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According to your faith, 2 of 4, Hiding behind fear

2/25/2023

Hi all,
We often hide behind our fear while telling ourselves and others we are in faith. Sometimes we hide behind fear and blame whatever our troubles are on the devil, our rebukes doing no good whatsoever.

The phone bill
Back in the days before cell phones we had land lines. With land lines, if you called outside your area there was an extra charge based on each minute you talked. If you called someone a long way away it cost you more.

I couldn't pay the bill that first month, and the phone company let it go until I couldn't pay the second month as well. The total of about $600, which is the same as $1600 today. A relative was in trouble and I spent hours on the phone giving guidance and support. Our phone was shut off. Bye bye phone because I didn't have the money to pay it.

Where was my faith? I thought I was "believing the Lord" for the money to pay the bill, but no 'miracle' money came in to pay it. I was helping someone, giving good and godly advice - why wasn't the Lord there for me? What happened?

The truth is
I was afraid to call the phone company to work out a payment plan. In part, I didn't feel like I could truthfully tell them when I'd have money to pay them. I didn't know if they would demand it all at once, or if they would accept payments over a few months. I was afraid of what might be. What they might say. What I couldn't commit to. So I didn't call.

All this time I was 'believing the Lord' for the money to pay the bill. Later I learned if I had called they would have worked with me on a payment plan. My fear was for nothing, and what I thought was faith, was really me hiding behind my fear.

I've seen people do this with doctors. Afraid the diagnosis would be horrible news, or cost them money they didn't have. In some cases people died because they wouldn't go to a doctor because they were afraid of the office visit charge and any tests that would be done.

I've seen people delay home repairs, car repairs, and more because of fear what the total might be, so they 'believe the Lord' and think prayer will move God to do something. They never think that maybe the Lord wants them to deal with their fear and trust Him. Then when something worse happens, they are forced to deal with it and unfortunately, suffer the consequences of their fear-fueled delay.

Going through the fear...
I wish I knew then what I know now about II Peter 1:3-4, as I mentioned last week. "All things that pertain to life and godliness have been provided...."

We are all growing and learning. Back in the early 1980's I didn't know all things that pertain to life have been provided. I had not yet learned to make that tough decision in the midst of pressure, to stand and ask the Father to reveal His provision, based on His Word.

The difference between having the phone cut off in the 1980s, and Chris and I about 15 years later having a miracle provision as a man took our cows to sale when our truck broke, is that I learned to go through the fear, learned to deal with the circumstances.

I learned the Father's provision is most often just on the other side of the fear.

There was a lady in our church with an 11 year old son. Her son got sick with a bad fever, and for her, money was scarce. Even when she had it, she didn't like to spend it. After the fever lingered for a few days many of us urged her to go to the doctor, but she was 'believing the Lord'...

After another week went by her son became so weak something was clearly wrong and we insisted she take him to the doctor. Her fear for his life became stronger than her fear of the doctor's bill. The virus had gone to a heart valve, and he needed immediate open heart surgery to replace the valve.

The bill in about 1989 was $65,000 to put a mechanical valve in the boy's heart. When sitting next to him you could hear it click as his heart pumped blood. His mom was thrilled that because of her income and that he was a child, the hospital would use charity funds to pay the bill - she didn't owe anything.

We were amazed that she so rejoiced over this, when all she had to do was at the first be willing to pay or make payments for a doctor's appointment and all that trauma could have been avoided. And because of her actions, he beat her to heaven by several years - glad they are there now, but he should still be alive and living a good and fruitful life like his sister is.

All that because his mother didn't have the faith in her Heavenly Father to go through the fear to see His provision on the other side.

The two blind men...according to your faith be it to you...
People want God's provision, but it is according to faith, not according to fear. Faith requires a revelation from the Father for the situation. Fear argues against logic, fear argues against common sense. Fear only delays an action that then causes much more difficult consequences.

When Jesus wanted to turn water into wine, He first had them collect and then fill 6 stone water pots, THEN the miracle happened. When Jesus wanted to fee 5,000 men plus women and children, He organized to have them sit down in groups of 50s and 100s, THEN the miracle happened.

Fear asks why bother gathering the stone pots. Fear asks why go to the trouble of organizing the people into groups of 50s and 100s. Faith doesn't appear wise to those in fear. But faith deals with the natural circumstances realizing provision is on the other side of the fear.

And that is where the test of our faith is focused. We will pick it up there next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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According to your faith be it to you. 1 of 4

2/18/2023

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Hi all,

In the late 1980's I was the pastor of a small church in a rural community in eastern Colorado. Though the church was doing well, it was an agricultural town and winters were touch. By January our income after the church paid our rent and utilities was $15. ($40 US today). By the last week of the month we had no food.

Around 4pm (16.00) Barb asked what I had in mind for dinner, because she literally had nothing in the pantry, nothing in the refrigerator, nothing in the freezer, to feed us or more importantly, our 3 little boys. She opened the refrigerator in desperation showing me. She opened the cupboard to reveal bare shelves. She was rightly concerned.

I replied:"I don't know, but I know I am doing what the Lord has called me to do, so I know He will provide." I told her I had peace in my spirit, I had double checked my motives, the Father gave me peace, so I stayed focused on the peace in my spirit. But she was mom, so she had a right to know where dinner was for her 3 boys.

She was willing to go with my peace, though it is her nature to second guess situations:Was it really the Lord that brought us there? Did He want John to get a job (though my hands were full with the church)? What was wrong with John that he would risk his family for what, faith? Was it pride? What are we going to do? All these were questions any wife and mother would have in that situation. But in the end, she trusted me.

This was the point of 'according to your faith be it unto you' - The choice was simple:Trust the peace or take matters into our own hands with 'Plan B'.

About 20 minutes later a family from our church pulled into our drive in their big Chevy Suburban, which was at the time the largest SUV made. It was loaded full with groceries and even fresh milk from their dairy farm. In 10 minutes our refrigerator and cupboard went from completely empty to completely full.

Barb was thrilled as you can imagine. This couple had an idea float into their minds late that morning they recognized as the Lord; to buy us groceries. We lived out on the prairie of eastern Oklahoma so it was an hour drive to a store.

They drove over an hour to the store to load their vehicle, then an hour back AND they stopped at their house to get fresh milk on the way to our house - they were thrilled to be so used of the Father, and we were thrilled they had obeyed. In 10 minutes we went from empty to full. Amazing grace.

God's provision was already at work when Barb and I were talking and making the choice to trust the peace in our spirit. If I hadn't had a revelation in my spirit and the accompanying peace from the Father that He had dinner supplied, it would have been foolish. But I had a peace, so I stayed in that.

I was being moved from revelation, from peace in my spirit. This was faith, not foolishness. According to your faith be it unto you. Many times people have a revelation, have a peace from the Father, but fear creeps in, they second guess themselves.

They fall back on their own strength and working out their own 'Plan B'. Because they give in to the fear instead of subduing it by the peace in their spirit, they never see the miracle - and then wonder why God let them down.

"According to your faith be it to you" Matthew 9:27-30
This is stated only once in the New Testament, but it is repeated many times in different ways and terminology.

"And when Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, yelling loudly, saying, You son of David, have mercy on us. And when he had entered the house, the blind men came to him:and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I have the power to do this? They said unto him, Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you."

Why did He say, 'According to your faith'?
This was not a sovereign move by the Lord. This was according to the faith of the blind men. Why was it 'according to their faith'?

First, they called Him the Messiah by calling Him the Son of David. This is perhaps the most well known of Jewish terms for Messiah, and Matthew starts his gospel in 1:1 stating that was what he would demonstrate in his gospel:"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham.." They had a revelation from the Father exactly Who Jesus was. They had faith.

Key point #1 - a personal revelation
This is the very key to anything we do called 'faith'. We first get a revelation from the Father about it. If we hear bad news, we check with the Father to see what His instructions and provision might be. When Peter exclaimed; 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God', Jesus said he knew that by revelation from the Father. The whole kingdom flows from and functions in revelation from the Father.

I've shared how II Peter 1:3-4 has been a foundation for me for decades:"Accordingly, His power has provided all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to glory and virtue."

That's either true or it isn't. He has either provided all things that pertain to life, or not. Year ago I let that revelation float over me and through me, exciting my spirit. He has provided EVERYTHING that pertains to life. I would never have to worry again.

A test of my faith
I was taking 5 cows to be sold at a barn about 40 miles away (70km). I had Chris in the seat with me, but for some reason I left his wheelchair at home. At a stop light about 10 miles from our house (18km) the truck quit. I had just enough momentum to roll to the side of the highway.

Remembering II Peter 1:3-4, I said:"Father, all things that pertain to life and godliness have been provided, so please reveal your provision, because we're stuck!" Just then a red pick up truck coming the other direction, slowed, cross the median, circled in front of us and asked if he could help.

Explaining the situation to him, he said he would take our cattle to the sale barn - I was amazed. We rolled the truck away from the trailer, hooked it to his truck, we lifted Chris into his truck and away the 3 of us went. He brought us back after we had dropped the cows off and I was able to call our middle son to come and get us.

According to your faith be it unto you. I had revelation from the Word and from experience, the kind of faith that comes by considering the Father's faithfulness through the years. Based on that ongoing revelation and His record in my life, I simply made the choice to act according to my faith, asking Him to reveal His provision. And He did.

Next week about times I missed it, and more from the Word...until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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Weaving life, Be careful what you pray for, 4 of 4

2/11/2023

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Hi all,

In our study of the Lord weaving our lives together to accomplish His will, we now come to our last example.

It is about not feeling compelled to press Him to get every single detail of our heart fulfilled, of knowing when to say 'enough'. There are times we pray and press and grunt and groan because we want God to get everything exactly perfect, with the results often being less than what he had expected.

King Hezekiah is just such a case
He was a good and very remarkable king of Judah, so brilliant and yet so flawed. He seems to be a person trying to do what is right, believing the best in people, which got him into trouble a few times - just like you and me! Not satisfied with the Lord's work in his life, he pressed for more, and many suffered as a result. If only he had been able to rest in the Lord and let things be. But no, he had to press forward, press God for more.

A little background information
Hezekiah is king of Judah and the prophets Hosea, Micah and Isaiah are active in the land. He was born in roughly 741 BC, became king at 25 and lived at total of 54 years, dying in about 687 BC. His reign is well documented in the archaeological record, for he made the pool of Siloam (John 9) which in our day is being made open to public tours.

It was against Judah and Hezekiah the Assyrian king, Sennacherib assembled his thousands. The Lord sent a single angel we are told in Isaiah 37:36, who killed 185,000 of the enemy army. Humiliated and defeated, Sennacherib returned home.

You just can't make this stuff up
After the defeat of the Assyrians, Isaiah 38 records Hezekiah became sick to the point of death. The Talmud, which is a collection of oral law (Mishnah) and history/commentary (Gemara), gives the back story.

It reveals Isaiah told Hezekiah he was sick because he had failed to marry and have children according to the divine order of things biologically and as king to produce an heir. So God allowed a sickness that would result in his death.

But when Hezekiah prayed and repented fervently, the Lord changed His mind before Isaiah had even left the palace grounds. (An example of a prophetic word not coming to pass because God changed His mind in response to prayer) Isaiah 38:5 records the Lord telling Isaiah He had answered his prayer and given him 15 more years (to produce an heir).

These 15 additional years are what our story is about.
Hezekiah recovers, and according to the Talmud, married Isaiah's daughter, Hephzibah, which means 'the Lord delights in her' (II Kings 21:1). Do we have the picture? Isaiah prophesies the king will die of a sickness, allowed upon him because he had not fulfilled the royal and biological duty of having children. When he repents and is given 15 years to be able to fulfill that duty, he marries Isaiah's daughter, making Isaiah their son's grandfather.

What happened in those 15 extra years?
Isaiah 39 tells us one of the things that happened is Babylon sent 'princes' or ambassadors to Hezekiah to congratulate him on his restored health.

Believing the best in people, and rationalizing that Babylon was a far distance, Hezekiah showed the princes of Babylon the whole of the royal treasury. All the temple treasures, all the national storehouses of gold and silver, even to the royal storehouse of spices and food. It gave Babylon an exact estimation of Judah's strength. Isaiah told him he was foolish to reveal that to a potential enemy, and the nation would later suffer for it. Isaiah 39:3-7

What else happened in those 15 years?
Manasseh and Hephzibah had a son:Manasseh, again, making Isaiah Manasseh's grandfather. II Chronicles 32:33 and 33:1 tells us Hezekiah died when his son was 12 years old, so he became king at age 12.

II Chronicles 33:1-10 tell us young Manasseh did evil, bringing back all the gods of the pagans, even setting up pagan altars in the temple of the Lord. Verse 10 says the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. I feel sorry for his mother Hephzibah, for she was wife to one of the most godly kings ever recorded, and mother to one of the worst kings in the history of the nation.

Verses 11-16 tell us Manasseh was captured and sent to Babylon, where he truly repented, coming to know the Lord. He was also returned to rule the land. In his repentance, he undid the evil he had earlier done, tearing down all the pagan altars and restoring the temple and altar of the Lord. He commanded all Judah to worship the God of Israel.

But...
In between the time he took the throne at age 12, and the time he came to know the Lord, he did a horrible thing. He hated Isaiah his grandfather. Why, we don't know. He would have certainly known he was the product of those 15 years where his father was expected to produce and heir - perhaps in his eyes he thought he really wasn't wanted, wasn't really loved, just used to keep the family line going.

If so, we can understand his anger at first his father and then his grandfather. It was after all Isaiah who told his dad he was going to die if he didn't that a son. Whatever the reason, his hatred came full force upon his grandfather.

This is what happened
Not only in the Talmud, but referenced in the New Testament:Isaiah fled from Manasseh into a hollow in a cedar tree, but was discovered. Manasseh ordered the tree cut down with trapped Isaiah inside, sawing Isaiah in half. Hebrews 11:37 makes a reference to this in the 'hall of faith', saying of various unnamed faithful who had suffered for their faith:"They were stoned, they were cut in two, they were killed by swords..."

This great man Isaiah, grandfather to the king, friend of his father, died a martyr. What heartache his mother must have felt to see her son murder her father! Manasseh did later repent and that is good, but the nation suffered horribly before Manasseh repented.

What if Hezekiah had just said 'okay' when he was told he was about to die?
Be careful what you pray for. The Lord was still able to weave His way in those 15 years, though with heart ache for all. We repent vertically and God forgives us, but the injury we cause or is inflicted upon us is on this earth, horizontally. Being of the earth, it must be walked out, experienced, dealt with. Yet in all these things the Lord is still at work, still moving forward in the lives of all who desire Him. Ever the One who weaves His will into the fabric of our lives.

Are there areas we have insisted on having our way with the Lord? Have we at times pressed and demanded until finally we see the Lord has answered, only to discover things didn't work out the way we thought? And then we often wonder why God allowed it to happen, forgetting we were the ones who insisted He give us what we want.

Consider the possibility that some of the things you are going through now are to prepare you for what you prayed for.

Take the big picture approach to life, we are already in eternity, which means there will be as the Bible says, ages to come. Look for Him weaving together everything, our victories and defeats, moments of wisdom and foolishness, and you will see grace. Lots and lots of grace.

New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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Weaving Life 3 of 4, helping a prostitute get settled

2/4/2023

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Hi all,
Have you lived long enough to understand how a tiny, everyday decision can have a life changing effect? Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. When it is bad we talk of of the 'law of unintended consequences'. When it is good we look back and say 'That was God'.

The singer Jewel has a song called 'I Do' and one line observes:"Life can take a long time if you make the wrong choice." We can repent, but we still have to walk it out. Forgiveness is about the vertical, how God loves us and forgives us. But the other component is the horizontal, the consequence, the impact of our decisions. We can be forgiven of the sin in the vertical, but the injury in the horizontal must be lived to its conclusion - redemption or destruction.

And sometimes we look at a situation and access it properly, understanding the time and season, and are waiting for our chance.

The Moabite woman named Rahab was just such a person, in such a time
The whole of the newly formed Israeli nation was a short distance from her home on the inner wall of Jericho. Joshua sent 2 spies to gain intelligence for the upcoming battle. They stayed at Rahab's.

The Hebrew word translated here as 'harlot' or 'prostitute' is 'zonah', which can be translated 'innkeeper', and there is little doubt that was one element of why the 2 spies spent the night there. But both Hebrews and James* call her a 'harlot' or 'prostitute' and the Greek has no variability in its meaning:She was a prostitute. In her inn keeping duties it seems she picked up a cash on the side. *Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25

When a lie is honored
But the New Testament tells us she had great faith in the God of Israel, and it was counted to her for righteousness. And she was very brave. She lied to the authorities when she hid the 2 spies, and made them promise that she and her household would be spared.

Let me take a side-trip here to talk of her lie. The king of Jericho asked in Joshua 2:3-4 for her to turn over the spies, but she told him they were no longer there and she didn't know where they went, when in fact she had hidden them inside.

In Exodus 1:15-21 we see 2 Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, being told by Pharaoh to kill all the male newborns by throwing them in the river. They feared God more than Pharaoh so they disobeyed. When called before Pharaoh they lied, saying the Jewish women gave birth faster than the Egyptian women. Verses 20-21 tells us God blessed them for their actions and gave them each families, or 'gave them houses' (families).

In both cases the people involved obeyed God rather than man, for the 'royal law' of God outweighs man's law. Similar behavior can be seen in the hiding and rescue of Jews from the Nazi's of World War 2. I've visited both the home of Anne Frank in Amsterdam and the home of Corrie ten Boom in nearby Haarlem many times, and am amazed at God's grace in those difficult times.

Deception and lying were required to protect the people from the Nazis. Stories all over Europe of heroes helping the Jews are told of falsified documents, and even fake health reports, all with the more honorable intent of saving lives against unjust and ungodly laws that would have all the Jewish people murdered.

This isn't intended to be a full study of the topic, just food for thought. Back to our story...

The taking of Jericho, the saving of Rahab
You know the story, how Joshua circled the city, the walls fell, and Rahab and family were saved because she hung a red 'cord of redemption' out her window to identify her home for the conquering army.

Matthew 1:5 tells us a man named Salmon married Rahab in a wonderful story of redemption. Some speculate he was one of the 2 spies that stayed with her, seeing her heart, her potential, her bravery. We don't know, but we do know Salmon and Rahab married and she had a son named Boaz.

It was this Boaz who met a beggar woman, a widow named Ruth who was from Moab, the same area where his mother was from. Ruth was under the tutelage of Naomi, herself widowed, and Naomi encouraged Ruth to do something quite remarkable for her day:She told her to propose to Boaz rather than waiting for him to get around to it.

In Ruth 3:1-11 we find Naomi tells Ruth to wait until Boaz is asleep, then lay down at his feet and put his clothing over her. Today in Judaism there are variations of this. One is for the groom to cover his bride with a cloth, and another is to have both bride and groom wrapped around their shoulders binding them together with a prayer shawl, a tallit. In ancient days the groom would throw his robe over his wife, symbolizing their unity and that he is now her 'covering'.

By instructing Ruth to lay at the feet of Boaz and cover herself with his clothing, she was proposing to him. This is confirmed when Boaz reacts in v11:"Fear not, I will do all you ask..." This means Rahab became Ruth's mother in law - how wonderful of the Lord to give this godly widow a new husband, and more than that, a mother in law from her homeland!

Boaz and Ruth went on to have a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse, who had a son named David. David's great grandmother was Ruth, his great-great grandmother was Rahab.

Who would have known when the prostitute name Rahab sized up the situation, believed in the God of Israel, protected the spies, and married into the family of Israel, that she would be the great great grandmother to David, and therefore in the lineage of Jesus? Who would have known? The law of unintended consequences - for the good.

What we see in the lives of Rahab, Naomi and Ruth, is that in spite of the difficult circumstances each did the right thing. The moral thing. The results of doing things the right way in the midst of difficult and even life-threatening circumstances, was life. God was able to weave together all the happenings into something beautiful.

What we see in this story is God's ability to change a prostitute's life and to honor her by being in the lineage of the savior. We see the Lord being gracious to a grieving widow in a strange land, giving her a husband, and mother in law from her home country. We see the Lord weaving the events of multiple lives over decades to bring His will to pass on the earth. He is doing the same in our lives, among our loved ones. Trust Him. Trust amazing grace!

Our last example next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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