I’m choosing to link not to or mention by name any of the conflict this revolves around, so as to not subject you to vulgarity and general lack of Christ-like behavior. The thoughts that follow below come from a blog post I read recently by Miguel Labrador, fellow social media brother in Christ, and missionary to Ecuador. He laid out reasons why claiming the personality and gifting of the Old Testament prophets as acceptable demeanor, may not be in itself biblical.
But I’m not writing a post today on why that is so.
How NOT To Act In The Culture You’re “Called To”
I made an acquaintance on Facebook with whom I’ve had a few Skype conversations with since meeting him. I’m going to be vague, not because I’m too chicken to tell him thoughts to his face and like a coward, I’m blogging instead.
On the contrary. I’ve tried sharing some concerns with this brother over his very public behavior on social network sites and his personal “ministry” blog.
I get responses like “Steve, you’re telling me not to hurt people’s feelings–do you think John the Baptist worried about peoples’ feelings?” To which I’ve kindly pointed out John the Baptizer had disciples, which goes to show you he obviously wasn’t so abrasive that nobody wanted to sit at his feet and learn from him.
Or the response I’ve received about “a political spirit” that this brother refuses to kowtow to.
Recently this “brother” of mine, who has no leadership covering whatsoever that I know of–because “that’s man-made and Jesus Christ is his covering“–is in his third or fourth location as a “missionary” in a short span of time since I met him.
For a number of months I would cringe as I read his Facebook status updates and newsletters complaining about having no money and how cheap Christians are, and that he’s starving, and other various things most ministers of the Gospel, if they’re mature, know NOT to complain publicly about.
At least, not if you want people to support you.
That’s beside the fact his vision changes from month-to-month and I’m fairly certain the reader would be confused as to just what it was that brother so-and-so was there to accomplish.
The last time I talked with him, he told me he was giving up the ministry because he was “sick of the bullcrap”. It didn’t take long to realize that what was bothering him was self-induced and not the persecution he believes it is for his “bold in-your-face style”.
I visited his site, and to my shock and surprise–in a bad way–I couldn’t believe some of the content he’d been writing and seemed surprised by the violent reactions it had been getting.
A tell-tale way of knowing if someone truly is a prophet is if they love the Bride of Christ and want to see what’s best for Her. If all they do is vent in a really fleshly way, and cast judgments from a place of frustration, then I’m suspicious as to their being a “prophet”.
When John the Baptist provoked the religious leaders of his day, he was preaching the truth, not just complaining about the culture he was in and being a jerk. And, as mentioned, he had people who were willing to follow him.
He poured himself into others and those people were still to be found about 20 years later as the Apostle Paul encountered them and they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
I have no idea whether the same can be said about this particular brother.
I live in Peru and I constantly encounter things that make me go “oh, that would make a FUNNY blog post” and then I check myself and ask if I know how to write about it in such a way that an English-speaking Peruvian would read it and laugh and understand this is what a gringo’s perspective is like from the outside-looking-in.
But, I’d never write a post called “Why I’d Never Marry a Peruvian“, and then proceed to trash them and mention everything I think is wrong with the culture or whatever I perceive to be wrong with Peruvian women.
It seems to me like that type of thing doesn’t need to be taught to any so-called prophet with a functioning prefrontal cortex. And if I lacked just enough brain cells to put such a post on the Internet for all to read, I’d not be surprised if it got thousands of hits, mostly from Peruvians, telling me to go back to my home country, and then try claiming I’m just being attacked for being “bold and telling it like it is”.
It’s one thing to have an opinion; It’s something else to not use your ‘filter’ and put it on the Internet to go viral.
Sometimes hate e-mail is a sign that you’re a jerk, not that you’re a bold prophet or cutting edge. If you don’t love the people you’re ministering to or living among, or at least don’t have a heart for them, chances are you’re probably not really called to them like you may have thought.
God probably didn’t send you.
