Prophets and Psychics

Have you ever wondered how psychics can know things about you? How do some people have the ability to hear and who do they hear from? How do they differ from prophetic people in the church?

God has given each one of us a gift—whether we are Christian or not. The gift that He gives us we have for life—we cannot lose it. Regardless of what we think of God or what we do, it is ours. This is true for the many gifted people in the world who seem to know what tomorrow holds. Whether they are called a seer, prophet, psychic or other, their gift exists because God gave it to them. The gift that they have is the ability to receive knowledge and revelation from the spiritual realm, it is not the knowledge or revelation itself that comes to them. In other words, it is a gift of communication.

For Christians, this gift is known as the gift of prophesy. A non-Christian with the same gift would be likely to call themselves a psychic or a medium. So then if both a Christian prophet and a psychic have the ability or gift to receive information from the spiritual realm, what is the difference? Simply speaking, a person who has the ability to hear from the spiritual realm has a choice of who to listen or tune in to. The difference, therefore, lies not in their ability to receive information but rather who they receive the information from. A Christian prophet is listening and receiving information from God, while the psychic receives information from the spiritual realm that is not inhabited by God.

A person who is tuned into and hearing from God will be able to receive revelation about the future and God’s plan and purposes for people, cities and nations. The primary reason that God shares His thoughts and plans with us is to strengthen and encourage us, prevent us from harm and give us hope for the future. These prophetic words call people into their destinies, and while they can be warnings, they always leave the receiver with hope and encouragement.

See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you. —Isaiah 42:9

For those who have a prophetic gift and are not believers of Christ, they listen or tune into a spiritual realm that is not of God; in other words, they listen to demonic spirit beings who can masquerade as “angels of light.” Tuning into this realm gives the person access to information, not revelation. That is information that already exists. This information comes from spiritual informants who are able to see and hear what is already going on in the world and pass it onto the listener, such as conversations between people, letters written, things they have observed and the like. When the psychic then relays this information to a person, it may appear as revelation as that information is not necessarily known by the receiver. The important distinction to be aware of is that anyone who is not tuned into God, does not have the ability to foretell the future. While it may appear as foretelling, the information already exists. Only the Creator Himself has the ability to tell the future, no other spiritual being is able to. God takes that which is not and makes it appear real. When a person taps into the spiritual realm but not to God they only have access to what already exists, and therefore they take that which already exists and make it known. The words can be right but the source can be wrong. A psychic has a gift from God but what they say is not from Him.

God wants us to be tuned into Him so that He can share with us His hope for our future. Through the gift of communication, He is waiting to give encouragement, hope for our lives and direction when we need it.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” —Jeremiah 29:11