Many times throughout the Old Testament we see prophetic words bringing significant blessing and prosperity. Take for instance the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah:

Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built…

Some of the clearest examples of New Testament prophecy in the book of Acts show that prophetic ministry gives direction to the body of Christ, displays the Father’s heart, and helps us to do the Father’s business.

A pertinent example of God building through the prophetic utterances of Jeremiah is seen when God promises to bring the captives back from Babylon:

Jeremiah 24:3-7 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying…

When Jeremiah was called into prophetic ministry at a young age, he was given 6 charges:

Jeremiah 1:9-10 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”

The basic tenor of prophecy is summed up in the aforementioned verse. To edify, exhort, and comfort can be simply caricatured as to lift up, build up, and cheer up. This is a good place to start when understanding the nature of prophecy as it should be practiced in our modern age. Edification, exhortation, and comfort are the baseline principles for the activity of prophecy. 

Paul’s prayer gives us two distinct functions of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and both those functions are seen in prophetic ministry: to reveal God (the knowledge of him, Christ made known by the prophets) and to reveal mankind (eyes of your heart enlightened). True prophetic ministry always has these two core facets as the center point of prophecy: the revelation of the heart of God and the revelation of the heart of man. 

One of the Hebrew words for vision is the word “mar’ah” (H4759). While it is most often translated as vision, it can also be translated as mirror. As a vision is one means by which we engage with revelation, taking the Hebrew word mar’ah into account, revelation can act as a mirror. What is the purpose of a mirror? To reflect back to you your own image.

What began as an appeal to love, kindness and compassion quickly descended into a threat. I was struck by how quickly the gate attendant changed the source of motivation. When an appeal to love does not work, we quickly descend into the madness of fear. While it is excusable for a gate attendant to use fear as a motivator, we do it in our Christian communities all the time.

Earlier, we referenced Revelation 19:10 in relation to Christ in the bosom of the Father. But let’s take it one step deeper. One of the most overlooked verses in regard to prophetic ministry is Revelation 19:10:

Much of what constitutes personal prophetic ministry and corporate prophetic utterances are conditional prophecies. Conditional prophecies are prophetic words that are dependent upon the people that receive them. There are, of course, prophetic words that are not conditional, but those tend to be more rare. 

I watched a “prophet” on a well-known prophetic show share a word about the US president and specifically reference the infamous “Q” drop conspiracy ring as proof of the veracity of the prophecy. “Q” had mentioned the same thing two years prior to the prophecy, and, according to the prophet, the Lord was speaking  the same thing that “Q” had said about the president.