What is prophecy?

In response to recent questions and statements I thought I would discuss this idea of what prophecy is, what it is not, and how to recognize it.  And by extension to define exactly what a prophet is. 

I’ll start by clearing up a misconception about prophecy. There is this popular idea that prophecy is this fortelling the future. That prophets speak of things to come.  Now it is true that this can be a part of prophesy, this idea actually diminishes and distracts from prophesy.  This is an idea that is really more closely related to pagan beliefs, tied in very much with ideas of magic, Druidism, Shamanism, and occultism. 

If one looks at biblical prophets you will see a pattern in their actions, words, and teachings.  Was it predicting the future that made them prophets?  Or was it something else?  And in reading the Bible it becomes apparent that at times there were many prophets at once.   In fact let me show a few examples of this. 

“And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.  And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!”  Numbers 11:24-29 

“For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.”  1st Kings 18:4 

There are many more examples, but my point here is to illustrate that prophets are not these “special” people that are maybe one in a generation or as many think today that there haven’t been prophets for centuries.  As though this is a special thing that only happened in biblical times. 

So what is prophesy?  Prophesy is the truth. The truth past, present, and future. Prophesy is the Spirit of God.    So what is a prophet?  It is one who through righteous living and heeding the words of God has become attuned to His spirit and can speak that truth. A prophet of God is one who has learned to know the voice of God apart from all others, and testifies of that truth.  That truth may be things to come, it may be things as they are now, and it may be the past as it actually was. 

So how are we to recognize and know a prophet. By the fruits they bear. A false prophet will try to get gain. He will tell people what they want to hear, or tell things to get gain, or to impress men. He may tell of things that might be factual, and yet be misleading.   

By contrast the prophets of God always say the same thing and work towards the same goal. True prophets bear a message of repentance, to turn to God, a message of humility. The seek to glorify God, and to help those who will hear and obey how they too can come to know God for themselves. In other words, true prophets teach people that through righteous living and obeying the commandments of God, they can come to know God for themselves, and when they are filled with the Spirit of God, they too become prophets.