Dear Jass:

Let me begin my answer with this basic fact:

No one but God knows the future. Angels, demons, nor man can know the future unless God reveals it to them. It can appear that some people and demons know the future, but in actuality they do not know it. Rather such people and demons are are making predictions based upon an analysis of known variables and mathematical probabilities. Predictions are not knowledge, but educated guesses.

Demons can be very accurate only because they are privy to knowledge of many more variables than is possible for man to know, and are far more intelligent in assessing probabilities.

Now as to your question, one thing is clear—God never plays parlor tricks. That is, He does not reveal the future to someone just to impress a room full of people, or for any other trivial reason. When God reveals the future to someone it will be for a specific purpose and in the best interest of the person.

There are many examples of God revealing something of the future to individual people as a warning to them, or to those God wishes that person to warn. This revelation will often take the form of a "feeling", a premonition, rather than a specific message or visions. But, regardless of how the future is revealed, it is always for a specific purpose. God warning people I think happened with many people who did not make it to work that day that the Towers fell. My own daughter and new granddaughter were narrowly saved from being killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. In her case, I believe God allowed her to oversleep. She was awakened by the sound of the bomb. That illustrates another way God can warn or save people from disaster.

Much of the time, however, experiences like you describe are not supernatural at all. We all have some ability, some more than others, to access variables and events and thus predict the future. Such assessments come mostly subconsciously. As amazing as it sounds some of the "warnings" that you experience may be the result of your own natural abilities.

Or, God may be warning you. Your Guardian Angel will see variables that you do not see and thus predict events that you cannot predict. As such, your Angel may give you a warning. But, your Angel does not know the future unless God reveals it to him.

We should always be careful to not get too interested in such experiences. The devil would love to seduce us into divination, the seeking of future knowledge, that is condemned by God. When God does give us a thought that warns us, however, praise God for it.

Always be on guard for the devil's schemes. Any knowledge from God will always be 100% in concert with His Holy Word, His Sacred Tradition, and His Holy Church. Anything that contradicts any of that, then the knowledge is not coming from God. Knowledge from God will always have a specific purpose that benefits and is in the best interest of the person, and will never lead you astray or into undue curiosity of occult matters or matters of divination.

We all have experiences like this from time-to-time, mostly sourced in our own natural abilities, but sometimes it comes from God.

If you are having these thoughts on a regular basis, however, it is very important that you find a good Spiritual Director who competent in such matters to help you discern the experience. Never presume that we ourselves can properly interpret such experiences. The devil is too tricky. Thus, seek out a spiritual director to help you discern these experiences.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary