A one-million-dollar prize—just for prophesying what’s in a prophet’s hip pocket. Easy money if you’re a true prophet of God, right? Wrong.
A genuine prophet has no guarantee of walking away with the prize. Why? Because true prophets don’t operate their gift like an always-on GPS. They don’t know everything, everywhere, all the time. They are not God.
The Seer doesn’t see on demand. Still skeptical? Ask Elijah, the pound-for-pound prophetic GOAT. The Bible tells us that “after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah” (1 Kings 18).
That’s right—many days. No true man of God has a 24/7 prophetic hotline. Anyone claiming otherwise is more sangoma than seer.
Take Elisha, for example—the spiritual son of Elijah. He inherited a double portion of his mentor’s anointing and went on to perform exactly twice as many miracles. Yet, even with his prolific prophetic gift, he didn’t always have revelation on tap.
When the Shunammite woman approached him in distress after her son’s death, Elisha confessed, “The Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me” (2 Kings 4:27).
Clearly, even the most anointed prophets don’t have an uninterrupted livestream from heaven. They receive revelation as God wills—not as audiences demand.
Fast-forward to modern times, and one of the most striking prophetic ministries was that of William Branham (1947–1965).
His ministry was described as “marked by an astounding gift of the word of knowledge and healing, unlike anything seen before in modern times” (Gordon Lindsay, Christ for The Nations Bible College).
Yet Branham himself was the first to acknowledge that he did not control the gift—it controlled him. He famously told an audience, “I don’t operate the gift. The gift operates me.”
So, would a real prophet of God accept a million-dollar challenge to prove their gift? Not a chance. That challenge is best left to the “profits” and psychics—and both tap into the spirit of divination rather than the Holy Spirit.
Because here’s the thing: Not everyone who “sees in the spirit” is of God. Psychics make accurate predictions too. Just ask the slave girl in Acts 16 who publicly and accurately affirmed Paul’s ministry—yet was possessed by a spirit of divination.
That’s why prophetic accuracy is not the ultimate test of a true prophet. The Bible warns us to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), because false prophets can make true predictions too. One key test? Hubris vs. humility.
If a prophet consistently points to himself instead of to Jesus, the Spirit of God is not in him. “The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 19:10). Its all about Jesus not how wonderful the hubristic prophet is.
So, as the million-dollar challenge looms, expect the usual suspects to show up: false prophets, diviners, witch doctors, sangomas, and psychics—each eager to prove their “gift” and cash in.
Grab your popcorn. The showdown is on.
The girl was possessed by a python, a subspecies of serpent.
Acts 16:16: "And it came to be, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of Python, did meet us, who brought her masters much profit by foretelling."
In Heḇrew the Scriptures uses Nechash נחש to describe guessing which is spelt the same as nachash נחש just by changing the vowels and Menachesh מנחש enchantment is one of the 10 kinds of divinations listed in Deuteronomy. Deut 18:10-11: "“Let no one be found among you who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practises divination, or a user of magic, or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead." The root remains נחש serpent right from the garden and this is what they are channelling in their gathering for the love of money (monim) which is used by Laḇan, Bil'am and Pharaoh’s diviners etc. The root cause is well described unfortunately the spirit of the serpent is at work still