Dumitru Duduman, Part 1
In recent posts I have been dealing with issues of prophetic interpretation. In this post we turn to interpreting literal prophetic. We will look at material from Dumitru Duduman for our study. Some of his words are unfolding now, so his story is important to know something about. Read on for more.
The Prophetic
Prophetic material breaks down into 2 distinct types, symbolic, the more common and literal, often the more important.
I have used the term 'prophetic' to deal with interpretation without regard to the mode. A dream, say, or a premonition, or a waking vision, or lots, the specific mode does not usually matter when interpreting symbolic prophetic material. Dreams are perhaps the most commonly shared, so we have been looking at dreams as examples.
Literal prophetic material does not rely heavily on symbols. The prophetic message is direct. So the mode is usually direct too, often simply an audible voice, sometimes accompanied by visions.
Audible prophetic words, for example, where someone hears the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to them audibly, is but one example of a different mode. This particular first-person audible form of prophetic includes appearances of kings, usually called angels, and even sometimes appearances of Joshua himself.
Let me start by sharing a simple example.
Change Lanes
I once heard the testimony of a man where he had heard an audible prophetic voice. At the time this happened he was driving 80 MPH on I-90 in Montana. It was dark, his pregnant wife was asleep in the passenger's seat. The road was clear, there was no other traffic, there was no serious weather. He was driving in the right lane. The car was running fine.
He heard an audible male voice say to him, 'Change lanes.'
The voice startled him. He looked around to see who might be speaking. He checked his wife, thinking he may have misheard her voice. She was still asleep. He checked the back seat, wondering if he had a stowaway. He had no stowaway, but he did have lots of confusion.
Note here he was focused on the mechanics of what he heard, not the message, this is a common mistake when hearing audible prophetic voices.
He then heard the voice speak again, this time in a firm, and imperative voice, 'Change lanes NOW!' The voice was clearly angry that he had not done what was asked of him the first time.
This time he immediately changed to the left lane. Figuring he would worry the voice later.
As soon as he was in the left lane, he saw a large bull elk stepping into the right lane from the right shoulder.
As he relayed this to me later, he made some key points. The elk was quite large, and tall, and would have smashed through the front window of the car. He, his wife and their unborn child would likely have died in the collision if he had not changed lanes.
This also convinced him, by the way, that the Holy Spirit was active now, in contradiction to what he believed from church.
This is a perfect example of a literal, audible, prophetic word. Like most prophetic in this category it was a warning about a tragic conditional future. It was rare and valuable, in this case worth 3 lives. It needed to be heeded.
When these happen, if at all possible, we should 'jump first' and ask questions later. Especially if there is no downside risk. The left lane was clear of traffic after all.
The first takeaway here is that a quick response to this sort of literal prophetic might just save your own life, and the lives of people you love, as it did this man.
Problems
When we looked at a dream that Dutch Sheets read on his Youtube channel we were able to interpret the dream even though Dutch himself was shallow in his interpretation, missing most of the key points. Because Dutch was named in the dream, as well a several other people that Dutch personally knows, he felt he could read it and share it as he did.
Those people, apparently not symbolic in an otherwise symbolic dream, allowed the dream to transit past Dutch to a broader audience. We, in that audience, could unpack the dream much more completely.
Like Dana Coverstone, the use of a symbolic dream as the mode caused the message to get past the beliefs and theology of those involved in transmission. Of course it needed to be clear what the prophetic was, which was our first problem with Coverstone's material.
The people in the Coverstone transmission chain did not need to be able to interpret their own prophetic. They could do so quite badly and it wasn't any problem for us. We could rethink the prophetic and interpret for ourselves.
Indeed, in Dutch's case the more complete interpretation was in some ways against elements of the institutional church that Dutch has been part of across his whole career. He could not interpret fully because of this. Those details slipped past his natural censors.
Literal prophetic words have a similar, but reversed set of problems. For them to reach any sort of wide audience they must include material that lets the prophetic transit through the various gate keepers of large audiences.
Like the people named in the dream Dutch read, which were just there to get transmission, literal prophetic material also often includes material which is also only for transmission.
Theology
In my earlier years, before I started doing this full time, I got to know 2 different prophetic traveling evangelists. Both explained to me that they had trouble reaching audiences. Even though they were from radically different denominational backgrounds, and very different Christian theology, they both had the same problem, reaching past gatekeepers who blocked their access to audiences.
Think about the problem of getting venues. Until someone like this is famous enough, they will not be able to hire their own halls. The apostle Paul, by the way, is only recorded hiring his own hall when he arrives at Rome. This was very late in his own ministry, when he was becoming famous.
To get a venue before becoming famous requires an invite to someone else's place, usually a church of some sort, sometimes private houses. They must do this so they can stand before someone else's crowd.
Most churches are controlled by a pastor who is a gatekeeper. That pastor has a series of theological beliefs. Many have signed theological, often secret, covenants with their denomination. Those covenants restrict the theological stands that pastors involved may take.
Some of those covenants seriously restrict what can be said by anybody from the stage. So, nobody outside of that pastor's orthodoxy will be given the stage. So traveling evangelists must pass a series of varying theological hurdles which can vary venue to venue, week to week.
There are problems with audiences too. Those who can give first person literal prophetic words nearly always limit themselves to words which they think their audience will receive. The rest of their prophetic is kept to themselves, often called intercessor's privilege.
You might think a good strategy for people who travel like this is to ignore the constraints of the host pastor. This will work maybe 1 time. Pastors look back at the chain of earlier engagements and will not host someone who is out of line or risky to the pastor's own livelihood.
Pastors give the stage to outsiders for their own purposes. Usually to increase their own reputation amongst the public at large. They are in a political job, after all. This seriously constrains who will gain access to their controlled crowds.
Another visitor strategy, used often by traveling prophetic types, is to explain why their message is orthodox within the house where they are on stage. This works, but in real meetings this often means over 1/2 of the available time is on incidental material that chokes out time for prophetic.
These hurdles seriously restrict prophetic people. They also seriously restrict the flow of literal prophetic material from its source. Let me call this 'channel theology.' It shows up nearly everywhere we see literal prophetic operating at scale. We will see this problem in Duduman's work too.
Duduman's Biography
Dumitru Duduman was born in Romania in July of 1932. He had various jobs, including in the Romanian military working as a border guard searching for smuggled Bibles. He had a serious prophetic encounter while preparing to arrest a Bible smuggler. After that he became an accomplished Bible smuggler himself. His smuggling expanded to Russian language Bibles. Eventually this got him exiled from Romania to the west.
After a time in Italy, he and his family arrived in Los Angeles, California, in August of 1984. By September of 1984 he had a another serious prophetic encounter and was called as a prophet to the USA. He spent the rest of his life traveling around preaching and sharing prophetic words about America's eventual destruction. He died in May of 1997.
Duduman's Helpers
In the following video Duduman is introduced by Stan Johnson of The Prophecy Club. Stan spent extensive time traveling with Duduman, getting to know him pretty well. It was Stan's time with Duduman that helped Stan start The Prophecy Club. Stan is still running the Prophecy Club now, actively giving budding prophets a platform.
Duduman's interpreter in the following video is his grandson, Michael Boldea, of Hand of Help Ministries. In the video Michael is a young man. He traveled with Duduman as his English interpreter. Michael maintains Duduman's current written biography.
In the following 1 hour and 45 minute video, Stan Johnson gives an important introduction, about 20 minutes, which we will deal with next time. Then Duduman takes around 1 hour and gives his important biography. Finally a summary of the prophetic word he was given that September in Los Angeles.
The following video does not have a date, but was recorded after the fall of the Romanian dictator and before the First Persian Gulf War, when Saddam is still ruling Iraq.
Note, at almost exactly the 1 hour mark there is an editing error where about 5 minutes are duplicated. Probably an error from when a 2 volume VHS tape set was digitized. Be patient. It is well worth the time.
Watch For
As you watch the video linked below, pay attention to his interaction with what he will call an angel, what we normally call a king. Try to identify what parts of the message are worthy of a visit by a king. Also, try and identify what parts are not news, and given only to help Duduman get past the many gatekeepers that stand in his way, including Stan Johnson, various pastors and his eventual live audiences.
Seeing this distinction is key to sorting through literal prophetic material. Try it for yourself as you watch.
In part 2 we will pick up with this video and look at that Los Angeles encounter in detail, and explain what is the prophetic word and what is the packaging needed to get it out.
More Later,
Phil