Pastors who decree and declare should read James’ warning:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.’ You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.” James 4

We don’t know if we will be alive tomorrow, and we cannot promise what God does not! We can say, “If you believe, then you will be kept. God will never forsake you.” We cannot, however, say, “This is your year for financial gain”, “You will have a baby”, or, “You will get married.” We don’t know if the person will be breathing in 24 hours, much less if God will give them what we declare. This is offensive and sinful to the highest degree. It is arrogance, and it makes us false prophets. We cannot speak what God hasn’t said, and we must speak only what He says as His messengers. Peter says, “If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God.”

The job of the pastor is to faithfully open the Scripture, and when we say, “The Lord says”, it must be true, or we give people false hope and will be proven a liar before the Throne of God. You do not want to perish as a false prophet.