The Prophetic Content of Your Voice

If you want your voice to make a difference, let it become a consistent sound of hope. Many people misunderstand the nature of prophecy. The highest form of prophetic ministry is not revealing undiscovered facts about someone or making a dramatic proclamation about a coming event. These words do get our attention, but the real impact of prophecy takes place in another context.

The most significant impact we can have takes place when we release words of hope that begin to influence the way people think. From time-to-time, God will share with me a hidden truth known only to the hearer or something that is about to happen, but these are rare. Don’t pursue those kinds of words as the single proof of your prophetic validity. Some have held this assumption and in doing so have tried to make the next word more dramatic than the last one. That pursuit can put you in a place of potential compromise.

Perhaps, the most precise definition of prophecy in the New Testament was shared by Paul, “But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them” (I Corinthians 14:3).

If your words strengthen people when they feel week; encourages them when they are discouraged and comforts them when they feel discomfort, you are moving in the prophetic flow of God’s Spirit. If the dramatic words given by any of us do not accomplish those three things, we need rethink what we are doing in the name of prophecy.

God did not call us to be dramatic. He called us to be a faithful – a faithful sound of hope to those in need. That is a life-long investment. In that long view of prophetic ministry, don’t be surprised that occasionally God might give you something dramatic and amazing to share. Whenever that happens, immediately get back on track with hope. That choice will keep the content and delivery of your voice pure and usable by God.