Prophecy 101- Four Kinds of Prophecy

A common error is to closely associate the spiritual gift of prophecy with predicting the future. No, the main purpose of prophecy is to reveal God's will and accomplish the work of the Great Commission. Emphasis on predicting the future opens the door to demonic imitations such as witchcraft and divination from temptation to impress people by being right. We seek to please Jesus by a focus on the work he's given rather than seeking praise from men. While other descriptions are possible, most prophecy in Scripture and most true prophecy through Jesus followers today falls into one of four categories – 1) worship prophecy, 2) teaching prophecy, 3) evangelical prophecy, and 4) revelation prophecy. Prophecies that predict the future are a small fraction of the revelation prophecy category.

We usually think of David as a king, but the Bible also describes him as a prophet. And while the book of Psalms contains some predictive elements, the main focus is on worship – Psalms is a collection of prophetic songs intended for use in public worship. The authors of Psalms spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The Bible includes many songs in other books also that are best understood as canonical examples of worship prophecy. Since, an imperative of Scripture is to sing to the Lord a "new song" (Ps 33:3, Ps 40:3, Ps 96:1, Ps 98:1, Is 42:10), the Holy Spirit is active inspiring them.

Can the Holy Spirit give Jesus followers new songs today? Of course. Ephesians 5 tells us to be filled with the Spirit, "speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." As we follow the instruction to "eagerly desire the greater gifts, especially the gift of prophecy" we need to include asking God new songs in our heart to obey Ephesians 5:19.

Teaching prophecy is the right explanation of the right Scripture at the right time. Just as a good worship leader is praying about which songs to sing on an occasion of public worship, a good Bible teacher is asking for Holy Spirit's guidance about what text to teach on to edify their audience and what key principles to emphasize to meet audience needs in their explanation of the passage. Isaiah explained, "to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to that word, they have no light of dawn." The Book of Hebrews is an apt illustration of teaching prophecy in Scripture. It has almost no doctrine that is absent from the rest of the Bible, but it connects the dots and explains much about the person and work of Jesus with great clarity to a Hebrew audience that was in need of such edification.

While teaching prophecy has a focus on changing how we think in fulfillment of the Great Commission, the Holy Spirit's target in evangelical prophecy is more directly on a change of our behavior. It's more prophetic preaching than prophetic teaching. Suppose God wants to address sexual immorality in an audience. Teaching prophecy might focus on specific verses laying a foundation for Biblical purity and why God has specific boundaries in place for sexual intimacy. In contrast, evangelical prophecy will more likely focus on God's imperatives for sexual purity and point the audience to confess, repent, and cry out to Jesus for cleansing, healing, and deliverance. Teaching prophecy accomplishes its task speaking primarily to the mind. On the other ...

Preaching, or evangelical prophecy, speaks to the heart more directly with the goal of changed behavior. Two good examples of evangelical prophets in the Old Testament are Jonah and Jeremiah – both preached specific change in the face of pending destruction. John the Baptist aptly demonstrates an evangelical prophet in the New Testament. He emphasized what his audiences needed to do specifically and offered a baptism of repentance in preparing the way for Jesus.

Revelation prophecy reveals future, distant or hidden knowledge as useful in service of the Great Commission. Word of knowledge and discerning of spirits are direct revelatory spiritual giftings. The reported prophecies of Agabus in the book of Acts are exampes of revelation prophecies, one predicting a famine and the other that Paul would under go specific persecution. The book of Ezekiel is marked with a lot of revelatory prophecy. Consider Ezekiel 8, for example, where God reveals specific sins of specific parties to the prophet through visions. The interpretation of dreams by Joseph and Daniel are also examples of revelatory prophecy. The meaning of the dreams was hidden until God revealed it through specific prophetic giftings.

The Book of Revelation has plenty of revelation prophecy, but there are examples of other kinds of prophecy as well. The letters to the seven churches are more preaching or evangelical prophecy in that they call specific audiences to specific action – combinations of repentance in some cases and continuing to do right. Recording the words and songs of heaven functions as worship prophecy, including a new song (Re 5:9). The description of harvesting of the earth in Re 14:14-20 can be viewed as teaching prophecy – an explanation of the parable of the weeds in the field given by Jesus in Matthew 13.

As we obey Scripture to eagerly desire the gift of prophecy, we can do a better job opening our eyes to the different ways God answers through four types of prophecy – worship, teaching, evangelical, and revelatory.
As we obey the imperative to test prophecy ...

Nice read. Would need many more pages to really delve into those ideas.

I get a kick out of the modern day revelation “prophets.” LOL. When you add it to the modern day “tongues” it’s a riot.

Thanks for the feedback. God willing, in the future I'll have a chance to look at each kind of prophecy in more detail.