The Church is Doing Prophecy Wrong and It’s Holding Us Back

The Dangerous Lie About Spiritual Gifts No One Talks About

Today, many Christians act like prophetic authority belongs only to those with a stage and a microphone, or worse yet a big social media following and a bag of tricks. How did we get here? More importantly, how do we fix it?

Charismatic Christianity needs a prophetic reformation. Somewhere along the way, we built a new religious hierarchy, not based on the law like the Pharisees, but on spiritual gifts. We replaced robes and titles with platforms and anointings, creating a system where certain gifts elevate people above others. Instead of priests ruling over the laity, we have prophets, apostles, and smooth talking preachers sitting at the top of a manufactured spiritual order, while the so-called less gifted remain at the bottom. But Peter did something remarkable at Pentecost that should shake us free from this false structure.

The Resurrection Ended Hierarchies

If you are reading this then you know what happened on Pentecost when Peter stood up. He quoted Joel chapter 2, but most don’t recognize what Peter added:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
Acts 2:17–18 (NRSV)

When quoting Joel 2, he made a critical addition. Even your slaves will prophesy. That phrase is not in Joel. It is something Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, inserted into his sermon. Why? Because he saw something in the resurrection of Jesus that fundamentally redefined the structure of God’s kingdom.

Before the cross, the disciples spent their time arguing over who was the greatest. That is the default human mindset. Hierarchy, power, position. But the resurrection changed everything. When Jesus ascended, He did not leave behind a single ruler, a new high priest, or even a dominant apostle to take His place. Instead, He told His followers to wait for the Holy Spirit, who would fall on all of them.

At Pentecost, the Spirit did not anoint Peter alone. He did not empower only the eleven apostles. The Spirit fell on men and women, young and old, wealthy and poor, influential and unknown. And Peter’s addition to Joel’s prophecy made the point clear. The lowest in society were now given the authority to speak for God.

This is so radical it must have soudned crazy to the hearers. Truly drunk with sweet wine. How in the world could a slave speak with the authority of a prophet?

For the Jewish people, slaves were at the absolute bottom of the social order. They had no voice. They had no power. They were not spiritual leaders or teachers. Yet Peter declared that when the Spirit is poured out, even the lowest and most overlooked would prophesy. This was a direct assault on the religious hierarchy of the day.

In that moment, prophecy was no longer reserved for the educated, the respected, or the elite. It was no longer the realm of temple priests or those born into religious privilege. The Spirit was given to everyone. It was an invasion of divine power into every social category, eliminating every false distinction.

Rebuilding What Jesus Tore Down

But here we are, centuries later, and we have rebuilt the very thing Jesus came to destroy. We have taken the Spirit’s gifts and turned them into spiritual rankings. Apostles sit at the top, then prophets, then slick preachers with big crowds, then pastors, then teachers. If someone operates in the miraculous, they are placed on a pedestal. If they have a large platform, they are given a spiritual seat of authority. And the rest? They are just the people.

This is not the kingdom. This is not the work of the resurrection. The early church functioned as a body, where every part mattered and every gift was necessary. But we have created a counterfeit fivefold system that functions more like corporate leadership than a Spirit-led movement.

When Paul wrote about the fivefold ministry in Ephesians 4, he was not outlining a ladder of spiritual significance. He was describing functions in the body of Christ, not titles to be grasped. But in our desire for structure, influence, and control, we have taken these roles and assigned them power over others.

The truth is, prophecy does not make someone more important. Miracles do not make someone holier. Apostleship does not make someone a king over the church. The greatest in the kingdom is still the servant of all, and Pentecost proved that every voice matters.

Fra Angelico, St. Peter Preaching in the Presence of St. Mark, c. 1433.

The Call to Prophetic Reformation

The church does not need another generation of celebrity prophets. It certainly does not need a new wave of false prophets promoted by the biggest Charismatic churches in our world. It needs a prophetic reformation. It needs a movement where we recognize that every believer has access to the voice of God and that gifting does not equal status.

A true prophetic church is not a place where only a select few hear from God while everyone else listens. It is a community where every person is equipped to prophesy, discern, and walk in the power of the Spirit. It is a body where the gifts are used to serve, not to rule.

So how do we return to what Pentecost established?

1. Stop worshiping at the feet of “national prophets.” These folks strive to keep relevant words in the public conversation often finding inspiration from the newspaper instead of Holy Writ. In their world they think they have the perfect mind of God and anything they deem a prophecy came from the mouth of the Lord. We have discovered that is not true. Let least prophetic thing you can do is to try to be prophetic. That’s when you step into the flesh. And God knows that’s the last thing we need.

2. Empower the overlooked. If Peter declared that even the slaves would prophesy, then we need to create space for those the church has ignored. How do you do that? Look for the person sitting in the back of the room, waiting for permission to step into their calling. Ask them questions. What did you hear during service? What has God been talking to you about? What do you think about this subject?

3. Hold leaders accountable. If leadership in the kingdom is truly about servanthood, then we need to stop tolerating leaders who use their gifts to manipulate, control, or elevate themselves. We also need a fresh rebirth of shame. There are a few big name pastors who have promoted and endorsed false prophets even after they knew they were false prophets. In the latest uncovering the senior pastor endorsed a false prophet years after finding out that he was faking his words of knowledge and forbade him from ministering at his church. That is shameful and worthy of public rebuke. Paul rebuked Peter but these guys keep the abuse secret like it’s a Diddy party.

4. Train every believer that every born again Christian can hear from God and nobody has a more special relationship with God than you. Yes, there are people who have dedicated their lives to studying and understanding the word. That makes their knoweldge special, not them. Some people have labored for years to hear and obey God. That makes their relationship with God special, not them. The New Testament church was not dependent on a handful of prophetic voices. The Spirit was poured out on all flesh. A prophetic reformation means the prophets teaching the people that real prophets are not our Holy Spirit, they are servants. And servants serve. they don’t sit in places of authority.

A Kingdom Without Rankings

At Pentecost, Peter was not just announcing that the Spirit had come. He was declaring the birth of a new kind of people. A people with no rankings, no spiritual elitism, no division between important and unimportant believers. Everyone received the same Spirit. Everyone was empowered to walk in the gifts.

We were never meant to build a church where gifting determines worth. If the resurrection means anything, it means the old systems are gone. The moment we start building hierarchies based on spiritual gifts, we deny the very work of the cross.

A prophetic reformation will require tearing down what we have wrongly built. It will require confronting the ways we have used gifts for self-promotion instead of service. It will require returning to Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit falls on all flesh, not just the ones we think deserve it.

Finally we need to quit calling people with big churches apostles. The central concern of the apostles was sound doctrine that created unity in the church. They understood Holy Spirit anointed a group, not an individual. Yet here we are, a generation of celebrity pastors hidden away from the people, empowering false prophets, and getting rich off their private interpretations of Scripture.

The church does not need another generation of celebrity prophets. It needs a prophetic reformation. Peter declared that even the slaves would prophesy, because hearing the full counsel of God in this new era will require us to honor every voice, not just the spiritual elite. The moment we start elevating certain voices as more important than others, we deny the very work of the resurrection. Pentecost was not about creating spiritual celebrities. It was about giving the Spirit to all flesh. That is the church we need to become again.