What Is Prophecy?
Though prophecy can be predictive or futuristic in
nature, that’s not all that there is to prophecy.
Prophecy isn’t necessarily divided up into
sub-divisions on the macro level. Whether it is a word of wisdom, word of
knowledge or a predictive statement, all fall under the mantle of prophecy.
The word “prophet” means “an inspired man.” Under
this simple interpretation, then, a prophet is one who gets inspiration from
God, by the spoken Word or by vision, or by any other divine manifestation, and
what he speaks under that inspiration is prophecy.
Prophecy, is simply speaking as a effect, acting as
God’s interpreter. Much as a human who speaks English would have trouble
speaking to someone who only understood Spanish, God speaks in Spirit—and
humans only understand in the natural.
The man without the
Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
1 Cor. 2:14 NIV
The natural man needs an interpreter—someone who can
understand what the Spirit is saying and translate it so the natural man can
understand it.
The prophet is that interpreter. He takes what the
Spirit is saying and speaks it to natural men and women.
Prophecy is simply saying what “thus saith The
LORD!”