Right
off the bat I want to make some things perfectly clear so as to not cause any
confusion:
1.
I do believe God still speaks to His people.
2.
I do believe God uses dreams, visions, and prophecy as revelatory tools to warn
His children of what is to come, as well as direct, guide, instruct, and even
rebuke individuals and nations alike.
3.
I do believe that the Holy Spirit is still active in the church, and the gifts
of the Holy Spirit still operate among believers.
It
was never God’s intent to keep us in the dark, to keep us guessing, or to keep
us ignorant of the times we are living in, or the things that are yet to come.
God knows the end from the beginning. As hard as it might be for some to wrap
their minds around it, God is outside the realm of time and space, and as such
is not constrained by them. God is not surprised by tomorrow, or by what will
occur five years from now. He already knows. He has seen it play out, and when
He so chooses He warns His children for the specific purpose of having them
draw nearer to Him, and solidify their relationships with Him.
God
does not warn us of what is to come to scare us, to make us panic, or to make
us run off and live in a cave somewhere. He warns us in love, so that we might
understand a simple yet profound truth: If God has seen the future play out, He
has also prepared your place of safety, your place of security, your place of
peace, and your place of protection.
God’s
plans are detailed, and He has included you and I in these plans because we
love Him and He loves us in turn. If a prophecy, a dream, or a vision causes
you to react in the flesh, if it causes you to be fearful, if it causes you to
panic, or otherwise lose your peace, there are two possible explanations:
1.
Either the message was not of God but was only intended to cause you to fear.
2.
Your relationship with God is not as it ought to be, and as such you are
uncertain of His providence and protection.
That
said, the second thing I would like to make perfectly clear is that I do not
consider myself a prophet. I do operate in the prophetic, I have received
dreams and visions from God, but I do not consider myself a prophet. Anyone who
takes such a title lightly, or goes around identifying themselves as a prophet,
does not understand or fully grasp what the office entails, or they use the
title as a means to garner men’s respect or approval.
It’s
one thing to hear a message from Bob. It’s quite another to hear a message from
Prophet Bob. The title itself gives
men authority they would otherwise not possess, and for many it is tempting to
throw a title in front of their name to make people listen to them more. There
are consequences to the choices we make and the actions we undertake. To treat
such a thing lightly is no less than foolishness on a grand scale.
Titles
are meant to impress men. God is not impressed by titles, especially titles men
give themselves, or which are given them by other men. I realize it is
difficult to resist the temptation of being impressed by a title. We are
engineered from early youth to be impressed by titles.
“Oh,
he’s a doctor, oh, he’s a lawyer, oh, he’s a Pastor, oh, he’s a professor.”
Titles
are meant to impress – at least for those of the world – but when it comes to
the children of God we ought to have enough sense and discernment not to get
shaky in the knees just because somebody throws a fancy title in front of their
name.
The
difference between a doctor, a lawyer, a professor, a pastor, and a prophet is
that you can’t go to school to be a prophet. It’s not an elective course at
seminary, you can’t buy a manual, and you can’t choose to be one. Please read the
following carefully: YOU CANNOT CHOOSE TO BE A PROPHET!
God
chooses those He appoints to the office of prophet, and there is nothing one
can do to sway God, save live their lives in an atmosphere of righteousness, sanctified
and set apart.
It’s
an important distinction, and one we must make if we hope to weed out the bad
apples, and if we hope to identify the false prophets among God’s children
before they can do damage, before they can cause hearts to break and shatter,
and before they can shake the faith of the innocent.
One
does not choose; one is chosen. I will repeat this and keep repeating it until
it gets through, because I meet far, far too many individuals, especially those
who are babes in Christ who are overly enthused about the prospect of being a
bona fide prophet. When I ask them if this was a calling, or if God had stirred
in them this particular gifting, their answer is usually, ‘well, no, but I’ve
always kind of wanted to be a prophet, you know?’
I’ve
always kind of wanted to be an archeologist/navy seal/trapeze artist/philanthropist,
but wanting something and being something are two very different things/ Especially
when it comes to spiritual gifting of any kind, the only thing that you can do,
the only thing that is incumbent upon you to do in order to even be considered
for such a calling is to live a life of righteousness and holiness, having a
clean vessel that God might pour into it if and when He chooses to do so.
I
realize the world is in full blown madness mode, wherein just because someone
identifies as something, they are that thing. There was even an English gent
who abandoned his family and started dressing in polka dot dresses because he
identified as a six-year-old girl. I’m sorry. I refuse to believe the household
of faith is as foolish, mentally challenged, and idiotic as the world is.
Looking
at the Christian landscape today, especially those looked as the spiritual
leaders and luminaries of Christendom, one might question whether or not
Christians are in fact deeper thinkers than the world. An objective person would
likely conclude that for the most part Christendom has become the last resort
for the semi-literate and intellectually challenged to make some easy money,
and some of them, given how much of their souls they are willing to barter and
trade for baubles and fame, make a lot of easy money.
It
wasn’t always like this. There is no disconnect between intelligence and
Christianity. There is no disconnect between rational thought and faith in
Christ Jesus. For the past few decades the world’s narrative has been that if
you believe in God, especially the God of the Bible, if you call yourself a
Christian, then you are by default a knuckle dragger. If you are a Christian,
you are by default one step away from having someone feed you pea soup through
a straw.
The
world promotes this skewed view of believers, because they world does the
devil’s bidding. This is why I get a little hot under the collar when our
spiritual betters are quick to make any two bit actor an honorary Christian
just because they didn’t say anything overtly negative about Christianity.
I
don’t want the world’s approval! I don’t need the world’s approval! I am a son
of the King, and it’s not we who are supposed to look up to the world, it’s the
world that’s supposed to look up to us.
The
idea that only a witless buffoon can believe in God is a false narrative that
the world has been able to weave into almost everything created for mass
consumption.
Do
you realize how educated the Disciples of Christ were for their time? From the
Apostles, who were largely business owners, to Matthew who was a tax collector,
to those who came to follow after Christ due to their ministry such as Luke who
was a Doctor, Paul who was to be a Pharisee, and educated beyond anything you
or I can aspire to. These were not knuckle draggers. These were educated men,
some of whom were naturally skeptical such a Luke or Paul.
Don’t
let the world set the narrative. Don’t let the godless tell you that being a
believer is tantamount to living in a cave, and trying to light a fire with two
sticks and some straw.
Sorry
for getting off on a tangent, but it’s a thing with me. I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve had people show genuine surprise when I told them I was a
Christian, because the conversation we had been having up until that point was
philosophical in nature, or regarding a topic that required deeper thought.
It’s
okay to be smart. You have my permission. You have God’s permission. We are, in
fact, instructed to be wise, and prudent, and thoughtful, and introspective,
and meditative, and cautious about what we allow to take root in our hearts and
lives, cautious about what we choose to believe, and cautious about whom it is
we lend our ear to.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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