If God is calling you to be a prophet, you will know it because of what happens in reality. Unlike visions, which can be very detailed, prophetic voices are not always highly descriptive. They are more like radio signals being broadcast over the air, which you can only hear when tuned to the correct channel. That’s why you need to be careful about who you listen to for prophetic words.
One of the mistakes that people often make is to confuse prophetic messages with normal perceptual perceptions. For example, when the child Samuel heard his name being called in the Hebrew narrative, he didn’t hear anything that would be considered a revelation in any narrow sense of the word. However, he was able to understand the meaning of the call and acted on it. This was a message that could have been communicated in any number of ways, but the outcome was a prophetic one because of what happened later on in the story.
Another mistake people sometimes make is to assume that a prophetic word is automatically true and infallible. This is not always the case. A prophetic word can be wrong, and you must weigh everything against Scripture to see if it is from God or not.
Lastly, you must be wary of people who claim to have the gift of prophecy and promise that they will give you a prophetic word if you support their ministry. This is spiritual adultery and should never be tolerated. These kinds of prophets are usually operating in the spirit of Jezebel and should be prayed off or put out of their group as soon as possible.
What is a Prophetic Calling?
A prophetic calling is a divine appointment by God to be the voice, the face and the hands of the Lord to His people. Prophets receive messages from the divine and relay them to the church, including occasionally foretelling future events. Prophets often have a very strong, close and intimate relationship with the Lord, which allows them to convey the depths of his love and his concerns to his church.
A person in a prophetic calling is able to minister primarily through the gift of prophecy, which includes forth-telling words to build up and encourage others, for healing and comfort. Those in the prophetic office also have, and share, strategic insight into where the Church is headed and along with the other five-fold gifts, can work on strategy to bring the Body of Christ into maturity in character, gifting and function.
People in the prophetic office will have a very high level of accuracy, especially when it comes to knowing details about other people which they cannot know through natural means, like names and addresses. Accuracy usually results from the combined functioning of both the gift of prophecy and the ‘word of knowledge’.
Many prophets serve in the fields of family, business and government. They are not limited to ministry as some people believe, and even prophets with a governmental prophetic call will still operate in secular employment until they are released by the Lord to move into full-time prophetic ministry. Prophets have a history of swinging wildly from one extreme to the other, much like Elijah who was head strong on “taking down the prophets of Baal” and then wailing and wanting to give it all up the next. The Lord is gracious though, and will pull them out of their little pity parties and continue to call them to prophetic service.
Are Pastors to Call Out False Prophets?
The Bible warns against false teachers and teaches that we should be able to identify them. Often, these people promote teachings that conflict with Scripture and lead followers down a different path than Christ intended. Whether the controversy centers on ministry qualifications or the nature of the Gospel, it’s important to be able to distinguish between true and false teaching.
False teachers typically teach that Scripture is full of errors and can’t be trusted. They may also pick and choose which doctrines can be believed, ignoring the fact that every word of the Bible is inspired by God, including miracles and stories about Jesus. Christ said that “MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD” (Matt 4:4).
Other times, false teachers focus on self-promotion and make merchandise of their followers. They preach that it’s important to seek wealth and fame, ignoring the fact that Christ told his disciples to hate their father, mother, brothers, sisters, wives, children, and even their own lives if they wanted to follow him (Lk 14:26). They also neglect biblical teaching on suffering, which is redemptive and part of our spiritual growth.
When we look for truth, it is vital to focus on doctrine, not methodology or personality. Likewise, when it comes to exposing false prophets, we should avoid slandering them by name or criticizing their methods, since the Bible warns that this is a sin (2 Tim 3:15).
5 Types of Prophetic Calling
Prophetic ministry releases God’s perspective and vision, releases calling and vision, ignites faith and hope, and undermines the enemy. It also brings revelation and anointing, builds up the church, and edifies people.
In the OT, prophets spoke on behalf of God because He was too holy to speak directly to Israel without human mediation (Exod. 20:18-19). The most famous OT prophets include Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They often describe a future of disaster and destruction because of Israel’s oppressive practices, but they also anticipate hope in God’s ability to redeem and restore His people.
Divinatory prophecy involves oracular statements about the divine will based on telepathy, clairvoyance, dreams, or a frenzied state of ecstasy. The Bible describes this as a gift of wisdom, and it includes fortune tellers, seers and soothsayers who predict the future or tell the divine will through their gifts.
The NT associates the prophetic with divine revelation, and Paul claims that the word is the Lord’s (I Cor. 14:37; Acts 1:8). The New Testament also contains a dramatic account of Saul, who was transformed into the apostle Paul when he encountered Christ on the road to Damascus.
Prophecy for individuals aims to edify and uplift people, encourage them, comfort them, and help them make good decisions. This is the most common type of prophecy. It is also possible to receive prophetic words that are specific for the church or nation, but these prophetic words must be weighed and judged by leadership in accordance with Scriptural commands.
The Call of the Prophet
Almost every page of the Bible contains some reference to prophets. From Ezekiel to John the Baptist, these messengers of God appear in just about every book of the Old Testament and the New Testament as well. But what exactly is their role, and did they stop playing this important part once the New Covenant was established?
Prophets are men and women who receive messages from God regarding events that are to come. Typically, they then convey this message to a certain group or individual that God intends to hear it. This may be a large audience like the Israelites when Moses told them that if they changed their wicked ways and followed Him, He would bring them out of slavery in Egypt. Or it may be a small group like the prophet Balaam who was called to speak God’s word to those who wished harm upon Israel.
One thing that makes a prophet different from other religious leaders is that God speaks to them directly, often in a vision or dream. For example, the Bible is full of the accounts of prophets like Daniel and John the Revelator who had visions that they wrote down and later passed on to their audience. This is true of many other prophets as well, including Moses who had many face-to-face conversations with God.
In this respect, the call of Lehi in 1 Nephi 1 serves as an example for prophets throughout the ages. He was baptized and received the Holy Spirit, then saw in his vision God “sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels” (1 Nephi 1:8). This experience, similar to the “council visions” of many Old Testament prophets, made Lehi a prophet. He then began to preach the doctrines of his father—to teach about the unity of God and to condemn idol-worship.
How to Know If God Called You to Be A Prophet
Whether you have a gift of prophecy or not, the Bible is full of examples of everyday people who God called to be His prophets. In today’s world, the prophetic ministry may look a bit different than what it was in the Bible, but the principles remain the same: A true prophet receives a message from God and tells it to the intended audience.
Prophecy comes in many forms, but one thing all prophets have is an uncanny ability to hear God’s voice and speak His words. The key to discerning if someone is a prophet is to listen to the content of their message and see how it lines up with Scripture.
A prophet’s message is usually one of repentance. It will ask people to change their ways or face the consequences. False prophets will try to cater their messages to the needs of the people rather than what honors God.
Prophets also have an anointing to release God’s presence in worship. Oftentimes, they will lead worship or be the first to get on their hands and knees when God shows up! This is because prophets have a unique ability to bind the enemy and release the angelic hosts of heaven.
Prophets are notorious for swinging wildly from one extreme to the next. They can be head strong on taking down the prophets of Baal one day and wailing and wanting to give up the next. This is because the enemy puts a target on their back and this can cause them to feel like John the Baptist in the wilderness for a season. But God is so gracious and just like He snatched Jesus out of the clutches of Herod, He will do it again for His prophets.
The Weeping Prophet in the Bible
Jeremiah is well-known for his call to repentance and God’s promise of a new covenant. He lived in a very turbulent time as he gave Judah one last warning before the fall of Jerusalem and their deportation into Babylonian captivity in 587 BC. However, he also had many enemies who hated him for his prediction of disaster and his pleas to surrender to the Babylonians. In 2008, a clay seal was unearthed that revealed the name of a man who was Jeremiah’s archenemy. Unlike the other prophets of God who received more blessings, this man had very little to show for his life except a grim record as Jeremiah’s archenemy.
Why was this man called the weeping prophet?
Jeremiah, a son of Hilkiah and a priest of Anathoth, receives his call from the Lord when he is very young. The Lord tells him that he will be the prophet of Judah’s midnight hour, proclaiming their destruction and end. Jeremiah’s job is to speak the truth even when it causes great mental anguish and makes him despised in his own nation.
For 40 years, Jeremiah proclaimed God’s message to the people of Judah without seeing any success. He was a man of deep empathy for the people he criticized, and he wept often over their indifference to God’s word. This explains why he is so often referred to as the weeping prophet. He is also credited with writing the book of Lamentations, the saddest book in the bible. Jesus must have felt a kinship with this man who knew what it was like to preach God’s word in a hostile world.
When Was Jeremiah Called to Be a Prophet?
The Bible doesn’t give us an exact age, but Christians estimate that Jeremiah was in his early twenties when he received the call to be God’s prophet. It was in the thirteenth year of King Josiah, 626 B.C.
Jeremiah was born into a priestly family in Anathoth, just three miles from Jerusalem. He began his ministry in the shadow of the godly reforms carried out by King Josiah. The reforms were designed to keep Judah from falling into the widespread idolatry promoted by his father Amon and grandson Manasseh (2 Kings 21:10).
When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, He told him that people would respond to his words in many different ways. Some might be angry, others might become excited or even frightened. That’s why God told Jeremiah that he should be prepared for anything (Jeremiah 1:7).
Jeremiah’s mission was to be a faithful servant of God. He was to proclaim the word of the Lord, warning that Judah’s unrepentant sins were driving God away and causing him to prepare to remove them from the land at the hands of a pagan king (Jeremiah 1:8; 2 Kings 21:20). Jeremiah was not to be afraid because God was with him (Jeremiah 1:18). Likewise, Christian prophets today are meeting a need in our culture for reassurance and clarity. However, we must be careful not to allow our desire for a spiritual connection with Christ to lead us to prophets who are false or self-serving.
Is it Bad to Call Oneself a Prophet?
Most dictionaries define prophets as “a person who receives a message from a god and speaks to human beings on behalf of that deity.” The Bible’s definition, which includes the gift of prophecy itself, is very similar. God calls us to serve as His prophets. When we do so, we are aligning with the testimony of Jesus and speaking with His full authority.
Prophetic words can be inspiring, encouraging, and consoling. They can also be challenging, urging you to change or take action. But regardless of how the word is received, it ultimately remains your choice to follow through with it or not. If you’re interested in receiving a prophetic word, there are many ways that you can get one.
In the church I attended for eighteen years, pastors made space during the music portion of corporate worship for people to share prophetic words from their hearts. If you felt that God had given you a prophetic word, you would come up front with the pastor designated to evaluate public contributions, and they’d evaluate whether or not it was appropriate for the whole church to hear.
In the New Testament, the prophetic gifts include the gift of preaching as we traditionally think of it (anointed expository sermons delivered in a church or wider event context). But it’s not just limited to this. Ananias’ vision, Agabus’ foretelling, Paul and Barnabas’ missionary call, the Ephesian disciples’ spontaneous utterances, and Timothy’s personal prophecies all fall into this category.
What Did People Mean When They Called Jesus the Prophet?
There are several instances in the Gospels where Jesus is referred to as a prophet. The angel who appeared to Mary told her that God would give her son the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:32). When Jesus entered Jerusalem crowds hailed him as King of the Jews. He proclaimed his kingdom by preaching, healing, and serving. His followers received the Holy Spirit as a prophet does, so they could proclaim the message of the kingdom to all the nations.
When they heard of these miracles and other things that Jesus did, they drew the conclusion that He was indeed the prophet. The Samaritan woman who met with Jesus says, I perceive sir that you are a prophet. When the blind man from birth is healed, they tell him that a prophet has visited him. Similarly, when the multitudes see Jesus feeding thousands with just a few loaves of bread and fish, they react by saying, Truly this is the prophet who was to come into the world.
The prophet is a man who speaks the word of God by divine inspiration for the edification, upbuilding, encouragement and consolation of God’s people. Jesus is a unique prophet because He is the Word of God, the only one who has ever brought salvation to men. He is the prophet like Moses who delivers his people from death into life.
What Does God Call a Prophet?
Isaiah and Jeremiah are two of the Bible’s most famous prophets, but what does god call a prophet actually mean? ‘Prophet’ has a much broader meaning in the Bible than we’re used to, with the word used to describe people who take God’s message and relay it to others. A prophet is also someone who serves God, with the goal of fulfilling any duties and tasks assigned to them.
This includes interpreting the Bible, teaching others, and preaching. For example, prophets like Ezra brought Israelites back to their homeland and taught them new aspects of the scriptures (Ezra 7-10). Deborah ruled Israel and settled disputes between her country’s citizens under God’s guidance (Judges 4-8). And Moses was a prince of Egypt, a runaway shepherd, and eventually a leader of the Hebrews (Exodus 1-2, Exodus 3:1-5).
For some people, foretelling the future is the most obvious function of a prophet. But this isn’t a defining feature, even though it’s something many of the Bible’s prophets were known for. Daniel, for example, revealed to the kings of Babylon their imminent deaths and God’s plans for them (Dan 2:25-3:4).
A prophet’s role is to share God’s vision for the world and his feelings about it with others, so they can understand and relate to it. This is a task that requires courage, diligence, and selflessness, and it’s impossible for humans to consistently fulfill without God’s help. So, in order to serve as God’s mouthpiece, a prophet must have the anointing of the Spirit upon them (2 Kings 1-2). This is why most people believe that only those individuals who have been explicitly named by God or strongly implied as being a prophet should be considered one.
Prophetic Ministry Free PDF – Basic Training
Whether you have the gift of prophecy, or are interested in developing your prophetic calling, this book provides basic training and instruction for you to step into the prophetic. It explains the difference between being a prophet (which is a unique calling) and being able to prophesy (something God wants for every believer). It also reveals clues on how to recognize false prophets and how to grow in your ability to give words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy.
Scriptures promise that in the last days the Holy Spirit will be poured out and all believers will prophesy. This spiritual outpouring will manifest in a resurgence of prophetic ministry worldwide. In this eight session e-course, Kris Vallotton provides practical prophetic training and teaches all believers to hear the Lord’s voice and operate in the gifts of the Spirit.
This collection of free Christian books on Spirit filled living, revival, healing and deliverance, supernatural ministry, gifts of the Holy Spirit, God’s guidance, marriage and family, renewal of the mind, and inner wholeness are provided for your encouragement. These eBooks can be used for personal study, small groups, church classes, and other ministries.
Prophetic Ministry and Spiritual Warfare
The concepts of prophetic ministry and spiritual warfare can seem mysterious, overwhelming or downright strange to many believers. Lack of understanding and solid teaching can cause people to miss out on some of the most powerful–and fun–aspects of our relationship with Christ.
Prophetic ministry involves the Holy Spirit revealing God’s heart to individuals or to the church at large. This can take the form of encouraging or comforting words, bringing conviction of sin to unbelievers or showing details about future events. Usually, prophetic revelation will have greater weight and authority than normal words. This is because the prophet sees things from a different perspective than most Christians.
A healthy prophetic influence in the church helps to keep the supernatural element of the church balanced with Scripture-shaped preaching and Spirit-led spiritual experience. Without it, a church can over-focus on miracles and signs and wonders, becoming experientially driven and shallow. Alternatively, a church can become focused on Scripture and intellectualism, becoming a place of moralism or legalism with no depth of spiritual experience.
Like any war, spiritual warfare is an ongoing conflict between good and evil. It is important for believers to understand what is happening and how they can participate in God’s plans to defeat the devil and usher in peace and blessing. When a believer chooses not to engage in spiritual warfare, they give Satan an open door to attack them. Engaging in spiritual warfare is essential to a Christian life of victory, because the enemy is only defeated when we take him on at his weak points.