What is the difference between prophet and psychic

They were among the fake version called wise men. And, of course, the prophets were always among the diviners, soothsayers, and mediums. See, the counterfeits often operated among the real.

So while psychics look like prophets to the untrained eye, they are not. The reason most people believe them to be the same is that they both are known as foretellers. Hence, when people see someone foretelling future events, they assume that the person is a prophet. But, the calling of the prophet is way more complicated than predicting future events. In fact, foretelling is merely an aspect of the ministry of a prophet.

To really understand the difference between psychics and prophets I need to lay some groundwork. Understanding the concepts I share will make it easier to see the distinctions. Most people do not realize that there are levels of revelation. God taught me that there are three. One level of revelation shows us the things that God wants to do. There is also a level that shows us what God is going to do.

Finally, there is a level of revelation that shows us what is going to happen. Often we lump every revelation together. In doing so, we miss a lot of clear distinctions in the scriptures. In fact, it was merely directional. So, if the word he shared was not foretelling by nature, what was it?

What does this tell us about God? It tells us that there are different kinds of prophetic words. It further conveys to us that there are different levels of prophetic revelation. For instance, one type of revelation shows us what God wants to do. In this passage, God reveals to us that He is going to bring judgment. Jonah is another example of this idea. In the book of Johan God tells the prophet to prophesy against Nineveh and inform them that His judgment would come upon them in 40 days.

Then the people of Nineveh repent, and God relents from destroying them. When God does not destroy the city, the prophet gets angry with God. What happens next is important.

Through a series of events God shows us that though He had plans to destroy the city, He really did not want to do it. Therefore, God had a plan in His mind to destroy them, but it was not in His heart to do so.

That leads us to the next level of revelation. We see examples of this in the passages we just read. In Ezekiel and Jonah, the prophets tap into a level of revelation that showed them that God was going to destroy the city. In other words, they saw what God was planning to do.

Get this. These are two very distinct levels of revelation. As a prophet, it is important to know the difference. That was his reason for disobeying God in the first place. So he knew that there was a more profound revelation to be unveiled. Yet, it is apparent that he did not search it out. Some of you may have problems grasping this concept. God revealed to Moses what was in His heart and mind.

He was clear to say that He wanted to make a show of His power against the gods of Egypt. He was also clear to reveal the plan. He was going to bring Israel out of bondage. Then Moses stood before Pharaoh and everything went wrong.

It went so wrong that Moses got angry with God for not doing what He said. Moses knew what God wanted to do. He also knew what God was going to do. The problem was he did not have the last kind of revelation—the thing that is going to happen. Or, the revelation of events in time. It is also the information Moses lacked in his encounter with Pharaoh. It is a revelation that unveils events in time. This is also what most people assume sets the tone for who is prophetic and who is not.

However, it should be noted that this is the lowest level of revelation one can receive. I know that is a bold statement to make.

Often we confuse knowing what events are going to happen with knowing what God is doing. To be fair, that is in part true. A prophet is a foreteller, though that is not the whole truth. In fact, foretelling accounts for only a small part of the ministry of the prophet. In other words, foretelling is not his or her primary concern or responsibility. It should also be stated that just because a person has a revelation of something that is going to happen, does not mean that it is a revelation of something that God wants to happen or something that God is doing.

Therefore, it should be kept in context. It is simply knowledge of an event in the future. I dare say that most people take this type of revelation out of the context for which it was given to us. When you see this type of revelation in the scriptures, it falls into the category of signs and wonders. Notice the bolded text. Notice the reference to the revelation of the future as a sign and a wonder. Also, notice that this type of sign is related to another kind of revelation.

This is very important to grasp if we are going to distinguish prophetic ministry from psychic ministry. Here is an example. In administering the word of the Lord to Saul, the prophet said the following to him in verses And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying.

And all these signs came to pass that day. What kind of revelation did Samuel minister? Was it a revelation of something God was doing, going to do, or events in the future? He ministered them all to Saul. But, the signs that he gave Saul were revelations of things in time.

These were not things that God was going to do, nor were they revelations of things God was doing. They were merely insights into future events. Again, understanding the difference is vital. Notice that the revelation of the things that were going to happen was given as a sign to validate the things that God wanted to happen. God wanted Saul to be king. That was His primary message to Saul.

To establish that message God showed the prophet the thing that was going to happen. When those things came to pass Saul knew that the message which revealed what God was doing was from Him. See, most people want to lead with the sign. They want to tell you what is going happen without also searching out the context for the sign. Hopefully, you are starting to see where I am going with this.

It should now be somewhat obvious what the significant difference is between the prophet and the psychic. Understanding this truth will also protect prophets from falling prey to the spirit of divination; which only focuses on one level of revelation—predicting things to come. According to Deuteronomy it is possible for someone to get access to supernatural information without going through God. The passage is clear on that issue. For that reason, God provides us with guidance for avoiding deception.

He says that we can know whether or not the source of the information is from God based on who it inspires us to serve. If a Muslim has a dream that comes to pass and he uses that event to encourage us to follow Islam, we know the source was not God. The same truth applies to psychics. Just because they can access information about the future does not mean that God endorses them. In fact, God is very clear as to why He allows them moments of predictive accuracy.

He says that He allows such to test our commitment to serving Him. What this all means is that psychics can definitely see. That is a documented fact: There is no question about the validity of their gift. But, what can they see? Can they see what God wants to do, is going to do, or what is going to happen? A lot of people make the mistake of judging whether or not something is of God by the fact that it comes to pass.

However, we just read in Deuteronomy that God gives some people access to information about the future, though they are not His servants. Hence, we cannot judge the validity of prophecy by that standard alone. Did you notice the contradiction?

The first tells us that we can discern prophetic authenticity by the fulfillment of a prophecy. The other passage tells us that only those things which come to pass and inspire faithful service to God are genuine words from God. This understanding teaches us that we cannot validate prophetic ministry solely based on the supernatural nature of the message.

The psychic can see, but where are they pointing us. In most cases, they are not pointing us to God. Well, they cannot communicate a message from God without access to Him.

There are biblical references, such as Balaam, who serve as an exception to this rule. Balaam shows us that in rare cases God will use such persons for His purposes. Nevertheless, generally, God will use His prophets to speak on His behalf. That being said, psychics can see what is going to happen.

But they cannot see what God wants to do since that comes from His heart. Neither can they see what God is going planning to do since that comes from His mind. Only those in a relationship with Him can see these things. Prophets, however, because of their relationship with God, have access to the deeper revelations that flow from His heart and mind. In other words, prophets have context for what they see. They report what God feels and thinks about what they see happening in the future.

According to this verse, it is so that we know what He is doing. In other words, God generally gives us context for what and why He is doing something. Rarely do we see God reveal some event in the future apart from why He is doing it? But, I finally see it. God, however, tells the prophets why things happen. Psychics can only see things that are going to happen, but prophets see the heart and mind of God for the earth.

Psychics rarely have a message. They just have a sign. Also, the sign is what they lead with and follow. Do you see the difference yet? Psychics want to follow signs. Prophets want signs to follow them.

We can see examples of this truth in the scriptures. It was indeed rare to see them operating outside of those parameters. Again, Agabus was a rarity. I used to be thrown off by his ministry. He gave two prophecies, and each time he gave no context. In my opinion, he is an excellent example of the pure gift of prophecy operating without the necessary companion gifts of word of wisdom and knowledge. The most obvious way that prophets differ from physics is defined by the source of their abilities.

The prophet speaks by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, while the psychic speaks by demonic influence. These days, many people try to pervert this truth. Some are suggesting that a psychic is a person with a gift they are using for Satan. The problem with this idea is that it suggests that the demon is not the catalyst of the power at all.

However, Acts 16 tells us of a slave girl possessed with a fortune-telling spirit that followed after Paul and Silas prophesying. It then tells us that Paul cast it out of her. Later it tells us that the deliverance of the girl from the spirit also stripped her of all power.

Notice what it does not say. It does not say that the girl became a prophet after the demon left her. It does not even suggest that her gift was free from impure use or that she could use it apart from a spiritual source. The story attributes all of her extraordinary ability to the demon. Now, we need to bring some clarity to what is happening in the world today regarding this subject.

While we know that demons are the source of most psychics powers, we also know that they are the source of some Christians abilities as well. See Today's Synonym. Some people seem to be born with a special intuition to always know things before they happen. Others have a special gift allowing them to see ghosts or talk to the dead. But are people with these unique talents psychics or mediums? And can the words psychic and medium be interchanged? For example, Having heard that colors can provoke a psychic response, I decided to paint the room a calming blue.

For example, it was a psychic feeling that led him to run out of the building right before a fire started. As an adjective, some synonyms for psychic are spiritual , supernatural , paranormal , psychological , and metaphysical. In addition to medium , other synonyms for psychic as a noun include clairvoyant , fortune-teller , and prophet.

Synonyms for medium in this sense include average and intermediate.