REVIEWER: Harry Fenner Crawley

BOOK: Reframing The Prophetic: A Biblical Observation of an Ancient Gift

(Hawkeye.pro, 2024) 176pp, paperback, RRP £14.00 (prices vary)

The gift of hearing from the Holy Spirit is a powerful tool. However, powerful tools in the wrong hands, or even in untrained hands, have the potential to harm. Now, more than ever, we must invest in safe spiritual practices in the church.

Christine Westhoff takes on the task of constructing a framework for safe, enjoyable, and biblical engagement with the prophetic. The book acts as a companion to a separate 12-session online course called Reframing the Prophetic.  

Westhoff begins the book by stating that modern prophetic engagement in charismatic circles is concerning. In the narrative, she reaches a crisis point which draws her into Scripture, ultimately leading to the writing of this book and accompanying course.

The author’s central point is that any activity of the Holy Spirit should always point, and direct, toward Jesus. Jesus is the end goal of any spiritual gift. Working from this point, she looks beyond church practices and explains how the arts, work, and worship can be prophetic. This is the strength of this book, the demonstration that the prophetic should be understood holistically within the larger Christian life of holiness, the narrative of the Bible, and the artistic and skillful expressions of work and worship between the believer and Jesus.

In safe prophetic practice, Westhoff writes about the need for the receiver of the prophetic word to grow in their ability to test and weigh the word they receive. This is an important point, to empower the receiver. I believe there could have been more written on this, particularly on power dynamics between the giver of prophetic words and receiver.

As someone whose life has been very positively impacted by prophetic words from others, I recommend this book.

Reviewer: Harry Fenner Crawley, MA Theology, Key Relationships Manager for Bible Society, Bristol-based Bible-lover and landscape gardener: X (formerly Twitter) @CrawleyFenner