pope - or a woman still alive. She can give information - say, say someone's innocence - but she will never be able to extol him/her while he/she is alive. Heaven never gives a date in a place other than the place concerned. If you are told that the Warning announced at Garabandal will happen on such day by someone without any connection to the events, or that Christ's return will take place on such and such a date, it cannot be of divine origin. The Virgin Mary said everything she had to say in each of her apparition sites, meaning she doesn't need to appear to other people to give more information about the events. In the case of Christ's return, only God, and He alone, knows the day. Christ or the Virgin cannot, therefore, reveal the date since even they do not know it. It’s a bit easy, once the date has passed, to tell you that there has been divine remission because you prayed well! Heaven uses divine language and not human language. While Heavens may use the local language when necessary to address a seer- this was the case with Bernadette, in Lourdes - they do not make any mistake in vocabulary or grammar. The text will be pure and will not come down to using words that are more about the relationship of love than the relationship of the father or mother with his children. Logically, Heaven uses a language understandable to the seer. So he won't speak to her in Latin! Neither can Christ or the Virgin tell you: whether or not they are "tired" for example. Heaven never speaks through the mouth of a human. They give him the message, that must then transmitted to the persons designated by Heaven - ecclesiastical or official authorities -If there is a manifestation through the person's mouth and the voice changes, it may be evil possession. In the case of an Apparition, there should be indisputable supernatural elements, be it a Miracle, or the ecstasy of the seer that would be unexplainable by science among other possible elements. The Seer: He must be Catholic. If Christ founded the Catholic religion, it is not so that we profess another faith. So if the seer is not a Catholic, the first thing Christ or the Blessed Virgin will ask of him will be to convert to Catholicism. A Protestant or an Orthodox will not escape it. A seer/messenger is to transmit a message word for word without changing a single comma. He should therefore not make the slightest comment when receiving pilgrims, much less give lectures on the subject. He must be calm, sincere, and credible. He should be a model of virtue and honesty. A true seer can in no case be taken in flagrantly lying. Neither should he be exalted in any way. He should not take any personal benefit. He can't make any money from the Apparitions or messages he received. A true seer will therefore not open a souvenir shop, hotel or restaurant, or even guest rooms. He must do everything to live an exemplary life. His life must be marked by humility in his behavior, his words, and his outfits, which will therefore never be provocative. He must have a healthy devotion and spiritual fruits in constant progress. He must accept all criticism silently. Some so-called "prophets" have a bunch of lawyers and bring those who criticize them to justice. Is it a Christian attitude to do so? The seer's name. It should be the person's real name and not have any title. A seer called "Emily Brown" for example will be far more credible than a seer that calls himself "The little apostle of everlasting God's mercy" or "God-beloved daughter" for example. Some other Negative criteria: -Doctrinal errors that one would attribute to God himself, or to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or to the Holy Spirit in their manifestations (taking into account however the possibility that the subject adds by his own purely human elements - even unconsciously - to an authentic supernatural revelation. These must nevertheless remain free from any error in the natural order (cf. St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, n. 336). -An obvious search for profit in relation to the facts. -Immoral acts committed by the subject, if not by his intimate friends, during the facts, or on the occasion of the facts. -Psychic disorders or psychopathic tendencies in the subject, which would exert a certain influence on the allegedly supernatural fact
Luz I would add that obedience to the local ordinary is also important. Even if he is wrong. Threatening him, for example, or claiming the apparition has done so, is not good.
I would say too heaven has an, 'Accent'. The bell that rings in the message also starts ringing in your heart. I imagine you are walking down a street and meet a complete stranger who strikes up a conversation. As it goes along bells start ringing in your heart and you suddenly think to yourself, 'My goodness I am talking to a saint!' Bells like that. Sometimes in the past when watching the film , 'The Song of Bernadette , tears have suddenly sprung to eyes. Tears caused by bells ringing away inside. Somethings are hard to place your finger on but still they are there.
