Blog Archives

Personal tongues not a gift? 2 of 3, Receiving the Spirit

4/26/2025

Hi all,

There is an ancient Indian parable from 1500-1200BC of a group of blind men who had heard about a strange animal called an elephant, that had been brought into their village.

The blind men decided to feel this new animal to learn what it looked like. One man felt the trunk, and said it is like a thick snake. Another felt an ear, and said it was flat and wide like a large fan. Another felt a leg and said it was tall and straight like a tree trunk. Another felt its side and said it is tall and flat like a wall. Another felt the tail and said it was long and skinny like a rope. The last felt a tusk and said it was long like a spear.

They each concluded with confidence what an elephant looked like, but were totally wrong. They had some elements correct, but could not put all the parts together to gain an accurate understanding of what an elephant looks like because they were blind. Imagine being a sighted person very familiar with elephants observing the blind men and listening to their confident statements. That person with sight and experience had a fuller understanding of an elephant and could tell where each blind man was incorrect or only partially right.

When Christian pastors and teachers who do not have the Holy Spirit teach about the Holy Spirit, they are like the blind men in the parable. People seeking the truth get understandably confused due to all the conflicting teachings. But to those who have the Holy Spirit their teachings are obviously in error, like that sighted person listening to the blind men draw their incorrect conclusions about the elephant.

The blind teachers...
...have taught when a person is born again they also have the Holy Spirit. But that's not what Jesus taught and it is not what the apostles who wrote the New Testament believed, and it's not what Acts teaches.

When a person is born again, they receive the Holy Spirit's creative action that makes their old human spirit alive by God. The wineskin is made new. That person can now walk with God have some understanding of scripture, but they don't have the power that the Person of the Holy Spirit on them and in them brings. As Jesus said to the born again disciples:"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." Their wineskins were new, but the new wine hadn't been added to their wineskin yet. This is why the question Paul asked some 20 years after Pentecost:Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Acts 19:1-6

And I will add this on a personal note.
Paul understood there is often a gap between being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit, which is why he asked if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed. By the question we see Paul believed a born again Christian does not yet actually have the Holy Spirit. Consider that - the author of most of the NT did not believe a born again Christian had received the Holy Spirit. Adjust what you believe to what Paul believed.

For me, it was several months between me being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit. After I was born again a few weeks I thought there had to be more, for I wasn't seeing the intimacy with the Lord nor power they had in Acts and NT letters. I asked the Father; "I don't want to be ungrateful, but is this all there is? I thought there would be more power, more of your presence in my life."

Within a day or two of asking the Father if there was more, my own mother told me about receiving the Holy Spirit. Then the girl Janny, who led me to the Lord, told me about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I began studying about it, reading books about it, learning all I could. Janny's boyfriend and future husband had led her to the Lord and to receiving the Holy Spirit, and she led me, and I led my girlfriend and future wife, Barb.

2 ways to receive the Holy Spirit
Barb received the Holy Spirit all by herself as she worshipped. I received with some difficulty, by the laying on of hands. These are the 2 ways presented in scripture to receive. In Acts 2:44 and 10:44 the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began speaking in tongues.

I want to encourage everyone who is seeking the Holy Spirit not to be pressured by group babbling, imitating someone's tongues, or other group think or peer pressure. The Lord will meet you according to your personality, for He created you. For instance, Barb is more introverted than I am. She is private, so it was no surprise when we were teenagers dating that she felt she needed to be by herself, in her room, worshipping the Lord. That is how she received. Perhaps you too are a private person, and would receive better if you were alone, worshipping the Lord, pouring the deepest part of your heart out to the Lord in worship and love, and letting Him work through you.

In Acts 8:14-17 and 19:1-6 the Holy Spirit was received by the laying on of hands. These are the only 2 ways of receiving the Holy Spirit seen in scripture. I am more outgoing so I didn't mind when Barb, and our friends Janny and Vic who had brought us along in the Lord, laid hands on me to receive the Holy Spirit.

We were teens out for a drive in the country in Vic's Ford Mustang Mach II, fastback (if you're old enough to remember that model). We found a place out in the country to park, and we sat on the grass in a circle, holding hands and they prayed for me. I had filled my head with every teaching on the subject available in 1975. I read people who were the equivalent of one of those blind men feeling part of an elephant which brought confusion. I also read 'They Speak with Other Tongues' by John Sherrill, which answered some questions, and other books and opinions in between. My head was so filled with other people's words I had a difficult time switching my mind to what was going on in my spirit.

As I quietly worshipped the Lord, telling Him from my own thoughts how much I loved Him, Janny said I would see or sense floating across my mind suggestions of syllables, letters, letter combinations, and she said just by faith speak them out as I felt or saw them. For me, it was visual, when my eyes were closed it was like letters and syllables moving from right to left one after another, and I just spoke them out.

I became so focused on that that I became unaware of Barb, Janny, Vic, or anything around me. I was completely unaware any longer of sitting in a circle holding hands. I was for the first time in my life 'In the Spirit' as John calls it in The Revelation 1:10 and 4:2. All had disappeared except those words and my worship of the Father and Lord.

Breaking into my 'condition' out of my left ear I heard Janny say:"You've got it Johnny, you've got it", and I was back in the natural. I then listened to what I was saying, for I thought I was praying a beautiful language full of syllables and rolling like a river with sounds delighting the ear. But all I was saying was:"abba abba abba abba abba abba." I realized since my dad had left our family about 4 1/2 years earlier, my heart's cry was for a father - my spirit could only speak 'abba' for the next day, such was the longing within me for a father.

How my prayer language changed and why tongues isn't something you wait on God for, next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

0 Comments

Personal tongues isn't a gift...? 1 of 3

4/19/2025

0 Comments

Hi all,

I commonly receive questions about tongues, often saying they don't have that gift. They see there are gifts of healings, gifts of the word of knowledge, gifts of helps, gifts of giving and mercy and serving, but they lack the gift of tongues.

This results in a "have and have not" understanding of God. Sometimes they are convinced it isn't for them by God's choice. Sometimes they have had hands laid on them and nothing happened, and sometimes gibberish was heard by those trying to 'coach' them in tongues. Sometimes they have been taught tongues has passed with the original apostles but are seeking the truth.

This study may require you to rethink what you have assumed to be true for years.

What Jesus taught
In Luke 5:36-38 Jesus spoke a parable:"You cannot put new wine into an old wineskin, because the new wine would destroy the old wineskin. You must first make the wineskin new, then you can add the new wine and both will be preserved." The wineskin is the human spirit, the new wine is the Holy Spirit. A wineskin in that day was a leather pouch, a bottle. Old ones would dry out and crack, and filling them full with new wine would cause them to leak or split.

The wineskin/human spirit, must be made new. Can you imagine having a regular human spirit, someone who isn't born again, suddenly have the Holy Spirit put into them? Jesus said it would destroy them.

But when we make that decision for Jesus, the Holy Spirit is thereby licensed to recreate our human spirit. We are 'born again' to quote Jesus in John 3:3. That is the new birth, being born again in your spirit. Then the new wine, which is the Holy Spirit, may be added. Therefore as seen in His parable, it is possible for a person to have a new wineskin (born again) but not have the new wine yet (Holy Spirit).

The new wineskin is capable of having wine poured into it, but it doesn't have to have wine in it; it is still a wineskin. This means a person can be born again, but they may or may not have the Holy Spirit in them. It shows us a gap of time between the making the new wineskin and the adding of the new wine. All that and more in this little parable.

New wineskin:
In John 20:22 the risen Jesus is seen by His disciples, and He breathed on them:"Receive the Holy Spirit...", talking about the action of the Holy Spirit to recreate their spirits. Their 'wineskins' were made new when they believed in the risen Lord. They were born again at that point. But they did not yet have the new wine added - they hadn't received the Holy Spirit Himself to abide within them; their spirits were recreated by Him though so they could move in the things of God.

Think about that - most people don't know what Jesus taught. Many Christians think a person receives the person of the Holy Spirit as soon as they believe. Jesus taught the Holy Spirit makes their spirit new, but receiving the Holy Spirit is a separate:It is the filling of the wineskin.

40 days later Jesus told them:"Wait for the promise from the Father, for you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days....You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you..." That is the Holy Spirit being added to their new 'wineskins'. Jesus showed Himself alive for 40 days and it was 10 days later that Pentecost came. Acts 1:5, 8

They were born again upon seeing the resurrected Lord, but they didn't have the person of the Holy Spirit until Pentecost. There was a total of 50 days between Jesus' resurrection and Pentecost. This gap of time between being born again and later receiving the Holy Spirit was common in their day too. This is why about 20 years after Pentecost, in Acts 19:1-6 Paul comes upon about 12 men who he assumes have been born again, asking:"Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?"

This shows us that even back then, just 20 years after Pentecost, there was often a time-lag between being born again (new wineskin) and receiving the Holy Spirit (new wine). It shows Paul's belief a person could be born again, but NOT HAVE the Holy Spirit. "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?" Adjust our theology to the Bible.

In Acts 10:39-48 Peter is telling the (Roman) Gentile household of Cornelius that Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father, and all who believe in Him will receive the remission of sins. Immediately after these words the Holy Spirit came on them all...And they (Jewish) who came with Peter were astonished; "For upon Gentiles was the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out."

The gift of....?
Most English reading Christians understand that verse to mean the gift of the Holy Spirit is tongues. Actually, the Greek says the gift is the Holy Spirit, with tongues merely being a manifestation of someone having received the gift which is the Holy Spirit.

That is why in Acts 2:38 when Peter is asked by the people what they must do, Peter responds (Greek):"Peter then to them repent he declared and be baptized every one of you to the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins of you and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit IS the gift.

I quote Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words:"the gift of the Holy Ghost," the "gift" being the Holy Ghost Himself; Reference (Acts) 10:45; 11:17 and the phrase, "the gift of righteousness," Romans 5:17."

Acts 11:16-17 make if clear what happened in Acts 10 at Cornelius' house was about the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter retells the story saying:"So if God gave them the same gift He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, how could I resist God...?"

Vine lists Acts 10:45 as the same grammatically, where the Jews with Peter in the Gentile home of Cornelius are shocked that God poured out 'the gift of the Holy Spirit' on Gentiles - the Holy Spirit IS the gift, the evidence of having that gift was tongues. But tongues isn't the gift in these passages, it's just a manifestation of receiving the Holy Spirit.

Vine also points out the same grammar used in Romans 11:17 with the phrase 'the gift of righteousness.' The gift IS righteousness. There is nothing secondary, righteousness IS the gift, as in Acts 2:38 the Holy Spirit IS the gift, and Acts 10:45 where the Holy Spirit IS the gift.

Let that sink in...
All these years you have probably read the "the gift of the Holy Spirit" in Acts 2:38 and 10:44-45 as the gift of tongues. What a shock to learn the gift both Peter and Paul saying the gift IS the Holy Spirit. Tongues is merely something others hear that confirms a person has received the Holy Spirit, who is the gift. The question is:Do you want the Holy Spirit? I said at the start this series may be a cause to reexamine what you believe, lol.

Next week, walking through Acts to see what Peter and Paul and the rest believed....until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

0 Comments

God shows the finished vision? Confusion. 3 of 3

4/12/2025

0 Comments

Hi all,

In The Revelation 19:10 it says this:"...the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy."

It means that any prophetic word won't be about us, it won't boost our ego, it will always be about the Lord. Simple prophecy is a divinely inspired word for us or someone else that brings "edification, exhortation, or comfort." That is Paul's definition of simple prophecy in I Corinthians 14:3. It has nothing to do with the future, and it will always point a person to Jesus - He is our builder, the one who encourages us, the one to bring us comfort.

When the Lord does give a prophetic word or vision for our future, it too will be about Jesus. If you have a prophecy that focuses on how you will preach to millions, or minster in a stadium or be on TV, or anything else that would give your ego a boost - it isn't a true word from the Lord, or at least it is polluted by the giver's fleshly additions. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, so if you are mentioned at all, it will be secondary to His work and His vision and His goals for you.

I once had a woman give me a 20 page prophecy (written front and back sides of each page) some so called prophet had given her - she transcribed it from the recording. She asked what I thought of it. The truth made her angry, for the first 3 sentences were of God, the rest of the 20 pages was just fluff, using many words to say nothing, and what was said made her sound like God's gift to the world. Part of what confirmed it was mostly ego boosting false prophecy was she was so angry with me she hasn't spoken to me since, lol. She wanted a confirming word about her greatness, but I am bound to telling the truth....

Yes, of course a prophecy may include you and His plans for you, but as you fit in HIS plans, it isn't about you. In Acts 9 when the Lord appears to Paul as he was about to enter Damascus, He told Paul a few things about his ministry. But He also blinded him for 3 days, just to remove his ego out of the call on his life. He wanted him to know Jesus is boss and it is all about what He wants to do in Paul's life.

Important:The reason for the promises of God
Is not first and foremost as answers to our prayers or what we are 'believing God for.'

II Peter 1:3-4:"His divine power has given everything we need in life and godliness, through Him who has called us to glory and virtue. Through these (life and godliness) He has given to us very great and precious promises, that by these we might come into fellowship of the divine nature..."

The Greek word 'fellowship' or 'partaker' or 'participant' is 'koinonos', meaning 'in common' and the root is translated 'fellowship'. It means the promises are given so we might fellowship with Him in the divine nature as we wait for the fulfillment of those promises, or provision.

The higher truth is that each promise is given that we might partake in fellowship with Him, in His divine nature. The fastest way to receive a promise from God is very often, to set that promise aside and focus on knowing Him and character growth in Him.

That is exactly why Peter immediately encourages us in the next verses, 5-8, to build on our most holy faith, virtue (moral excellence), knowledge, self-control, consistency in that self-control, godliness, brotherly love, unconditional love, for "if these things are in you and abounding, THEY will make you so that you are not ineffective nor unfruitful in your walk with the Lord Jesus."

Marriage? It's about making that couple holy. Friendship? It's about making that friendship holy. People in your church? It's about perfecting holiness in them and you. School, work, neighborhood relations? It's all about holiness and you and they partaking in the divine nature. It's all been provided, but it is first and foremost about fellowshipping with Him in the divine nature.

What has been provided flows through the conduit of our fellowship with Him in His divine nature.

Confusion about the how, when, and why
The name Habakkuk means 'to embrace', and many have said he had this name because he embraced or wrestled with God. The rabbi's say he was the son of promise of the Shunammite woman of II Kings 4:16, but we have no way to confirm that. The issue in chapter 1 of Habakkuk is that he doesn't understand God's plan. How could a righteous God work through the sins of evil people, even evil empires like the Assyrians, enemies of Israel? Why would a righteous God allow His own people to be judged by an evil empire?

v13:"Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot look upon iniquity. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent when the evil man devours a man who is righteous?" He didn't understand the word of the Lord. He didn't understand how the vision and promise could be so great while he saw the opposite happening before his eyes.

In 2:1 he has had enough and says:"I will stand my watch, I will wait for Him for Him here on this tower and just see how He answers me." (Stubborn and arrogant wasn't he?). In v2 the Lord refuses to answer his questions, but commands:"Write the vision, make it plain for all to read so that he who passes by may know. For the vision is for a future appointed time....but the just will live by is own faith..."

"The just shall live by his (own) faith." That exact line is quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38, in each instance having to do with not understanding everything, but walking with Him in faith. We may not understand why the vision says this, but circumstances say that. Yet we are told to hold onto that vision, even if it means realizing it is for a future appointed time.

Your faith isn't the issue
In Hebrews 4 the author is comparing the Old Testament with the New Testament, writing how Joshua could not give Israel rest even though they had entered the Promised Land. He makes the point that Jesus is our rest. He is the Sabbath, which is what the 7th day rest prophesied about. He is what the Sabbath rest is about. It prophesied a time when God would rest, ceasing His efforts towards the sin of mankind, by giving us His rest - Jesus. It also prophesies a future time when the earth would be at rest, for the Person who is the Sabbath will live with mankind.

The point in v10-16 is that if we have Jesus was have that Sabbath rest. Every day is a Sabbath rest for those who have Christ in them. Therefore the effort is not to believe, but to rest. "Let us work to enter into that rest, for he who has believed has entered into His rest, having ceased their own efforts." It means your faith isn't the issue, your level of rest is the issue.

When God gives a promise, and we are doing the best we can to walk with Him so that it will happen, we can't do it out of our own strength. Faith feels like peace. Period. Faith feels like peace. To have peace about any situation, you must stop your own works. That is the labor, that is the effort, to get into that peace by stilling the mind, rejecting the mental arguments, rejecting the habit of measuring your salvation by feelings or what things look like. At some point we must come to the end of ourselves, and rest. Stop it. Just stop it. Learn to quiet the mind, redirecting thoughts to the promise. Redirecting emotions to line up with what God says about you.

And then - peace becomes like a high wall protecing our hearts and minds as the flaming arrows of the enemy bounce off it. Labor to enter into that rest, that peace, and then guard it by refusing emotions and thoughts that would give you reasons not to be at peace. Hold onto the vision God has given you, but don't measure its legitimacy or how near it might be to fullfilment, by the circumstances swirling around you now. Don't measure God's promise by how you feel, or what others say. Go back to the last thing you know that you know the Lord told you - and hold onto it, even if just in your heart, privately between you and the Lord - and rest in that promise. Enter into that rest, that peace, and stay there as you go about your business in life.

New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

0 Comments

God shows the finished vision? Hindrances 2 of 3

4/5/2025

0 Comments

Hi all,

In September of 1977 Barb and I were in college, praying one night during which the Lord spoke to us about our future.

Hindrance:Not understanding the gap between the vision and the completion
We were in college according to our parent's requirements, but our hearts were for ministry. We didn't want to waste 4 years and our parent's money to drift along getting a degree we'd not use, but we didn't know how the Lord was leading.

As we prayed, Barb saw a vision of her standing in front of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with the Lord before her. He put His hands on her shoulders and turned her around, now with the mountains at her back, to see east as far as the eye could see. It was covered with ripe wheat, and each head of wheat was a human face. He spoke to her about our call in ministry. As that was happening with her, He was telling me that we could get married the following September, that we would we were to move to Boulder, Colorado at the foot of the mountains, and:"After that I'll give you a ranch."

That was September of 1977, and we were married a year later. Everything happened exactly as shown, and after graduating from Bible school, we moved to Boulder. We kept looking for that ranch, not understanding at that time prophecies are often given one right after the other making it sound like one immediately follows the other.

An example of this is Luke 4:18-20 where the Lord reads Isaiah 61:1-2. "To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God..." Jesus stopped mid-sentence:"To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Then He sat down not finishing the sentence, saying that first part had been fulfilled.

Isaiah wrote it as if the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance were at the same time. Jesus stopped mid-sentence, showing a gap. There have been 2,000 years between 'the acceptable year of the Lord' and 'the day of vengeance of our God.' (His return) Jesus couldn't tell them of a 2,000 year time of the Gentiles between the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance (His return).

Not understanding this at the time, Barb and I were looking for that ranch after moving to Boulder, because He had said, "After that I'll give you a ranch." We didn't know how long 'after that' would be. We often drove the area, looking for a property that bore witness in our spirit. There were many properties we could see in our mind's eye what it could be, what the Lord could use it for. But nothing had the witness of the Holy Spirit with it, so we didn't buy anything. When we moved from Colorado in December of 1992, we put that prophecy aside, 'on a shelf' as we say, to be taken down off the shelf should that word ever happen.

The prophecy when we were in college was in September of 1977. We moved to Boulder in May of 1980. He gave us a ranch largely through an inheritance that came in 1997, a full 20 years after the prophecy and 10 years after leaving Boulder! He told us of moving to Boulder, showed us the fullness of our ministry, and told us of a ranch all at the same time. How were we to know the fulfillment of the promised ranch would take 20 years?

How many people have received a vision from the Lord about their life, then spent time and money looking for that vision, wondering what happened, where it is, when will it happen?

Why it seems like 'do it now':God is timeless:I AM
Because He is independent of time, when He tells you something, it feels like NOW. It feels like you must do this now, because to Him, everything is in the present, so that is how it feels in our spirit. NOW. But it's not. We are expected to use common sense and do our part in the natural, staying within balance and good business sense.

The book of Acts is written in chronological order covering a span of about 30 years, with only 1007 verses and 28 chapters to cover those 30 years. There are many details missing. One detail Paul fills in for us later is that after he met Jesus in Acts 9, he talked to no one, but went into the deserts of Arabia for 3 years. He writes in Galatians 1:12-19, Acts 26:16 what he learned was by Jesus apparing to him and teaching him.

But in Acts 26:17 when Paul is telling his testimony to King Agrippa, he quotes the Lord when He appeared to him on the Damascus road:"...delivering you from the people, and the Gentiles, unto whom NOW I send you." Jesus had told him NOW I send you to the Gentiles, but it was over 3 years before that happened. When God speaks, it seems like NOW because He is the I AM, the ever present one.

Hindrance:Distractions
Not keeping your eye on the promise. We are told in Acts 7:22 that Moses was educated in the ways of the Egyptians, and history says he was a great military commander. But when he was 40 years old he killed an Egyptian who was abusing an Israelite, thinking that would start a civil war. We know this because v25 says:"For he thought (Gk:nomizo, to think, suppose, assume) his brethren would have understood by his hand God would deliver them, but they didn't understand."

The Hollywood movie 'The Ten Commandments" portrays Moses at age 80 learning he was the deliverer when the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush. But Acts 7:22-25 tells us he knew he was the deliverer at age 40. That mistake cost him 1/3 of his life, fleeing Egypt not understanding what went wrong.

But we are told in Hebrews 11:27 says:"By faith he abandoned Egypt, not having feared the wrath of the king, he endured as one seeing the invisible." The Greek word translated 'endured' is kartereo, which in Latin is charta, which came to mean a map or writing down (a route or path to take).

What Hebrews 11:27 tells us is that Moses still held the vision in his heart, he knew he was the deliverer, he just didn't know how it would happen. He had thought he would use his military abilities to rally Israel against the Egyptians. Though he didn't understand how he missed it, he still held onto the vision refusing to be distracted by having to set up life doing something else for the time being.

Hindrance:Taking obstacles as you are out of His will
In Genesis 12:1-10 we are told Abram was commanded by the Lord to leave his father's house and walk to a Promised Land. When he arrived in what is now Israel, v7 says the Lord appeared to him again, and told him essentially, 'This is it.' In verses 8 and 9 Abram walks the land and sets up home. Then in v10 it says:"And there was famine in the land, and Abram moved to Egypt because the famine was very severe where he was."

In verse 7 the Lord told him he had arrived in the Promised Land, and after he had fully set up his home and life in this new land, there was such a severe famine he had to move to Egypt to be able to live. That means a famine in your promised land isn't necessarily an indicator that you missed God. The Lord did nothing to stop the famine, He had not warned Abram a famine was coming. Abram had to make the decision to move to Egypt until the famine was over.

Go back to the last thing you know that you know the Lord told you. Make sure you have done all you know to do in the natural. Then, if a 'famine' has hit you, do what would be right and prudent to do in the natural, as Abram did. What I see repeatedly is that people stay in the 'land of famine' refusing to do common sense and what is right and prudent in the natural, and end up starving - using all their resources rather than adapting to changing circumstances.

The reasons for giving us the full vision as we conclude this series next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

0 Comments