Job CCXXI

 The difference between Zophar’s accusations against Job and what is happening in much of the church, as far as sin being exposed, is that Zophar had no witnesses against Job; no one had accused him of committing acts of wickedness, it was just a conclusion Zophar and his friends had come to based on the fact that Job was suffering.

Let’s not get it twisted here, because I know there’s bound to be someone eager to defend a wolf who will conflate what Zophar did with what is happening in the church, and conclude that perhaps the dozen witnesses who tell the same story of inappropriate touching by a man that could be their grandfather while using their spiritual authority to perpetrate his evil is the same thing by a different name.

Job was a blameless and upright man by God’s standard, and whom God declared as such. Some of these monsters are so heinous in their criminality that they deserve to be thrown in a dungeon and have the key melted down to slag. The two are not the same. They don’t belong in the same hemisphere, never mind in the same category.   

Men err. Men make assumptions that later prove to be false. Men interpret what they see and come to the wrong conclusions so often as to make it a certainty that if it hasn’t happened yet, it will happen in the near future. God, on the other hand, does not err; He does not make assumptions but knows all things.

If you are an individual giving an opinion regarding some event or situation, you’re allowed to be wrong, you’re allowed to make a mistake, and the honest ones will come out and say as much. If, however, you are an individual claiming to speak on behalf of God, you have no such luxury. You can’t back paddle or obfuscate and say you got it wrong because your previous claim was that you were speaking for God. Either you must admit it was you and not Him, and you claimed His authority to increase your standing, or insist that the omniscient God of the universe gave you the wrong info.

People who insist they are never wrong about anything are dangerous. People who claim prophetic insight and get it wrong are more dangerous still because they present their conclusions as originating from God and should therefore be received as the authoritative voice of the Divine. There is a reason for the harsh words directed at those who claim to speak on behalf of God when God has not spoken.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22, “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ – when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously you shall not be afraid of him.”

Why was the standard so high? Because these men spoke words in the name of the Lord, and the people feared them for the authority they walked in. It wasn’t some trivial thing; it still isn’t, and God has not changed His view on the matter.

It’s not that we’ve lowered the standard of true prophetic utterances; we’ve eliminated them altogether. It’s the fuel that feeds the fires of deception, and with each newly minted prophet, the sheep soon realize is no prophet at all, only after they’ve hurt, wounded, misled, and shipwrecked people’s faith, there is a new slew of excuses trying to shield them from criticism rather than call them out for what they are.

It’s reached a level of absurdity wherein men have what can only be categorized as prophecy wars among themselves, each giving words regarding the other, insisting that the Lord isn’t with this one or that, when in reality He is with neither of them. All they’re doing is trying to protect their wallets.

When God speaks through an individual, that individual isn’t presuming, hoping, or feeling as though they've received a message; they know with certainty and clarity that thus says the Lord, and they are not reticent to declare it.

God will not contradict Himself, nor His word through prophecy. This only occurs when men presume to speak a word in God’s name which God has not spoken. That they are not judged in the moment does not mean judgment isn’t coming. That they can continue deceiving and being deceived does not mean that God is not keeping a record of their pronouncements and will one day judge righteously.

There is no fear of God or fear of judgment with such individuals. There can’t be. If you believe that God is a consuming fire, that He will judge every man individually, wherein everything will be laid bare, and nothing will be hidden, how could you continue down this path? How can you continue to presume and speak in the name of the Lord when He has not spoken?

Not even Jesus presumed. He made it clear that the words He spoke, He did not speak of His own authority, but by the Father who dwelt in Him. Wrap your mind around that one, then juxtapose it with how flippantly some men use the prophetic for their own greedy, self-serving ends.

John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

If Jesus Himself did not speak on His own authority, what makes anyone currently living think that they can speak on His behalf in their authority? That is the question that must be answered in order to understand how deep the rebellion goes. Someone laid hands on you? Someone spoke a word that told you that you would be a prophet to the nations? Jesus was the Son of God, born of a virgin, perfect and sinless, and even He declared that the words He spoke were not with His own authority but that of the Father.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.