All of us have a distinctive language with God, and a unique way of how revelation comes to us. As we grow in the prophetic, we learn how our own gift manifests itself most often.
Prophecy can come as spontaneous thought, feelings (we can feel what the person is going through) and pictures.
Visions. Sometimes, revelation comes through pictures, visions, or even movie scenes. Many of us have probably had a picture that has sparked something in us. Generally, there are two types of vision.
First, there is the unremarkable vision that uses everyday things around us, and maybe even uses our own understanding of things to speak prophetically.
Jeremiah 1: 11-12 moreover, the word of the lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, ‘I see the branch of an almond tree’. Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform my word.
When God asked the prophet what he saw, Jeremiah looked around and noticed almond tree branch. It was a perfectly common and ordinary sight, totally unremarkable. However, the interpretation, timing, and specific needs of the people combined to produce a positive and significant prophetic contribution.
There are times when we can use our own human knowledge of the natural picture we have been given.
Second, a vision can be supernatural, rather than unremarkable. Acts 10 recounts the story of two men. One was a Greek who was devote, kind, and trustworthy, a gentile. God chose to reveal himself to this man in a sovereign way.
The other man was a Jew who was loud, impetuous, and a racist. God wanted to put Cornelius and Peter together, but how? How could he unite them when they were separated by such a religious, national, and cultural divide-especially in the heart of one man who had been taught separatism from birth?
God chose to minister a supernatural vision to Peter in order to unlock what had become a form of national prejudice in his heart. He was given a a vision of a sheet lowered from heaven, holding a full variety of unclean food to a Jew. A voice said, arise, Peter, kill and eat.
Peter’s first reaction was typical of his life: I can’t do that because these things are unholy, unclean, and I’ve never done that sort of thing in my life.
God’s voice resounded: what God has cleansed you must not call common. It happened three times, leaving Peter totally bewildered. What on earth did the vision mean? He had no interpretation for it, but while he was meditating on it, the Holy Spirit gave him some instructions.
Behold three men are seeking you, arise therefore, go down with them doubting nothing (Acts 10:19). So, he went to Cornelius’s house, preached the gospel, watched as the Holy Spirit fell on those men, and saw a completely new kind of church be born.
Sometimes we can get pictures that have a prophetic interpretation. Some are diagnostic in the sense that they give us information about things. Others may lead us into a word of knowledge, telling us something that has happened or is currently underway. When we receive a vision like that, our first step is to ask, father, considering this, what is it you want to say? Do not speak out of the first thing you receive, because it may be diagnostic and could result in us prophesying the problem, not the answer.
If we practice the art of waiting quietly, perhaps just for a few minutes before we open our mouth to prophecy, we may glorify God more in the delivery and save ourselves some considerable heartache. Most mistakes in prophecy occur because we rush in with what we believe God is saying while he may still yet be speaking.
We can also receive revelation through moving pictures, like a movie screen. We will see a portion of the scene and as we speak that the movie will continue.