Hi all,
I started this series talking about how the Lord moves in seasons while we tend to move in minutes and seconds. But recognizing His seasons in our lives is essential to walking with Him. Those seasons are at His pace, not ours. We must learn to slow down and realize He takes the long view - He has invested in us for eternity, already planning to show us how much He loves us in the ages to come according to Ephesians 2:7 - so we must learn to get our eyes off ourselves and our temporary human frailties and just walk with Him. 
 
We tend to turn inward about how we have failed God, or what sinners we are, or surely God must not like me, and that's just plain wrong. We need to turn to the big picture by getting our eyes off ourselves, stop dividing our thoughts between the present and looking in the rearview mirror of life, and move on...He has! 
 
The seasons of your life are no longer yours to control - they belong to Him
In John 7:4-8 Jesus' unbelieving brothers sarcastically told Him to go up to the feast for if He was from God then the things He was saying and doing should be done in public. Fortunately at least 2 of his brothers, James and Jude, later believed in Jesus and we have the New Testament letters of James and Jude testifying of that. (Matthew 13:55 lists them by name)
 
But Jesus told them in v6, "My season is not yet, but your season is always ready."
 
Before we knew the Lord we determined where we would live, where we would work, where we would go to school - our season was always ready, always subject to our slightest mood, whim, or change of plans. We determined the timing of our lives in all things. 
 
Now that we know Him, we submit those seasons of our lives to Him for guidance, input, opinion, and direction. This is where many stumble, being so afraid of missing His perfect will that they won't make a move - paralyzed by fear. But seasons are longer in duration and within each season there is much room for movement and change. Spring can see everything from snow to warm sunshine - there is great movement within each season - and we shouldn't be afraid of missing it once we identify what season with God we are in, and what His purpose is.
 
God's ability to teach within any season of life is unequalled
Ecclesiastes 3:1 starts out saying: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." Solomon goes on to list some of those times and seasons which include a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest, and many other times and seasons, concluding in v10; "I have seen the travail which God has given to mankind to be trained in it." 
 
This says God has given us these seasons of life to be trained in them. Whatever you are going through, it is for training, the benefits of which may not even be realized in this life, but in the age to come. There is something God can use from what you are going through, even if Satan in the midst of God's season, has done something horrible to you. The larger picture is the Lord is the Master at turning that which the enemy means for our destruction, into something that helps grow us in Christ. 
 
That which has past, is now...
Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 tells us "I know that whatever God does, it will be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor can anything be taken from it, and God does it that men would fear (reverential fear) Him. That which has been is now; and that which will be has already been; and God requires that which is past." 
 
There is a lot in those 2 verses, but know that whatever God is doing in you right now, it is for eternity - it will be forever. How many things in life that you experience or set your hand to do can you say will be forever? Yet what the Lord does in us is forever - so go with the process, learn what you can in this season - it is eternal!
 
The other thing to see is this fact: That which has been, is now, and whatever will be has already been. God requires that which is past. It means if you don't learn the lesson now, you'll be faced with in on down the road in your future. 
 
I was recently talking to a person contemplating moving to another part of the country for a fresh start, yet I knew the character and maturity issues the Lord was trying to work in them. So I told them they could go to all the expense and effort of moving, but within a short time they would be facing those same issues again - you can't run from God. Bloom where you are planted. Deal with the issue in your heart now, or you will see it again. 
 
Verse 15 says God requires that which is past. It means He requires us to master our past, master the issues in the past - whether that be working through the injustices we've suffered, the mistakes we've made, or blessings we've seen - it means we are expected to learn and grow from what we've experienced!
 
Encouragement 
If you have ever noticed that God tends to make seasonal changes in your life at the same time nature changes seasons, there is a reason for that - He moves in times and seasons and as part of His creation, so do we. So many people had a rough late winter and early spring ranging from the death of loved ones to financial crisis to wondering what is next for them in life.
 
What I encourage you with is that God moves in seasons, and there is a certain trust in that - that He has the seasons under His control, in His timing, and we are to just learn what we can in these seasons. He is faithful, but the beauty of each season isn't usually seen until near the end of that season. Spring starts off looking like winter, but the full beauty of springtime is seen very close to the end of the season of spring. 
 
Allow each season to come to its fullness. What so many do is see off in the distance the next season, and they want to jump right into that season before experiencing the fullness of the season they are in...just wait...let whatever season you are in fully develop within you - you will know deep within, in your spirit, when the seasons change.
 
I just wanted to take a couple of weeks to talk about changing seasons to encourage you; whatever you are going through, something can be learned from it, growth and character can be developed within, and a season of rest will come after all that growth and stretching and character building. A quote from Mother Teresa that is appropriate here is this: "I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just with He didn't trust me so much." 
 
And yet something the Lord told me, which is a play on words in English: "I am; I am always present, so you must e in the present to be in my presence." 
 
Be in the present. Be in the moment. See how you can know Him today, now, in this season, in this day...be present with Him right now. Not mentally nor emotionally in the past, nor watching with one fearful eye on the future - but be in the present so you can be in His presence. He is always present, so to walk with Him you too have to be in the present. 
 
That's it...new subject next week...love people, build bridges when they allow you to, and know the beauty of this season will be seen in its fullness...
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
 

Hi all,
In Genesis 1:14 God made the lights (stars and planets) to shine through the water atmosphere of the earth saying, "Let them be for signs, for seasons, for days, for years...to give light upon the earth (v15)...and it was so." 
 
This was not the creation of light, which was described in 1:3 in the famous words 'Let there be light', or more literally, 'Light. Be.' 
 
The light of Genesis 1:14 is the recognition that physical light is God's creation made to serve Him and His purposes, and is therefore now ordered to provide such to the planet and its inhabitants. It is within these boundaries man's life exists, and within which He asks us to walk with Him. 
 
But I live in minutes and seconds!
God moves in signs, seasons, days, years. The trouble is, we live in minutes and seconds. We get upset if a 2 hour high definition movie takes longer than mere seconds to load onto our electronic device. We cook food by microwave in minutes. If we are in a drive-through lane at a fast food restaurant more than 3 or 4 minutes we get agitated and wonder what is taking so long with the car in front of us. We wonder as we sit at a red light with no traffic around if we should run it, or wait for it to turn green. We expect life to move in seconds, and we therefore expect God to do the same as we try to make Him into our image, rather than us into His. 
 
But He isn't moving. He moves in signs, seasons, days and years. Period. Get used to it. With Him, slow down. Waaaayyyyy down. Learn to meet Him in His seasons of your life. Pursue the seasons of God in your life. (My book which details some of the early visitations with the Lord and my angel is called, Pursuing the Seasons of God). If you want to walk with Him, learn to appreciate a slower pace, develop your own culture of solitude as Abraham did when he stood under the stars at night contemplating the things of God and communing with Him. The Father isn't into performance based faith, He is into the process within the relationship.
 
The season of spring in the northern hemisphere looks like winter when it starts. But soon things begin to come alive, plants green, flowers bloom, and the end of spring looks almost like summer - like baby summer. The end of the spring looks very different from the start. Such is our seasons of life in Christ. More on this later...
 
How then do we then, who live in a world that runs faster than God, walk with Him? How do we live in the physical world by minutes and seconds while within us He is moving in signs, seasons, days and years? Externally we live in minutes and seconds. Christ in us moves in signs, seasons, days, and years. 
 
What those Hebrew words of Genesis 1:14 mean
The word 'sign' is 'oth' in Hebrew, and is used when God puts a 'mark' (sign) on Cain in 4:15, and is used of the rainbow as a 'token' (sign) in 9:12. One meaning would be the constellations, the zodiac - the original meaning of the 12 signs shows the story of Messiah and redemption on the earth. (I have a cd/mp3 series on this subject if interested), but if you go back to the original star names and constellations, you'll find the zodiac starts with Virgo the virgin giving birth to a son, all the way to Gemini, originally a bride and groom not twins (twisted by the Greeks), to the outpouring of the water of the Spirit in Aquarius to the return of Christ and destruction of Draco the Dragon. As the Rabbi's teach, Adam, Seth, and Enoch had perfect knowledge of the world and understood how it all worked.
 
Another application of 'sign' is that most basic; a marker for longer periods of time - era, epoch, age. These are the longer stretches of time, sum totals of many years, which gives us understanding that in God's mind, there are larger divisions of how He deals with man. This is confirmed in Ephesians 2:7 where we are told the Father God will "in the ages to come He will continue to show the incomparable riches of His grace, in HIs kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." The ages to come. Signs.
 
Spiritually these larger ages of our short lives might be compared to the maybe 20 years a parent has with children in the home. It may be the celebration of a 50th wedding anniversary or the retiring of a faithful employee after 20, 30, or 40 years of employment at a company. 
 
A smaller unit of measuring time is 'seasons', and many seasons may make a 'sign' or age. Seasons here is both literally the seasons of the year, and therefore seasons in our own lives - the length of time a child is in diapers, the time where we are led to a particular church and then God moves us on, the season where God deals with us about a particular issue, and then He moves on to deal with us in another area. Interestingly, as we've all experienced, Satan (that infamous counterfeiter of the genuine) also tests us in seasons of time before backing off for a more opportune time. As seen in Luke 4:13 with the temptation of Jesus: "And when the devil had finished all his temptations, he left Him for a season."
 
It is interesting to note that next God mentions 'days and years'. Not years and days, continuing the flow from larger spans of time to shorter, but rather grouping 'days and years' together, with emphasis on 'days'. Of course many days comprise a year, but by mentioning days first, it shows us God is emphasizing each day in our life as a focus point. 
 
The scriptures are full of references to making this day, this morning, count for the Lord. As a time to spend with Him, as a time understood as if each day is a bowl that can contain only a certain amount of trouble and worry, for tomorrow a new bowl is before us. Jesus said 'each day has enough evil of its own' in Matthew 6:34 in His exhortation to deal with today while it is day - tomorrow will come soon enough. 
 
In the midst of his funeral dirge and mourning for the now destroyed city of Jerusalem and the carrying away of many captives to Babylon, Jeremiah yet said through his tears: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in Him." Lamentations 3:21-24
 
We need to recognize each age, each season, each day and year spiritually, in our lives, and find God within. Each marker of time has a purpose...but to learn how to find that purpose we have to understand this: Before you were born again, you set your own seasons, but now we submit our seasons to Him. As Shakespeare said, 'therein lies the rub' (Hamlet). We want to govern our seasons, but so does God...
 
And we'll pick it up there next week, until then, blessings!
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
 

Hi all,
 
The infamous start of David and Bathsheba's relationship is well known, and you'll recall earlier in this series I shared the twist that David's closest advisor, Ahithophel, was Bathsheba's grandfather, and became co-conspirator against David with Absalom. Yet from this dysfunctional family came Solomon, and together with his father's reign, comprised the 'Golden Age' of Israel, from 1010 BC to 931BC - a long time ago. Today, another love story with a twist involving this family.
 
Why David and Solomon were unique
David was unique in that he walked in several New Testament realities while still deep in the Old Testament. He did things that so violated the guidelines of the day that others would never have thought of doing. Yet God honored him. 
 
For instance, in I Samuel 21:1-6 David was very hungry and demanded to eat the 'Shewbread', which is bread put in the Holy Place reserved for the Priests, representing man living by every Word God speaks to him. Inside the veil was also a Menorah which represented the Holy Spirit and His manifestations/gifts, and the altar of incense which represents prayers coming before God. Yet David ate the holy bread - you and I could eat it for Christ is in us, but no so back then. 
 
The biggest New Testament truth he walked in is recorded in II Samuel 6:12-19. David brought the Ark of the Covenant into the city and quite simply 'pitched a tent' and put it in it. That's right, he did not follow the guidelines given to Moses from the Father - no altar of sin offerings representing the cross, no laver for the priests to then wash with representing the washing of the Word. No first veil behind which should have been the shewbread, menorah, and incense. No inner veil hiding the Ark of the Covenant. None of that. He simply put the Ark of the Covenant in wide open view to everyone, covered by a tent and David danced and worshipped before the Lord. 
 
You and I could walk up to or even handle the Ark of the Covenant because Christ lives in us - but not so back then - yet He walked in NT truth by just pitching a tent and walking right up to the Ark and danced before the Lord. Wow. One reason David walked in NT truth is because he actually knew the Lord - Christ. David wrote in Psalm 110:1: "The Lord (Father) said to my Lord (Christ), Be seated at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool..." In II Samuel 23:2-3 David acknowledged "...the Lord spoke by me; His Word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me..." 
 
And in Acts 2:24-31 Peter tells us David "...saw the Lord before my face; at my right hand that I shall not be moved" and when writing Psalm 16 saying of Christ: "...and you won't leave my soul in hell, nor allow your Holy One to see corruption", he did so Peter said: "He seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that (the Father) would not leave Him in hell nor allow His body to see corruption." David saw by the Spirit the resurrection of his Lord more than 1000 years before it happened!
 
Solomon also saw the Lord
In I Kings 3: 1-15/II Chronicles 1:7-12 the Lord (Christ) appeared to Solomon in a dream during which He asked Solomon what he wanted. Solomon asked for wisdom and understanding, and the Lord gave it to him. Solomon saw the Lord a second time as well, in II Kings 9:2-9/II Chronicles 7:12-22. The second visitation from the Lord included a warning to him to walk with the Lord, and includes the often quoted verse; "If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray..."
 
Sadly, I Kings 11:6-9 tells us: "Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord as did David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice." Because the Lord had appeared to him 2x more was expected of Solomon.
 
The twist
As we read Solomon's Proverbs, chapters 1-9, we find many instructions starting with 'My son listen to my words'. When reading these instructions the reader assumes Solomon is talking to his readers, or maybe to his own son, and while those things could be true, the deeper meaning is revealed in chapter 4 when Solomon switches to the first person, speaking of himself starting in v3: "Listen to the instruction of a father...for I was my father's son (David's son), tender and beloved in the sight of my mother (Bathsheba). He (David) taught me and said to me, Let you heart retain my words, keep my commandments and live; Get wisdom. Get understanding...wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding."
 
Is it any wonder when the Lord first appeared to Solomon that he asked for wisdom? It was his father, King David, who drilled that into Solomon, and so when the Lord appeared to him, he knew what to ask for. When we read the rest of Proverbs 4 through 9 we must realize Solomon is still quoting his father, which started in 4:4. Thus, when we read in 4:10, 20, 5:1, 6:1, 20, 7:1 all the way through chapter 9 'my son' we must understand he is still quoting David, and we are reading the one time private words of David (and Bathsheba) to their son...wow! Solomon quotes his father through chapter 9, and he quotes he Person of Wisdom Himself in chapter 8. 
 
Again, 4:3-4 starts with Solomon quoting his father telling him to get wisdom saying, 'He said to me...' and the whole of Proverbs through chapter 9 is quoting David. It isn't until chapter 10:1 that Solomon ends the quoting of his father and starts his own words, saying "The Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son makes a glad father..." The twist is the father's love for his son, to invest time and energy and the pouring of his heart, and his mother's heart, into their son, Solomon. 
 
I encourage you to read Proverbs 1 through 9 in an easy to read translation, and realize you are reading things David and Bathsheba said in private to their son, now quoted as part of the Proverbs of Solomon. That he would later fall away from the Lord for a time does not diminish what they poured into him, and is a great testimony for every parent and grandparent who puts the Word into their children, only to suffer heartbreak to see their beloved fall away from the closeness with the Lord they once had. 
 
We take comfort in their eventual return to Him, for though Solomon's writings called Ecclesiastes seems full of despair for all is 'vanity', we realize he came back to the Lord after experiencing the world, for he says at the end of Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring everything we do into the light for judgement, every secret thing good or evil." 
 
Solomon may never have gotten back to where he once was with the Lord, but he did get back...take courage in that for your own prodigal. New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org and email me directly at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
This love story has such a twist at the end that when most people first read the story in the Bible they think they read it wrong - Right after calling him at the burning bush God tried to kill Moses - and it seems so contradictory, so strange, that we tuck that passage into the file of the unexplained and read on. 
 
Setting the stage
We are told in Acts 7:21-25:  "When Moses was full forty years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel...seeing one of them suffer wrong he struck down the Egyptian, supposing his brethren would have understood that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood not."
 
The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Moses was a great Army General, so we understand Moses thought he would deliver Israel through civil war. Knowing he was the delivered 40 years before the burning bush experience, he killed 1 Egyptian and assumed they would follow him in a rebellion that would result in freedom. He had the divine revelation about his call, but not how it would happen. He tried to help God by figuring the rest out based on his education and military experience - kill 1 Egyptian, the people will rally around him and start a civil war - right? Wrong. 
 
Revelation is here a little and there a little. God often gives us a small part, then lets us walk some things out, and then gives us the rest later. For instance in Genesis 15 He told Abraham he would have a son from his own body. But that is all He said. In Genesis 16 as Abraham and Sarah talk it out, they decide since she is barren, it must be through someone else, and so in desperation to see God's will done in their life as well as wanting a son, she tells him to get Hagar pregnant, which he does. 
 
It isn't until the next chapter, 17, that the Lord again appears to Abraham and tells him Sarah will be the mother of the son...OH...where has that information been hiding Lord? Would have been nice to know back in chapter 15 as that would have saved me from getting Hagar pregnant...! So He gives us revelation in pieces. Our job is not to think 1 piece of the puzzle is the whole puzzle and then get ourselves into trouble as Abraham and Moses both did. We are in good company at least! :)
 
Unlike the movie and most Sunday school lessons
Another lesson is to realize that just because you have a revelation from God it doesn't mean He has given others that same revelation. It is first and foremost to you, one on one between you and the Lord. Many people like Moses commit the sin of presumption, thinking because they have a revelation from God surely everyone else must either a) have that same revelation or b) will believe you when you tell them what He has told or shown you. Wrong. It is your revelation, not theirs.
 
Moses was 40 when he received the revelation that he was the deliverer, but that sin of presumption cost him 40 years, one third of his life in the wilderness. It wasn't until 40 years later at age 80, that the Lord appeared to him to tell him how his call would come about. All that time he knew he was the delivered, but not the how. 
 
Moses and Zipporah, and their son Gershom
In Exodus 2:16-22 we are told after leaving Egypt in faith yet mentally and emotionally confused and wondering what he did wrong, he came to a well where Jethro the Priest of Midair's daughters were watering their flocks. Some shepherds tried to take over for their own flocks, but Moses defended the daughters, which was told to Jethro. Moses soon married Zipporah, one of Jethro's daughters, and they had a son named Gershom, which means 'a traveler there'.
 
What he was told at the burning bush
That he had a son in Midian is important to this story - Gershom wasn't Israeli, but a Midianite. That means uncircumcised. At the burning bush Moses is told then and there about all the plagues that would happen*, even down to the detail of them eventually receiving from the Egyptians gold and silver if they would just leave them alone, and most importantly: The death of the first born. He knew the firstborn would die at the burning bush before he even returned to Egypt. *Exodus 3:14-22, 4:1-23
 
"And you will say to Pharaoh, 'Israel is my son, my first born and I say to you, Let my son go that he may serve me. And if you won't let him go I will slay your son, your firstborn." v23
 
The twist - Attempted execution
Right after these words in verse 23 about killing Egypt's firstborn it says this: "And it came to pass by the way in the inn, the Lord met him and tried to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and threw it at his feet and said, 'A bridegroom of blood you are now to me.' So He (the Lord) let him go. Then she said 'A bridegroom of blood you are because of the circumcision.'" Bridegroom of blood means brand new into the covenant. 
 
It was the astuteness of Zipporah and her love for her son, her husband, and for what is right and wrong that she proved at this point she was more spiritually in tune with the Lord's call on their lives than was Moses. He had just been told the firstborn of Egypt would die and he understood circumcision was the sign of being in covenant with the Lord, yet Moses was a neglectful father in this regard. IF he had gone into Egypt the text infers Gershom would have died with the first born of Egypt. 
 
Moses had been so busy with 'work' and focused on his life he didn't think through what it meant to his son. We place such emphasis on the Passover blood we forget that every Israeli male in Egypt was circumcised and that is the foundational truth of why they were not killed with Egypt's firstborn - the Passover blood is secondary. 
 
From the Lord's perspective, once Moses knew the plan, he was immediately accountable. Once the Lord says it, it is done. It is 'real time'. This is consistent with the Mark 6: 51-52 comment that the disciples' hearts were so amazed Jesus had walked on the water because 'they considered not the miracle of the loaves'. If you recall that story Jesus had fed the 5,000, then sent them in a boat across the lake at sundown which they found to be hard going, and He came walking on the water to them between 3am and 6am. 
 
When exactly were they to have 'considered the miracle of the loaves'? They had been working hard all night just to cross the lake - and yet God had that expectation on them to have considered what they had just seen. Same with Moses. When God says it or does a miracle in our lives we are to move that to highest priority and give ourselves to it to consider it, remember it, learn from it. How often does He do something for us and we just say 'thanks' if even that, and keep going. 
 
We need to be as astute as Zipporah who recognized when God does or says something, it is done right then and there and we need to make that our top priority. We still must follow logic and do right in the natural, but as a priority, what He says jumps to the head of the line. Last of the series next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com