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 What Jesus was telling His disciples wasn’t new or groundbreaking. He was repeating the words of the prophet Joel, but He first had to open their understanding so that they might comprehend the Scriptures.  These were the same men who walked with Him, who had been there to witness miracles and hear Him preaching. Men who now saw Him raised from the dead yet still needing their understanding opened.

Imagine Him trying to do that today, with everyone believing they know everything about everything already. Imagine how many self-important, self-anointed men of God would try to correct the Son of God, insisting that they saw it differently. 

When we no longer acknowledge our need for understanding, we close up our hearts to what the Scriptures say. I’ve thought about this, and I don’t think it’s an involuntary response. Most people insist they no longer need their understanding opened because they fear the Word will contradict their preconceived narrative. What if, perchance, what I believed to be true turns out not to be so because the Bible contradicts it?

Does God expect me to not only admit I was wrong but actually humble myself to the point of allowing Him to lead? Surely not! I’ve walked this road for decades. I’ve told everyone I know that we wouldn’t have to resist the mark, suffer persecution, or endure to the end. Am I now expected to go and tell people I was wrong? Yeah, kind of; that’s what grownups do.

Instead of humbling ourselves, however, instead of allowing God to open our understanding, we go on the offensive, thinking that if we can discredit the messenger, it will nullify the message. We get savage about it too. It’s personal. You’re attacking my long-held beliefs about one thing or another, and because I don’t want to accept that I might have been wrong, you must be destroyed. We’d have ourselves a good old-fashioned rumble if Christians were half as committed to pushing back on the enemy as they are about stomping on other believers.

If you’ve been in any type of ministry long enough, you will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s interesting to watch how quickly the claws come out because, depending on the speed of it, you can determine how insecure the individual is regarding their position and how uncertain they are about their proclamations. If they choose to attack before a debate is had, then you know.

There is a world of difference between being open-minded - one of those umbrella terms that people like to use when it comes to anything spiritual - and having your understanding opened. When one has their understanding opened, it is within the confines of scripture and regarding scripture.

When someone insists you should be open-minded, it’s usually about a guy with face tattoos that’s trying to teach you how to open your third eye so you can see yourself floating above yourself while tapping into your inner self.

Jesus opened the understanding of His disciples that they might comprehend the Scriptures, not that they might chase after flights of fancy and phantasmagorical extra-biblical practices that smell heavily of mysticism and sorcery.

Some of the workshops being offered to the biblically illiterate under the guise of spirituality are outright dangerous and can lead to places so dark you’ll wish you were blind. Since when was the spiritualized version of guided astral projections Biblical? Do the people that sign up for these things even know what they’re opening themselves up to?

But we need power, brother. We have to do something. Well, you can do what Jesus said you should do in order to be endued with power from on high. We can start there instead of pushing counterfeit spirituality on the unsuspecting because you’re losing market share to the devil worshippers and witch covens.

People want the power of God, but they want it their way, on their terms, and God doesn’t play those kinds of silly games. Empty the vessel, clean the vessel, and He will fill the vessel. That’s it. Saved you the few hundred bucks you’d have paid for a seminar on opening your spiritual eye and the spiritual toll it would have taken on you had the people teaching it been knowledgeable enough to deliver what they promised.

That’s the silver lining in all this: for the most part, the people trying to sell you courses on astral projections and third eyes have no clue what they’re talking about. They’re just grifters who saw the potential profit of this sort of con, and they target the gullible and easily swayed.

The gifting of power is never horizontal. It is always vertical. I cannot teach you how to prophesy, dream dreams, have visions, heal, speak in tongues, or interpret tongues. Those gifts, that power, comes from on high.

Anyone who intimates that they can teach you what only God can give you should be avoided. You don’t need to feel around the edges to see how deep the crazy goes; just walk away. It is better by far to humble yourself, get alone with God, and wait to be endued with power from Him than to walk around looking to wrestle devils because some guy who smelled of curry and stale sweat said he’d given it to you for the low, low price of $499.99. By the time you figure out you got nothing in return for your money, it will be too late, and you’ll be lucky to get away with a good beating and a story to tell others.

If your enemy had no power, then there would be no need for power from on high. Because your enemy is formidable and he roams as a lion seeking whom he may devour, God endues His own with power, that they might resist the enemy and be victorious in battle.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.