The Principles of Prayer XXII

 If all one ever has is declarative faith in God, they are no better off than the demons. Not only do the demons believe that there is one God, they go one step further and tremble, understanding more about His authority than most superficial believers do, and acknowledging His sovereignty over all things. It’s a heady thing to realize, yet it is nevertheless true.

James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble!”

When we walk by faith, having full assurance in His guiding hand, and possessing complete trust that He will lead us to green pastures and beside still waters, we have gone beyond a declarative faith, into the domain of experiential faith wherein we act upon that which we believe, and not merely declaring that we believe it.

Making a statement regarding a certain thing and following through with action, proving that they were more than words, are two different things. Some time ago, there was a popular song that got so much airplay that you couldn’t escape it. Whether it's the grocery store, your local coffee shop, or cars passing by, on any given day, you were likely to hear a crooner insist that he believes he can fly. Oddly enough, he never acted on the sentiment, even though he sang it often enough. If he had, we’d know, because his falling off a building while attempting to take flight would have likely made the news.

Men can claim they believe, but their lives tell another tale. Saying it is often easy. Doing it is less so, because it involves the mortification of the flesh, and the denial of oneself in order to walk in faith.

Praying in faith isn’t crying out to God, not really expecting anything to happen, and being uncertain as to whether God hears you. Sure, if your prayer is answered, it will be a pleasant surprise, but it was one of many avenues you pursued in hoping to resolve your situation. You threw a bunch of stuff against a wall and waited to see what stuck.

God is not a last resort. He is not who we run to after we’ve exhausted all other options. For those who possess active, experiential faith, He is the first and only one we run to because we know that none other can do what He can.

The idea that we can keep God in a box, out of sight and out of mind, until our hubris leads us to an untenable position, and only then bother to let Him out and expect Him to fix what we broke, isn’t what faith or the Christian walk are about.

I am the captain of my ship, I’m in the driver’s seat, I am piloting this craft, and no one can tell me any different! That is the attitude of many people today, and only when they find themselves nosediving toward a rock cliff do they relent and give up control because they see themselves as having no other options. Love of God, submission, obedience, or faithfulness never entered the equation. They just need a Mr. Fix-it, and not only are they surprised but grow outright bitter when the God to whom they haven’t spoken in a decade isn’t quick to put the broken pieces of their life back together, even though their rebellion and disobedience were the cause of it in the first place.

Prayer is the means by which we foster, nurture, maintain, and grow our relationship with God. An individual without a prayer life, or one whose prayer life is sporadic, and who only approaches God when they have need of something, isn’t interested in a relationship but in exploiting and manipulating God to serve their ends.

I traveled with my grandfather for ten years. I was his interpreter, and whenever we were on the road, we would share a room. More often than not, whenever I would wake up at random hours of the night, I’d find him kneeling by the side of his bed in prayer. These weren’t five-minute prayers, or something so habitual as to become ordinary, but oftentimes for hours on end, he would kneel by his bedside, and have fellowship with God.

It wasn’t because he had a need or was in some existential crisis, but because the desire of his heart was to have communion with God and be in fellowship with Him. No one demanded this of him, no one was watching, no one was keeping track of how many hours he prayed. There was no competition, he wasn’t trying to make the leader board, and there was no prize for most hours prayed in a given month; it was what gave him joy and peace. It was what satisfied the soul, and even when his body was wracked with pain, and he could barely move, it was the one thing he did consistently and without fail.

I’ve heard some people insist that God wakes them up at odd hours of the night to pray. Personally, I believe that is a misnomer. It’s not so much that God woke them up to pray; it’s that upon waking, their singular desire was to be in His presence and dialogue with Him. Yes, there are times when we get an urging to pray for a specific individual, or a specific situation, but those who are consistent in coming before God before they do anything else on a given morning are doing so not because they were compelled but because it is their true desire.

Do you hunger for God? Do you hunger for His presence? Does He have the place of prominence in your hierarchy of needs wherein everything else pales in comparison to spending time in His presence? These are questions only you can answer for yourself, but know that regardless of where you are in your spiritual walk, the more you desire God, the more of Himself He will reveal to you. He will not force you into fellowship. He will not twist your arm to spend time with Him. It is something voluntary, and must be done with purity of heart, without vested interest or hidden agendas. God sees the truth of it, for all is laid bare before Him.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Principles of Prayer XXI

 As children of God, our allegiance is exclusive. Our allegiance is not to ideology, denomination, a political party, or an individual, but to God. We serve Him, we obey Him, and we worship Him because He is worthy of all these things and more. Because our allegiance is to God, our singular focus is to be pleasing in His sight, not in the sight of men, or a certain demographic that seethes with hatred for the God of the Bible, but is willing to make use of those who ally with their cause until they are no longer useful.

Any man who places anything or anyone above God is no longer serving Him but serving their cause d'jour, or the creation rather than the Creator. If your feelings, emotions, or opinions are in opposition to the Word and will of God, it is not God who must change in order to accommodate you; it is you who must submit to His authority and do as He commands.

It takes a special kind of hubris to insist that the everlasting God, the one who spoke the universe into existence, He who is omnipotent, should do a sudden heel turn because His standard, if He were to maintain it, would hurt your feelings, or keep you from doing the things the flesh yearns to do. Yes, men take it upon themselves to widen the narrow path, including men who others see as spiritual authorities, but it does not mean God suddenly changed His mind or that He’s gone back on what He deems sin.

It would be nice to have a deeper relationship with God, it would be nice to walk in authority, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to devote myself to prayer, so God has to make an exception for me. No, He doesn’t. That’s not the way it works, and anyone who thinks themselves more special than anyone else and deserving of a special carve-out is only deluding themselves.

Pride has a way of warping men’s minds to the point that they see themselves as indispensable, and because they believe that God’s entire plan for mankind rests on their shoulders, and would surely fall apart without them, they allow themselves liberties that Scripture never signs off on.

We may be short on equal application of the law when it comes to men nowadays, but when it comes to God, the same rules apply to everyone, and there are no exceptions. The soul that sins will die. That’s what the Book says! It’s not the soul that sins, will die, with the exception of Bill or Janet, who can do as they will and still get a pass.

I understand the following may sting a bit, especially if you’re from the generation that was told incessantly that they were special by everyone from their auntie to granny, to mom, dad, and the mailman, but you’re not. You’re no more special than anyone else, regardless of your pedigree, social standing, net worth, or digital footprint. We may all have different gifts, different intelligence levels, different aptitudes and abilities, but in the eyes of God, those things don’t make us more special or deserving of special treatment.

We all start out as wretches, whether rich wretches, poor wretches, smart wretches, or wretches of average intelligence. We all start out needing a savior, needing redemption, and needing rebirth. It’s the same starting line for everyone, but the finish line differs from person to person because while some receive the gift of salvation, others dismiss and reject it as though eternity didn’t hang in the balance.

No man who understands grace, salvation, and the price Jesus paid on the cross is arrogant or boastful of the gifts God has bestowed upon him. Every time I hear a braggart, regardless of the context, alarm bells start going off, and that’s doubly so if it has anything to do with the spiritual.

A vessel is a vessel. What makes a vessel valuable is what is placed inside it, and the vessel itself has no agency over its contents. God decides what He pours into a vessel after it has been made clean. If God has given you a gift, what right do you or I have to boast of the gift as though it were acquired by our own prowess, and is now proprietary to us?

Faith is the essence of prayer. It is the environment in which prayer transcends someone talking to a wall, and opens the lines of communication between man and God. We are not like the Greeks of old, praying to every god under the sun, and even to an unknown god, just to cover all the bases. We know who we pray to and have faith that He hears. We have faith that when we cry out, He is there to comfort; when we are broken, He is there to restore; and when we forfeit this life for the life to come, He will bestow it upon us and abundantly so.

The central pivot of the altar of prayer, upon which a strong and vibrant prayer life hinges, is faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith itself can be declarative, experiential, or both. Someone who says they believe in God, but never quantifies which god they are referring to, has made a declarative statement about an abstract notion with which they had no intimate encounter or interaction. Excluding the outright atheists, most people today fall into this category. They believe there is something more, but they cannot define what that is. Whether God, a higher power, or a force, they believe in the existence of a deity of some sort; they made a declarative statement to this effect, but they’ve never known the one true God or felt His presence.

Those who possess experiential faith, however, likewise have declarative faith, wherein, having experienced the presence of God, having known the goodness of the Lord, they declare boldly that He is, that He lives, that He transforms and saves. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.

The Principles of Prayer XX

 On the heels of having fed the multitudes with the fishes and loaves, and having mysteriously crossed the sea to Capernaum, because the people had not seen Him enter the boat with His disciples, the people came to Jesus and asked, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

Contrary to modern-day practices, Jesus did not refer them to his course on spirituality, hand out cards with QR codes where they could purchase an in-depth study on the topic, or ask them to become Patreon members so they too could unlock the secrets to working the works of God. His answer wasn’t long, drawn out, or needlessly complicated, and He summarized what they needed to do in no more than one sentence.

John 6:29, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom sent Me.”’

Since Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, He knew that the message would fall on deaf ears unless those who heard it believed in the God whose gospel and kingdom He was preaching. One cannot separate God, the lordship of Christ, and the salvific power of His death, burial, and resurrection from the works of God and still present it as gospel.

There are many types of gospels being preached nowadays. There’s the social gospel, the tolerance gospel, the inclusive gospel, the good works gospel, the prosperity gospel, but only one gospel has the power to save, heal, and restore, and that is the gospel of the kingdom of God.

People can be charitable and still end up in hell. They can be tolerant and affirming and still end up in hell. They can be rich and prosperous, have everything their grubby little fingers could point to and claim, and still end up in hell. The gospel of the kingdom of God is about none of these things, but one thing exclusively, and that is the person of Christ Jesus, who He is, what He did, what He said, and the promises He made to those who would daily deny themselves, pick up their crosses, and follow after Him.

The message of the gospel of the Kingdom of God has been clear and resonant since the early church. Rarely have we seen any generation so dedicated to chipping away at it, twisting it, and dismissing it as this one.

Acts 3:19-21, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”

Men with self-serving agendas will complicate the gospel, salvation, faith, prayer, and anything else they think they can monetize or funnel people into. Men whose only desire is to do the work of the Kingdom will point the way to Jesus and give Him the glory He rightly deserves.

There was never an inconsistency between the words Jesus spoke and the life He lived. He did not subscribe to the do as I say, not as I do model of faith, because He was not interested in impressing anyone, nor was hypocrisy something He was willing to consider.

When we desire to be Christlike, we are desiring true sanctification and transformation, not the ability to put on airs or pretend at being something we know ourselves not to be. It’s why so many today give off the stench of hypocrisy, whether in leadership or their day-to-day interactions with those outside the body of Christ. We talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, and it shows. The mask inevitably slips, and people get a glimpse of what lies beneath that is so off-putting as to make them recoil.

Jesus was the Word made flesh. When we believe in the words of Christ, the actions of Christ, and the character of Christ, we are actively fulfilling the work of God. We must possess all three in order to be complete. Some believe the words of Jesus but do not have His character. Others strive to do the works that He did, without believing His words. Two out of three won’t cut it, and if we do not strive to possess His character, believe His words, and do the works to which He has tasked us, we will always be stunted in our growth and incomplete.

John 5:24-25, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My words and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”

It’s not enough to hear; we must act upon that which we hear. Faith comes by hearing. We hear the Word of God, we hear the words of Jesus, but to have everlasting life, we must believe. Only those who hear and believe will not come into judgment, because they have passed from death to life.

We hear the gospel, then submit to it, obey it, follow it, and give it reign over our hearts and minds. Hearing only, and not allowing what we hear to stir us to action, and spark faith in our hearts, leaves us as empty, hollow, and rudderless as we were before we heard the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer works in much the same way. We can read the testimonies of others who prayed and what God was able to accomplish through them. We can study the theory of prayer and even read the prayers themselves, but unless we commit to pressing in and acting upon what we’ve learned, actively nurturing a life of prayer and prioritizing our time alone with God, all we will possess is the knowledge of what God did through others, or how others prayed, but it will have no effect upon our spiritual growth.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Principles of Prayer XIX

Anyone insisting that the growth of your faith or understanding of God is solely dependent upon them is neither your brother, your friend, nor someone who has your best interest at heart. They are attempting to replace Jesus, not pointing you to Him, and that makes for someone to be marked and avoided at all costs.

1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

One! A singularity, one of one, without the possibility of being replicated or replaced. This singular role of Christ as the Mediator is a testament to the unique and irreplaceable relationship each of us has with Him. Jesus didn’t come to bring good news; He was the embodiment of the good news. There has never been, nor will there ever be, another like Him to walk the earth. The singularity of Christ confirms what the Word has oft repeated, that there aren’t many paths to the same destination, but one path, one way, and that is through Him.

Apart from Christ, there is no hope. Apart from Him, man can never be reconciled to God. It doesn’t matter who says otherwise, how respected they might be in certain circles, or how many followers they have on Instagram; they’re still wrong, still liars, and one day they will have to stand before God and answer for the deception they perpetrated upon the household of faith.

That should be enough for most to understand when they are being manipulated, lied to, and steered off course, but the promises of those who come in His name but are not His, the charisma of the false Christs who insist that theirs is a better way is so mesmerizing as to make many suspend common sense, disregard Scripture, and follow after them with far greater fervor and zeal than ever they followed the true Christ.

It’s eye-opening to see so many speak out in defense of men who demonstrably committed indefensible acts, with a passion they would never speak in defense of Jesus with. Would that some would defend the name of Jesus with the same zeal they defend men, there would be a renaissance of individuals standing up for the faith and boldly declaring the lordship of Jesus.

When it comes to faith, it is one of the attributes that transcends and bridges the Old and New Testaments. Although many things changed with the advent of Christ, as far as rituals, traditions, or the ability of all who would believe in Him to be grafted in, adopted, and called sons and daughters of God regardless of race, nationality, or ethnicity, faith remained a prerequisite for those who desire to know Him, grow in Him, and walk in His authority. Faith is a requirement for everything concerning man’s relationship with God.

It is the primary and indispensable ingredient. Just as you can’t make an omelet without eggs, you cannot be pleasing in the sight of God without faith.  

Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

There is no wiggle room in this declarative statement. We are not told that without faith it’s difficult, hard but still doable, or that you can please God without faith as long as you substitute it with good works, charity, or wearing some itchy, rough-spun underclothes at all times. Without faith, it is impossible to please God!

The faith of which the author of Hebrews speaks is not generic, general, or unfocused; rather, it is a targeted, well-defined faith that has God as its purpose. One must believe that He is, have faith in Him, and not in their abilities or their accomplishments. God responds to faith. He is neither indifferent nor unmoved by it. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, who walk by faith and not by sight, trusting in His mighty hand and submitting to His sovereign will.

Because I have faith in Him, I know that God sees my struggle, He sees my pain, He sees my weakness, He sees my insecurities, He sees my desire to know more of Him and grow in Him, and He responds in kind without delay.

Faith is an attitude of complete trust in God. It extends beyond hope into the domain of full assurance. When my daughters were younger, to their mother’s chagrin, they liked climbing the furniture to the highest point possible, yelling “catch me, daddy”, then jumping off, not once thinking that I would let them fall to the ground. They were fully assured that I would catch them, and there was not a shred of doubt in their hearts as to this reality. To their credit, they made sure I was close enough to hear and catch them, but once that was out of the way, there was no hesitation in their leaping from the counter, the edge of the sofa, or the kitchen table.

The question isn’t whether God can catch us, but whether we are close enough so that He hears us. The question is whether we are His sons and daughters, not just in word but in deed. God can, and God will. His hand is not short, and His power is limitless.    

There is no area of our lives wherein we can withhold faith, or conclude that God cannot intervene or is unable to rectify. Faith is man’s answer and response to what God promised, to who He is, and to what He is able to do. He promised eternal life to all who would believe, and we have faith that it is so. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and we have faith in His permanence. He is omnipotent. Therefore, we have faith that He can do all things and is not limited by the understanding or abilities of man.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Principles of Prayer XVIII

 Man doesn’t stumble upon God by accident. We do not set out seeking something else, only to find Him around some corner, or hiding behind a tree. When we seek God and search for Him with all our hearts, God promises that we will find Him, but we must know who we’re seeking, why we are seeking Him, and once we’ve found Him, never let Him go.

God doesn’t play hide and seek with those whose desire is the knowledge of Him. He is not aloof or cagey, nor is He trying to appear mysterious for the sake of it. He makes Himself available, reveals Himself, and allows Himself to be discovered by those who seek Him. If we’re always searching for something other than God, then it should come as no surprise that we haven’t found Him. When we set our minds and hearts to seeking only Him, His presence is undeniably consistent, and it seems as though everywhere we look, we see His guiding hand.

In the early nineties, Volkswagen Beetles were far more prevalent than they are today, especially if you lived on the coast as we happened to at the time. Given that we were three boys with energy to spare and nothing to do on the longer car rides, we heartily embraced the game known as Punch Buggy every time we went anywhere.

If you’ve never played it, the game is simple enough: every time you spotted a Volkswagen Beetle in traffic before the other competitors, you got to punch them in the shoulder as a prize. We were boys, we were bored, and it took away from the discomfort of having to unstick yourself from the duct tape crisscrossing the seat where the pleather had cracked and ripped.  

At the time, we had an old, gray station wagon with a rear-facing bench seat in the back, and that’s where we’d spend our time during the drive, giving each other bruises, while the parents and grandparents were in the front seats, tuning out the grunts of pain coming from the back.

You’ll never see three boys more focused on anything than we were on being the first to spot the Beetles driving by, especially if you were trying to keep from getting hit. You knew that once you heard “red bug, yellow bug, blue bug,” or some other color favored by the hippies, a swift knuckle sandwich was on its way, likely in the same general area where the other five or six had landed.

We were boys on a mission, and everything faded into obscurity except for spotting the Beetles on the highway. We didn’t notice palm trees or buildings, we didn’t keep track of which interstate we were on, the singular focus was on the thing that would keep us from getting hit.

When we seek God, it must be with the selfsame single-minded focus. It goes without saying that distractions will be prevalent, and there will always be something that tries to steer us away from the pursuit of God, but nothing the world has to offer compares to His presence. It’s like comparing costume jewelry to real diamonds and gold. The costume jewelry might be fun to look at, the colors bright and varied, but when it comes to value, there is none to be had in it.

There is no value in the things of this world. Worthless baubles are just that, worthless. In God, however, there is eternal value beyond what the human mind can grasp or comprehend. So many waste their lives chasing after the brass ring only to feel let down and deflated once they acquire it, realizing that it doesn’t live up to the hype. No one who has sought God and found Him can claim that they were underwhelmed. No one can say they expected more because His presence alone satisfies the soul of man in a way nothing else can.

Just as prayer was an integral part of every memorable hero of the faith since the dawn of time, faith itself was also present in their hearts, intertwined and interconnected, working in tandem with their prayer lives in order to bring about their lived experiences of walking in the power and authority of God. A man of prayer will ostensibly be a man of faith, and a man of faith will naturally be a man of prayer. The two are conjoined and inseparable.

There is no better snapshot of faith in action since the dawn of human history than Hebrews 11. It is such a rich, deep, and wondrous chapter as to deserve its own study at some point, but for now, we will have to make do with a summation. By faith, they did, they asked, they received, they suffered, they died, they did what seemed impossible to human intellect or logic, and through it all, not only hoped, but had full assurance that they would receive an eternal kingdom. Everything they did, what animated them, gave them boldness, gave them strength, courage, and endurance, was by faith.

The enemy is fully aware of the power of faith. He understands that faith stirs the heart of God, and by faith, the impossible becomes possible. I would even go so far as to say the devil understands the power of faith more than most Christians, and it is why he does his utmost to sideline, shipwreck, or dampen faith wherever the opportunity arises. If he can’t shipwreck someone’s faith, he’ll settle for keeping it stagnant, wherein it doesn’t stretch, it doesn’t grow, but remains in a state of infancy.

The reason for this is obvious enough. It’s far easier to distract, deceive, manipulate, or lead astray a baby Christian than it is one who is mature and is anchored in his faith. Anyone with children will tell you that there comes a point where you no longer have to remind them not to take candy from strangers, because they’ve grown past that phase. They know not to do it, and you don’t have to remind them anymore.

It would be an odd thing indeed for a friend of mine to remind me not to take candy from strangers in my fifties, but not so when you have a young child who doesn’t yet understand that we live in a world where dangers abound, and more often than not the predators among us will use something tempting to the eye to draw them away from the protection of their parents.

There is a glut of individuals offering spiritual candy just to lure you into their doctrinal van and away from the will of the Father. The list is endless, and each day, some new teaching, practice, or interpretation makes its way to the fore, only to hear about the damage it has caused six months or a year down the line. You may not need reminding, but someone likely does: don’t take the candy, and run away as fast as your feet will carry you!

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Principles of Prayer XVII

 Understanding the magnitude, grandeur, majesty, power, authority, and omnipotence of the God we serve should, by all accounts, make us see prayer and the ability to commune with Him in a whole new light. When we get a glimpse of who God is, we are eager to spend more time with Him. We see it as the honor that it is, as the priceless grace He bestows upon those He calls His own, and not as a chore, a burden, or something we would rather skip on a given day if we had the choice.

You’re not calling customer support and getting someone with a thick Indian accent on the other end who doesn’t understand English all that well. You are having dialogue with the God of heaven, the Creator of all that is seen and unseen, the One who spoke the universe into being. That reality alone should make us hunger for time alone with Him. It should make us prioritize prayer in such a way that we allow nothing to stand in the way of having that experience, not once in a while, but daily, even multiple times a day.

How is it that people get more tongue-tied and starry-eyed when they see an actor, an athlete, or a favorite musician in real life than they do about the prospect of speaking one-on-one with the God of the universe? Why is it people will stand in line, brave the cold, and pay their hard earned money to watch grown men throw a ball at each other while others are trying to tackle them to the ground, but when discussion of having prayer time comes around, they’re always busy, have prior commitments, or just can’t fit it into the schedule?

Men prioritize what they treasure, and treasure what they prioritize. That in itself is an indictment against much of today’s church, because what we are prioritizing is anything other than the simple practices, such as consistent prayer, that are proven to grow and build us. They are deemed too dull, obsolete, old-fashioned, and outdated, but try as they might to put a new spin on a proven practice, their results are demonstrably lacking.

If you can’t match the success of those who came before you by doing something new, then perhaps it’s time to swallow your pride and go back to the drawing board, acknowledging that different isn’t always better, and some things that have worked for millennia have stood the test of time because there is nothing that can replace them that offer the same results.

When we come before God in prayer, we must be fully aware of who it is we are praying to. God’s people perish for lack of knowledge, but that knowledge has everything to do with the nature and character of God, and not whether planetary alignments bring about greater natural disasters. It is the knowledge of Him that God is referring to. His people perish because they do not know Him, and the truth of this statement is ever more apparent with each passing day.

How can one place their full faith and trust in someone they do not know? How can someone serve and obey someone they only have a tangential understanding of? Men wander from truth, return to the darkness, and dismiss God’s commands because they have no fear of the Lord. They have no fear of the Lord because the reality of who He is has not crystallized in their minds and hearts.

Knowing who you’re dealing with in any given situation will determine the actions you will undertake. We’ve all encountered the videos where fake tough guys eventually run into a real tough guy, not knowing that the person they’re disrespecting, antagonizing, and trying to pick a fight with, punches men in the face for a living. They find out soon enough when they go too far, and that seemingly mild-mannered individual who was just trying to mind his own business snaps, and they’re staring at the clouds from the fetal position, not knowing how they got there.

When you show more respect to the night shift manager at Walmart than you do to God, who sent His only begotten Son that you may be reconciled to Him, it reveals the limited understanding you have of Him.

The modern-day church narrative of God being your buddy, your pal, or some grandfatherly figure just waiting on you to visit so He can spoil you with candies and treats until you get bored with Him has done incalculable damage within the body. The fear of the Lord has become a rare thing, and knowing that it is the beginning of wisdom, the level of ignorance is no surprise.

Although we have easier access to everything under the sun, we are the most intellectually stunted generation ever to walk the earth, and the next generation will be even more so. Knowing next to nothing yet thinking we know everything is a toxic brew that leaves us unteachable, unmalleable, and beyond correction. Even when God declares and commands that we pursue Him with all our hearts, and that He will accept nothing less than our all, we wave it off as though it were a mere suggestion, or that His command did not extend to us.

That’s for everyone else. We’re special, though. The little people need to spend time in prayer. The peons need to spend time in the Word. We are beyond all that, don’t you know? All we have to do is hum along to Hillsong for a few minutes every other week, and we’re good.

It’s no mystery why the spiritual condition of the contemporary church is where it is. It’s not as though we can’t piece together the clues and come to a reasonable conclusion as to why this has occurred. We have strayed from the tried and true precepts of the gospel in search of other things, newer things, different things, and are now coming to realize that there is no replacing the pillars and foundational tenets of what is required for spiritual growth.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining in all this. Although we are the Body of Christ, we are not a monolith. We will not stand before God in groups, separated by denomination, ethnicity, nationality, or musical preference. We will stand before God as individuals, and as individuals, we can choose to press in, grow, mature, and do the things that will aid us in reaching these goals.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Principles of Prayer XVI

 To the enemy, a scalp is a scalp, but he would prefer a general over the bugler or the drummer boy. When God calls you to ministry your walk doesn’t become easier, it becomes exponentially more treacherous because the enemy is always looking for a weakness, a crack, a chink, something he can exploit and hobble your walk with. The epidemic of fallen and disgraced leaders we are currently witnessing isn’t because the devil suddenly decided to double his efforts; it's because this new crop of leaders failed to heed the lessons of the past and stopped being watchful, prayerful, studious, and on guard.

I’ve made it, Momma, I’ve made it. My congregation numbers in the thousands, I have a golden parachute to rival any executive, there’s even talk of a television deal and expanding to multiple campuses, and I’m as close to untouchable as you can get. And that’s when they take their foot off the gas. Not so much in trying to grow their brand, but in remaining steadfast in their commitment to obedience, and focusing on their spiritual man more than anything else. It’s not accidental, it’s the likely outcome of a pattern that has played out for millennia.

Regrettably, there are those who, having experienced a moment with God, rest on their past glories for the rest of their lives. They never strive for more, content with reliving that one divine touch. This complacency is perilous. We must not be satisfied with what we have received or experienced, but yearn for something deeper and more profound. The danger of complacency is the stagnation of our spiritual growth, a risk we cannot afford to take.

You often hear the testimonies of those who got saved twenty, thirty, even forty years ago, and when you press them a bit, and ask what they’ve done to grow since they get that blank look in their eyes, or give you the thousand-yard stare as though you’d asked about interdimensional travel. Just as fruit production defines a good tree, spiritual growth and maturity define a healthy believer.

If you’re in the same spiritual state today as you were ten years ago, ten months ago, or even ten days ago, perhaps it’s time to prioritize your spiritual man and begin consistently practicing those things which are proven to grow and strengthen him.   

If spending time in prayer, growing your faith, being in the Word, and walking humbly with the Lord were inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, why is the enemy doing his utmost to keep believers from doing these things? Do you honestly think he has your best interests at heart? Spoiler alert: he doesn’t, never has, and never will. His hatred for the children of God is blinding, stripping him of reason.  A roaring lion acts on instinct. He stalks his prey, looking for an opportunity to pounce. The enemy does much the same when encountering a child of God. It’s instinctual for him to go on the offensive, to attack, and attempt to destroy.

Faith acts as a shield against the enemy’s attacks, while prayer keeps us connected to God, able to receive instruction, direction, encouragement, and correction. If the enemy can convince a believer to minimize prayer and discount faith, half the battle is already lost or won, depending on which side you’re rooting for.

A weak, lethargic, and malnourished opponent is starting at a deficit even before taking their first steps onto the battlefield. We are witnessing countless spiritually emaciated souls believing themselves strong only until the first blow is struck and they realize that the enthusiasm and confidence they were feeling were manufactured and artificial, with no foundation or reserves of strength to draw from.

Certain things in life are achieved only by doing the work required to achieve them. There’s no way around it, there are no shortcuts, there are no alternatives, just dedication, commitment, and consistency. If you want to put on a few pounds of muscle, you must eat the appropriate amount of protein and lift heavy. Breathing exercises won’t help, repeating mantras in the mirror will do nothing for you, and wishing it were so will not make it happen, no matter how hard you wish for it.

Even those who resort to steroids at the expense of their long-term health still have to eat right and lift heavy in order to see the hoped-for results.

The same goes for a strong and robust spiritual man. Stretching one’s faith, growing it, maturing it, and applying it, coupled with a life of dedicated prayer, are what grow our spiritual man. There are no shortcuts, no way of circumventing the time and sweat equity required, and anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something that will leave you disappointed and disillusioned at the end of the day.

We all remember those infomercials back in the day before people caught on to the fact that they were a bunch of lies. One pill a day is all you need to get lean and shredded. You can continue sitting on your couch eating three large pizzas per sitting, nothing needs to change, just take the pill and in no time flat, not only will you lose that stubborn belly fat, but you’ll put on so much muscle you’ll have to walk through your front door at an angle. They even went so far as to offer money-back guarantees, knowing that most people wouldn’t bother trying to get their forty bucks back after they put on another fifteen pounds of pure blubber and started experiencing sleep apnea.

The only ones still falling for the scams seem to be believers. Buy my course, attend my conference, take my workshop, and you too can be a spiritual powerhouse binding and loosing, casting out demons, and tearing down principalities and powers without having to mature, grow, pray, study, or pick up your cross daily. It’s new revelation, buddy! Never mind that every noteworthy individual in the history of Christendom followed the same well-trodden path, we have a fresh take on it where you can have the best of both worlds, have your cake and eat it too, live like the devil but still access the power of God at will. If it reads like a lie, sounds like a lie, feels like a lie, and contradicts the Word of God, then it’s a lie, and you should steer clear. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.