Two
posts in and I still haven’t gotten to any of the rules yet, but fret not,
today we will delve into it forthwith. These rules are in no particular order,
none is more important than the other, and all must be adhered to if we desire
to remain those true and faithful servants God expects us to be so that we
might be of use to the kingdom of God and not bring shame to His name.
Prophecies
fail because men choose to break one or more of these rules. To be perfectly
blunt, prophecies fail most often because the men delivering them are not
hearing from God, but other than fabrication, or calling a gut instinct a ‘prophecy’
just to give your own ideas a little more traction, prophecies fail because men
choose to break these rules.
Some
do it unwittingly, thinking they are helping God out by adding a little
clarification, making things more relevant, understandable, or other such things,
while others do it knowingly, having long since had their consciences seared,
and using the prophetic as a means of gain, something to monetize, and turn a
profit on, something to use as a spotlight and promote themselves rather than
the Christ.
You
may not think such individuals exist, but I assure you they do. Someone
recently forwarded me a clip of one such individuals getting deposed by a
judge, who was leasing a 2.8-million-dollar property in the hopes of buying it,
and who spent an excess of 50K just so he could take a Mercedes and make it
longer.
Your
fruit will show sooner or later. The intent, the purpose, the drive, the reason
you do what you do will become self-evident to one and all, and if it’s for
personal gain, if it’s for the self, if it’s to amass, accrue, and otherwise
store up treasures on earth, it will be so blatant even the world wills stand
up and take notice.
1. Do Not
Editorialize
Add
nothing, and take nothing away. This is the golden rule of the prophetic. Do
not take it upon yourself to editorialize. Do not take it upon yourself to
clarify. Do not take it upon yourself to expound. Do not take it upon yourself
to interpret, and do not take it upon yourself to make clear something God did
not.
There
will always be someone who will want more clarification of any given
revelation, there will always be someone who would like a date, a time-frame, something
they can sink their teeth into and use to their advantage somehow, but tempting
as it might be to offer your opinion, don’t!
Revelation 1:1-2,
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things
which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His
servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of
Jesus Christ, and to all things that he saw.”
John
bore witness, and passed on what he saw. That’s it. He reported; he did not
editorialize! He did not add anything beyond what was shown him and what was
told him to write in the prophecy. He didn’t say, “I saw seven golden lampstands, and this is what I think it meant.”
He
faithfully wrote down what God showed Him, and added not an iota to any of it.
This is how we are to approach prophecy, dreams, visions, or any other
revelatory means by which God speaks to us. Our duty is not to bring clarification
or interpretation; it is to relate what we have been shown or told as close to
the original as humanly possible.
2. Do Not
Melodramatize
The
fact that God spoke through His Holy Spirit to you concerning something is
dramatic enough. The fact that He instructed you to pass on the message, and
promised to give you the means and abilities by which to do it, even more so.
Do not try to make it more than what it is, or less than what it is. The
message has impact and reaches the hearts of men not because of your delivery,
not because you practice inflection in the mirror, not because you dress a
certain way, or come up with some gimmick in order to stand out like tattooing ‘Jesus
Saves’ across your eye lids. The message stirs the hearts of men because of its
origins, because it came from God, and because God will breathe fire and life
into it each time you speak it.
3. Do Not
Personalize
It’s
not about you; it’s about the message. God could just as easily have given it
to someone else, or incorporated some other means by which to deliver the
message to His people. It wasn’t so you could seek out the spotlight, make some
money off it, or somehow build your kingdom on earth around the message God
gave you.
Everything
God has given this ministry is freely available on our website. Because people
asked, we have put the messages in book form, but all you need is an internet
connection to get every message we’ve ever released for free.
It’s
one of the reasons I rarely if ever speak on my grandfather’s message for
America, or other revelations he was given while he was alive. The messages are
there for anyone to read, I don’t need to become a coin operated tinker toy
that repeats the same thing over and over again every time he gets behind the
pulpit. Some men are comfortable doing just that. You hear them preach more
than three times and you realize it was the same message, with the same
delivery, with the same pauses for applause, as though they were some rehearsed,
robotic politician who memorized their lines.
If
men of God do not allow for the inspiration of God to flow through them every
time they stand behind a pulpit, they are doing both the Body of Christ a
disservice, and hindering God from speaking to those in attendance.
4. Do Not
Sensationalize
Every
year, without fail, you will hear some self-proclaimed prophet somewhere insist
that this is either the year of breakthrough, or that this is the year it will
all turn around, or that this is the year that it will all come to a head.
Whatever avenue they choose to pursue, whether one of judgment or prosperity,
they will make it seem immediate, and use bombastic words as to draw you in and
make you act or react to what they are saying. Usually, at least a large portion
of the time, their sensationalizing of the prophetic ends with a plea for your
hard earned dollars, or an offer to purchase a century’s worth of food for less
than a Happy Meal, but that’s another topic for another time, and we have a lot
to sink our teeth into with this topic today.
5. Do Not
Aggrandize
I
must decrease that He might increase. Every time you deliver a message, every
time you deliver a word, let this be the preeminent thought in your heart and
mind. You must decrease, that He might increase. Don’t let people raise you to
the heavens, don’t let people praise you, don’t let people lift you up as
though you were more than some mere mortal. You are you, and you know how
flawed you are. Point the way to Jesus. Let Him take center stage, and you will
neither fall nor falter.
It
is human nature to revel in the praise of others. It is godliness itself to
pursue humility, and to humble oneself in the sight of the Lord knowing that it
is He who works through you, and not your abilities that connects with others.
6. Do Not
Merchandise
We’ve
covered this a bit, but it’s worth delving into it a bit deeper. Do not make
merchandise of God’s word. Don’t do this tasteless thing where someone can only
get the message from the Lord if they pledge a hundred dollars to your
ministry, or if they become monthly donors. God did not give you a message to
make merchandise of it. He gave you a message to pass on to His people in the
hopes that they might repent, or renew their relationship with Him.
As
far as those seeking a ‘word from the Lord’ are concerned, any minister,
ministry, dreamer, or prophet that requires you to enter your credit card
number before you hear from the Lord is a fraud, a huckster, a two-bit dime
store thief whose only desire is to milk you of every penny you have. The fact
that many of today’s ‘prophets’ can be compared with the gypsy palm readers who
defraud the gullible out of their possessions, is a sad and lamentable thing.
7. Do Not Idolize
This is more for those who follow prophecy than those
who prophesy. Those who read, and listen, and receive words. Men are men. No
matter how mightily they are used of God, no matter how impacting their
ministry is, no matter how faithful they have been in the calling to which they
have been called, men are men. When you make a god out of a man, you serve an
impotent god.
We see enough examples even in our modern age and
going back to the advent of Christianity, to make us weary of worshiping and
idolizing others. Far too often, something that begins as pure and righteous
gets perverted and befouled because the people begin to worship the minister, the
minister revels in their praise, and eventually the minister’s word becomes gospel,
no one can challenge or question him, and a cult is born.
This is not so
much a rule, as it is friendly advice to anyone who operates in the prophetic.
Do Not Attempt to Force Revelation. You can’t force it. You can’t make it come
to you at will. You can’t promise someone a prophecy if they send you a
donation, or if they show up to your meeting.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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