Having grown up around a lot of people who thing they are prophets, I have found that I gravitated a lot to environments where inaccurate teaching about such things was the backbone of the whole show. I have been a lot of places where individuals who thought they or somebody else was a "prophet" - of course we use that term very loosely here - and had overblown and romanticized ideas about what that meant. I've moved in worlds where people aspired to have some alleged prophecy spoken over them to guide them in their life and to make their decisions by. It's dangerous actually, to believe that way.
People in these environments often feared the Catholic Church and thought it was there to suppress the moves of the Spirit, to put people under fallen human control. The Magisterium actually is there to protect us from false prophecies like you so often find in places like that.
I have heard parts of how alleged visions and prophecies are judged officially by the Vatican, and applying what little I know of it to the stuff I have heard in my life, it knocks out so many things I thought really were from God that caused me to make huge, life altering, devastating mistakes.
When I moved out of Decatur a few years ago, for example, I had received counsel from my mother, who is now unfortunately nutty as a fruitcake, and from a friend who was also nuts. I had heard that people with mental health issues seem to be very "open to the Spirit" but you have to be careful and sort out what they say because sometimes it is God and sometimes it isn't. SO I wasn't taught to steer clear of that, only that it could be wrong. One of the things the Vatican inquires about when they investigate a professed prophecy or vision is whether the person's mind is sound. If not, they inquire no further. It's not that God can't use people like that in any way, He can, but He isn't going to set a person in that place who isn't able to discerning His voice consistently because they have other things that masquerade in their mind as His voice. God doesn't want his people confused and isn't going to send us a messenger we have to wonder if is really from him or not, where we have to determine if that person really heard from Him or from their own issues. What "discernment" in these cases boils down to is, if we agree with what they say, we believe them, if not, than we dismiss it. That passes for discernment. In Catholic tradition now, the individual's mental health is one of the first things they ask about.
The other thing I do know about the investigation process is they want to see humility. Some of the people I listened to would not pass what I know of the tests they would use for humility. They believed they were the ones God would use to bring all kinds of revelation and unity and stability in the Church, they believed they were more Christian than most Christians, they believed that because they were outcasts that they were the number one group God was going to move though in the last days. It is true God looks on the lowly, but He chooses those who do not feel qualified in themselves; I and those I moved with prior to becoming Catholic had a lot of wounded pride and other issues and the thought that others mistreatment of us meant we were going to be the number ones caused us to be lifted up in pride, I think. That is a big hindrance to one being used by the Lord in really big and mighty ways. Therefore I don't think God was going to put us on top like that any time soon.
If anyone out there knows of such writings, please pass the word along to me, if you will.. The little bit I have learned about the process has gotten me out from under a lot of bondage and is probably keeping me out of a lot of trouble.
Godspeed, And don't buy into any alleged "prophecies" form people with questionable mental stability, even if you have a bunch of them who agree with each other.
-Mother Star.
Teresa of Avilla, the Saint from whom I took my confirmation name. She spent a lot of time with God and received a lot of revelation. She struggled with discernment too, to decide what was from God and what wasn't. Some of her writings helped me grow in this area as well, I recommend them and think I should read them again.
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