Many of us Christians are confused about the concept of prophesy. The bible teaches quite a lot on this topic but we need to be careful about what we believe about this matter. In this post, I will explain about my views on prophesy and things we need to be careful of. This was what I wrote for a discipleship session:

Prophesy is anything that God spontaneously brings into someone’s mind. Prophesy originally has the same authority as Scripture, as seen in the Old Testament (Num. 22:38, Deut. 18:18-20, Jer. 1:9, Ezek. 2:7, …). It can be seen that in those cases, the words of prophets are taken to have the same authority as Scripture and are thus followed as God’s words.

However, the Old Testament itself also warns us on false prophets, a prime example being Jeremiah 23, and also 28. Though prophesy itself is pure and powerful to begin with, the sinful nature of men and the work of demons and evil spirits requires us to approach prophesy with wisdom and discernment. Though false prophets will result in eternal damnation (Matthew 7:21-23), we must be cautious to not listen to them (Matthew 7:15-20). Therefore, we must be sure that the prophesy does not contradict with Scripture as we can be certain that Scripture is the word of God and shall be regarded with full authority (Joshua 1:8, Joshua 23:6, …) and that it is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). One must be careful to discern prophesy as it may be contaminated by sin, but must seek wisdom and discernment through the Holy Spirit. The bible also teaches that one may observe by observing the fruit (Matthew 7:20), but one must be cautious that the fruit does not mean numbers, but true fruit from a heavenly perspective.

There is a fine line between prophesy and teaching as prophesy points to revelations from the Holy Spirit and teaching is simply the explanation and application of Scripture. In terms of prophesy within a church, it should be encouraged (1 Cor. 14:1, 1 Cor. 14:39) as it edifies the church (1 Cor. 14:4) but executed carefully through prayer and biblical discernment. However, not everyone has the gift of prophesy (1 Cor. 12:29) and therefore, it is unbiblical to “teach people how to prophesy” or to tell someone that “they must prophesy to be saved” as the Holy Spirit distributes different spiritual gifts to different brothers and sisters in Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-11).

From the above, I pray that we have a better understanding of what the concept means first. If anyone says things like “I feel this from God” or “God is telling me to do this” that is spontaneously brought into the mind much relation or response to Scripture that has been meditated on, they are claiming to prophesy. As I have noticed, many of us, youth, sometimes claim “God tells me this” and “God tells me that”. Some of those times, they could claim something that is unbiblical. As we do so, we have to be aware that using God’s name to support your decision is something that should be taken seriously, and using God’s name in vain is a serious sin (Exodus 20:7).

Therefore we should all be very careful to use the name of our Lord carefully and test the Spirit if we encounter a prophetic thought. If we hear others claim the name of our Lord, make sure it is genuine by testing it with Scripture and making decisions prayerfully with wisdom and discernment.

God Bless!