Job LXXXVIII

 Job 5:12-16, “He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot carry out their plans. He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noontime as in the night. But He saves the needy from the sword, from the mouth of the mighty, and from their hand. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.”

None of what Eliphaz testifies is wrong or wayward. God does frustrate the devices of the crafty; He does catch the wise in their own craftiness; He does save the needy from the sword and from the mouth of the mighty, but He does so as He wills, when He wills, for His purpose and glory. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, Eliphaz omitted that last part as though it wasn’t relevant or was not the fulcrum upon which his entire thesis rested.

In any given situation God can intervene, God may intervene, but whether or not He will is solely incumbent upon Him and His purposes. God does as He wills. He is sovereign. You can’t be praying “Your will be done” every morning, then throw a hissy fit when He does His will. His will being done on earth as it is in heaven is not dependent upon whether or not it’s in concert with your will or mine. That would mean my will supersedes His will, and I become some sort of defacto god looking for a wish granter who does my bidding, asks no questions, and requires nothing in return. It’s easier said than done, but we must receive the blessing as well as the testing from the hand of God with equal aplomb.

Some of us are so desirous to bring comfort to another that we take it upon ourselves to speak for God and insist that He will remedy the situation. Unless God has spoken that to you directly, and you heard His words clearly and know them to have originated from Him, telling someone God will do something He never said He would may give them temporary comfort, but the end will be worse than the beginning for they will surely give way to bitterness and resentment when what you said God said He would do never materializes.

We approach the entire realm of the prophetic or revelatory insight far too flippantly nowadays, thinking that there will be no consequence for speaking when God has not spoken, not realizing that He’s already laid out the punishment for such transgression in His word. God never said He would give someone a pass if the word they spoke in haste, that did not originate from Him was done with good intentions. A lie is still a lie, even if it was intended as a comfort.

Jeremiah 23:25-27, “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells their neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.”

Jeremiah 23:30-32, “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, He says. Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the Lord.”

These verses should be on the front page of every school of prophecy workbook in big, bold letters because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They’re not, though, for fear that it will tamper the enthusiasm of the folks who forked over a grand or five to be taught how to prophesy and walk in their anointing. Prophecy is not guesswork, a gut feeling, or a personal opinion repackaged to make it seem like it came from God. We’ve seen the aftermath of the lies and recklessness far too often to ignore it, but we’re still beating the same drum and offering the same courses on tapping into your prophetic gifting regardless of how many souls are shipwrecked and how many hearts are shattered because of words they received that never came to pass because they never originated from God.

It’s not that the reckoning is coming; it’s already here. We’re seeing it in real-time, and it will only intensify because God will not be mocked, no matter how many individuals think otherwise.

By all means, be a comfort, a shoulder to cry on, a caring friend, and an empathetic brother or sister in Christ, but don’t presume to know the mind of God or give words you know full well did not come from Him.

Your first duty is to delineate between feelings, emotions, what you think the individual wants to hear or needs to hear, and a true word from the Lord. Don’t conflate the two or insist a word is from the Lord when it’s not, even if it makes you seem less spiritual than you might like to be viewed. Being deemed spiritual by others is not worth God’s wrath, and this is yet another lesson the modern-day soothsayers have failed to learn to their detriment.

Intent may hold weight when it comes to other things we do in this life but is wholly irrelevant when it comes to speaking in the name of God when He has not spoken and insisting He will do something He never promised He would do. That you wanted to be a comfort, a healing balm, a source of hope, or some other trope one might use to justify such actions, they will be dismissed offhand because, in your presumption, you appropriated the omniscience of God and spoke in His name.

Mark 4:22, “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.” 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 6 January 2025 | 12:05 pm