According to Adeboye, his excitement about a particular airline’s services to the ministry led him to prophesy that the airline would never suffer loss without waiting to hear from God. “When I was younger in ministry, I recall prophesying that a particular airline would never suffer loss because I was excited over their services to the church. I prophesied based on my feelings without hearing what God had to say.”
I should have just prayed for them and blessed them for their benevolence, rather than giving a prophecy in my excitement
However, the airline soon suffered a plane crash. Adeboye reflected, “I should have just prayed for them and blessed them for their benevolence, rather than giving a prophecy in my excitement. I learned my lesson from that – if God has not spoken, I do not prophesy.”
Adeboye made these remarks in his widely read Open Heaven Family Devotional book for September 18, with the theme “True Prophecies” and root text from Ezekiel 13:1-6. He stressed that whenever a prophecy is given based on feelings, it is false, and the Bible describes those who do so as fools (Ezekiel 13:3). A true prophecy, he emphasized, is an echo of what God has said.
People were agitated about who would become the next president.
Adeboye cautioned, “Beloved, don’t be too quick to say ‘God said’ when God didn’t say anything. Don’t allow pride to push you to prophesy; prophesy only according to God’s will. Push pride aside so you can hear God clearly.”
Recalling the pressure he faced before the 2023 Nigerian elections, Adeboye said, “People were agitated about who would become the next president. They pressured me to predict the outcome, but I refused because I knew it would be a lie. I told them, ‘God has still not spoken.’ Until God speaks, I won’t say anything.”
Adeboye reiterated, “You must become comfortable with keeping quiet when God is quiet. If you are truly His mouthpiece, when His mouth is shut, yours will be also.” He added that prophecy must align with God’s word in the Scriptures. “If a prophecy does not echo God’s word, it is false.”
A true prophecy comes from God and always aligns with His word in the Scriptures.
Adeboye illustrated this with an encounter where he told an unbeliever that his future would be terrible, citing Isaiah 3:11 and John 3:17-18. “A true prophecy comes from God and always aligns with His word in the Scriptures.”