A lot of people believe that when a prophet tells them what they already know, there is nothing prophetic about it. But this is a misunderstanding of the operations of the prophetic.

This debate was stirred recently when Prophet Victor Kusi Boateng – the spiritual father to Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa of the United Family International Church and Prophet Uebert Angel of Spirit Embassy – “prophesied” that Zimbabwe was set for an economic rebound.

“God revealed to me while I was praying today that there is going to be a boom in mining. God is going to raise the economy. The economy will rise from that end (mining),” Prophet Boateng told over 50 000 last week during the UFIC Convention.

“There is going to be an economic boom in this country in a few years to come. It will start with mining. Even those countries that were at war with you will come and make peace. They will come and make huge investments here.”

Many critics said there was nothing prophetic about such pronouncements. What they could not understand is that a prophetic word, more often than not, comes just as a confirmation of what you already know. In such instances, it comes to comfort, edify and exhort (1 Corinthians 13:3).

In the New Testament dispensation, we are primarily called upon to be the prophets of our own lives and to be led by the Spirit of God, not those called into the ministry of the prophet. Back in the Old Testament, that first prophet of the Bible, Moses, cried out: “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them all” (Numbers 11:29).

Moses’ wish has been fulfilled in the New Testament. Because I am the prophet of my own life, what another prophet pronounces to me should have an inward witness in my spirit. 

But this does not in any way do away with the office of the prophet, which is one of the five-fold ministry offices mentioned in the New Testament (Ephesians 5:11-12).

Why would Moses wish that we all should be prophets? But God is faithful. That desire which Moses had has been fulfilled. Obviously, these are the last days. Jesus told us about the last days and the signs that we would see. We see them now! And long before Christ came; the Prophet Joel had already delivered to us God’s answer to the cry of Moses.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…” (Acts 2:17)

Ephesians 4: 11 speaks about, among others, the ministry office of the prophet. This is a particular calling upon the life of an individual. But then in 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul calls on us to desire earnestly to prophesy. Every Christian can function in the spiritual gift of prophecy because this is simply speaking forth the Word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  A prophet called into the office, however, can prophesy anytime, any day and can see the hidden things in a person’s life.