Verifying or Falsifying Visions & Angelic Visitations

 

  1. It is a characteristic of a fleshly mind and a dangerous deception to think you're seeing things in the spirit realm when you're not truly seeing. False seeing / false visions are dangerous!

  • Colossians 2:18 - “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,”

 

  1. What is true seeing? True visions and seeing in the Spirit are described this way:

  • True visions are open and plain—unmistakeable (Acts 10:3).

  • True visions blur the lines between the physical and the spiritual, so that the person experiencing them does not know whether it is happening in the physical (in his body) or not (2 Corinthians 12:2, Acts 12:9). Therefore, true visions possess both tangible and intangible sensations.

  • True visions include both seeing imagery and hearing words (some examples: Numbers 24:4, Ezekiel 1, Acts 10:11-15, Genesis 15:1).

  • True visions cause a person a physical response of fear (Acts 10:4), falling down (Ezekiel 1:28), becoming sick to the stomach or exhausted (Daniel 8:27), feeling weak (Daniel 10:8), becoming still, even as one dead (Revelation 1:17).

    • Angelic visitations were always met with receiving messages. Angels never justappeared to people; they always spoke to them as well. This is not to say that angels would never appear today without speaking, but we know that a person is deceived if they claim to consistently see angels that do not speak to them. For these occurrences are far from not consistent in the biblical record.

  • True visions seize a person and displace their mind (Acts 10:10,17,19). This means that visions are brought upon you by God and cannot be stopped, interrupted, or influenced by your own mind/thinking.

    • A person cannot choose whether or not to see in the spirit or a vision, and they cannot cause themselves to have a vision. If they do, it is false. See Jeremiah 29:8.

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  1. False visions and prophecy will give a person permission to continue in sin. Truth will encourage repentance from sin.

  • Lamentations 2:14 - “Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions.”

    • What the Spirit says/reveals will never excuse sin or please the flesh. God's voice and visions will always encourage repentance from sin and will be uncomfortable to the flesh(Jeremiah 23:13-14). On the other hand, false prophecy will try to make a person feel at peace with their sin (Jeremiah 23:17). 

 

 

  1. Trying to produce visions or dreams leads only to false visions and dreams.

  • Jeremiah 29:8 – “...Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord.”

    • Visions and dreams that come from one’s own activity are dreams that are not to be heeded. If a person seeks out or has had a pattern of trying to envision the spiritual realm, they will cause themselves visions and dreams that are false and deceptive.

 

 

  1. Demons can appear as angels. Be warned!

  • 2 Corinthians 11:14 - “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” Galatians 1:8 - “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

  • Not everything angelic, that is seen, is truly angelic. Demons can disguise themselves as angels of light. One must be aware of this and not believe everything they see. 

    • One way of testing the spirits is to determine whether there is a message implied or communicated that contradicts the biblical gospel. If there is any inconsistency, it is not of God, but demonic.

 

  1. A bad heart motive produces false visions.

  • James 3:14-15 - “But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.”

    • If any information or vision extends from a heart posture that is insincere, prideful, or self-seeking, it is not from God; it is demonic.