The Ra’ah Prophetic Realm—The Seer-Prophet
Within the realm of the prophet ministry in the Old Testament, there lies a distinctive and peculiar prophetic emphasis in the seer realm. The seer realm is made up of two spheres of the seers, which are the ra’ah and chozeh prophets, according to Strong’s Concordance. The seer realm functions in the office of the prophet as those who see into the realm of the spirit. It describes the nature and frequency of how they receive particular types of prophetic revelation and impartation. The seer’s mode of receiving divine revelation is distinctly by “seeing” and receiving insight and supernatural downloads and uploads from God.
Within the realm of the prophet ministry in the Old Testament, there lies a distinctive and peculiar prophetic emphasis in the seer realm.
The Hebrew word ra’ah, according to Strong’s Concordance, is the second Hebrew word used in the Scriptures to define the prophet in the Old Testament. This is the realm that defines the revelatory realm of the seer and is the second type of prophet mentioned in the Bible. The ra’ah prophet is commonly regarded today as the seer prophet. Most people are not aware that there are two types of seers in the Bible. We will define and bring clarity and distinction between the two—the ra’ah and the chozeh prophets. Ra’ah means a seer, someone who sees. Ro’eh is another word Hebrew word for the aspect of seeing, which comes from the primitive root Hebrew word ra’ah, which means “to see, look at, inspect, observe, perceive and consider.”
The ra’ah function of the seer comes out of the realm of the ra’ah to see. The ro’eh aspect is to see prophetic vision—they can see visions of the future. They have the prophetic vision to see a person in the past, present, and future. This dimension of the seer realm can see into different times, seasons, eras, dispensations, and ages. Simply put, a ra’ah prophet is particularly someone who is given revelatory vision from God in the sense of seeing a vision or seeing supernaturally.
There is a navigational dimension to this realm of the seer prophetic where they can provide direction, guidance, and insight into finding things that are lost or hidden.
The first mention in the Bible regarding the seer aspect of the prophet is found in 1 Samuel 9:9 (NIV):
(Beforetime in Israel, when someone went to enquire of God, they would say, “Come, and let us go to the seer [ra’ah],” because the prophet of today used to be called a seer [ra’ah]).
We find in 1 Samuel 9:9 that the nabi prophet today was formerly called a seer—ra’ah—in the past. Whenever someone would enquire of the Lord, they would search for the seer who is now called a prophet. In other words, they would go to see a prophet who was the seer. The seer was a prophet and a prophet was a seer.
However, it is important to know that not all who see are prophets. Samuel, who was a prophet, identified himself as a seer according to 1 Samuel 9:19:
Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer [ra’ah]. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today; and tomorrow I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart.”
Here we can see that the prophetic function of the seer was to tell and reveal all that is in a person’s heart. God would give a ra’ah prophet visions into a person’s life. They can see visions into a person’s heart. Samuel was a seer-prophet. He redefined and revolutionized the office of the prophet. Samuel the prophet was known formerly as a seer, but he reestablished the office of the prophet that encompasses both the prophetic and the seer realms. Essentially, Samuel established that a prophet and seer are the same office but with revelatory distinction.
Seeing the Realm of Secrets
The ra’ah prophets have the ability, by definition of their revelatory function, “to see” or “to perceive,” which is generally used to describe the seer’s ability to reveal secrets. The ra’ah—seer—prophet can see secret, hidden, and mysterious things. Though a ra’ah prophet will see a vision, what makes this prophet unique in the seer anointing is that he or she sees things that are hidden from the natural eyes of others. They see things that are not easily seen by others and they will see things that others will not see. The seer not only sees visions but sees secrets.
The seer not only sees visions but sees secrets— things that are hidden from the natural eyes of others.
The eyes of the ra’ah prophet are piercing and like a key that unlocks the secrets of the human heart. When they prophesy, they unlock what is hidden in us. The ra’ah prophet is simply one who reveals secrets, one who envisions. Seers, or ra’ah prophets, are nabiprophets who were entrusted with the secrets of God. They declare the secrets of God. God reveals His secrets to His prophets who are stewards of revelation and secrets.
Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7).
The ra’ah (seer) prophets, because of their powerful visions, provided supernatural navigation, direction, and guidance to those who inquired of God. The ra’ah prophet’s eyes are opened. What the seers see speaks to them prophetically. They see and hear from the Lord when a person comes into their presence. The ro’eh prophet sees beyond the natural. They have x-ray vision; and when someone comes into their presence, they tend to perceive, see, and pick up things in their spirit or spiritual vision regarding that person. What they perceive is supernaturally received.
Seer Versus Prophet
The difference between the seer (ra’ah) and the prophet (nabi) is based solely on the seer’s ability to see. A ra’ah is a seer and the nabi is a speaker. The prophet speaks more and the seer sees more—this is the only distinction between the two functions of prophet and seer. The prophetic dimension and activity of ra’ah in the seer means “to see with your eye or to perceive with you mind.” The ra’ah aspect in seers gives them the supernatural ability by the Spirit to see things with their spirit’s eye or in the spirit of their mind. They will see with their natural, spiritual and mind’s eyes.
In other words, the ro’eh prophets will see and perceive things with their eyes (both natural and spiritual), mind, spirit, vision, and their inner knower. It is important for me to add that the Hebrew word ro’eh also means “vision.” Therefore, the seer dimension of the prophetic is seeing in the realm of visions and dreams. There is no limitation to the seer’s realm. They exercise full capacity of sight.
Ra’ah prophets are what I call “Masters of Sight,” as they have the ability to be advisors and counselors of kings and to provide strategies in times of war. The prophet had extraordinary sight and vision in seer prophetic realm. There are four dimensions of the seer’s vision in the prophetic realm:
- Prophetic Insight – the ability to understand the root issues in situations, circumstances, people’s motivations, agendas, and plans. They have the keen vision to see into a matter, evaluate the problem, and see in-depth. They have extraordinary insight to counsel and provide wisdom, to bring divinely inspired solutions. Prophets have insight to puzzle together critical, hard, or obscure cases. They are like “spiritual detectives.”
- Prophetic Foresight – the ability to see into the future, see things before they happen; see things ahead of time or in advance. They have the visual acuity to predict events, happenings, and pending things in the future.
- Prophetic Oversight – the ability to understand prophetic context, ecosystems, service roles, functions, and perspectives.
- Prophetic Hindsight – the ability to see things that are in the past. They have the ability to comprehend things that have occurred in someone’s past or events that consequently affected the present and could potentially alter the future. Prophets are natural, spiritual historians who understand the pages, books, writings, and literature of history. They have eyes to read the writing on the walls of a person’s history. Prophets have a powerful prophetic ability to see and read into someone’s personal and spiritual background checks. Their gift of discerning of spirits gives them a higher level of perception to understand someone’s spiritual profile.
