It seems to be (whether the writers consciously conceived this or not) to mimic Biblical teachings of the Messiah and even Moses. So a major aspect of Bajoran religion is that one day the Prophets will call forth an Emissary who will guide Bajor to enlightenment?
The usage seemed to change in the first season. In the pilot he was apparently the emissary from Bajor to the Prophets. All later usage turned that around so that he was the Prophets' emissary to Bajor. I haven't gotten a lot of agreement on that when I've brought it up here before, but it seems fairly clear.
He never really got around to that "teaching people how to live decent lives (and be favored by the Prophets)" part, tho. Timo Saloniemi
Sure he did. In Rapture he was randomly pulling insights from bystanders lives out of his prophet mojo and telling them what to do with their lives. Those electrical surges apparently beat any drugs we have today.