Personal prophecy is big these days. A so-called prophet gives you a prophecy that he or she claims is directly from the Lord and meant specifically for you. Does this have any authority in scripture or are these "prophets" little more than psychic advisers? Have you ever been given a personal prophecy? What happened as a result? If not, how would you feel or react is someone tried to give you a personal prophecy?
There are lots of examples of 'personal prophecy' in the Old Testament. Paul got one in the New Testament, also. Think about Samuel and Saul, Gad and David, Ahijah the Silonite prophesying to Jeroboam the son of Nebat, one of the sons of the prophet and Jehu. Think about Agabus and Paul. Some prophecies are directed at one individual.
As far as my personal experience with this, overall, I would say it is positive. Whether it is presented as a prophecy or something else, I cannot count the number of times someone who didn't know me told me that I was a teacher, had the gift of teaching, etc. I am a teacher both by gifting and secular profession. It occurred to me that that was amazing, that this happened so much, and I wasn't thinking much of it, so i realized I should appreciate it when God does that.
I remember relatively soon after moving to a foreign country, a visiting preacher prophesied over me after the meeting that God had brought me there. Then I went to another town and another preacher prophesied part of that probably word for word, that God had brought me there, but it added to make me a minister of the Gospel. That country is where I first started to teach in a public setting, minister behind the pulpit, etc.
I have witnessed personal prophecies that are incredibly detailed. My wife prophesies at times, and she's gone through seasons where she has gotten lots and lots of personal prophecies for people in a short period of time. She got word back from one man that she'd prophesied over maybe around 2006 or 2007. The man was a janitor, and he got a prophecy about doing ministry, training Christian leaders. Now, he is the head of a Christian ministry, a non-profit. He found her online and told her that what she had prophesied had come to pass. She's prophesied over strangers that have told her how what she was prophesying fit the details of her life. I have gotten what I consider words of knowledge, some of it in prayer. I'd pray for someone and start praying about details in their lives.... like praying for another car for someone I just met who had car problems.
I saw one guy who would prophesy in incredible detail and he would pray the same way. He prophesied about the summer camp one college student would be working at, and the cruise ship another one would be working at. He prophesied about my parents land for a new house which was what they had been talking about constantly, before they actually built on a plot of land with water on it. (His prayer mentioned or prophecy a 'water table on another plot of land'.)
On the other hand, one man I spoke with on the phone had some words for me. He said I could test his gift by asking three questions. Never witnessed that before. I didn't have a problem with it on a Biblical basis, though I know some people who believe in prophecy wouldn't be in favor of it. He started talking about seeing tattoos on my kids. Pretty sure that's not true. It doesn't fit at all. I asked about a business I was thinking of doing involving universities that I didn't need help from people from other universities for, as far as I can tell, and he said there would be people from certain universities that would help me... and if those were them, he got the university names wrong. It didn't make sense.I stopped after two A lot of what he said was really weird-- telling a woman to go somewhere to see the man she would have married if she hadn't met her husband. I was taking notes at first. We were on the phone. But it got weird. I didn't ask for the third thing.
Someone else described a vision with her commentary once that caused a bit of confusion and stress for me. She'd seemed to have been accurate. But this wasn't a 'Thus saith the Lord' type word, and a lot of her interpretation seemed to be involved.
Overall, my experience has been positive.