[color=#000099][/color]
Anatomy of the office of the New Testament Prophet.
The Seer will perceive pictures, lights, colors and words.

There are basically two types of prophets: seeing and non-seeing. The Old Testament uses two different words: ro’eh and nabi.

Ro’eh means to see or perceive and is generally used to describe one who sees (Seer) into the realm of the spirit. The Seer will thus uses visions and revelations to describe your life past and present (forth-telling) as well as things in your future (foretelling).

Nabi literally means “to bubble up” and is used to describe one who gets stirred up in spirit, causing him to utter a “thus sayeth the Lord” concerning things present (forth-telling) and/or things future (foretelling). He hears the Voice of God but does not necessarily see into the spirit realm.

The main difference between the two is how each receives divine revelation. The nabi tends to receive his messages in audio form, while the ro’eh/seer receives them mostly in visual form. Of course many prophets operate as both nabi and ro’eh.

What seeth thou?

The Seer will perceive pictures, lights, colors and words. His task is to tell what he sees, even though sometimes it sounds like mumbo jumbo. And then he must also try to make sense of what he is seeing, which is also not always an easy thing to do.

This is the reason why Seers often seem mentally detached and sound incoherent at times. Downloading information from one realm (spirit) to another (physical) is not as simple as it sounds. Some things often get lost in translation – usually on the part of the listener.

Take for instance one of the visions that St John saw in the Book of Revelation. He saw locusts that look like horses with golden crowns on their heads. Their faces looked like men’s faces. They wore long hair and had lions’ teeth.

Well, go figure.

Macroscopic and microscopic prophecy

The Nabi prophet’s assignment, however, seems to be broader than that of the Seer. The former tends to address national issues and global events. In this sense their ministry can be termed “macroscopic.”

Seers, on the other hand, tend to go personal with their prophecies and this can be described as “microscopic.” It is what popular Zimbabwean prophet Uerbert Angel calls forensic prophecy.

Microscopic or forensic prophecy, by its nature, does tend to get all up in your business. As you stand there listening to the prophet call out your name, address, phone number etc, you have to wonder how much of your personal dirty laundry is the man of God going to hang out in public?

It can be quite a nerve-wrecking experience for a parishioner who knows he or she ain’t living right.

But of course, a real man of God will never embarrass you in public, no matter how black your sins are. This is where the old classical Pentecostal prophet differs from modern Charismatics. The former almost reveled in revealing the sins of the people.

In some cases it was so egregious that when believers heard the prophet was coming to town, half the church stayed at home for fear of being exposed.

Unfortunately some (not all) prophets did that for self-righteousness reasons, hiding behind Old Testament examples like Nathan who exposed King David’s dirt to everyone in the palace. These spiritual shock-jocks just loved the drama that came with all such exposure.

Jesus is the Prototype Prophet

But prophetic drama isn’t Jesus’ style. Watch how he handles the case of the woman caught in adultery. Instead of causing her further embarrassment, Jesus chose instead to embarrass the jokers who came armed to the teeth with stones to kill and bury her. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone” Jesus double-door dared them.

Jesus is the prototype Prophet, not Nathan, Jeremiah, Amos or any of the other great prophets of the Old Testament. The New Testament prophet today must pattern his ministry after the prototype. He must speak, not to judge and condemn, but to the “strengthening, encouraging an