The secular and common belief of the prophets is that they are people who can “see” the future and make it known to someone else, thus being sometimes called “seers.” This view may be partially true, what this definition lacks may be things you do not know that can hurt you.
One of the greatest explanations I have ever found is that a prophet is one who “declares the will and counsel of God.” This will include the past, present and future. The Bible expands on the meaning of the prophet in three different ways confirming that meaning.
First, the “spirit of prophecy” is mentioned in the book of Revelation. I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not; From this definition it can be seen that everyone who proclaims the gospel has “a spirit of prophecy.” That will include everyone from Billy Graham to a little believer standing in the corner talking to a stranger about how he met the Lord. We can confidently say that most of the prophecies today are based on telling others about Christ and his deeds, though they occurred more than two thousand years ago.
The second type of prophecy is something that comes from the flow of God's Holy Spirit in the church. It can reach almost anyone in the church but is always determined and directed only by the Holy Spirit. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; another to believe in the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; one to perform miracles; to another prophecy; one to separate the spirits; one of the kinds of languages; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will, 1 Corinthians 12: 7-11. These kinds of prophecies seem to have been made only in the charismatic and Pentecostal churches of today. But by using a broad definition any preacher who speaks under the power of the Holy Spirit can be said to be prophesying.
A third type of prophecy is that which comes from a person appointed not only to prophesy but also to be given “the office of a prophet.” And he gave some to be apostles; of other prophets; and some, evangelists; others are pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Ephesians 4: 11-12; How these “prophets” were chosen is an important and often misunderstood issue, so let us consider the following.
Modern-day prophets were chosen exactly as they were years ago in the Bible. They are often referred to by God in word or in deed. In the Bible some prophets saw a dream; some heard the voice of God and others saw a burning bush or some other great miracle and God spoke to them.
In my experience it was not just a dream but a series of them and sometimes a real word with a very specific message. At the beginning of my newfound faith I had three dreams one night and woke up after each dream and spent a few seconds thinking about what I had seen. I knew the events and visions of the first two dreams but not those of the third and final dream. I was so stunned that I got out of bed and prayed and asked God if he could help me to understand what was going on. At that early stage in my newfound faith I was not sure if God had ever spoken to anyone directly. I thought that those revelations were only in Bible times and that they were long gone.
When I asked God to help me understand the meaning of dreams I went back to one of my favorite Christmas stories. I remembered Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” and the three Christmas spirits of the past, present and future. It pressed against my head and I saw the answer as clear as the day. I had seen myself and the events in my life vividly as a film and while I was familiar with them all but the last dream I knew was that I had seen the past, present and future through three different dreams. Life itself confirmed my discovery when eight days later the events I saw in the third dream occurred in a book.
After the first three dreams I needed only one dream to see the future. You might say that God had to guide me through the first three episodes in a dream to help me overcome my ignorance of how he works and what he plans to do with me in the future. In fact, the future would be full of hundreds of dreams, perhaps now thousands.
I had all my dreams at first. Although many of them were only personal and related to me or those close to my social status and environment were all vivid and rarely open to interpretation. Mostly they were on the verge of "what you see is what you get" when no guidelines are needed. But all these dreams can scare me.
After being confused about so many dreams I finally honestly asked God why I was seeing so many future dreams, sometimes five or six times a week. The next day I asked God to help me and I was drawn to my Bible and Numbers. It was in this book that I read one verse of the text that dispelled my fears about the amount of dreams I was getting. The Bible says in Numbers 12: 6, "And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream."
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