Question: What scriptures would you use to explain the current prophetic revelations? I’m personally thinking about current events in our world right now
Answer: As a supernaturalist who has written a 500 page book on the Holy Spirit and the supernatural perspective of the Bible, I’m all for the prophetic. God still speaks today in the same ways that he spoke in the Bible. God still raises up prophets, just like he always has.
However, I trust very little of the popular prophetic stuff out there. For example, anytime someone tries to use Revelation to explain the things going on in the world today, I immediately stop listening. Revelation is an incredibly complex book that has more Bible references in it than it has Bible verses. John was a genius, writing in several genres of literature that existed in his time, including a genre called “apocalyptic,” which we hardly understand when we read today. Bible scholars have a really beautiful understanding of what John is doing in Revelation and it’s breathtaking.
But supposed “prophets” today take John’s words and smash them to pieces when they assume Revelation is telling us all about the future and read it into today’s time. When they turn it into weird science to determine the day and hour Jesus is coming back, or this or that event, they abuse it and miss the point.
Yes, Revelation does have a lot to say about the coming age of the resurrection, but it’s not all about the future. It was written to people in the past, it references events that happened in the earliest centuries, and it is a word of comfort to the martyrs all throughout history as Christians will always have to face the vicious cycles of domination and power in this world.
The prophets I trust typically operate in two ways: (1) They use spiritual disciplines to listen to the Holy Spirit and speak into the present of people’s lives; and (2) they speak out on social justice issues, provoking the church to do its job and love and serve the poor and marginalized. Unfortunately, these two forms of the prophetic are often separated in today’s churches.
Jamin Bradley 
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