The Gifts Part 62
Prophecy continued...
Another issue I wanted to discuss concerning prophecy for which I found no other place than in the loose ends column, is the timeliness of a word. Prophecy is never initiated by circumstances or external motivators; it is always initiated by the Holy Spirit. This is one of the reasons I have a difficult time with meetings or crusades that guarantee a word of prophecy for everyone who attends, who promise all who would come to a certain meeting on a certain date that they will receive prophetic utterance from a ‘licensed prophet’. Although the notion of a licensed prophet seems farcical to me because a piece of paper does not a prophet make, what is more worrisome than this idea that one can be a licensed practitioner of something divine and wholly controlled of God, is that we can be ignorant enough to outright promise a manifestation of the gift of prophecy to as many as would attend a service. No man can make such a guarantee, because it is the Holy Spirit that initiates a prophetic word, and He chooses if and when to speak a word to a certain individual.
Prophets prophesy when the Holy Spirit gives them utterance, not when people ask it of them, or when they are constrained by contractual obligations to give a word to everyone in attendance.
Circumstantial prophecies are dubious because when a word is given based on visible circumstances it is no longer of a revelatory nature but a mere extrapolation or deduction of available information. If I see dark ominous clouds on the horizon, if I can spot lightning from afar off and I say ‘it is going to rain’ it’s not a prophecy, it is simply a deduction based on the information available to me. A true word of prophecy, especially one of a revelatory or foretelling nature, will always come far enough in advance wherein the signs leading up to its fulfillment are not even visible. A true word from God that is revelatory in nature will speak of things to come that seem unlikely, improbable, and even impossible to human reason in the present.
I have read and heard far too many ‘words from the Lord’ that were nothing more than logical deductions and extrapolations of certain events, yet which were readily received because their fulfillment was almost instantaneous, and there’s nothing a modern day believer likes more than instant gratification.
On occasion I meet with people who ask me what I think will happen in the near future, and for the past few years, simply by using deduction, and fitting certain pieces of the global puzzle together, I’ve been able to predict the global crisis, currency fluctuations, spikes in the price of gold, and other things. Those close to me can attest to this, and I have friends and family members alike that to this day continue to thank me for insisting that they get out of real estate five years ago before the first tremors of the great shaking were visible. My predictions however were not prophecies, and they were not of a prophetic nature. I was simply using the information currently available to me, processing it analytically and void of the rose tinted glasses of optimism, to reach a logical conclusion.
Words of prophecy, dreams or visions concerning future things are completely different than using analytical deduction because when they are given, that which is spoken most often seems illogical to human reason, and improbable to the analytical mind.
If God speaks, then speak with boldness and authority because He has spoken. If God is silent, then be silent for as long as He is silent. So many vessels give in to the pressure of ‘having a fresh word from the Lord’ every few weeks or so, that if God doesn’t speak in that allotted time they take it upon themselves to deduce and extrapolate, then pass their conclusions off as prophetic utterance.
It is during the times when God is silent that vessels must be all the more on guard and watchful, especially of their own hearts. It is during those times wherein God does not give a fresh word, wherein there is no new revelation that the enemy seeks to tempt vessels into committing the foolish and punishable offense of presuming to know the mind of God, or presuming to speak a word when He has not spoken it.
If God chooses to use you in this area, be wise, and do not give in to such pressures, because God will judge every word uttered in His name that did not originate from Him, and He will likewise judge very individual that presumes to speak in His name when He has not spoken.
We cannot trifle with the things of God, we cannot trifle with the Holy Spirit, we cannot think speaking when God has not spoken inconsequential or trivial, because God does not see it is inconsequential or trivial.
‘But you don’t understand brother my intentions were good and noble. The individual needed an encouraging word from the Lord, they were going through a hard time, and I offered them comfort and encouragement.’
Good intentions are irrelevant when it comes to such matters. If God has not spoken, then do not speak. You can encourage and comfort and exhort an individual if this is what they need, but do it as a fellow brother or sister in the Lord, not as one who has received a message from God if no message was received.
Although I am certain they will be misconstrued by some, I write these words out of love, and a burning desire to see the household of faith walk in the calling to which it was called. We are all, everyone, to the last, accountable before God for what we say in His name, and knowing that He is a just and holy God, it is far better to be silent for the rest of my days, than to presume to speak something that the Lord has not spoken.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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