It seems that almost everyone has an amusing or thought-provoking anecdote about an encounter with personal prophecy. When this approach is coupled with immaturity or an unsavory character, it becomes extremely dangerous with the prophet often prophesying to impress and manipulate others and to enhance his own standing. At this point, the prophet has crossed the dividing line from Christian prophecy, with its source in the Holy Spirit, to fortunetelling and psychic phenomena, with their sources in the human psyche and possibly the demonic.

Personal prophecy is not designed to replace God's written Word in our lives, but it should support and confirm his word. All personal prophecy is subordinate to the Word of God, meaning that God is not going to speak something to you that is against the scriptural principles of His written Word.

Personal prophecy is just one of the ways we receive from the Lord, but not the only way God speaks to us. Individuals who put more emphasis on personal prophecy than on anything else; they seemingly need a prophetic word for everything they do. Each of us should have a desire to hear God's voice clearly for ourselves, and one of the primary purposes of personal prophecy is to confirm what the Lord has already spoken to us personally. However, because many have difficultly hearing God clearly, He will speak and reveal His will to us through personal prophecy. There are several scriptural examples in both the Old Testament and New Testament that show that God does reveal new things to us about His plans for our lives through personal prophecy.

Personal prophecy requires a proper response from us. Moses received several prophecies from the Lord revealing and confirming His will for Moses' life. Not one of these spoke of any sin in Moses' life. But after Moses had received a prophecy about being the deliverer of Israel, God sought to kill him because he failed to circumcise his children. Moses also failed to fulfill all of God's will through his disobedience of striking the rock instead of speaking to it, and did not enter into the promised land. Remember, each personal prophecy is designed to reveal a part of God's will for our lives. When we understand that prophecy is partial, then we are not offended when God doesn't speak to us the things that we want to hear. There are several scriptural examples in both the Old Testament and New Testament that show that God does reveal new things to us.