How to Prophesy Biblically: Understanding the Spirit of Prophecy

The prophetic of God has continuity. It isn’t just a spurt of prophecy here and a spurt of prophecy there. It’s all a story. It’s all a plan. It’s all strategic. What He is giving is connected to what He has given. It isn’t going to contradict. It isn’t going to just be completely random. There’s going to be continuity, and the more that we see that about the ways and the purposes of God, we see just how complex they are. They’re grand and glorious and unfathomable.

—Patsy Cameneti, Prophetic Word 2025

The “spirit of prophecy” is very intriguing.

It has about it an element of the spectacular, the mystical, the operation of the ways of God in the spirit realm.

The “spirit of prophecy” is a phrase referring to divine insight and guidance, particularly the ability to receive and share prophetic messages from God. It could be called “inspired utterance” or the utterance of God. He breathes into the human spirit, and we breathe it out through our mouth in the form of words. It is inspired by God.

New Testament Prophecy

In the New Testament age, prophecy is defined more as “forthtelling” rather than “foretelling.” Forthtelling is to speak out by divine utterance the word of the Lord that is for that moment or situation. Foretelling was seen more in the Old Testament, when the word of the Lord often came with a warning and a prediction of what was to come. But the underlying theme of all prophecy is to speak under divine inspiration and utterance.

Jesus’ Testimony

A key biblical definition of prophecy is from Revelation 19:10 that states, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” This means that all genuine prophecy is centered on Jesus Christ and is ultimately a revelation of His person and work. It has in its essence the “Alpha and Omega” of Jesus. He is at the beginning and at the end.

…Worship God! For the substance (essence) of the truth revealed by Jesus is the spirit of all prophecy [the vital breath, the inspiration of all inspired preaching and interpretation of the divine will and purpose, including both mine and yours] (Revelation 19:10 AMPC).

Old Testament Prophets

Even the prophets of old, when they spoke by divine utterance, gave witness to the continuum of a prophetic line of words that ultimately pointed to Jesus—His first coming and His return.

The Old Testament prophets were somehow, by faith, able to dip into the dispensations that were to come; and as they did, they saw shadows and forms of what would be in those upcoming dispensations.

The roles and functions of Old Testament prophets were activated by divine commission. This included public proclamation of the will and plans of God, which often included warnings. But even the warnings came with a message of hope that if the people repented and turned from their sinful ways, God would forgive and restore.

Prophets were used by God to deliver His message, which involved publicly denouncing sin and oppression while also foretelling future judgment. All prophecy was pointed toward getting a people ready for the coming of the Messiah.

The Spirit Upon

In the Old Testament, the anointing, or the prophetic word, would come upon the prophet or the person. The Bible says that they spoke or wrote as God moved on them. The word to note here is upon, or on; it was not within. There are also examples of kings, such as King Saul, who lay on the ground and prophesied all day. He was not a prophet. He was not even a good king at that time. Yet the anointing came on him to prophesy.

Desire to Prophesy

In the New Testament, or this age of grace, we have the Holy Spirit as an inward resident. It is possible for us, as new covenant believers, to receive prophetic utterance from God at any time, because the Spirit of the living God is now in us, not just on us. Now that has some amazing potential!

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and said that every one of them may prophesy. He actually encouraged them to seek to prophesy. That doesn’t mean that next Sunday you need to rush into a pulpit. There are times, such as in prayer or even across the table from a friend, that a spirit of prophecy can come on you.

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. At times when I have been talking to someone on an airplane about Jesus, just testifying about what Jesus has done in my life, a spirit of prophecy comes on me, and I am inspired to witness. It is very simple in its nature, but nonetheless it is the spirit of prophecy.

Ordinary believers can prophesy. Even in the Old Testament, in 2 Chronicles 20, one stood up in the midst of the congregation. It was not the one at the front; he was from the midst of the congregation. He gave an amazing battle plan that preachers use as whole sermon texts today, and it originated in the midst of the congregation. The spirit of prophecy came upon him.

If Paul encourages us all to desire to prophesy, it must be available to all of us because we have the Spirit of God in us.

We know that singers and musicians also can operate in the spirit of prophecy. When they are yielded to God and not just going by what they have prepared, something can come out of their mouth, or from their instrument, that they did not plan or practice. That is the spirit of prophecy.

This can happen for you as well. It is possible for the Spirit of God to move on anyone who is yielded to the Spirit. Anyone!

Does God Have Exclusive Use?

Did you know that God doesn’t have exclusive use of believers? How can that be? Have you ever been tempted to say some things that are not edifying, not compassionate, not in accordance with the Word of God? Actually, have you been tempted to say something that may have even been inspired by the devil? Now hold that in your mind and think about this.

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17 NKJV).

Peter received a direct revelation. He spoke by inspiration. Jesus said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father in heaven.” God Himself revealed that to Peter.

Yet just six verses later, it was a very different matter. Jesus was talking about how He needed to go up to Jerusalem and that He would be taken and suffer terrible things. Peter responded by saying, “No, Lord, this cannot be so.” What did Jesus say to Peter, the same man who just a few verses earlier Jesus had called blessed? Did Jesus say, “Get thee behind Me, Peter?” Or did He say, “Get thee behind Me lying spirit?” No, the one who spoke through Peter was not a little demon, it was Satan himself! In one verse, God Almighty was speaking through Peter, and six verses later, Satan himself is inspiring Peter to speak!

Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:23-24 NLT).

How can it be that the inspiration for Peter was Satan himself? Peter was simply expressing his heartfelt desire. How bad could that be? Satan

was using something very natural and even logical that was coming from Peter’s mind. It wasn’t some weird doctrine or an obvious lie. Peter spoke from his own natural understanding and limited perspective. He was seeing from a human point of view. That’s what Satan used to try and influence Jesus’ journey to the Cross.

We can take stern warning from that example! If we are to be true followers of Jesus, used to speak the oracles of God, we must give up our own perspective and ways of thinking and operate just as Jesus did. He did nothing from Himself but only what He heard and saw from His Father. I never want to be inspired of the devil to work against God’s plans!

Who Uses Your Voice?

A person’s voice is like a microphone. It is not for exclusive use of anyone. There have been born-again people in churches who have been double agents. The devil wanted to say something, and they have just opened their mouth and blabbed it out for him. When the devil has wanted to cause division in the Church, he didn’t have to send in someone from the outside. He just moved on someone to open their mouth and utter all sorts of devilishly inspired utterance. They have been double agents in the kingdom of God!

When my girls were little, they were learning to play the piano. I was teaching them the duets that I learned as a little girl. Our piano would sound out anything we would play, mistakes and all. But that same piano could also have surrendered to the fingers of a master pianist. It would have been the same piano, but it would have made a completely different sound!

Has the devil ever used somebody in our kingdom to work against our kingdom? Pray to God that he’s never used you in that way!

What about Ananias and Sapphira in Acts? It says, “Why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 5:3 NLT). They died for it. They were Christians in the Church, and Satan convinced those two people to collaborate in a lie. And God said they had lied to Him.

What about the disciples when some people were not accepting Jesus. They said, “Master, let’s call fire down from heaven.” Jesus “rebuked them.” He said in essence, “You don’t know by what spirit you speak” (Luke 9:55). These were close disciples of Jesus. Did the devil use people who were walking close to Jesus? Obviously, yes!