The gift of prophecy is a spiritual gift in which one receives a revelation from the Holy Spirit to speak to those usually within the Church for the their up building and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:1-5).
Please don't be put off by the word "revelation". All that means is that something is given to the believer by the Holy Spirit, but not necessarily to be canonized into Scripture. For example, nature and creation are often (rightly) called by theologians "general revelation", but obviously it is not the same as Scripture. In fact, comparatively very little prophetic revelation, even in biblical times made it into canon. Many times in Scripture, we are told that so-and-so prophesied, but we are not told the specifics of the prophecies uttered. For example:
-The seventy elders, Eldad, and Medad (Numbers 11:25-26)
-Saul and the group of prophets that met him (1 Samuel 10:10-11)
-Asaph and Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 25:2-3)
-Philip's daughters (Acts 21:9)
This is but a small sampling. To summarize then, all Scripture is prophecy, but not all prophecy is Scripture. The idea that all possible prophetic utterances must be inspired Scripture or on an equal plane is obviously folly.
Two other points bear mentioning. The first is the clear distinction between prophets under the OT and those of the NT. I do not believe the gift itself is all that essentially different, but rather the function of the prophet him/herself has changed. Two Scriptures bear this out clearly:
Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. (Matthew 11:11-13 NASB; emphasis mine)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (Hebrews 1:1,2 NASB)
According to Christ in the Matthew passage, John the Baptist is the terminal OT prophet. There can be no more prophets of the OT variety after him because all that the prophets had pointed to was finally here in the person of Jesus Christ. The second Scripture from Hebrews also points to the termination of the OT prophets because, again, the Son of God Himself has come, rendering it obsolete. God did speak to His people through the prophets, but now has spoken through His Son.
Interestingly however, despite the termination of the prophets of the Old Testament, the New Testament teaches that a prophetic gifting has been given to the Church to build her up and equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, which fulfills the promise of Joel begun on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-21; 1 Corinthians 14; Ephesians 4:11-16). Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that while the gift of prophecy itself is much the same, a distinction exists between the OT prophets (who have ceased), and the NT prophets who serve a different function, namely that of edifying the church.
The second issue is that of the fallibility of prophecy. This is easily the main point of the cessationist polemic against continuing prophecy. Usually, it is argued that if a prophet is not 100% correct, than he/she must be false and not from God. Deuteronomy 13 and 18 are usually cited to support this point.
In response, I can only say that it is important to understand how a prophetic word comes to someone and how it is delivered. Charismatic pastor Jack Deere is especially helpful in this regard. After relating the story of how he clumsily delivered an unhelpful prophecy, Deere writes these words:
The mistake in my method was this: I had failed to distinguish between revelation (what is said), interpretation (what it means), and application (what we do about it). These three factors are involved every time God speaks to us.
The revelation is the message of God. The message may come through the Bible, a dream, an impression, or in other ways. If the revelation is from God, then it must be true because God cannot lie (see Heb. 6:18). However, we can have a true revelation and give it a wrong interpretation. Furthermore, we can have a true revelation, a true interpretation, and a wrong application. We have to be right at all three stages if the message from the Lord is going to benefit someone.
(Jack Deere; The Beginner's Guide to the Gift of Prophecy, copyright 2001 by Vine Books, page 83)
In other words, when God gives a believer a prophetic message, the first element will always be true because it is from God. However, the second and third elements can be gotten wrong by fallible human beings. Perhaps the one giving the message misunderstood what it meant or what the application should be. This is why experience, maturity, and a proven track record usually within the context of a given local church matter so much. So it is not so much that prophecy itself is fallible, but those of us who give the prophecies are fallible. In this regard, it isn't all that different from the gift of teaching, which all believe is still relevant today. In preaching and teaching the Bible, we have the inspired text (which is true all the time), the interpretation of the text, and how it should be applied. Any preacher/teacher can get the second and third elements wrong, so why not the prophet?
Only in the actual writing of the inspired Bible did God intervene to make sure the transmission of His revelation was just as perfect as the revelation itself. Once we are able to understand these things, and the Scriptural admonitions to test and weigh what is said prophetically (1 Corinthians 14:29-33; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22; 1 John 4:1-6), we can begin to leave behind prophetic immaturity and craziness, and begin to experience the great blessing that can and should be ours when we embrace this blessed gift of the Holy Spirit.
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