Prophets and Predictions
A few years ago I met a gentlemen that had convinced himself that he was a prophet. He in fact was a good person, however he was so enamored with the fact that God revealed things to him that the so called normal person was not subject too. To say he was a religious zealot would be putting it mildly. He predicted every negative thing you could ever imagine. Which I find rather ironic because I have studied others that claim the gift of prophecy and they all proclaim negativity in the world, not a single one ever gets prophecy from God about good things. With his permission I am sharing his transformation.
For the sake of conversation I will call this person Sam. For years Sam would proclaim that this or that would happen and that God was telling him about all these cataclysmic world events. Time after time, well 100% of the time these prophecies never materialized. As I would nicely question the fact that another prediction came and went he would explain it away as prayers were answered. He predicted evil things for family, friends, his community, the country, the world, etc, all in the name of God. He was so smitten by all these voices from God that he could not even live his life or enjoy his own family. The cool thing for Sam was that he was able to find like minded people that were more than happy to share his doom and gloom predictions. Remember misery loves company.
Finally as the years past and Sam had successfully alienated everyone close to him, one day we met and I ask him if all this was worth what he had lost. He emphatically told me that he was following the direction of God. In my simple mind I ask him to clarify what "the direction of God" meant and why he was chosen to hear these voices. With little explanation I prodded deeper. I ask him why God only shared with him negative predictions when the world was truly full of love. I went on to share with him one of my favorite quotes "promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate". Sam was becoming a bit agitated with me and told me that I did not understand what was happening in the world. I admitted I did not because I was not born with this unique gift of negative prophecy from a so called loving God.
To make this story short, Sam somehow found his way out of his stupor and became a faith filled person that served a loving God. He became involved with ministries that reached out to the sick, poor, and hungry. He truly made a difference in the lives of so many. His family and friends rallied and joined him in many of his missions. Sam spread love everywhere he went. One day I had the honor to sit down with Sam and ask him about his huge transformation.
Sam told me that his life had become so filled with religious doctrine that he totally lost sight of love and everything else. He got so caught up in the evil that people talked about that be started believing all the things he was hearing. One day he told me that he looked around and realized how foolish it was for him to throw away his life barking out prophecies when he could be utilizing his talents to do God's work.
You see my friends God created the universe and gave us the keys to his kingdom here on earth. With that gift we were also given free will to make decisions to govern that in which we were entrusted. God did not choose for any of us to make bad or evil decisions that impacted the world in a myriad of horrible ways. God actually created us with love for love to make the world a wonderful beautiful place to live. As we are products of our environment and we are subject to the freedoms of free will there in lies a potential problem or opportunity. We can waste our time predicting horrible events that have not happened in the name of God or we can work to bring people together in loving peaceful ways to change the world into the amazing awe inspired place in can surely be.
Can you imagine what we could all do if we made the concentrated decision to end world hunger? The truth is that we could do it. Can you imagine what would happen if we all got off our high horses and down from our political platforms and allowed our differences to grow us not kill us? God made us all vastly different not so we could be enemies but so we could share talents and do things that are beyond our imaginations. Love conquers all and love will always win over evil. To promote or proclaim evil diminishes the power of love. It is not good for a society to hate what we do not understand. I honestly do not understand why people claim to be prophets, but I will accept their positions. I just wish every now and then they would predict something positive. I still believe in my heart, mind, and soul that the world is on the verge of peace and love revolution the likes of which we have never seen before. I am sure I am a minority in my thoughts but that is okay. I love life and I love people. I will spend the rest of my years trying to make the world a better place and accepting our differences as I go. I thank Sam for his friendship but more than that I thank him for all the good he does in our communities.
peace and love
Dale
For the sake of conversation I will call this person Sam. For years Sam would proclaim that this or that would happen and that God was telling him about all these cataclysmic world events. Time after time, well 100% of the time these prophecies never materialized. As I would nicely question the fact that another prediction came and went he would explain it away as prayers were answered. He predicted evil things for family, friends, his community, the country, the world, etc, all in the name of God. He was so smitten by all these voices from God that he could not even live his life or enjoy his own family. The cool thing for Sam was that he was able to find like minded people that were more than happy to share his doom and gloom predictions. Remember misery loves company.
Finally as the years past and Sam had successfully alienated everyone close to him, one day we met and I ask him if all this was worth what he had lost. He emphatically told me that he was following the direction of God. In my simple mind I ask him to clarify what "the direction of God" meant and why he was chosen to hear these voices. With little explanation I prodded deeper. I ask him why God only shared with him negative predictions when the world was truly full of love. I went on to share with him one of my favorite quotes "promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate". Sam was becoming a bit agitated with me and told me that I did not understand what was happening in the world. I admitted I did not because I was not born with this unique gift of negative prophecy from a so called loving God.
To make this story short, Sam somehow found his way out of his stupor and became a faith filled person that served a loving God. He became involved with ministries that reached out to the sick, poor, and hungry. He truly made a difference in the lives of so many. His family and friends rallied and joined him in many of his missions. Sam spread love everywhere he went. One day I had the honor to sit down with Sam and ask him about his huge transformation.
Sam told me that his life had become so filled with religious doctrine that he totally lost sight of love and everything else. He got so caught up in the evil that people talked about that be started believing all the things he was hearing. One day he told me that he looked around and realized how foolish it was for him to throw away his life barking out prophecies when he could be utilizing his talents to do God's work.
You see my friends God created the universe and gave us the keys to his kingdom here on earth. With that gift we were also given free will to make decisions to govern that in which we were entrusted. God did not choose for any of us to make bad or evil decisions that impacted the world in a myriad of horrible ways. God actually created us with love for love to make the world a wonderful beautiful place to live. As we are products of our environment and we are subject to the freedoms of free will there in lies a potential problem or opportunity. We can waste our time predicting horrible events that have not happened in the name of God or we can work to bring people together in loving peaceful ways to change the world into the amazing awe inspired place in can surely be.
Can you imagine what we could all do if we made the concentrated decision to end world hunger? The truth is that we could do it. Can you imagine what would happen if we all got off our high horses and down from our political platforms and allowed our differences to grow us not kill us? God made us all vastly different not so we could be enemies but so we could share talents and do things that are beyond our imaginations. Love conquers all and love will always win over evil. To promote or proclaim evil diminishes the power of love. It is not good for a society to hate what we do not understand. I honestly do not understand why people claim to be prophets, but I will accept their positions. I just wish every now and then they would predict something positive. I still believe in my heart, mind, and soul that the world is on the verge of peace and love revolution the likes of which we have never seen before. I am sure I am a minority in my thoughts but that is okay. I love life and I love people. I will spend the rest of my years trying to make the world a better place and accepting our differences as I go. I thank Sam for his friendship but more than that I thank him for all the good he does in our communities.
peace and love
Dale
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