Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Thoughts, Impressions, and A Teachable Moment


It’s been a whirlwind sort of week. From flying out to Dallas on Thursday, to spending the next three days at the conference while simultaneously trying to spend a few minutes here and there with my wife and daughter, I had no time to check e-mails, respond to correspondence, or even answer phone calls.

After arriving back home last night I started going through the e-mails that had amassed, some one thousand or so, first weeding out the offers for section 8 housing, meals in a box, cheap airfare, carpet cleaning, hair plugs, and countless other things that just clutter my inbox to the point of coming real close to mass deleting everything, then going through what remained to see which e-mails I needed to answer, and how soon.

As I was scrolling through them, the title of one particular e-mail caught my eye ‘You Should Have Listened’, said the title, and when I checked the date, it had been sent the morning we flew out to Dallas.

Since the title of the e-mail intrigued me, I clicked the icon and opened it to find the following message, “In your pride and arrogance you ignored the prophets. Not only that, you endanger your family by bringing them with you since there will be a biological attack at the meeting this weekend.”

Since I am typing this at 4:25 in the AM on Tuesday morning, you might have surmised there was no biological attack at the conference. The closest we came to a biological attack was someone pooping in the pool, but thankfully there was no need for hazmat, nor did anyone get quarantined. All it took was an aging gentleman named Ramon and a pair of latex gloves to solve the problem.

Now I don’t know who started spreading the rumor about a biological attack at this meeting, nor do I particularly care, but this entire situation serves as a teachable moment on a couple of fronts.

First, prophecy does not trump the Word of God, and the word of God commands us not to fear. If we run and hide every time there is the potential for danger, then soon enough no one will be preaching anywhere anymore, because persecution is on the horizon, and the attempt to silence the church is in full swing.

Even if there had been an issue, I know that God would have kept both me and my family safe. It was neither pride nor arrogance that convinced me to attend this conference, it was obedience.

Second, could we please stop throwing the title of prophet around as though it were some common thing? Could we exercise just an ounce of discernment once in a blue moon and not glob on to every feeling, emotion, or impression and spiritualize it to the point that we call it revelation? Projecting one’s feelings or desires does not prophecy make!

The difference between a sentry, a sentinel, or yes, even a watchman and a dog is that the sentinel uses discernment and discretion as to when to sound the alarm, while the dog barks at everything.

Though we may take these things lightly, God does not. It is a fearful thing to speak in the name of God when He has not spoken, and assign to Him things He never said.

As far as the conference itself is concerned, although I cannot speak for anyone else, this is what I saw there:

I saw people who sacrificed both their time and resources to come together in fellowship. I saw men, and women, young and old, some who drove for forty hours just to hear the truth. I saw hunger, I saw tears, I saw repentance, I saw restoration, I saw the name of Jesus glorified, and I saw hearts pierced by the Word of God.

(If the sister with the brain tumors happens to be reading this, or someone reading this knows of whom I speak, please know that I looked for you but did not find you the next morning. Know that you have been in my prayers. Contact me, and if at all possible I will come to meet you and pray with you wherever you are.)

The presence of God was undeniable, and even I was moved to tears on more than one occasion.

The world is quickly spinning out of control, and the household of faith seems to be distracted with vendettas, personal agendas. Just now as I was brewing my first pot of coffee, I glanced at a newsfeed that said Bruxelles was hit by a terrorist attack. The storm is here, and we’re about to feel the full effect.

Can we please stop wasting time and playing these childish games, and get back to preaching Jesus? Can we actually start walking in the callings to which we were called and stop trying to poke each other in the eye?

Can we try, maybe just a little, to make it about Christ rather than about ourselves? Just try. It may turn out to be the most rewarding thing we’ve done in a long, long time.
 
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.