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Outnumbered VIII

 Whether it’s an individual or a nation living in rebellion and disobedience, it would go against God’s nature of righteousness and holiness to speak good things to them via his prophets or promise them victory of any sort while they remain far from Him.

Very few tackle the next few verses of this passage because they are unsettling, causing distress in the minds and hearts of those who know they are living lives unworthy of the name of Jesus yet desire to hear a word from the Lord, especially if it’s complementary and promises victory, abundance, breakthrough, or favor.

The text is plain; it’s in the Book, and uncomfortable as its implications might be, we must contend with it and take it at face value. Not only is the following passage devastating for those who live lukewarm, duplicitous lives yet expect a true word from the Lord, but it also dispels the narrative that God is in heaven all by His lonesome, just looking for a friend, any old friend, to pass the time and help Him with His tangled beard.

In their attempt to elevate their status, some have taken to stripping God of His majesty, making Him out to be a lonely old man with a white beard, sitting on a throne, doing much of nothing except for pining over stiff-necked and rebellious children who want nothing to do with Him.

Why is it that every time one of these modern-day prophetesses describes their experience with being translated into the holy of holies, it’s always akin to the dorky kid asking the cool kids why they don’t want to play with him? Their version of God always seems to lack some understanding and needs their specific input on how to run the universe He spoke into being. Thank goodness a lady with pink hair or the one with the nose ring came along to set God straight and tell Him what’s what. Imagine the mess we’d be in if they hadn’t been teleported to heaven via a porta-potty for a confab with the Almighty.

You’re just jealous because they got to go to heaven, and you didn’t. I’m good, actually. Vain imaginations are just that. Both vain and imaginations. It’s that bunches of people are buying what these frauds are selling that’s the troubling part.

Micaiah had a vision of the Lord, and what he describes is very different from what modern-day soothsayers describe. God wasn’t all by His lonesome doing Sudoku out of sheer boredom; He wasn’t pacing back and forth in the halls of heaven, not knowing what to do with Himself. Micaiah had a vision of God in His glory and majesty, with all the host of heaven standing by on His right hand and on His left.

1 Kings 22:19-23, “Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, “Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?” So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, “I will persuade him.” The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”’

Although there is enough to unpack in these four verses to last us through the end of the year, I will resist the impulse to do a deep dive into this interaction between the Lord and His host regarding the fate of Ahab and succinctly go through some of the most relevant bullet points.

First, Ahab was weighed and found wanting. God had already judged him for his unwillingness to repent. Whether an individual or a nation requires restoration or salvation, the prerequisite for God’s intervention is always repentance. You can think yourself in the best position possible, with all the money in the world and all the safety nets that money can afford, but if your heart is in rebellion, if you are walking in disobedience, none of it matters until your heart is put aright.

We keep hearing that God is going to bless and restore America from various voices on various platforms, but never once do you hear those self-same voices call for humble repentance or a return to the tenets that once made this nation the envy of the world. A nation cannot prosper without God. That’s the reality we are soon to learn intimately.

No individual or group of individuals is smart enough to bypass repentance and achieve what can only be achieved through repentance and obedience. They can talk a good game, plot, plan, and scheme, have projections, and take all sorts of measures to make their dream a reality, but if God’s hand is not in it, it will crumble and fall short every time.

Ahab had refused repentance, and now judgment was upon him. All the words his prophets had spoken over him were the result of a lying spirit that went out encouraging him to go to battle against the Syrians so that he might meet his end.

It was not the Spirit of God that went out to put a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets; it was a spirit who volunteered for the task. Second, Micaiah called the four hundred men Ahab’s prophets, not God’s. It’s an important distinction, lest we confuse what occurred.

They were Ahab’s prophets. Four hundred yes men who would regurgitate the desires of the king back to him and give him their seal of approval for whatever purpose he desired. They were not God’s men, nor were they God’s prophets, and as such, the spirit that went forth was able to put a lying word in their mouths.

God doesn’t allow for false words to be put in the mouths of true prophets, but false prophets are fair game. A true prophet had warned Ahab repeatedly. He’d brought the word of the Lord to him, and because the words were an offense to his flesh, he rejected them. Now, a spirit was sent forth to put a false word in the mouths of the four hundred, and Ahab lapped it up greedily.

If the word of the Lord is correcting you, admonishing you, and calling you to repent of something, then suddenly, a fresh word that no longer insists upon these things comes from someone else, it’s not that God changed His mind or that He no longer requires humble submission to His will; it’s that one who is not His is speaking a false word into your life to keep you from doing the things the Lord told you to do.

God doesn’t do competing prophecies. He doesn’t offer us the option to choose our own adventure and still end up in the same place. He speaks, and we hear. He commands, and we obey. He leads, and we follow. At least, that’s the way it should work.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 17 September 2024 | 9:21 am

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Mike's 25 Latest Blog Posts

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2. Oct 14, 2024 - Job XX
3. Oct 13, 2024 - Job XIX
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10. Oct 4, 2024 - Job XII
11. Oct 2, 2024 - Job XI
12. Oct 1, 2024 - Job X
13. Sep 30, 2024 - Job IX
14. Sep 29, 2024 - Job VIII
15. Sep 28, 2024 - Job VII
16. Sep 27, 2024 - Job IV
17. Sep 25, 2024 - Job V
18. Sep 24, 2024 - Job IV
19. Sep 23, 2024 - Job III
20. Sep 22, 2024 - Job II
21. Sep 21, 2024 - Job I
22. Sep 20, 2024 - Outnumbered X
23. Sep 18, 2024 - Outnumbered IX
24. Sep 17, 2024 - Outnumbered VIII
25. Sep 16, 2024 - Outnumbered VII

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Oct 15, 2024 - Job XXI
Oct 14, 2024 - Job XX
Oct 13, 2024 - Job XIX



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