Propaganda fascinates me. And as a filmmaker, I’ve studied it quite a bit. Most people don’t realize how much of the film grammar we take for granted was developed by Bolshevik propagandists.

For example, the montage is one of Soviet techniques. Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s worked out the theory of montage. They weren't doing this as an aesthetic exercise. They were building a machine for shaping what people believed. Today, the montage is a staple storytelling technique in every film and television show. It’s how a film compresses time. Hours, days, weeks, even years compress into minutes, unrelated shots flick by side by side as a song does the emotional lifting, and at the end of the scene you experience a change in the character or story. But before anyone worries about catching communism from a Marvel movie or from an episode of Better Call Saul, remember: these are just tools.

And like any tool, it’s the hand that wields them that makes them a weapon. And these days—anything can become a weapon.

Even information. Especially information.

Information has always been a weapon—used for either good or evil. Most of the films I’ve created, at some point in their run time, discuss this weaponization of information. My 3-part docudrama on Amazon THE ENEMY WITHIN (trailer | full series) tackles this idea head on—exposing how government agencies fabricate realities—waging purposeful misinformation/disinformation campaigns—then use mass media to flood the public arena with false narratives until the fabrication is literally adopted as reality. And in the case of THE ENEMY WITHIN it was for the purpose of controlling the outcomes of elections.

And this got me thinking—if human governments could do this… why couldn’t the dark spiritual authorities we war against also engage in this practice?

Most of you might be thinking: “Duh, Matt. They’ve been doing it since the dawn of time. Haven’t you read the Bible?”

Granted. We broadly understand that they do this. But I want to drill into the theory that a long time ago in an ancient culture far, far away they waged a campaign against prophecy—and we never even realized it was happening.

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THE SCRIPT EVERYONE SEEMS TO HAVE READ

Just last night, after a screening of my new film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?, which explores modern prophecy and its relevance to our current age & society, a gentleman came up to me, trying to convince me that prophecy didn’t exist today. After a few minutes, I asked him, “When did it stop?”

He said, “Those gifts ceased eighteen hundred years ago with the apostles”.

“Interesting.” I replied, “Why do you believe that?”

“Because we have the Bible.” He then recounted two scriptures (written by the Apostle Paul) that he felt backed up those claims.

I smiled, “That’s interesting because that interpretation of those scriptures is imported into the text by modern theologians. It’s not the original meaning of those words as written and understood by the people who originally received them. And it’s fairly ironic that same guy, Paul—who wrote the verses you’re quoting— also wrote 34 separate times about prophecy/prophets—directly outlining its proper function, use, and importance.”

He just looked at me. Then I asked, “Why would the Holy Spirit, through Paul, spend that much time and energy explaining a gift that was about to become irrelevant?”

Again, he didn’t have an answer. Then I quietly asked, “What if God is actually still speaking through His prophets we’ve just been somehow propagandized to believe He isn’t?”

Again… no response.

I’ve had many similar interactions over the years. And every time I do, it’s the same strongly worded points, same arguments, nearly verbatim. It’s almost as if people are reading a script they’ve been handed. It reminds me of when people declare Trump’s a racist, but when you ask them for evidence, they just say something like “Well, everybody knows it.”

And from my experience in propaganda & information warfare, when a response is this ingrained and this universal without much to back it up, it indicates there’s been some sort of programming. The question then becomes—

Who’s doing the programming?

PAUL ON PROPHECY

In the beginning of my new film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? (available on 9.10.26 at SalemNow.com) a quote from 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 appears on screen:

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test everything. Hold fast what is good.”

Read these again and then notice what Paul assumed:

1. He assumed the Thessalonians and the church at large would encounter prophecy.

2. He assumed some of it would be bad — otherwise why command a test?

3. And he assumed the right response to prophecy was to sort out the bad and keep the good.

Three of those four commands make sense only if prophecy exists.

The modern church kept only one of these mandates. Weird.

We kept the command to test but eventually stopped needing it… because we’d been conditioned to believe nothing was coming in to test. We came to see the gift itself as suspect. So, we cut it off. Paul’s actual answer to the problem of bad prophecy was discernment. What we adopted was amputation — and we called it faithfulness.

That’s a strange outcome for a church reading its own mail.

But what if prophecy didn’t stop at the apostles’ deaths? The early church’s own writings seem to say the opposite. The Didache — an early Christian handbook on church practice, written within a generation or two of the apostles—spends entire chapters outlining how to handle traveling prophets. Not the sort of problem you legislate if there aren’t any. The prophetically visionary first century text The Shepherd of Hermas was read widely and even venerated in some communities as semi-Scripture. Early church father Justin tells Trypho the prophetic gifts have moved over to the Christians. Perpetua, a second century female martyr, argued that recent visions carry the same weight as ancient ones. Modern detractors of the prophetic point to Augustine in the fourth century declaring that miracles had ceased. However, in City of God 22.8 the saint catalogues several miracles happening in his own diocese and effectively reverses himself.

My question now is this: where did this debate regarding prophecy originate? And why was it so hotly contested early on in church history?

THE PHRYGIAN DRAMA

Every argument against prophecy eventually arrives at a small region of Asia Minor—Phrygia.

Around the middle of the second century a man named Montanus began prophesying there, joined shortly by two women, Priscilla and Maximilla. They called it the New Prophecy. Their opponents called it heresy.

And the opponents’ charges should be taken seriously. They spoke ecstatically, sometimes in the first person as God — not thus says the Lord but I am the Lord. Notice what that phrasing does. The standard prophetic formula puts the messenger behind the message; this one puts him inside it. They claimed an authority that ran around the bishops rather than through them. Maximilla is reported to have said that after her there would be no more prophecy, only the end — a claim that makes the prophet, rather than the One speaking through her, the last word.

A word that draws your eyes to the one delivering it has already gone wrong, whatever else is true about it. The church had every reason to act.

But look at what they acted on.

They did not weigh the oracles one by one, asking whether these particular words pointed to Christ or to Montanus. They held the practice itself suspect. The movement was cut off, and spontaneous prophetic speech was left permanently under a cloud. And the primary charge against them wasn’t self-exaltation. It was disorder — they determined a true prophet does not lose control of himself, does not speak in ecstasy, and above all does not bypass or undermine the hierarchy of the established bishops.

This was a new test. It is not Paul’s test. It’s not Moses’ test. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 13 asks whether a prophet turned you toward Yahweh or away from Him. Nothing is ever stated about composure. And Scripture is chock-full of odd behavior from prophets— Isaiah trudged around naked. Jeremiah hoofed around town with a wooden ox yoke on his shoulders. Ezekiel camped out for weeks lying on his side, cooking bread over cow dung. The first book of Samuel recounts that even King Saul stripped down and lay on the ground all day. The ancient proverb “Is Saul also among the prophets?” survived precisely because it was absurd.

Yet somewhere between Deuteronomy and Phrygia, the standard quietly changed. The question stopped being is it true and became is it orderly?

This should leave us with a few more questions: Who authored this change in standards? And who benefits the most from this change?

THE LOOSE WIRE

To be fair to the human participants in this change, they were not doing it in peacetime.

The second-century church was under real pressure—from both outside AND in. Most have heard stories about martyrs being executed for their refusal to worship the Roman Caesars, but the real threat came from inside the four walls of the infant church. Gnostic teachers arrived with “secret knowledge” complete with their own gospels. The heretic Marcion threw out the Old Testament and most of the New. Traveling teachers of every description showed up in communities, claiming direct revelation—then asked for money. The Didache—the same first century document that assumes prophets are normal — also says how to spot a fake one. It reads like a SPAM RISK filter on your phone: if he asks for money, FALSE PROPHET. If she stays more than a couple of days, FALSE PROPHET. If he orders a meal in the Spirit and then eats it himself, FALSE PROPHET. The tests are ethical before they’re doctrinal.

The early church did what any institution under siege does: harden the perimeter and make authority traceable. Clement wrote at length about orderly succession. Ignatius, on his way to being thrown to lions, wrote letter after letter telling churches to do nothing without the bishop. Irenaeus argued that you could answer the Gnostics by tracing a line of teaching hand to hand back to the apostles themselves — a genuinely good argument. And it worked.

None of this was conspiracy. These were reasonable answers to a real problem, made by serious people, most of whom were risking their lives.

An office can be traced. A credential can be verified. A succession can be documented. Prophecy, however, does none of these things. It doesn’t arrive on schedule, doesn’t respect rank, and can’t be inherited. No human structure can generate, predict, or control it. In a system organized around traceable authority, prophecy, frankly, looks like a loose wire.

Every step of these events is defensible. Completely reasonable and justifiable.

And that’s exactly what makes it worth a second look. But to do that we have to take a side trip and examine modern warfare.

HOW YOU ACTUALLY TAKE DOWN A NETWORK

Modern warfare starts in the air. Bombers and missiles first target radar installations and command bunkers rather than troops. This makes sense. An army that cannot hear is not smaller. It’s handicapped. It must revert to whatever local commanders assume, guess, or remember.

But simply cutting the line is the crudest version of the attack. Any competent military strategist knows that even silence is information. A dead channel? This tells the receiver something is wrong. You may have handicapped him, but you’ve also warned him.

The next best move is to leave the line up—but fill it with garbage. Flood it with false traffic. Make signal indistinguishable from noise. The advantage? A man burned by three false alarms will hesitate on the fourth. Creating hesitation produces better results than silence.

However, the best version of the attack is neither of these. This third method leaves the channel open and leaves the receiver confident. The trick is to control what comes across, creating a false sense of security.

In 1944, prior to storming the beaches at Normandy, the Allies did not blind German intelligence. They fed it. Several German agents in Britain had been turned. The reports sent back to Berlin were trusted—because it came from channels the Germans had established and vetted. Hitler’s army wasn’t deaf. They were listening, to their own people, and being told what someone else wanted them to believe.

Now—overlay these three techniques atop the history of the church regarding prophecy, and something interesting begins to take shape.

I find it interesting that out of the five gifts given to the church by the resurrected King Jesus—outlined by Paul in Ephesians 4 as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—it is the role of prophets, the role most closely connected to communications, that was maligned first. This is a historical fact.

And look how it played out—the line was never truly cut. Prophecy was never formally abolished; no council convened to end it. What happened? The flood — Phrygia and everything like it: the ecstatic claims, the failed dates, the New Jerusalem that never descended. Noise. Static. Junk poured into the channel. Sincerely produced by real people. But rather than sharpening discernment, the channel itself was deemed unreliable. This technique requires only that some people believe too easily—a phenomenon that has never been in short supply.

Then the relay was captured. The function was moved safely inside the hierarchy, where it could be traced, authorized, and vetted. The switchboard was relocated for reasons that looked at the time like wisdom. Eventually, the church concluded God no longer speaks this way.

That is what a captured channel looks like.

This leads us to the question: who was doing the capturing?

That’s part one.

Part two goes after the answer — who benefits from a church that can’t hear? Why prophecy was the first thing they came for? And what does the Old Testament tell us about the whole arrangement? And before anyone reads this as a defense of every word spoken in God’s name, hold that thought; part two deals with that too.

It publishes Friday 9.4.26.

In the meantime, this is the film that started the argument I had last night. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? releases 9.10.26 on SalemNow.

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In my upcoming film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? (featuring one of the last UNSEEN interviews with Charlie Kirk— PREORDERS available NOW) we explore the realm of biblical prophecy and how it intersects with our life and individuals and as a nation.

In the film we discuss how one might discern between a true or false prophet (the answer might surprise you) and cover the origin of prophets from an Ancient Middle Eastern perspective. Here’s a few clips from the film as teasers:

PRE-ORDERS come with a FREE DVD copy of the film, perfect for gifting to a friend or relative. Find out more at www.canyouhearmenowfilm.com

Streaming 9.10.26 on salemnow.com || Streaming everywhere else on 10.10.26

OFFICIAL TRAILER 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

And like my dad always said, “If what you currently believed is a lie… wouldn’t want to know?”

The trailer for my new film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? drops today. The film wrestles with this very topic and dares to wonder if and how God Himself might be trying to inject His information into the conversation.

Featuring one of the last unreleased interviews with Charlie Kirk, the film releases 9.10.26 on SalemNow.

Find out more about our crowdfunding campaign HERE.

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That interview is preserved in the upcoming film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? streaming exclusively on SALEMNOW on 9.10.26.

If you’d like to help us get this project to more people please consider giving to our GiveSendGo and become a part of our grassroots army. Every dollar goes towards helping my team get this film and Charlie’s final words out to even more people.

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Trump’s election fraud speech the other night was a pivotal moment in this nation’s history. As more and more election fraud continues to be exposed there’s a question I see few people asking: What if God was trying to clue us in on what was going to happen—and we just didn’t know how to listen?

I’m not a theologian. I’m just a filmmaker. A storyteller looking at current events and the information war through that lens. My soon to released film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? --featuring one of the last unseen interviews with Charlie Kirk-- is my own personal journey wrestling through this topic. Find out more about it HERE.

BACK TO THE FUTURE TELLING

Most people are surprised when I tell them one of my earliest memories was watching Reagan win re-election in 1984. I was six. I can still remember my grandparents’ living room—the lowpile olive green carpet, the sweet tobacco smoke from my grandpa’s pipe, the giant tube TV in the corner with the map almost solid blue (Republicans were blue back then. I think to contrast communist Russia red) showing Regan winning every state except Minnesota for a record breaking 525 electoral votes. I was six years old. I knew I was watching history unfold. I was mesmerized. And I’ve been following presidential election cycles ever since.

Another piece of my past that will become relevant is that I grew up in a conservative Christian church environment that accepted prophets and prophetic utterances as commonplace. I accepted this so much that I was shocked when I met other Christians who vehemently believed this was no longer a thing. And frankly that belief system still baffles me. Why wouldn’t He talk to us? If God is a Father—what kind of Father wouldn’t want to speak to and through His kids? I mean, if any of you told your kids that you weren’t going to speak to them and any communication with you was limited to them reading an instruction manual you wrote before they were born— wouldn’t that be SUPER weird and borderline abusive? But I digress.

Back to politics & elections. I also lived through a time when the Christian church realized they had vacated their place at the table of government & politics. This created a revival of sort with Christians in the 1980s-90s trying to claw their way back into the conversation. Being the a prophetic culture this manifested into a prophetic word or two around the time of our 4-year presidential election cycles. Someone would say something like “God wants so and so to be president” or something along those lines. Again, this was normal in my world.

To be honest over time I got pretty jaded about the prophetic community regarding politics. I was bothered by the surface level political understanding most of the people giving words. Like saying you’re a football fan but you only ever watch the Super Bowl. Back then I was known to say that if you want to know who the prophets would pick as “God’s choice” just wait until after the Republican National Convention. It’ll be the one with the “R” after their name.

Then 2016 happened. The number of prophetic words about then candidate Trump was ABNORMAL. Prophet after prophet after prophet came out saying “God’s hand is on Trump.” Again, I was used to this kind of word every four years. That wasn’t what was odd. It was the sheer amount. It seemed like everyone had a word about this. I remember thinking, “This is wild”. And I was not a Trump fan. I was a Ron/Rand Paul guy. A proud Libertarian. I thought Trump was a joke. And I thought everyone was jumping on board simply because he was brandishing the hallowed “R”.

But after Trump won (and honestly, I was glad he did simply because I was scared to death of Hillary) I watched him closely. His governance and decisions made me think “Hmph. Maybe he is the real deal.” The way he weathered opposition and navigated complicated situations with gusto & frankly Solomon like wisdom… after that, I dove all in. Full MAGA. Let’s do this. I even wrote and directed my first documentary THE TRUMP I KNOW during this time.

Then the 2020 election cycle dawned. And if 2016 was a prophetic anomaly—2020 was a prophetic OUTLIER.

It seemed every prophet and their mother was declaring words like “Trump will win bigly”, “Landslide”, “Sail right in”, “Red wave”, “Two terms!” and on and on and on. Again, the sheer amount of these occurrences is what startled me. Many multiples more than 2016. Why was this election different?

And then when the media declared Trump lost many of these people who said they were hearing from God backed off – apologizing for getting it wrong. Because the prophecies didn’t match up with what materialized in reality-- maybe God actually wanted Biden to be president?

But before we answer that question, we need to tell a bible story and then take a brief detour through history. Consider this a little weave as Trump would say. I promise we’ll come back to elections and prophets.

ON AUTHORITY

In the book of Matthew, there’s a story of Jesus and the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:5-13). Long and short, The Centurion has a young servant who is deathly ill. He comes to Jesus. Jesus stands and offers to come to the Centurion’s home to heal the boy— a remarkable offer because this was ethnically taboo. Jews at that time were not permitted to enter the homes of Gentiles. The Roman stops him and says:

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Jesus is blown away. He says he has never seen such faith in all of Israel. He tells the soldier, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.”

And that moment the servant was healed. It’s an incredible story. However, what stands out to me here aren’t the points most pastors would highlight. What stands out to me is that Jesus equated faith with the centurion’s understanding of authority. Authority is a big deal in heaven.

Okay now keep that in mind as we continue our weave through history. The fundamental question our American founders were dealing with prior to the Revolution was “is the authority of a nation vested solely on a king and his lineage? Or is it vested in the people?” The first three words of our Constitution make it obvious that they chose the latter. Here’s a clip from my documentary where historian William Federer explains:

We the People are collectively king of this country. Our founders created a compact, a contract, a covenant before God with the world as witness. Contractually, in our country, authority flows from the people.

Did the American people choose Biden? Did we choose Obama, Bush, Clinton? Did the people choose Trump? Did the people of your state/county/city choose those who claim the title of mayor/council member/governor/senator/representative?

Right now—we don’t know. And based on the information being produced regarding our broken election system, the following question must be asked: how long have we been manipulated to believe our authority has been vested in people we didn’t actually appoint as our representatives?

God knows who won. This is one of the reasons why I believe we are still standing as a nation. I believe our people have been by and large making righteous choices. Remember: the 2020 election wasn’t stolen from Trump. It was stolen from us. We are the ones with the authority. God did not legitimately recognize the person the powers-that-be propped up (literally). God knew we were cheated. And God’s hand of mercy protected us because He “performs deeds of vindication for all who are oppressed” (Ps 103).

VIEW FROM 40,000 FEET

Okay—back to prophets. Based on the information now pouring out-- turns out they were right all along. Trump did win in 2020. But why did they back off amid the confusion? I believe it’s because we’ve reduced prophecy to a parlor trick and lost the true purpose of the prophet—to provide direction. Especially when it’s hard to see clearly.

I once heard a pastor say if God gives you a word once the chances are it’ll be an easier journey. However, if He tells you something multiple times its usually means—as a good Father-- He’s providing extra encouragement because He knows it’s going to be a challenge to get there.

Based on this thought, the sheer glut of words heaped on President Trump & the 2020 election should alone have signaled this was going to be an uphill battle. Here’s another clip from my upcoming film to illustrate:

There you have it. Prophecy is not determined by what we currently see and often flies in the face of what we think is “real”. And anyone who has become aware of the tactic of information warfare understands this. This is why we need prophets and why they are attacked so mercilessly. We need them to pick up on things beyond the narrative our enemies are trying to sell us. Those with vested interest craft realities with the goal of manipulating your belief system and stealing your authority. What we are told and what the truth actually is-- are very often two different things.

I pray that this exposure of election fraud is healing for the prophetic community. I pray that those who humbled themselves enough to apologize for saying Trump would win will be humble enough to recognize they recanted when we needed them most. And I pray that we will all forgive them and welcome them back into our good graces with open arms. In Ephesians chapter four, Paul claims prophets are a gift given to us by King Jesus himself. He knew we would need them to help perceive the path forward as we fight to spread the knowledge of His glory across the earth.

We are living through extraordinary times, my friends. Many thanks to my friend, Cap’n K, for encouraging me the to share my thoughts with y’all. For more of these types of ramblings, please subscribe to my Substack & check out my newest film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? premiering on SALEMNOW on 9.10.26.

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CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? is premiering 9.10.26 on SalemNow and will be streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and other major platforms starting 10.10.26.

Let’s start with a question: What is a false prophet?

If you thought to yourself something like: “a fake prophet” or “someone whose words or predictions don’t come true.” Your answer would agree with a majority of people.

And the majority would be wrong. It’s simply not what the Bible teaches.

As I was reading & researching for my newest film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? (which explores the phenomenon of modern-day prophecy and how it applies to politics and the broader Information War) I made an interesting observation:

The Bible doesn’t refer to false prophets as “non-prophets” (pun intended). It simply refers to them as… prophets.

“So what?”, you might yawn. But before you click onto another article let me ask a follow-up question:

If the Bible simply refers to false prophets as prophets-- what makes them “true” or “false”?

If you said, “True prophets accurately predict future events. What they predict comes true.”, most people would also agree with you.

But, again, that’s not what the bible teaches.

In fact, the most famous false prophet in the bible was highly accurate, and one of the most renowned true prophets doesn’t have a single recorded fulfillment.

A WHALE OF A TALE

Most people have heard the story of Jonah. He’s known as the prophet who ran from God, defiantly setting out to sea in the opposite direction from where he was supposed to go. After a few days, a massive otherworldly storm descends on the ship. The crew immediately begin pointing fingers as to the cause of the supernatural typhoon. Jonah finally says, “mea culpa” and tells the captain to toss him overboard to quell the storm. They reluctantly pitch him over the side and-- the storm stops. The crew then watches in horror as Jonah is subsequently swallowed by a whale/big fish/sea monster. Then over the course or three days at the bottom of the Mediterranean Jonah camps out in the belly of the beast until God commands the thing vomit him back up on the shore.

God then reiterates to Jonah his command: Go to Ninevah (the dominate world power, deep state of the time). Tell them I’m going to wipe them out because of their wickedness.

Jonah obeys. He finally gets to Ninevah and declares: “Yet three days and Ninevah and will be overturned!” The entire city freaks out & repents. Everyone. The king even had the cows fitted for sackcloth and ashes.

And-- God relents. Ninevah isn’t destroyed.

Jonah? Well to say he’s a little peeved is to put it lightly. The word he was commanded to proclaim isn’t fulfilled. Here’s a clip from my upcoming documentary where Johnny Enlow makes the point:

There you have it. One of the most famous prophets in the Bible and not a singular prophetic fulfillment by today’s standards. Very interesting.

THE PROPHET WHO SPOKE TO HIS ASS

The Bible is full of other delightfully odd stories. And if there was a Top 5 Weirdest Moments of the Bible the story of Balaam would find itself vying for position on that list. Balaam has famously gone down in history as the guy who lost a verbal spat with his donkey (Numbers 22:21-29). But what many modern readers don’t realize, Balaam was renown in the Ancient Middle East as a highly accurate prophet—a guy who spoke to and for the God Most High.

Let me paint the scene for us: The Israelites had just finished their forty years of wilderness wanderings after being freed from Egypt. They were now encamped just outside the Moabite city of Peor near the East bank of the Jordan river.

Balak, the king of Moab, is nervous. Justifiably so. Not only is the Israelite population enormous, but they had just conquered two legendary giant kings of the north-- Sihon of Heshbon and Og of Bashan. These two mighty kings were the subject of Tolkin-style legends—and the Israelites had just mopped the floor with them. Balak is sweating. Is Moab next? He needs to figure how to deal with these pests. And fast.

What happens next is one of the funniest “comedy of errors” moments in the Bible. It reads like a Laurel & Hardy routine.

Balak sends for the great prophet Balaam. “Come. Curse the Israelites for me.” Balaam arrives and states, “I can’t declare anything God doesn’t put in my mouth.” Balak takes him to the top of a mountain. From the peak they see the sprawling Israelite camp below. They build a few alters, they sacrifice a few bulls, and then Balaam clears his throat. Balak catches his breath. And…

Balaam blesses the Israelites.

Balak is dumbfounded. “No!” he screams. “I told you to CURSE THEM!”

Balaam reiterates “I told you—I can’t say anything other than what God tells me to declare.”

Balak regroups. “Fine. Fine. Let’s go to another mountain where you can’t see them. Then-- curse them for me. Got it?”

So, they go to another mountain. They barbeque a few more bulls, Balaam inquires of the Lord, then raises his hands and—blesses them again! Not only does he bless Israel but also proclaims some very accurate words about Israel’s future.

Balak is LIVID. “Augh! Curse them, you moron! Curse! You know? The exact opposite of what you are doing?”

Again, Balaam replies, “Didn’t I tell you? Only that which God has put into my mouth will I be careful to speak.”

This scenario repeats another two times. Balaam blesses. Balak screams. The crazy thing if you think about it-- Balak keeps asking him to do it. You’d think after the first time-- and definitely after the second-- Balak would just fire the dude and summon another prophet to do his dirty work. In my opinion, this speaks to the reputation Balaam had in the AME during at this time.

Finally, Balaam says something to equivalent of “That’s all I have to say about that” and makes his leave. Balak facepalms. The story ends.

Go read the story for yourself. If you know the rest of the Bible story, you will read Balaam’s words and say, “Yep. That was accurate.”

However, Balaam goes down in biblical history as THE false prophet of false prophets. What gives?

THE REST OF THE STORY

To understand why he received that ominous moniker, we need to read a few other passages. The first from Numbers 31:16--

“After Israel’s later battle with Midian, Moses rebukes the leaders and says: “Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.”

And the second from Revelation 2:14b--

“…Balaam, taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”

Ah. The reason Balaam is a false prophet-- despite his accuracy-- is due to the counsel he gave Balak behind the scenes. Essentially Balaam told Balak something like this: “Look. I can’t curse them. God won’t allow me to do that, but…. If you get your pretty young girls to dress up & flirt with their boys, you might entice them to worship your gods. Yep. That’ll do the trick.” Balaam may have blessed Israel openly—but his counsel to Balak led to the children of Israel doing some really stupid stuff. Stuff God had already warned them not to do.

The sobering lesson? False doesn’t mean inaccurate. It means using the gift to manipulate people into doing something against God or focusing on something contrary to His purposes. This point is even outlined in Deuteronomy 13.

And heeeeeere’s Johnny (pun intended..again) to explain:

A false prophet can be someone with a real gifting who points to anything other than God and His activities on the earth. Interesting. And today a prophet can be seduced by fame & the pressures of social media and ultimately point people to themselves.

SO, WHAT’S THE POINT?

The entire bible casually mentions prophets. Good prophets. Bad prophets. They’re just… there. No explanation. It seems to be written from the assumption the reader knows what they are. The ancients who first wrote and received the words of the bible lived in a world where prophets were part of the societal framework. It would be as unnecessary as a newspaper reporter today explaining the existence of mailmen.

This tells me we still live in a world where prophets— whether good or bad— exist. If this is the case, what is their purpose? And how do we tell the good from the bad?

A prophet’s primary role is ethical. Their innate ability to pick up on the future is secondary. Their words and forth-telling should be directional in a way that lines up with God’s heart for humanity-- affecting how we behave NOW. God is less concerned with you knowing what is happening TOMORROW and far more concerned about the decisions you are making TODAY.

Theologian Benjamin Warfield wrote in his book The Prophecies of St. Paul:

“We must try to keep fresh in our minds the great principle that all prophecy is ethical in its purpose, and that this ethical end controls not only what shall be revealed in general, but also the details of it, and the very form which it takes.”

Prophets always point to something or someone. That’s it. Full stop. The question we must then ask ourselves is: where are they pointing? Bad prophets use their gift for manipulative & self serving purposes. Good prophets help keep humanity on course in the middle of the confusion we all have to wade through.

This is what I believe Paul meant when he told the Thessalonians “Don’t despise prophesies. Test all things. Hold on to what is good.”

Be open. Tune in. Discard the bad. Know God’s heart and act on what lines up with it.

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As I said in my first post, I am not a theologian. I’m just a filmmaker. A storyteller with a camera. And I am filtering things and asking questions from that perspective. If you’re interested in more on this topic, mark you calendars for 9.10.26 for the release of CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? where we explore the topic of prophets and how they intersect with politics and the current information war.

Until next time—stay curious.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? is premiering on SalemNow on 9.10.26 and will be streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and other major platforms starting 10.10.26.

“Why do you believe what you believe? Why do I believe what I believe?

Belief comes from information. But where does information come from? And if God exists how would He inject His information into our world? More than likely He would use humans—but in a reality currently embroiled in an Information War, how do we know when He’s speaking? How do we filter out the lies and keep the good?”

These are the opening lines of my new film CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? (produced by my company Speropictures)— a deeply personal journey that crazily enough led me to interview Charlie Kirk two weeks before he was shot. In the film I enquire into the phenomenon of prophecy and dare to ask questions like: Is God trying to get our attention? Why don’t we hear Him clearly? And what if we’ve completely misunderstood prophecy because we’ve either forgotten or primarily misunderstood the fundamental purpose of a prophet?

And what does Charlie Kirk have to do with all this? That’s a great question. I asked myself (and God) that very same question over and over again while making this film.

One of the most shocking things wasn’t that I sat down with him two weeks before he was assassinated (as remarkable as that is). What was more remarkable is what we discussed.

One of the topics we covered was modern day prophets. Here’s a portion of what he said:

While watching the news coverage of Charlie’s death that fateful day last September, I just kept asking myself “Why? Why would God have me be one of the last people to interview him before he died? This might be his last unseen interview-- is there something God is trying to say through all of THIS?”

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? preserves this interview (along with interviews with historian William Federer, quantum researcher Dennis Zetting, and others some would refer to as prophets like Johnny Enlow, Hank Kunneman, Amanda Grace, Nathan French, and Andrew Whalen). But mostly it’s my own personal journey trying to make sense of how & why God speaks through humans and what prophecy’s broader application might be to Christians & Americans within this current Information War.

In the coming weeks I’ll be posting additional thoughts, questions, and commentary that I either discuss directly in the film itself or wasn’t able to include within the 95 minute time constraint of the film. I’m not a theologian or a clergy member. I’m just a filmmaker. A storyteller. I am naturally curious and I’m merely asking questions and approaching the world around me from that perspective.

If this resonates with you please consider subscribing.

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Additionally, if you feel a film like this needs to reach as many people as possible, please consider donating to our crowdfund over at GiveSendGo where we are raising marketing funds to help get this film out to as many people as possible.

I’m very excited to have you join me in this journey. We need God’s voice more than ever right now. And maybe He really is speaking.

And maybe we just need to know how to tune in.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? is premiering on SalemNow on 9.10.26 and will be streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and other major platforms starting 10.10.26.