3 Prophetic Ways to Receive & Release Revelation
The operational remit of the prophet are three distinct ways that the prophet sources and relays revelation.
Let’s look at them in turn.
The Nabi Prophet
The Hebrew word meaning “to prophesy” in the Bible is נָבָא naba. Thus, those who prophesied were called נָבִיא nabi (“prophets”), alluding to their style of communication—that they “naba-ed” what they heard from God. Naba means “to bubble up, to pour forth, to flow, to have an abundance of words.” It’s a gush of language—often like a rapid-fire machine gun—and it can be fascinating to watch the speed at which revelation can be uttered. You will often wonder how the prophet is processing the revelation at pace, but you do get used to a symbiotic relation- ship with the Spirit of God. Experience and practice underpin this in its mature form. You can either speak the words or sing them. We find the word naba in the Hebrew texts associated with these prophets: Abraham, Iddo, Zechariah, Asaph, Gad, Amos, Heman, Habakkuk, Jeduthan, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi.
Naba prophesying is not the ability to say a lot of words for words’ sake, like a verbal unstopability, and it’s not a raving extrovert who doesn’t perceive their word count! No, it is the ability to flow in the words of prophecy that land right at the core of a situation and, like a key unlocks, bring life. They are targeted, specific utterances.
When you naba revelation, it is not just your breath that the words are carried on, but also the Holy Spirit carries them and lands them. The nabi prophet will have a deep partnership with the Holy Spirit, who gives the utterances. It is a profound fellowshipping with the Spirit that enables this to be unlocked. The Holy Spirit enables a naba abundance of words to flow out of you.
It is worth noting that in the Old Testament, God put words in the prophets’ mouths; however, in the New Testament, under the New Covenant of Jesus, words flow from the indwelling Holy Spirit. In the Old Covenant, prophecy was an event because the Holy Spirit did not live inside them, and so prophetic people received a word from God. Still today we wrongly sit in this model, crying out for revelation: “God, give me something, anything,” waiting for it to possibly hit your receiving dish,“Will God/won’t God?” But we have the Holy Spirit inside us, we live under a New Covenant, so we don’t need to receive; rather, we perceive what the Holy Spirit is saying as He communes with our spirit.
But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17 NIV).
You are already one spirit in Jesus so relax, take a deep breath, and listen. The longer I have prophesied, the more convinced I have become of our utter stuck-ness in old thinking. We set ourselves up to not steward revelation by waiting for it to externally hit us. While we are waiting in error, we miss the joy of continual, conversational relationship that is already happening inside of us. Our dullness to perpetual relationship with the Spirit indwelling us pushes us out of revelatory usefulness, because we are not continually in fellowship! God has to wait until we are ready to bother listening, rather than us being ever ready because of constant dialogue and awareness with what is happening inside of us.
We should be constantly aware of what the Holy Spirit is doing inside—His voice, His timings, His thinking, His mindset, and His urgency to communicate. When you know Him well, a rapid flow of language seems very normal.
We know from Scriptures, such as the Parable of the Sower (see Matthew 13), that when we naba it has an effect like seeding the words inside a person (see 1 Peter 1:23). The Holy Spirit carries the word and plants it within the spirit of the person you are speaking to. Then, when it has been planted, it can grow and change a life.
Some people can look very off-putting when you prophesy over them—their body language is slumped, appearing full of depression and sullenness, and they look like they are chewing a wasp! It is easy (and human) to assume, “Oh, OK, I must prophesy about joy,” and get it all wrong. Alternatively, we can get intimidated by their looks and back down. So when you naba, you must go past the skin and presentation and prophesy Spirit to spirit. Holy Spirit to human spirit.
We want to be people who prophesy Spirit to spirit, and not flesh to flesh. It should never be a word for their ego. This is why some people in the moment do not understand what you are saying (and why it is important to record words to review later). Because of this, never ask someone whom you’re prophesying over a question like, “Does that makes sense?” because it is not always going to make sense to them in that moment! When you ask a question like that, you are really asking for the receiver to make you feel good and to pump up your own ego. You must be able to leave a seed to grow and, as it grows, it will take over the space of the weeds (the lies) that they have been believing.
This is why we read 1 Samuel 3:19 that none of nabi prophet Samuel’s words fell to the ground. They didn’t “spill out of him” and land at his feet having no effect! Instead, they must have been carried by a naba Holy Spirit flow, flying straight to where they would have an impact. They were “seed words”! I have had many conversations with other prophets regarding this statement that, “The Lord…let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.” Does this verse mean that Samuel was absolutely, 100 percent perfect and accurate in every single utterance? Or did God back him up at those times when he got it wrong, in order to protect the reputation of the prophetic, and so made even the wrong things he said to happen? Perhaps this is a question to ask God when we all get to Heaven!
Words that have been naba-ed land and are hard to shake off. They resonate and rattle in you, remaining for years as hope for the future. Have you ever had a word that you couldn’t shake? It was because a seed was put inside you, and it is growing!
Have you ever had a wrong prophetic seed sown and grown in you and it has done some damage? Let me pray for its removal:
In the name of Jesus, I lift and pull from you any wrong seed of revelation that was inaccurately sown into you. Where it grew in error and created false expectation and disappointment, may the healing balm of Jesus soothe your emotions and restore what has been lost. Lord Jesus, I ask that You would whisper now to them personally and reframe their outlook, giving them eyes to see what You really have for them. Thank You, Jesus, that You are the God of exchange—You remove what does us harm and You plant in us what will bless us. Amen.
Naba Words Lead to Deliverance
When you are in the naba flow and are planting a seed, people will occasionally get angry or weep because they have forgotten who God made them to be. You sow revelation, it grows, and it is different from how they have been and are, right in that moment, and this rattles them. This frequently leads to the demonic coming out, just as we prophesy a need in. The person is suddenly awakened to God. Therefore, we must expect to have to do deliverance as part of prophetic ministry. The seeds displace demons or highlight blockages in their life that have prevented the seeds of revelation to fully grow. Therefore, if a prophetic person is not involved in deliverance ministry, they will be quenching the full work of the Holy Spirit, who is both a revelator and liberator. When deliverance is what you need, nothing else will work!
Healthcare for Nabi Prophets
Nabi prophets are “word smiths.” It is a little like turning on a tap when they prophesy. Their great strength is that they are nearly always able to minster. They can connect with the flow of internal Holy Spirit communication relatively quickly. However, this ability to “switch on” revelation carries with it a great danger, if a nabi is not careful. They can fall into prophesying without feeling anything, emotionally disconnected, prophesying without being interested in the person in front of them. Words will pour out and yet they can write a shopping list in the back of their minds at the same time, mentally distracted because they have tuned into the words of God but not the emotions of God. It is therefore important for nabi prophets to continually be working on their heart-health issues, just because of how the desire to emotionally shut down or over-withdraw is so strong in this group of prophetic types.
A “best practice” for nabi prophets is to engage for lengthy periods in adoring worship before ministering. This will connect them to God and help them to be aware of how they feel—and to be asking God how He feels.
The Seer Prophet
And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying… (2 Samuel 24:11 ESV).
As for the events of King David’s reign, from beginning to end, they are written in the records of Samuel the seer, the records of Nathan the prophet and the records of Gad the seer (1 Chronicles 29:29 NIV).
Another type of prophet in the Bible is the seer. Seer is the English translation of two Hebrew words, רֹאה (ro-eh) and ֹזה ח (cho-zeh), which are used to describe prophets who רָָאה (ra-ah) “see.” When the Bible uses this word see it sometimes describes seeing, beholding, becoming aware, or becoming visible, but it is also used to mean “to experience.” This is important to note because, although we most commonly assume that the language and title of “seer” indicates sight and vision, these prophets may also feel, sense—even taste and smell!
Seers love worship and they love the emotions that come from it. Prophetic revelation goes deeply to their core, and they have a sense-based revelation and often a sense-based response to the revelation.
It is noteworthy that most people start their revelatory journey by seeing pictures. Then, after time and exercise, it becomes clearer which is your dominant receiving mode—language, sight, or emotion.
You can quickly tell which Bible prophets are seers because of the descriptive language that they use. For example, Ezekiel describes “wheels within wheels,” complete with eyes, movement, sound, and with God seated on the throne outside the center of the earth. I love how God coaches Ezekiel in his seer gifting by asking him several times, “Ezekiel, what do you see?” Ezekiel replies with vivid descriptions of boiling pots and almond trees—and then God provokes a conversation to help him understand and learn the meaning of the visions. This is a massive lesson for seer prophets. They must learn to work with deep emotions and detailed sight yet be able to communicate helpfully to the rest of us as to how this might be applied on earth and what it might mean, rather than just get lost in the personal joy of an experience with God.
Isaiah’s pictorial language to describe what would not happen for another 700 years (the lashing of Jesus—“by His stripes we are healed”) takes us into a deep, emotional response because of the richness of the image.
Strengths of the Seer
This ability to take us on memorable, visionary journeys of revelation is such an asset of seer prophets. They provoke us with vivid descriptions and balanced emotions. Their strength lies in the power of image, feelings, and responses from God that they lean into.
Addressing the Weaknesses of Seers
On the other hand, a weakness that seers always must be alert to and working on is that they stray into territory that is too emotive—and the seer becomes too emotional—that they miss sight of what is around them and needs to be shifted here on planet Earth. Further, seers sometimes struggle for acceptance because they get bogged down in the detail of images that are of no real use to those around them. To help seers with this, I encourage them to practice by first receiving a picture but then not mentioning that picture when they prophesy. They are only allowed to use the picture as a “trigger” to bring forth the word of the Lord.
Over the years I have been fascinated to see how much the nabi and seer can struggle to understand each other. They are very different, and each see each other as quite peculiar—even by prophetic standards—yet when they work together there is such a fullness of expression of the incredible vastness of God!
The Watchman Prophet
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me (Ezekiel 3:17 NIV).
A common dictionary definition of watchman is “a person whose job it is to watch and guard a property at night or when the owners are away.” (I am going to use the term watchman here for brevity, but of course the role can be performed by either sex.) Bible dictionaries and lexicons give a fuller use for the word: a watchman is someone who spies or watches closely, expectantly, sometimes with a sense of stealth and subterfuge, gaining insight into enemy strategy. The first function of this sort of prophet is to warn. They usually excel in intercession, praying the bad out and the good in.
In the contemporary church we have coined the term watchman intercessor, which is not found in Scripture and which I don’t much like. This two-word phrase assigns prayer to a specialist group and not to the entirety of the body of Christ, where it should be. I also believe that it demeans the watchmen and tends to kick them out of their prophetic office, thinking that they only pray rather than pray and prophesy, which is what they should be doing.
The watchman is a prophet.
The watchman concept appears thirty-six times in the Old Testament. Darris McNeely has vividly described the importance of the role in the life of the communities of the ancient Near East:
In the ancient world of agrarian societies, large watchtowers were placed overlooking the fields. There, in the weeks the crops were ripening toward harvest, men would stand watch, guarding the fields from animals or from thieves who would make off with the crops. With the community’s basic food stores at stake, the watchman’s role was critical to the townspeople.
We also find several references in Scripture to a watcher mounting the city walls in times of stress to survey the scene outside the fortifications. [They were] situated on a spot from which [they] could monitor the approaches to the town. If a threat appeared, [they] would sound a warning and the town would shut its gates and prepare for battle. You can also imagine the watcher standing vigil at other times, observing the daily life of the city. [They] could see much of the activity in the streets and markets. [They] knew the people, their work, their habits and their lifestyles.
Strengths of the Watchman
Today, watchmen prophets sound alarms and deliver messages of warning. They see what has been let in in the past that is causing problems today (either by direct demonic attack or collective sin), and they often have a strong sense of urgency to make things right. Their strengths are in detailed problem sourcing, identifying roots of strongholds, and they are usually very devoted to spiritual warfare—and love houses of prayer!
Addressing the Weaknesses of Watchmen
The weaknesses of watchmen are that they tend to be showing you a problem around every corner, and they can get bogged down in identificational repentance when it has been already long ago accomplished. This means that they can rob themselves and the people of being able to forthtell the future—seeing what is the coming good on the horizon. Therefore, they must learn to choose to share heavenly things as well as the demonic and be balanced with calling in the future plans of
God, as much as planning prayer strikes to pull out the bad. They should know when the glory is coming, when it is harvesting time, when it is war time, and when the season is changing.
Watchmen, remember that you are prophets and so that gives you three functions: revelation, intercession, and proclamation. Often the public proclamation of the watchman is missed because the prayer room becomes too comfortable. But heed what Scripture says:
When I say to a wicked person, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself (Ezekiel 3:18 NIV).
I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night (Isaiah 62:6 NIV).
You can be held to account for not prophesying and you can get oppressed because you are out of the will of God for not speaking. Silence is disobedience. Watchmen, know that the demons will always want you in a cave of muteness and hidden from being useful as a voice!
Don’t Get Stuck in One Way!
Across the spectrum of the prophets, you will find varieties of these three dominant ways of revelation. One of our prophetic errors across the whole world is to over-pigeonhole or assign a style to someone, therefore trapping that prophet from the full spectrum of how God seeks to communicate.
While each prophet tends to have a dominant and most comfortable way that they hear from God and express revelation, if they only limit themselves to this way, they will become stunted. The nabi must learn how to see and feel, the seer must learn how to flow with words, the watchmen must step out of the prayer room to decree the good and express the emotions of God. If you are deficient in one way, then you must give yourself to practice and learn the breadth of how God expresses Himself.
Prayer
Jesus, I thank You that You have called me to steward revelation. I do not want to miss all the ways You express Yourself to me.
Activation
Put your hands on your belly and ask for a flow of revelation to erupt from inside of you. Then put your hands on your heart and ask God to share His emotional status with you. Now put your hands on your eyes and ask that you might see and perceive in the spirit realm. Finally, put your hands on your feet and pray that you can take your place as a watchman standing on the wall, taking responsibility to receive the good and banish the bad.
Prayer
Jesus, I take responsibility to flow as a nabi, seer, and watchman prophet. I commit myself to training, and to the lifestyle that builds my revelatory muscle. Amen.
