What Is Prophecy?

What is Prophecy?
 
When many of us think of the word, “prophecy,” many of us think of someone predicting the future. In the case of the Old Testament, many of us assume that all prophecy is a prediction of Jesus’ arrival and earthly ministry, which is fair; there is certainly Messianic prophecy found in books like Isaiah and Micah.  
However, according to Old Testament Scholars Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, less than 5% of all Old Testament prophecy predicts future events found in scripture, and less than 1% still remain unfulfilled today- many of which have to do with the end times or “last things.”  
The reality is that most prophecy addresses not the future, but the current events of the time. This is an important distinction in a day and age when self-proclaimed “prophets” and “prophetesses” will go online or on television, manipulating people into giving them money and when, every time a military strike is made on the Gaza strip, someone in the news will point to an Old Testament prophecy that is supposedly being fulfilled.  
 
So, if prophecy isn’t always predictive, then what is it? 
 
Being prophetic involves receiving and communicating a God-given message that directly addresses the spiritual state of a given person or group of people. Prophecy is a divine message from God, given to a specific audience through a specific person- a prophet. Old Testament prophets held an official office and had authority equal to God's words. Their divine messages were addressed to specific people, often calling people to repentance (Jeremiah 7:3–7; Micah 6:8; Joel 2:12–13).  
In the New Testament era, the gift of prophecy still exists, but it manifests itself in different ways, since there is no longer an office of prophet. New Testament prophecy also involves sharing a God-given revelation and having spiritual sensitivity and the ability to identify spiritual needs and sins. The key difference is that we now have scripture, which has supreme authority over the church. As such, all prophetic claims must be biblically justified. 
 
Pastor Josh Howerton says it like this: “The prophetic voice is not about predicting the future; it’s about calling God’s people back to God.” 
 
Prophecy was meant to reveal the will of God, not just to predict the future. Being prophetic means to have a revelation (not to be confused with the book of Revelation). A revelation is the means by which the will of God is revealed. This is why scripture is considered by many scholars to not just be a collection of revelations, but to be revelation itself. Simply put, the will of God is revealed through scripture. This is why all prophetic claims MUST be tested against scripture.  
Do not be deceived, church. Always “test the spirits” as 1 John 4:1 commands us to. When a self-proclaimed prophet claims to have a “message from God,” test it against scripture. Make sure that they can justify this with a chapter and verse in context.  
 
Let me share a personal example: I had a friend from Lexington that once worked in a warehouse. There was a truck driver who would make deliveries, and he and my friend saw each other on a regular basis, though they never really spoke to one another.  
One random day, as the truck driver was leaving, he came back into the room and said to my friend, “Hey man, God has laid it on my heart that I need to pray for you,” and proceeded to describe in great detail all of the different things that my friend was going through. After this encounter, my friend concluded that God was real, and he came to faith in Christ not long after.  
This is the fruit of true prophecy: people coming to and returning to Christ. This is why Jesus said in reference to false prophets, “You will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16).”  
So church, may we be a prophetic voice in our own church and our communities, and may we call others to repentance!