Improving Your Prophetic Record
Improving Your Prophetic Record
I am a false prophet. Before you grab some stones, you are too.
I believe it happened about five years into my marriage, I had an “Aha!” moment of the
epic kind. The moment was traumatizing, not easy to face or embrace. I came to the
shocking realization (to my wife’s great relief) that my interpretations of reality were not
always right! In fact, truth be told, my prophetic successes were really very minimal. I
never would’ve been able to make a living as an Old Testament prophet.
All of us spin off a flurry of false prophecies daily. You go to work on Monday morning,
and Charlotte doesn’t say, “Hello!” to you. This startles you because Charlotte always
says “Hello!” to you. The more you think about it, the more it starts to bother you: “Is
Charlotte mad at me?” “Did I offend her in some way?” “What did I do?” “Is she
upset over my part of the project presentation we gave yesterday?” “Does she think I did
a bad job, even blew the project for both of us?”
You quickly rifle through your recent exchanges with her and can’t remember saying
anything stupid or offensive. Cleared of any blame, you turn it in Charlotte’s direction:
“How dare she treat me this way! Reject me and disrespect me?” “Does she think she’s
better than me?” “I’m the one who carried the project. She’s the one who stumbled
around in front of everyone. She was the liability not me.”...
You’re all worked up now. You plan on writing her an “honest” email to get it all off
your chest. Meanwhile, the next time you see Charlotte, you walk right past her, like she
doesn’t even exist – too inconsequential for your emotional energy.
Now for the rest of the story: when you saw Charlotte Monday morning, she had just
received some devastating news about her Father; when she walked past you, she was
consumed with pain and sadness; she never even saw you. What Charlotte needed was
our compassion and friendship, but instead she received our self-absorbed interpretations
of reality that materialized into dark emotions and unloving actions.
If we can become a false prophet over someone simply not saying “Hello!” to us, then
where else can we spin off false interpretations of reality? What events, situations, and
circumstances? What actions people do or don’t do? What things do people say or don’t
say? What relational issues, differences, and conflicts? What beliefs do we fiercely
hold about ourselves and others? What beliefs do we loyally serve to define success and
failure, happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, and life and death? Furthermore, where
no soul sleuth really wants to go: what causes our false prophecies? Where do they
come from? Are they spun out of innocent ignorance, simple misunderstanding, human
weakness, or something deeper, darker, even diabolical?
What is the way out of our self-imposed flurry of “spin”? The gospel writers give us a
clue in recording an abnormal account of Jesus that strangely feels like a second Sinai
experience many years after the first one with Moses:
“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high
mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus...and a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’ And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only (Mark 9.2-8).”
At this second, better Sinai, the two epic prophets of the past, Elijah and Moses, make way
for the arrival of the cosmic Prophet of whom their powerful prophetic ministries were an
advanced preview. Whatever Jesus’ transfiguration was here, it certainly was a cosmic
revelation of ultimate reality. Thus, the voice from the cloud says, “Listen to him.”
The voice from the cloud is making it crystal clear: there is only one true prophet, and
it’s not us. Jesus, the cosmic Prophet of God, will always tell us the truth, interpret reality
rightly for us, and graciously and personally restructure our own prophetic record by the
colorful world of His Word.
When we become aware of our addiction to try to be our own prophet (and everyone
else’s!) and begin to listen to the cosmic Prophet, we experience reality, the living and
colorful world of the Truth. Furthermore, this world of the Truth doesn’t exist in some
parallel and pristine universe disconnected from the messiness of life but rather breaks in
right in the middle of the mess with a cosmic surprise of redemption.
Therefore, when Charlotte doesn’t say “Hello!” to us, we aren’t quick to spin a web of
false interpretations, but rather are quick to rely upon and rejoice in the cosmic Prophet’s
words of redemption. The colorful world of unfailing acceptance and eternal affection
through the life, death, and resurrection of the cosmic Prophet breaks in upon us, deeply
reaching us. So we are persuaded that we don’t need Charlotte’s love and acceptance to
be OK; no need to crave it, fight for it, or protect ourselves from not receiving it. This
means we are free to love and accept Charlotte, to move toward Charlotte, to be for
Charlotte, even in the midst of a real or imagined slight.
“Truly, truly I say to you...” opens up a whole other colorful world.
I am a false prophet. Before you grab some stones, you are too.
I believe it happened about five years into my marriage, I had an “Aha!” moment of the
epic kind. The moment was traumatizing, not easy to face or embrace. I came to the
shocking realization (to my wife’s great relief) that my interpretations of reality were not
always right! In fact, truth be told, my prophetic successes were really very minimal. I
never would’ve been able to make a living as an Old Testament prophet.
All of us spin off a flurry of false prophecies daily. You go to work on Monday morning,
and Charlotte doesn’t say, “Hello!” to you. This startles you because Charlotte always
says “Hello!” to you. The more you think about it, the more it starts to bother you: “Is
Charlotte mad at me?” “Did I offend her in some way?” “What did I do?” “Is she
upset over my part of the project presentation we gave yesterday?” “Does she think I did
a bad job, even blew the project for both of us?”
You quickly rifle through your recent exchanges with her and can’t remember saying
anything stupid or offensive. Cleared of any blame, you turn it in Charlotte’s direction:
“How dare she treat me this way! Reject me and disrespect me?” “Does she think she’s
better than me?” “I’m the one who carried the project. She’s the one who stumbled
around in front of everyone. She was the liability not me.”...
You’re all worked up now. You plan on writing her an “honest” email to get it all off
your chest. Meanwhile, the next time you see Charlotte, you walk right past her, like she
doesn’t even exist – too inconsequential for your emotional energy.
Now for the rest of the story: when you saw Charlotte Monday morning, she had just
received some devastating news about her Father; when she walked past you, she was
consumed with pain and sadness; she never even saw you. What Charlotte needed was
our compassion and friendship, but instead she received our self-absorbed interpretations
of reality that materialized into dark emotions and unloving actions.
If we can become a false prophet over someone simply not saying “Hello!” to us, then
where else can we spin off false interpretations of reality? What events, situations, and
circumstances? What actions people do or don’t do? What things do people say or don’t
say? What relational issues, differences, and conflicts? What beliefs do we fiercely
hold about ourselves and others? What beliefs do we loyally serve to define success and
failure, happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, and life and death? Furthermore, where
no soul sleuth really wants to go: what causes our false prophecies? Where do they
come from? Are they spun out of innocent ignorance, simple misunderstanding, human
weakness, or something deeper, darker, even diabolical?
What is the way out of our self-imposed flurry of “spin”? The gospel writers give us a
clue in recording an abnormal account of Jesus that strangely feels like a second Sinai
experience many years after the first one with Moses:
“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high
mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus...and a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’ And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only (Mark 9.2-8).”
At this second, better Sinai, the two epic prophets of the past, Elijah and Moses, make way
for the arrival of the cosmic Prophet of whom their powerful prophetic ministries were an
advanced preview. Whatever Jesus’ transfiguration was here, it certainly was a cosmic
revelation of ultimate reality. Thus, the voice from the cloud says, “Listen to him.”
The voice from the cloud is making it crystal clear: there is only one true prophet, and
it’s not us. Jesus, the cosmic Prophet of God, will always tell us the truth, interpret reality
rightly for us, and graciously and personally restructure our own prophetic record by the
colorful world of His Word.
When we become aware of our addiction to try to be our own prophet (and everyone
else’s!) and begin to listen to the cosmic Prophet, we experience reality, the living and
colorful world of the Truth. Furthermore, this world of the Truth doesn’t exist in some
parallel and pristine universe disconnected from the messiness of life but rather breaks in
right in the middle of the mess with a cosmic surprise of redemption.
Therefore, when Charlotte doesn’t say “Hello!” to us, we aren’t quick to spin a web of
false interpretations, but rather are quick to rely upon and rejoice in the cosmic Prophet’s
words of redemption. The colorful world of unfailing acceptance and eternal affection
through the life, death, and resurrection of the cosmic Prophet breaks in upon us, deeply
reaching us. So we are persuaded that we don’t need Charlotte’s love and acceptance to
be OK; no need to crave it, fight for it, or protect ourselves from not receiving it. This
means we are free to love and accept Charlotte, to move toward Charlotte, to be for
Charlotte, even in the midst of a real or imagined slight.
“Truly, truly I say to you...” opens up a whole other colorful world.
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