It was in my notes on Spiritual gifts that I had taken at a Bible conference. If they gave their source I did not write it down.
Thank you! At last you've given a source. You should be giving sources all along as per Baptist Board rules, not to mention common scholastic practice.
I'm sorry, but whoever it was who gave that definition was way off the mark. It doesn't fit how the word is used in the Bible
But it fits how He describes how the Holy Spirit will flow like a river through us! It is the HOly Spirit that is being manifested! It is the Holy Spirit that gives the utterance! It is all about the supernatural...nothing our flesh/ self can take credit for.
I don't care if "it fits" or not. You can't simply define words like you want to just because "it fits". What is important is how the word is used, not if "it fits."
How is the word used in the Bible? There is no place in the Bible where it is "to bubble up, to flow forth, or to cause to drop like rain," as your source says. The words prophecy prophesy prophesied prophet prophets occur in 557 verses in the KJV, and in not one single time is this usage found. Prophecy in neither Hebrew nor Greek does the word have anything to do with water.
Prophecy is used in the Bible in two ways: foretelling and forthtelling.
(1) Foretelling is when God uses the prophet to foretell the future, to give God's plan for the future. Therefore I named one course I taught on prophecy, "Future History." Look at the many ways the OT prophesied the birth of Jesus--many different prophecies foretelling exactly the birth life and death of our Savior: where He would be born, that his mother would be a virgin, what His name would be, that he would be in Egypt for awhile, etc.
Yet you wrote, "Prophecy is not prediction." Technically you are right, since predictions may or may not come true. God's prophecies of the future always come true. In the NT, the classic example of foretelling prophecy is Agabus (Acts 11:28 & 21:10-11). Agabus foretold the future with 100% accuracy. Yet you've left out Agabus completely in your description of prophecy.
(2) Forthtelling prophecy is when the prophet speaks the word of the Lord, a message from God (not interprets like in preaching, simply speaks it). This meaning occurs very often in the Bible. Ezek. 13:1-8 is a good example of forthtelling prophecy, after which Ezekiel foretells.
Tell you what. You really want to study this stuff as a layman? Get
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words and you'll be much more convincing:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0785211608/?tag=baptis04-20.