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We see sometimes in charismatic Christian meetings, people acting vigorously yelling and rushing to the stage and trying to touch the preacher, hoping to get some prophetic anointing for themselves. It is true that the bible teaches every one of us to earnestly desire to prophesy. But being prophetic is much more than being charismatic. There is something more than dreams and visions and even the proclaiming of revelation. There are some meaning and functions for the Church of Christ to be prophetic which we should understand while earnestly desiring to participate in its prophetic ministry.

Following college I served a term as a missionary in Africa along with my new husband, Tim. Those were trying years, but we learned some valuable lessons that are still valuable to us more than 30 years later. Here is a story about one of the most memorable lessons.

In the Book of Joel chapter 2, God promised to release dreams and visions upon many people. He gives revelations through unlimited number of ways, but one of them is dream. There are normal daily dreams and there are divinely inspired dreams. There is a need that we know the difference between the two. And one principle we could study is the conformity of the message.

There is a familiar old saying that goes “Talking is sharing, but listening is caring.” You probably have heard this saying a few different times in your life, I know I have. I don’t know where the saying originated from, but it is very accurate.

God lives. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We see He spoken to people in the ancient times in the Bible, therefore, we know that He still speaks today. One of the ways which He speaks is through dreams and visions. When we talk about this, the most frequently asked question is: How could we know whether the dream or vision was from God or just our own imaginations?