How to Prophesy Accurately PDF By Kum Eric Tso
Do you want to learn how to prophesy accurately? Many believers hear something from God. Then they get the meaning wrong, or they say it the wrong way. In this teaching I show you the three steps I teach for accurate prophecy: receive the word, interpret it, and deliver it with wisdom. Every step is backed by Scripture.
Prophecy is not a guessing game. It is God’s message, given by the Holy Spirit and spoken through a person. When God is the source and you stay out of the way, the word is accurate.
How to Prophesy Accurately PDF
This page goes with my book How to Prophesy Accurately: 13 Keys to Receive and Release a Prophetic Word. The book covers the five dimensions of the prophetic, 20 roadblocks to prophetic accuracy, the 13 keys, activation, and ethics in prophetic ministry.
You can grab your copy of How to Prophesy Accurately PDF here.
I teach the three steps to prophesy accurately in the video below:
What Prophecy Is and What It Is Not
Before you learn how to prophesy, you must know what prophecy is. If you do not know the purpose of a thing, you will misuse it.
Prophecy is speaking out the mind of God by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Peter tells us where true prophecy comes from:
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (NKJV)
Peter is speaking about the prophecy of Scripture. But the principle is clear for all true prophecy. It does not start with a person’s will. The Spirit who gives the word also gives its meaning.
Prophecy is not prediction. A prediction can fail, because it comes from a human guess. True prophecy comes from God, and “God is not a man, that He should lie” (Numbers 23:19).
Here is something many people miss. Calling out a person’s name, phone number or address is not the highest level of prophecy. That is a word of knowledge. It is a real gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8), but it is the basic level. Prophecy goes further. It carries God’s plan for a life and has power to move that plan forward.
Think of Mary. She was getting ready to marry Joseph and live a normal life. Then the angel Gabriel brought God’s word, and Mary answered, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The moment the word was received, God’s plan began to unfold. That is the power of prophecy.
I teach five dimensions of the prophetic: discerning of spirits, the spirit of prophecy, the gift of prophecy, the prophetic grace, and the office of the prophet. You can read more in what prophecy is and the 5 types of prophetic gifts.
The Purpose of Prophecy
But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.
1 Corinthians 14:3 (NKJV)
Prophecy is not for entertainment. It is not to make you famous. It is given to build people up, stir them up and comfort them. If a word does none of these three things, check it again.
3 Steps to Prophesy Accurately
Some people prophesy accurately today and miss it tomorrow. Often the problem is not the word they received. The problem is in one of these three steps.
Step 1: Receive the Word
You cannot give what you have not received. Before you prophesy, you need a word, a picture or an impression from the Lord. God showed this to Jeremiah at the start of his ministry:
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”
Jeremiah 1:11-12 (NKJV)
God asked Jeremiah what he saw. Jeremiah answered. Then God explained it. Seeing came first. God often speaks in pictures. Sometimes the pictures come so fast that they look like a short video.
Step 2: Interpret What You Receive
Receiving is not the same as knowing the meaning. Say you are praying for a woman who is believing God for a child. God may not show you a baby. He may show you earrings. Now you must ask the Lord, “What do the earrings mean?” Do not fill in the meaning with your own mind.
Dreams work the same way. If you dream that a dog is chasing you, do not jump to a conclusion. In real life a dog is loyal and close to people, so in a dream it may point to a friend. Ask God, and do not guess. You can learn more in prophetic dream meanings.
I learned this the hard way. I once prayed with a lady who wanted to get married. Some people thought she was past the age. After we prayed, she called me on a Sunday morning. She had dreamed about a ring. At that time I was not sharp in the prophetic, so I only told her that a marriage was coming to her family. If I had been more accurate, I would have told her plainly that she was going to get married. I could also have asked the Lord for more details. Soon after, she married a man from abroad, and many people were surprised.
Step 3: Deliver It With Wisdom
This is where many people mess up. Suppose you see a plane crash in a vision. Do not rush out and announce it to the world. It may be years away. Pray more. Ask the Lord for confirmation. Ask Him, “What should I say, and what should I not say?” Then say only what He allows, in the way He leads.
Jesus gave His disciples a promise about the right words at the right time:
But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Matthew 10:19-20 (NKJV)
Jesus said this about being arrested and brought before rulers. It is not a promise that you can skip preparation. But it shows a principle: the Spirit gives the words in the moment. You may see a picture before you get there. When it is time to speak, He gives you what to say and how to say it.
I also teach five steps to prophesy accurately in this video:
The Foundation: Fellowship With God
The first key to accuracy is not a technique. It is a relationship. Look at what God said when Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses:
Then He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the LORD.”
Numbers 12:6-8 (NKJV)
Miriam and Aaron were complaining about the Cushite woman Moses married (Numbers 12:1). God did not argue about the marriage. He spoke about how He speaks. He spoke to other prophets in visions and dreams. But He spoke to Moses face to face, plainly. The closer your fellowship with God, the clearer you hear Him.
Here is a simple truth. If you spend too much time with people, you will hear from people. If you spend time with God, you will hear from God.
- Separate yourself to God. Love the light and hate darkness. “Do not love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15).
- Clean your vessel daily. Use prayer, fasting and meditation on the Word.
- Make worship a lifestyle. Worship is not only 30 minutes of singing in church. It is how you walk, think and act every day. “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:24).
- Pray in the Spirit. Jude 20 tells us to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, “praying in the Holy Spirit.”
Fellowship also changes where you stand in the Spirit. When an army surrounded Elisha, his servant was afraid. Elisha did not need to see angels to know he was safe. He walked by faith. Then he prayed for his servant:
And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:17 (NKJV)
Notice the detail. The chariots of fire were all around Elisha. Both men were in the same place in the natural, but not in the same place in the Spirit. Your walk with God sets where you stand.
Faithfulness Is the Secret
Go back to Numbers 12:7. God said of Moses, “He is faithful in all My house.” That faithfulness is the secret behind his clear prophetic dimension.
We see the same pattern in Acts 6. The apostles chose seven men to serve food to widows. Two of them were Stephen and Philip. They were faithful in a simple task. Soon “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Philip later preached in Samaria with miracles (Acts 8:5-8), and he had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9). Be faithful where God puts you. He will trust you with more.
Stay in the Faith of God
Do not speak when God has not spoken. And do not doubt when He has spoken. God declares “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10). What He shows you is already settled in His plan. Your job is to follow His lead, not run ahead of Him or lag behind.
What Blocks Prophetic Accuracy
Imagination and Planned Words
One of the biggest blocks is making things up. Some people plan their words before the service. They decide to tell the sister at the back that she has a spiritual husband, because they see no wedding ring on her hand. That is not prophecy. God warned about this:
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD.”
Jeremiah 23:16 (NKJV)
When you speak from your own heart, you quench the Spirit in you. You become a lying tongue, and God does not trust a lying tongue with His message. Stop planning. Stay open. Expect Him to speak.
Pressure From People
When I started in the prophetic, I preached and counselled people, even in their homes. After the prayer, people would ask, “Man of God, did God say anything? Did He say anything about me?” When you are new, you do not yet flow at any time. And the Holy Spirit gives gifts “to each one individually as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). Do not make up a word to please people. It is better to say, “I have nothing from the Lord right now.”
Forgetting What God Said
God speaks often. The problem is that we do not perceive it. Job says, “For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it” (Job 33:14). Some people get a dream, wake up and forget it. Habakkuk shows a better way:
I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.”
Habakkuk 2:1-2 (NKJV)
Write down what you see and hear. Then pray over it for interpretation. For simple ways to practise, see these prophetic activation exercises.
Test Every Prophetic Word
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 (NKJV)
Accurate people are not afraid of being tested. Paul said, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” (1 Corinthians 14:29). A true word agrees with Scripture, points to Jesus, and builds people up. Read more in signs of true prophecy.
Christians do not all agree on this subject. Some believe the gift of prophecy ended with the apostles. Others believe it continues today, based on Acts 2:17 and 1 Corinthians 14:1. I hold the second view. Both sides agree that Scripture is the final test of every word.
Practical Steps to Prophesy Accurately
- Spend daily time with God before you try to speak for God.
- Read and meditate on the Bible. A person who is not full of the Word should not rush to prophesy.
- Keep a journal. Write what you see and hear, the date, and what happened later.
- Ask the Lord for the meaning of every picture. Do not guess.
- Before you speak, ask, “Lord, what should I say, and what should I not say?”
- Start small and stay humble. Let mature believers weigh your words.
- Be faithful in the task God has given you now.
In this video I teach how to remove the blocks to accurate prophecy:
Questions About How to Prophesy Accurately
Can every believer prophesy?
Yes, every believer can grow in prophecy. On the Day of Pentecost Peter quoted Joel: “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17). Paul wrote, “For you can all prophesy one by one” (1 Corinthians 14:31). But not every believer is called to the office of a prophet (1 Corinthians 12:29; Ephesians 4:11).
Is calling names and phone numbers prophecy?
Calling names, phone numbers and addresses is a word of knowledge. It is a real gift, but it is the basic level. Prophecy carries God’s plan and purpose for a person’s life.
What should I do if I get a word wrong?
Admit it humbly. Do not cover it with excuses. Then go back to the three steps and find where it went wrong: receiving, interpreting or delivering. Mistakes are part of learning, but they must make you more careful, not more proud.
How can I hear God more clearly?
Spend time in His presence and in His Word, and learn the ways He speaks. This teaching on how to listen to the voice of God will help you.
Conclusion
Learning how to prophesy accurately is not about being famous. It is about fellowship, faithfulness and practice. Receive the word. Ask God for the meaning. Deliver it with wisdom and love. As you do this, your accuracy will grow.
If you want to go deeper, my book How to Prophesy Accurately: 13 Keys to Receive and Release a Prophetic Word walks through the 20 roadblocks and the 13 keys in detail.
Let’s pray together as we close:
Heavenly Father, I thank You for each person reading this who feels the stirring of a prophetic calling. I pray that You would activate and accelerate their gift, that You would grant them accuracy and boldness, wisdom and love. May their prophetic words bring life, hope, and transformation to many. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you have been blessed by this teaching and desire to go deeper in your understanding of the prophetic, I invite you to check out some of my other resources.
- “Mind Fasting: Unlock Your Spiritual Vision and See Clearly in the Spirit Realm” explores the vital but often neglected role of spiritual disciplines like fasting in sharpening our spiritual senses and tuning our hearts to hear God’s voice more clearly.
- “How to Hear From God in a Noisy World: Learn to Know His Voice and Make Right Decisions“ explores the essential but often challenging art of discerning God’s authentic voice amid life’s constant noise and distractions, equipping believers with proven biblical methods and practical tools to confidently recognize divine guidance and make Spirit-led decisions in every area of life.
My Prophetic Masterclass, available at PropheticBibleSchool.com, offers in-depth video teachings, interactive exercises, and a vibrant online community to accelerate your growth as a prophet.
My prayer is that as you dive deep into the Scriptures, you will encounter afresh the beauty and power of God’s prophetic Word. May you hear His voice with greater clarity, walk in the fullness of your prophetic calling, and bear witness to the unfolding of His marvelous purposes in the earth.
Hungry for more of the prophetic? Visit PropheticBibleSchool.com to enroll in my Prophetic Masterclass today!
Gratefully yours,