THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES ON THE GIFT OF PROPHECY. Click here for the rest of the series.

The word for prophecy in the New Testament literally means to make known the thoughts of God. It is a compound of the Greek words “pro” and “phemi”.

Pro (G4253) – In front of

Phemi (G5346) – Make known one’s thoughts

Prophecy from the paradigm of the New Testament is to make known the heart of God for His people, creation, and His church. In the Old Testament it was to point forward to the mystery of God yet to be revealed, in the New Testament it is to make know the heart of God for the world.

This is directly seen in the book of Revelation:

Revelation 19:10b For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

This verse has been wildly taken out of context and twisted to mean that if I testify of something Jesus has done it will prophecy what He wants to do in your life. These are the kind of wishy-washy interpretation that get the Charismatic renewal in theological trouble.

This verse will be brought into greater clarity if we just consider what the testimony of Jesus is:

John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

What is the testimony of Jesus? It is the revelation of the Father. The essence of prophecy today is to reveal the heart of the Father. Prophecy in the Old Testament revealed the coming mystery, which was seen in Jesus, prophecy now points to Jesus who revealed the Father. So every prophetic word should carry within its delivery an attempt to convey the heart of God as seen through the face of Jesus Christ.

Whether that is when Agabus prophesied a famine:

And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.

Acts 11:27-29

The sense of this prophecy was not just to highlight the coming famine but the role of the church in bringing relief to the area. Or seen in this light, to reveal the heart of the Father in taking care of His children.

Or even Jesus driven to tears over the inability of a city to recognize his coming:

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Luke 19:41-44

This is a revelation of the heart of the Father for His creation, and the Father’s heart is broken over the inability to see His goodness.

Or consider the warning of Agabus to Paul:

And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.”

Acts 21:10-14

This prophecy was the revealing of the will of the Lord (the heart of God towards Paul). The fulness of this was seen in Paul eventually standing before kings (and potentially Caesar himself) based upon what happened through this prophetic word.

If our examples for the gift of prophecy are the Old Testament prophets, we will exemplify the gift every time. However, if our example is Christ, we must then come to grips with how He revealed the heart of the Father. Our paradigms will shift to a “what did it look like when Jesus walked the earth” from “what did the Old Testament prophets look like.”

It cannot be restated enough that our paradigm must shift from emphasizing the gift to emphasizing the presence of the Spirit revealing the heart of the Father uniquely through each individual.

In attempting to understand the nature of prophetic gifting through OT examples we end up using terms like forthtelling or fore-telling and parse out what those may mean. All of those highlight the function of a gift, rather than the presence of Jesus and the revelation of the Father. This does not mean that there is not a gift of prophecy (scripture of course makes it clear that there is). This means that our paradigm for understanding how God desires to move through us must shift from a focus on the gift to a focus on His peace and presence.

Jesus did not say to His disciples to leave a prophetic word everywhere they were accepted but to leave the peace of God. Because we have taken as examples today of prophetic ministry to be the prophets of the Old Testament, we have exemplified the gift rather than the revealed presence of the Father through the mystery of Christ.