The most common question I am asked is: “What is a seer?” The answer I give varies depending on who is asking. There are three general categories of people who ask this question, and I respond according to the group they belong to.

If the person asking is not a Christian, I cannot use Christian jargon to explain it. I use terms they might understand and tailor my response to make sense to them. I might say: “A person who operates as a seer can see into the spiritual realm around us, similar to a psychic. The difference is that a Christian has legal access to operate in this realm because Jesus lives within a Christian. A medium does not have the right to operate in this realm, and it is dangerous for them to do so. God communicates with seers through visions, open visions, and dreams, as well as many other ways.”

If the person is a Christian but has no knowledge of prophets and prophecies, I would probably say something like: “Remember how, in the Old Testament, Samuel would have visions and speak God’s Word to others? Well, that is what a seer and a prophet do. God speaks to seers and prophets in various ways; then they take these messages and declare them to the Church to provide vision, direction, and encouragement.”

When someone well-versed in prophets and prophecies asks, “What is a seer?” there are usually a few other implicit questions. The implicit questions vary: “Is it important that we distinguish between seers and prophets?” “Are there seers in the New Testament?” “Who are the seers in the Bible?” and “How are prophets and seers different?” As I have just answered the previous two groups, I will answer these questions in more detail.

Q: Is it important to distinguish between seers and prophets?

A: The Bible is our example. If it is important to God, then it should be important to us.

The Scriptures are not arbitrary in the use of the titles seer and prophet. Individuals were designated as one or the other. It was not a synonymous term used interchangeably. Here is an example of Scripture very specifically separating the two terms:

“Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the records of Samuel the seer, the records of Nathan the prophet, and the records of Gad the seer…” (1 Chronicles 29:29).

God clearly distinguished between Samuel and Gad as seers and Nathan as a prophet. If this is important to God, then it should be important to us.

Q: Who are the seers in the Bible?

A: There are nine people identified as seers in the Old Testament. There are many others who sometimes operated in the gift of a seer like Balaam, Elisha, Daniel, and Zechariah, but they were never given the title “seer” in the Bible. Only nine people were given the name, title, and calling of seer. Here are the nine, the scriptural reference of their seer title, and the primary position they filled.

• Samuel 1 Chronicles 29:29 Government Advisor.
• Gad 1 Chronicles 29:29 Government Advisor.
• Zadok 2 Samuel 15:27 High Priest.
• Hanani 2 Chronicles 16:7 Grandson of Samuel.
• Iddo 2 Chronicles 9:29 Priest.
• Amos Amos 7:12 Sycamore Fig Picker, Marketplace Minister.
• Asaph 2 Chronicles 29:30 Worship Leader, Author of Psalms 50 and 73-83.
• Jeduthun 2 Chronicles 35:15 Worship Leader.
• Heman 1 Chronicles 25:5 Worship Leader, Author of Psalm 88.

Take note of the positions that seers filled. A third of them were oriented toward government or the marketplace, a third were worship leaders, and a quarter were in the formal ministry of the priesthood. We can also see from Hanani that the seer anointing can be passed down through generations. Many times, the title of seer is applied to others like Ezekiel and Elisha, but these nine are the only ones in the entire Bible to whom God refers as seers.

Q: Are there seers in the New Testament?

A: According to 1 Samuel 9:9, “Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: ‘Come, let us go to the seer’; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.”

Nowadays, we can lose the history and context behind biblical words. This verse shows us that in the progression of the Hebrew language, they merged the word seer into the word prophet and called them the same thing. A prophet and a seer refer to the same calling, but the way they receive their revelation from the Lord functions differently. Seers continued to minister in Israel, so it was not a dismissal of seers but simply a change in linguistic trends.

This is similar to how there are electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, and many other types, with a world of difference between them. When we read the New Testament, we do not find any reference to the word seers. This is because the first-century reader understood that the word prophet included both prophets and seers.

If 1 Samuel 9:9 had eliminated the use of the term prophet in favor of the word seer, then we would still have five offices in the New Testament listed in Ephesians 4:11, but prophet would be included under seer). When first-century believers read Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:11, they technically saw six ministries, not just five:

“It is He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets [the word prophet includes seers], some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers” Ephesians 4:11.

Seers and prophets still exist, and they are both called to deliver the prophetic word of the Lord, but they function differently (we will discuss this further later).

Q: How are prophets and seers different?

A1: A simple way to determine if someone is a prophet or a seer in the Bible is to watch for the prophetic prefix they use. If, when they prophesy, they say: “Thus says the Lord,” then it is likely they are hearing the word of the Lord bubbling up within them as a prophet. The root word for prophet is nabi. Dennis Cramer provides an excellent explanation of what nabi means:

The Hebrew word for prophet (appearing 300 times in the Old Testament) means one who is suddenly inspired. The word implies one who bubbles up, one who gushes forth. Some might call this biblical phenomenon prophetic effervescence, the sudden bubbling up, or the flowing of the prophetic message from the deep within the human spirit. Many prophetic believers, whether prophets or simply prophetic, will experience this type of prophecy. “Nabi” prophecy is spontaneous bubbling, a sudden inspiration to prophesy with little or no forethought.

A2: A seer more often said: “The Lord showed me,” or “It was like,” or “I saw,” then an explanation would follow. Paula Price, author of The Prophet’s Dictionary writes about seers, “The Hebrew word for seer is one who receives communications from God more by visions and dreams than by audible words. The prophets who say they saw the word of the Lord more than they heard it is an example of this type of prophet.”

The well-known prophetic author Cindy Jacobs writes in her book The Voice of God: “Old Testament prophets were at one time called ‘seers.’ This means that they saw things in a literal or figurative sense in the Spirit. Some of the prophets were more pictorial in their gifts than others, like Ezekiel who had visions of celestial creatures. Some prophetic people today receive their prophetic words mainly through pictures. Their prophecies will often be interpretations of images or inner visions they see.”

Typically, prophets and seers teach others to receive revelation in the way they receive it. For the prophet, this would be hearing the inner voice of the Holy Spirit. For the seer who receives revelation more visually, this would be taught in the form of dreams, mental images, visions that appear before their eyes (sometimes called an open vision), angelic messengers, and experiences in Heaven or the unseen realm.

There are many different ways God speaks to seers, so each seer is different. Some seers are almost strictly spoken to through dreams, while some have the ability to use their spiritual eyes and see into the unseen realm as Elisha did:

“And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” 2 Kings 6:17.

(…)

This text is an extract from the book “THE SCHOOL OF SEER” written by Dr. Jonathan Welton.

We invite you to read the next article “THE UNSEEN KINGDOM.”