Because self-discipline is looked down upon as legalistic and prudish, and self-control is seen as limiting the freedoms we have in Christ, much of what calls itself the church today is impulsive, reactionary, fickle, faithless, easily swayed, and prone to speaking before thinking, and doing so with such inflection and passion as to convince others they actually know what they’re talking about.
The moment their words are challenged, not because someone
has a bone to pick with them personally, but because the words they are
speaking do not harmonize with Scripture but rather contradict it, the moment
people look beyond the presentation to the substance of their claims, they’re
quick to insist that it was the Lord telling them these things as a means of
deflection.
It was some type of new revelation that they alone received, and
if you dare to rebuke them, or call them out for the liars they are, you are
resisting the Lord himself. That it’s usually some self-serving drivel that
puts them squarely in the spotlight is unsurprising and should be a clear
warning sign, but we’ve been cultivating a culture of man worship for so long that
a hefty spoonful of self-promotion no longer raises any alarms.
One can’t help but shake their head and wonder if some people
really have no shame, and the short answer is no, they don’t, they have no
shame at all. Shame left the building decades ago, and now their entire purpose
is to elevate themselves above Scripture itself and insulate themselves from criticism
by invoking the Lord and insisting He is the originator of their fabrications.
We’ve adopted the mindset that the institution must be
defended at all costs, even if it means giving false teachers and false
prophets a pass, without realizing we’re voluntarily walking into the enemy’s
snare. Jesus is not an institution, He is not a denomination, and the idea that
the faith itself will not survive if some big name gets exposed for the evils
they’ve committed is a bold-faced lie, and one that has damaged the household
of faith to the point that it’s on life support, gasping for breath, with no
strength or purpose to speak of.
You cannot build a house on rotten timbers and expect it to
stand. You cannot prop up a ministry or a denomination on the shoulders of a
compromised, deceptive individual and expect it to thrive. It doesn’t matter
who the person is if the person isn’t Jesus; whatever they’ve managed to build
will come to ruin, for He is the One who sustains, refines, and builds up a
work not for the glory of man but for the glory of God the Father.
When we are not rooted in the Word of God, we swing from one
extreme to the other like a pendulum, ever a slave to its own momentum. We go
from believing everything to believing nothing, from desiring spiritual gifts
to wanting nothing to do with them, when our position as children of God should
be nuanced and purposeful.
We can believe in the prophetic without despising it, as we
were instructed, yet also test all things to ensure they originate from God and
are in harmony with His word.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not
despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every
form of evil.”
Those are the guardrails. Those are the dos and don’ts. As
long as you do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesies, but test all
things and hold fast what is good, you will not be swayed nor blown to and fro
like a reed in a hurricane.
The key is to test all things not through the prism of one’s
own understanding, prejudices, or inclinations, but via the prism of God’s
Word. That is how we determine whether something is good and worth holding fast
to, or whether it is deception couched in a layer of truth and to be discarded,
knowing it will be detrimental to our spiritual walk.
I do not have the authority to determine what is good, and
neither do you. God does, and He has detailed it in His Word. If we dismiss the
Word of God as the filter by which we test all things and lean on our own
understanding, our understanding will draw us further away from the light
because our understanding is rooted in the heart and the mind, which are flesh,
and flesh is at enmity with God.
Follow your heart, and it will lead you to ruin. Follow men,
and they will lead you to resentment and disillusionment. Follow God, and He
will lead you to green pastures and still waters.
Misery, loving company, would be a satisfactory explanation
for why the deceived do their utmost to draw others into their deception if it
were not for the reality that there is a nefarious third party involved who is
willing to do anything, say anything, and align himself with anyone to reach
his intended ends.
One inevitably grows more sober-minded, disciplined, and
cautious when they realize the lengths to which the devil will go to sow doubt,
fear, deception, resentment, or bitterness in their hearts. The presence of
Christ in one’s life, not occasionally but perpetually, is the antidote to all
of these and more.
Job 20:25-29, “He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming
point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him; total darkness lies in wait
for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in
his tent. The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against
him. A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s
wrath. Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them
by God.”
Evil has no future. It is a truth that Zophar repeatedly
hammered home, the only problem being that it did not apply to Job. No, Zophar
wasn’t wrong about anything he said regarding the wicked and their ultimate
end, for it is the fate God allots the wicked; however, Job was not in the camp
of the wicked as Zophar and his friends presumed, and that is where they erred.
It would be myopic to dismiss Zophar’s words altogether just
because they did not apply to Job. He wasn’t wrong about the fate of the
wicked, just about his friend being numbered among them. There is truth in the
words he spoke, and that truth is both revelatory and pertinent when removing
Job from the equation.
You can be right and wrong at the same time, depending on the
context and a specific situation. Zophar proved it beyond a doubt, but rather
than stir him to humility, his pride compelled him to double down.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
