Everthing rests in the existential appropriation of the faith. There is something about the seductive power of the approval and acceptance of man that works in us as a leaven for disaster. There is something that men covet to be approved by their fellows, to receive their appreciation and to be honored by them. To be indifferent to that honor and approval and to speak the necessary word however much you will bring painful rejection can only be borne by someone who has no life unto himself. It is all the same to him as to whether he is accepted or rejected, misunderstood or approved, all of that is to say, that the issue between the true prophet and the false is the issue of the cross.
Flattery is an antichrist mode of winning and influencing men.
We need, therefore, to grow up in the ability to discern and sense the truth in general, and especially truth about this calling. It may well be that certain practitioners are so artful and so appearing to be prophetic that crowds will run after them, and the true man, who does not cut any impression and is a 'wallflower', so to speak, is altogether ignored, and yet he is the bearer of God's word. Thus is there a premium on the church to come of age, and the very coming of age is, in fact, also at the same time, part of the prophetic process. That is to say, we come of age because we hear the word of God, the prophetic word, that requires of us to grow up, and in growing up we are able to discern the realities of the last days.