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More than once I’ve found myself in a YouTube video rabbit hole or in real-life conversations with Christians who are sharing their suspicions about prophecy and other spiritual gifts. I’ve noticed a common thread that those reservations are usually based in misunderstandings about the gift of prophecy and how God uses it in the world today. Or, sometimes, they’re based in not knowing how to process instances where they’ve unfortunately witnessed spiritual gifts being misused.

And since I care about helping others understand and experience the work of the Holy Spirit, I figured it’s time for a chat. In this three-part series, we’ll look at how the Bible speaks to some common misconceptions about prophecy.

1. Prophecy hasn’t ceased.

I won’t unpack this misconception much here because we do a deep dive on the topic in my blog Are the Spiritual Gifts in the Bible Still Active Today, so pop over and read that once you’re done here. I explain biblically that there’s no verse in Scripture, rightly interpreted, that would suggest God doesn’t work through the gift of prophecy in present day, and that the Bible actually exhorts Christians to eagerly desire and pursue this gift and other spiritual gifts for the edification of the Church. (1 Corinthians 12-14)

2. Prophecy isn’t mostly predicting the future.

In the broadest sense, prophecy simply means to speak forth under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. With prophecy, one of God’s people hears/receives a message from God and speaks forth that message to others. Prophecy is simply declaring what the Lord is saying in a particular moment, or over a particular person or situation.

Let’s look at the different ways prophecy functions in Scripture. First, 1 Corinthians 14 explains the spiritual gift of prophecy and its primary role in the New Testament Church, particularly when it comes to sharing personal prophetic words with individual people. 

 ^“But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.” (1 Corinthians 14:3)

“But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop.” (1 Corinthian 14:30)

God puts a message on the heart of a Christian to share with another person and that prophetic word is a timely message from God to encourage, strengthen and comfort the person who hears it. Notice that the purpose of prophecy is not for rebuke or correction or pronouncing judgment. Prophecy can be addressed to another individual believer, the corporate gathering of believers, or even to an unbeliever in an evangelistic scenario (1 Corinthians 14:3-5, 22-25). This is the primary way you’ll see prophecy functioning today.

Prophetic words will often speak to the “secret thoughts” of a person’s heart, confirming or addressing things that are significant to the person hearing the prophetic word that the person prophesying would not have known to speak about from human knowledge. (1 Corinthians 14:24-25) These could be things the person has been praying about, going through, God has been speaking to them about, or the word could be meaningful to them for some other reason.

Sometimes part of a prophetic word might speak to future plans or purposes God has for someone or how He might want to bring future restoration to a situation they’re currently going through, etc. Foretelling future events is one biblical aspect of what prophecy is (Isaiah 42:9 // Acts 11:27-28), but there doesn’t necessarily need to be a future element for the word to be a prophetic word.

You may also hear a message referred to as prophetic in nature if it’s a timely message calling God’s people back to faithful belief and obedience to the teachings of His Word where we’ve gotten off track. Or it might be speaking into a current situation in the Church or the world helping us understand how God’s Word applies, how God is encouraging and instructing His people in the midst of it, or revealing His will and plans for that situation.

These words are usually corporate prophetic words, meaning that they’re for a group of people, not just an individual, or it’s addressing an event. And these words are usually shared by Christians who are mature in the faith and in prophetic ministry and/or are Church leaders.

Let me give you some examples from my own life of what prophecy might look like. Awhile back I had journaled some prayers about seeking mentorship in certain areas of my life. A few weeks later a friend of mine prayed over me and prophesied about that very thing, affirming God’s desire to bring those relationships into my life, having known nothing about what I had been praying in my personal time with the Lord.

Recently, I was prayer-walking a college campus in my city with my fellow campus missionaries and stopped to pray with a student who was about to graduate and praying about next steps in life. I felt God prompt me to share with her that her field and area of passion was a passion that He gave her and that, even though I didn’t know exactly how her future career path would unfold, that God desired to somehow give her meaningful opportunities to do what He designed her to love. The student was encouraged by that word from God, just like I was encouraged by the word my friend shared with me. 

So you can see this gift in action, here’s a short video from Walk After Christ ministering with prophecy in a street evangelism situation and a video of a service at Gateway Church where some of their leaders prophesy over members of their congregation. You can tangibly see people being encouraged by God and impacted by His presence and love for them. It’s beautiful.

**Read Part 2 to where we debunk the idea that prophecy is adding revelation to the Bible and learn why God can use any Christian in the gift of prophecy.

Recommended Resources:

• ARTICLES: Can Christians Still Prophesy? by Wayne Grudem // Prophets and Prophecy by Sam Storms
• BOOKS: Frequency by Robert Morris // The God I Never Knew by Robert Morris // Understanding Spiritual Gifts by Sam Storms // You May All Prophesy by Steve Thompson // The Gift of Prophecy by Wayne Grudem

Let’s Talk: How does this discussion change or confirm your definition of prophecy? Discuss this post in the comments below.