Who can you trust when someone claims to be speaking for God?
It’s a question believers have wrestled with for thousands of years—and one that feels especially relevant in a culture overflowing with voices competing for our attention. In his provocative new documentary, Can You Hear Me Now?, award-winning filmmaker Matthew Thayer takes a serious investigative look at the modern prophetic movement and the men and women who believe they receive messages from God about our culture, our nation, and events yet to come.
In my conversation with Matthew on The UPsideConversations, we explore both the promise and the peril of prophecy. His film examines prophetic claims through the lenses of Scripture, history, politics, and investigation, while also confronting the troubling consequences of false prophecy and misplaced spiritual authority. Rather than simply asking whether a prediction comes true, Matthew raises a deeper question: How do we discern whether a voice is actually leading people toward God—or away from Him?
The documentary also contains something Matthew could never have anticipated when filming it: one of Charlie Kirk’s final interviews, recorded just two weeks before Kirk’s death. Their conversation centered on whether the gift of prophecy still operates today and how Christians should approach those who claim to speak prophetically. In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, that interview took on an unexpected significance and became an important part of Matthew’s larger exploration of faith, discernment, and conviction.
Ultimately, Can You Hear Me Now? isn’t simply about prophets. It asks something much more personal: Are we learning to recognize God’s voice for ourselves? In a world filled with noise, personalities, predictions, politics, and competing claims to truth, perhaps the greater challenge is not putting our faith in any human voice, but becoming people of wisdom and discernment—willing to test what we hear, return to Scripture, and seek God for ourselves.
