Hi all,
I was teaching a class at what was then called The World Prayer Center, in Colorado Springs. A couple from Texas came after the class asking for prayer about whether to sell their business or not, and the timing. As we prayed I saw a calendar year go by, stopping on a particular month, and then I heard the Father say something along the lines of "Someone will approach them in about a year to buy their business, and it will give them a nice profit. Take the offer, it will go smoothly, then I will show them the next chapter for their lives." I told them everything I saw and what the Father said, and that was that.
 
A little over a year later I received an email saying it had happened exactly as I had said, and their profit was over $250,000, and they were very thankful. I've not heard from them since. They are not on any mailing list, have never given an offering, have never asked for prayer. The manifestation of the Spirit was for their benefit (not mine). God the Father is SO good. 
 
In Luke 19:29-35 Jesus tells 2 of the disciples to go to a certain place where they'd find a young colt tied up, and to bring it to Him. He included that if anyone asked what they were doing, they were to tell the person the Lord had need of Him. It happened exactly as Jesus had told them. 
 
"...you have well said, I have no husband, for you have had 5, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. This you have said truly." John 4:17-19, the woman at the well meeting.
 
Words of wisdom and knowledge - the other two revelation gifts (discerning of spirits being the other)
The couple with the business sale and Jesus telling of the circumstance around getting the colt are examples of words of wisdom. Jesus telling the woman her past and present marital status is a word of knowledge. 
 
Words of knowledge are tiny bits of information the Father gives someone by His Spirit about someone else's past or present. Words of wisdom are similar bits of information about the future, and specifically what will happen or how to conduct oneself in a future event. I will share the difference between prophecy and words of wisdom next week. 
 
Remember that I Corinthians 12: 7 says the manifestation of the Spirit is given that we all may be bettered, meaning it isn't about the person given that information, it doesn't make them a prophet, it just means the Father wants to meet needs.
 
In II Kings 6:8-13 the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and would camp his army at various places during the campaign, but his location was always known by Elisha who then told the king of Israel where the enemy was located. The king of Syria was frustrated by this and wondered who was spying on them, but one of his servants said, "None my king, but Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel what you say, even what you speak privately in your own bedroom!"
 
That again, because it is about the present, is an example of a word of knowledge given Elisha, for Israel's benefit. 
 
That doesn't make you a prophet
Anyone may have the Father by His Spirit reveal some of what He knows about a person's past, present, or provide wisdom for the future, which is completely normal for a Christian. The manifestation of the Spirit is given that we may benefit. Anyone may be used in this way from children to the eldest among us, it's just the normal Christian life. 
 
Two women were sitting at a coffee shop, and one of them expressed fear over their teenager's future because they were wavering between going to college, or a trade school, or working, or just taking a year off to do nothing. Suddenly her friend had a revelation, a knowing on the inside of herself, and she said, "I just have a sense they will decide at the last second to go to college as planned, and you don't need to be worried for them, the Father has it under control and has made provision for school." That is a word of wisdom. The Father doesn't announce with trumpets blaring "I am about to give you a word of wisdom..." It just happens as a matter of normal, everyday, hum drum, boring, go about your business, life. No big deal. 
 
I heard a metal on metal sound coming from the middle of the rear axle of our car - that can't be good! I asked someone about it and they said it sounded like the differential, the gears in the rear axle that allow the wheels to turn independently of one another, needed some 90 weight oil. I drove slowly home, parked, and crawled under the car. In the screw-off plug of the differential was a square hole, and it was clear a tool was needed to set into that square hole to twist off the plug.
 
I tried using a flat bladed screw driver set cat-a-corner, but it didn't work. I said "Father, what am I going to do, it's our only car." Suddenly I heard the Father say by the Spirit, very clearly." "Go, get your socket wrench." I replied, "No Father, you don't understand, it's not a socket, it's a square hole." "Go, get your socket wrench." I was so intensely focused on the frustrating problem before me I hadn't even considered that I had just told the Father that He didn't understand the situation.
 
Not finding a tool suitable in my tool box I went next door to my neighbor, and there in his garage, laying on his tool box right on top, was a socket wrench turned on its side, with the square part of the wrench that a socket fits on sitting in plain view. Immediately I realized what the Father had been saying, walked to my own socket set, grabbed the wrench, and it fit perfectly into the square hole in the differential. That is a word of wisdom. 
 
I was but a teenager, yet a friend of my mom's asked me to pray for her about a recurring nightmare she had been having, and nothing seemed able to stop them. She had spoken the word, cast out the devil, asked for angels, but still these demonic dreams of battles with demons kept coming. 
 
As we prayed I saw a mini-vision or 'closed vision', meaning when my eyes were closed I saw the vision, but when I opened my eyes all was normal. Shutting my eyes again and the vision began. I saw this forty something year old woman as a 7 year old girl, trapped in a toilet stall like in a store bathroom, unable to get the latch open to open the door and escape. But that stall was not literal, it just illustrated the trapped feeling she had. Suddenly I knew she had been sexually molested at that age, and the demons and hurt involved still affected her and her marriage to that day. The Father was allowing this to be brought up that He might reveal the root cause, and she would receive healing and a touch of His Spirit for peace.
 
Me being just about 17, and this being a married friend of my mother's, in the natural made me uncomfortable, but there was such peace in the Spirit I shared 'lightly', just referring to something that happened to her about age 7 that affected her to this day...I didn't need to go into any more detail than that for discretion's sake, and she immediately knew, tears welled up in her eyes, I laid hands on her for healing, for a fresh filling of the Spirit, and great peace came. She later reported to my mother the dreams had ended and she was greatly blessed, her life changed. That was a word of knowledge. Visual or by words, it doesn't matter; however the Father by His Spirit wants to share a sliver of information that someone may be bettered, He will. 
 
Words of wisdom, words of knowledge, the discerning of spirits, often mix with prophecy, but that doesn't make a person a prophet, it just means they are a Christian - next week, prophecy and personal prophecy..until then, blessings,
John Fenn
 
www.churchwithoutwallsinternational.org or cwowi.org, and email me at [email protected]
 

Hi all,
The man in my office was asking me to be on his ministry board. As he described his ministry I had a heavy feeling in my spirit that kept getting heavier with every sentence he spoke. When I shifted my attention from listening to him to that sense in my spirit, suddenly I had an inner knowing that sort of floated as revelation into my mind: "That's a lying spirit." I knew it. 
 
The word identifying the man in my office as lying to me, and not just on his own but with a demonic spirit as the source of the lie, was a manifestation of the gift labeled in scripture as 'the discerning of spirits'. 
 
In Matthew 16: 23 Peter boldly confronts Jesus telling Him not to go to the cross. Jesus perceives through the discerning of spirits that the suggestion is from Satan: "You get behind me Satan" is His response. There was nothing visual there, He just perceived that suggestion was from Satan. 
 
Many men, women, and children have had this kind of thing happen to them - a suddenly knowing from God rather than by their own experience or knowledge, that something or someone was, or was not of God - the discerning of spirits. 
 
The manifestations of the Spirit given that we may profit
In this series I'm going to share about the charismatic gifts of the Spirit, what they are, how they work, and I would guess that most every Christian has moved in one or more. But because He does't announce how He is moving, we aren't aware of how we might label them.
 
The Father is always seen in scripture as on His throne. Jesus is ascended to heaven and has not yet established His physical, earthly kingdom. 
 
That means only the Holy Spirit is ministering both in heaven and here on earth. He is our connection, our communicator linking heaven and earth. When Jesus came up out of the water at His baptism, the Father spoke, but the Spirit in the form of a dove was in the air between Father and Son, heaven and earth. He is from the Father, settled on Jesus, but remains in heaven and earth, that link for us to Him and Him to us to this day. 
 
Everything we experience in God is through and with the Holy Spirit. Every word, every vision of the Lord or angels, every spiritual dream, every prompting, every voice we hear - angels, Father, Lord, or the Spirit Himself - is via the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Truth proceeding from the Father.
 
In I Corinthians 12: 4-7 Paul lays out 3 categories of what we call 'gifts', which in Greek is the word 'charisma', often translated as 'grace'. He says in v4 there are differences of gifts (charisma = grace/gift), but the same Spirit.
 
v5 there are differences of 'administrations' but the same Lord. The word 'administrations' is 'diakonia', translated as service, servant, or ministry. Also translated as 'deacon'. There is no such thing as an 'office' - not in scripture. Just service/diakonia. 
 
v6 there are different 'operations', but it is the same Lord that works all in all. The word 'operations' is 'energon', where we get energy, or things that energize us and motivate us - more on the motivational gifts in a later series. 
 
But Paul concludes in v7: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given that all may profit."
 
In other words, all these gifts - the charismatic, the serving, the energy - are simply manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we may be bettered, and for the betterment of others. 
 
The charismatic, or charisma (grace) manifestations of the Spirit
In verses 8-11, Paul lists the grace gifts: Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, special faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. These 9 make up what are called the charismatic gifts of the Spirit. 
 
We can see 3 categories within the 9: Power (miracles, healings, special faith), speaking (prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues), and revelation (discerning of spirits, word of knowledge, word of wisdom). 
 
Because these are mere labels for our understanding, we must realize we have the Holy Spirit within, so He will move in any given situation according to the will of the Father and our Lord. The Lord is not limited to assigning gifts that you are locked in with. You have Christ in you, and as He did in the gospels, He will manifest that part of God needed to meet a given need. 
 
The first group: Revelation gifts
I'll share about the discerning of spirits. This manifestation may be visual, or may be merely a knowing in your spirit as Jesus did with Peter's suggestion of not going to the cross, or of me with the lying spirit in the man in my office. It is not the 'gift of discernment', there is no such thing. It is the discerning of spirits. 
 
In John 1: 42-49 we have Andrew introducing Peter to Jesus, and then their friend Philip went to get his friend Nathanael to meet Jesus. As Nathanael approached, Jesus said, 'Behold, an Israelite in whom is no deception (guile)'. 
 
That was a manifestation of the discerning of spirits. Jesus instantly knew in HIs spirit the basic character of the man. This shows us the discerning of spirits can manifest relating to people, not just angels and demons. 
 
When Nathanael said, "You don't even know me, how can you say that" Jesus replied, "Before Philip invited you, I saw you sitting under the fig tree." 
 
This shows us that the discerning of spirits can also be visual. In fact, if we allow ourselves to expand this manifestation of the discerning of spirits to be a category, we would say all spiritual dreams, visions, and visitations from the Lord or angels would fall under the heading of the discerning of spirits. It is a knowing of the spiritual source and character of a person, angel, demon, word, or event, that comes supernaturally by revelation in word or visual (vision, dream, visitation). 
 
There is the natural ability to discern something is or isn't of God - you speak or do something you should not have said and immediately you feel grieved or dirty in your spirit. That is just being a human being with basic discernment between what you should or shouldn't have done or said. 
 
There is the normal 'this guy gives me the creeps' or 'this person has weird vibes around them' that is normal discernment we all have. What makes the manifestation of the Spirit the discerning of spirits is that He is the source of that knowing, it is an 'outside' revelation or vision from God - you suddenly know or see the character of a person or see a situation for the purpose of knowing if it is God or not. It isn't something in your spirit based on your own experience or knowledge, and that revelation helps you and/or others in that situation. 
 
Next week, words of knowledge, wisdom, and how manifestations of the 'gifts' manifest together....and some think they are then prophets...until then, blessings, 
John Fenn
www.churchwithoutwallsinternational.org or email me at [email protected]
 

Hi all,
 
What happened to Jesus upon His death? 
Having triumphed on the cross, it left Him free to move about at will in the spirit realm located in the lower parts of the earth. 
 
Ephesians 4:8-9:
"Therefore he says, 'When He ascended up on high, He led Captivity captive, and gave gifts to men'. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?" (Parts of the earth, plural)
 
Paul is sharing in Ephesians 4: 8-9 a partial quote from Psalm 68:18-20, and his original readers would have understood the fullness of the passage. It is so amazing I can't pass up the opportunity to share it:
 
"You have ascended on high, you have led Captivity captive; You have received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and to God the Lord belongs escape from death."
 
The difference between Paul's words being quoted 'gave gifts to men' in Ephesians and 'received gifts for men' in the Psalm reflect differences between Hebrew and Greek, translated to English and other languages - the fullness of some things don't get communicated when you switch between languages. The Hebrew says He received gifts FOR, and/or AMONG men that He might live among them. 
 
Notice the gifts Jesus received to give to mankind, are for and among the rebellious that God may live among them. In other words, He wants His gifts to be seen 'out there' and where Jesus most often demonstrated them, in homes and communities, neighborhoods and in normal life - among the unsaved, as Jesus lived among common people in everyday situations, manifesting the gifts of the Spirit which demonstrate the Father's heart.
 
Paul alludes to this in I Corinthians 14:22 when he says the gift of tongues that needs to be interpreted is a sign for those who don't believe, (tongues with interpretation being equal to prophecy) that when the unsaved come to your (house church as the context) meeting, they will see the supernatural and know God is in the midst. 
 
Gifts of healings are first and foremost for the unsaved that God may be seen to be living among them. Words of knowledge and words of wisdom are first that we may bless the unsaved with God's presence in their lives! Remember for all the gifts of healings in the gospels with Jesus, for all the miracles, prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom, not a single person before the resurrection was born again - Jesus did all those things among the unsaved. 
 
The next thing to point out 
Notice also in Psalm 68, the Hebrew word 'salvation' is 'Yeshua', or Jesus. In most cases in the Old Testament when you see the word 'salvation', in Hebrew it is 'Yeshua', so verse 20 reads like this: 
 
"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, even the God (Father) of our Jesus. Selah (Pause to think) He that is our God, is the God of Jesus; and to God the Lord (Jesus) belongs escape from death."
 
The lower parts of the earth: Hell, and Paradise 
At that time there was a place called Paradise, also called Abraham's bosom, also called Captivity, because it was where the righteous went when they died, held captive until sin was taken out of the way, which would allow them to then ascend to heaven. It is believed to have been park-like, with grass and trees and water, as the righteous awaited the final sacrifice. 
 
When Paul said Jesus at His resurrection ascended, taking Captivity captive, that is what he is talking about. Those in Captivity once held captive by the sin of the world, now captives of Life, free to ascend with Jesus to heaven. 
 
There was also hell, another holding place which exists to this day. It is described in Luke 16:19-31 as being adjacent to Paradise, so that those in hell could actually see Paradise across a chasm, though no one could pass over, either to escape hell or to cross from Paradise to render assistance to those in hell. These two places were called 'the lower parts of the earth' that Jesus descended into upon His death. Now there is but 1 place in the heart of the earth, hell. 
 
Hell was prepared, not created, but prepared according to Matthew 25:41 and Revelation 12:8 because there was found no place in heaven first for the rebelling angels, and later rebelling people. 
 
In an act of grace by our Father, because Satan wanted his own kingdom apart from all that is God, God gave him what he wanted (because God wasn't going to turn the universe over to him during his rebellion of course). So a kingdom was prepared for him, and that is hell, a kingdom without God, without love and joy and peace and all that is God - in the Father's ultimate fairness to the exercise of free will, a place has been prepared for those angels and people who do not want Him. 
 
Jesus describes it as a kingdom, saying "the gates of hell" cannot prevail against revelation from the Father in Matthew 16:18, which is a governmental term. Samson carried off the gates of Gaza*, showing he was now in charge. It was at the gates the city government would sit to judge matters or certify marriages and business contracts. Examples can be seen in Boaz going to the elders at the gates to marry Ruth*, Job talking of how he sat with the elders at the gates*, and how Absalom sat at the gates* undermining his father's judgements by making his own. *Judges 16:1-3, Ruth 4:1-2, Job 29: 6-8, II Samuel 15:1-6
 
Peter reveals in His descent into the lower parts of the earth, Jesus announced Himself to the 'spirits in prison' (hell) that had disobeyed Noah - I Peter 3:19-20. It is interesting that Peter didn't use the word 'evangelizo' which is where we get 'evangelize' when saying Jesus 'preached' to the spirits in prison, but rather 'kerusso', which means to announce, to proclaim - no invitation attached - just an announcement. What a long awaited "I told you so" confirmation for Noah! 
 
After spending time in both parts of the earth, the visit to hell being to announce His sacrifice and to confirm Noah's faith and action, He returned to Paradise to take them home. 
 
To this He refers in John 20:17 when He told Mary just after His resurrection not to detain Him for He had "not yet ascended." But, He said, "Go tell my brothers that I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God." That evening however, He came again to them and spent time with them, showing Him the wounds in His body, etc. (v19)
 
Hebrews 9:15-23 reveals what He did upon His resurrection day ascension beyond taking Paradise home. He entered into the heavenly holy place before the Father to present Himself and declared the Final Sacrifice, debt paid. That evening, having been given the name above all names, He appeared to the disciples, and throughout the next 40 days He appeared many more times before ascending 10 days before Pentecost. 40 days tempted at the start; 40 days in triumph at the end.
 
If Jesus did other things in the parts of the earth between the cross and resurrection, the Bible doesn't say, and to speculate would be pointless. Another subject next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.churchwithoutwallsinternational.org or cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]

Hi all,
You have no doubt heard stirring messages from the pulpit about the supposed battle between Jesus and Satan in the heart of the earth after Jesus died on the cross. But did that battle happen? 
 
I submit for your consideration the original Passover, which established the pattern for fulfillment of Jesus' final week. The original Passover week in Exodus 12-17 shows Israel came up out of the 'grave' of the Sea untouched by the enemy. There was no battle between Pharaoh and Israel in the 'grave' of the sea-bed. Israel came out of the grave, the enemy did not. 
 
I would suggest the cross was a legal transaction, rather than a military conflict.  
 
What happened on the cross?
Colossians 2:14-15 Amplified Version:
 
"...having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of legal demands which were in force against us and were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. When He had disarmed (spoiled) the rulers and authorities...He made a public example of them... having triumphed over them through the cross." 
 
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Sin, singular, not sins, plural. (John 1:29)
 
Here is Colossians 2:14-15 in the Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB):
 
"Having erased the hand signed sefer of guilt cholv (debt), the heavenly indictment against us in the maleh chukat haTorah (full statute requirement of the Torah), which was against us. Moshiach has done away with this opposing record, having nailed it to Moshiach's Etz*. Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, having triumphed over them by Moshiach's Etz*." (*Messiah's cross)
 
In other words 
First notice 'having triumphed over them through the cross' or 'through Messiah's cross'. That means the battle was won right there on the cross, not in the heart of the earth. No battle. 
 
Second, notice what the verses state: Your individual sins were not nailed to the cross, it was the legal requirement of God's perfect law that we could never fulfill that was nailed to the cross. It was the sin of the world, not your (individual) sins. 
 
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through (that) sin, so death spread to all people (no one being able to stop it or escape its power), because they all sinned." Romans 5:12 Amplified Bible
 
Jesus was the only man ever to live completely and fully without sin within God's requirements which un-did what Adam had allowed in to the earth. That made Him legally qualified to be the last sacrifice to fulfill those requirements which shut the door on sin's further influence over man. 
 
No mention of a battle is described 
In fact there is nothing in the New Testament that describes a battle in the earth between Jesus and the devil. As you can see, the issue with the devil was secondary. It wasn't about him, directly. 
 
Having nailed to the cross the "full statute requirement of the Torah", Jesus disarmed Satan. He un-did what Adam had done. Satan's power over us was sin and with those requirements met and taken out of the way, it shut the door he had on us. One thing led to the other. That's why Satan* never saw it coming. (*See I Corinthians 2:8)
 
With God's requirements taken out of the way, the Father is now free to offer the new birth to mankind. That which had stood between God and man was taken from between us, allowing God to recreate man in his spirit by His Spirit. Man could now be born again by the Spirit of God because the requirements had been met! 
 
The fact the devil is in the world through sin*, was secondary. By taking sin out of the way, He took the devil out of the way by shutting his access door (sin) into the lives of people. *II Corinthians 5:17-21, Romans 5:9-12
 
What is means for us, day to day
This means life with God is a process through which we learn what He provided for us in the cross, because though legally the shackles of sin have been removed, people by their choice, remain in those shackles. We could say it this way: Sinners sin because it is their nature* to do so; Christians sin by choice. *Ephesians 2:3
 
His grace is perfected* in our human frailty, we have this treasure in earthen vessels** that we may discover the unfathomable depths of what that transaction accomplished. Indeed, it is because of that transaction on the cross that Ephesians 2:6-7 says we are now seated in the heavenly places SO THAT IN THE AGES TO COME the Father can continue to show forth the riches of His grace which is towards us in Christ Jesus. *II Corinthians 12:9, **II Corinthians 4:7
 
The cross was about dying for all under sin, so He didn't die for Himself. That means the only sin not covered on the cross was the rejection of Him. That is the unpardonable sin. Because the agent of salvation is the Holy Spirit, to blaspheme (reject, reject the work of) the Holy Spirit is to reject Jesus as Lord. He died for others so He could not die for Himself. 
 
Once you understand your sins were not what was nailed to the cross, but rather God's statutes in the Torah for you to keep, then you understand the freedom of the new birth in Christ, and the deep responsibility. 
 
For the Law only measured action, but grace measures the heart. Therefore grace is much harder than the Law, demanding we actually walk with God so He can show us from our deepest motives how to live within each day, each situation. Jude said in v4: Don't turn the grace of God into a license for sin as some have done." He made us new creations in Him so that from the inside out we can walk in holiness with Him. Amazing grace! 
 
Next week, what Jesus did after His death on the cross in the heart of the earth. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn, www.churchwithoutwallsinternational.org and email me at [email protected]