Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
    • Online Bibleschool
  • F
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
    • Kontaktihenkilö Suomessa
  • LT
    • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
      • E-Book
    • Straipsniai >
      • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
      • Krikštai
      • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
      • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
      • Garbinimas
      • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
      • Išgelbėjimas
      • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
      • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
      • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
    • Video LT
  • LV
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - Online Bijbelschool
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
    • Lokaties van Huiskerken (in NL)
  • PL
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Locations
  • Donate
  • Events
  • TV
  • Contact

Weirdness from God? #3, (Is shaking God?)

6/27/2015

0 Comments

 
Hi all,

Last week I shared how God will never cause a person to lose control of themselves in convulsions. That doesn't mean the human body doesn't shake or feel warm when in the presence of God - because it can. 

Heaven created, but earth formed

A believer's spirit has been recreated by the Spirit of God and can therefore withstand the fullness of heaven. But the human body at this stage of our eternal lives is formed of the earth, and things made of earth are a lower form of creation than the heavenly, so doesn't react well to the things of the Spirit. 

Like an electric stove top which has elements made to resist electricity flowing into them, which causes them to heat up, so too does the earth-body resist and react to the Spirit of God. 

A person may feel a warmth, 'goose bumps', shaking in one's limbs, or weakness in the body when in the presence of the Lord. If the power is turned up a bit more, like the stove top element that heats up more when more electricity is allowed into it, the human body may be 'slain in the spirit' - poor term to describe a person losing physical strength and falling down as a result.  

If the power is turned up a bit more, a person may have a trance or vision as Peter did in Acts 9, or a person may appear to be deeply asleep, and sometimes they are having amazing experiences with the Lord, and yet other times they don't recall a thing afterwards. 

If the power is turned up high enough, it will kill the human body, which happened to Uzzah in II Samuel 6:6-7 who touched the Ark of the Covenant to steady it as David had incorrectly transported it by ox cart rather than by priests. If the power is turned up higher than just killing a person, it will change the molecular structure of earth-flesh into heavenly-flesh, which is what happened to Jesus at His resurrection* and what will happen to all believers when our earth bodies are 'changed' into the heavenly**.  *Romans 6:4 says Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. **I Corinthians 15:35-55. 

I said I'd share about God, the devil, and the flesh...here is the flesh

When a person feels the Holy Spirit come on them and their flesh starts to shake, that can be a natural reaction to the Holy Spirit by the human body, as it is made of earth and reacts to the Spirit of God.  

But my point from last week that Paul taught remains true*, God will never cause you to lose control. A person can give themselves over to the shaking because they haven't been taught they can stop the shaking yet still feel the anointing. I have instructed many over the years in this. *I Corinthians 14:32 

A typical conversation will be to talk to them while they are shaking, and ask if they feel the presence of God - normally they will say something like 'Yes, this happens to me in the presence of God', or something like that, as they know their body and how it reacts - each person is different.

 

Then I'll share Paul's teaching, and ask them to take control of their shaking (arm for example) and as they do I continue to ask them if they still feel the presence, which they always answer they do. Within a couple of minutes they have stopped shaking, and testify they still feel the presence of the Lord just as strongly.  

They've now been taught scripture and the ways of the Spirit, therefore no longer focused on themselves and their shaking, but are now able to focus again on the Lord and receive from Him. 

Ignorant leaders

What happens is that pastors and ministers are ignorant, and frankly, sometimes use these reactions to the Spirit as ego and ministry boosters because news of shaking builds their ministry up in the eyes of many.  

And because they are willingly ignorant of the ways of the Spirit and the human body and it makes a good show, well meaning people who attend are allowed to shake, convulse, roll, bark, laugh, and all sorts of things as they give themselves over to it, never knowing God will never cause you to lose control of yourself.  

God doesn't interrupt Himself, so He won't have x person teaching while y person in a pew is drawing attention to themselves by shaking or laughing or convulsing - the minister needs to talk to that person and teach them how to regain control of their flesh, or let the meeting go to all laughing or all shaking. God isn't divided against Himself nor therefore does He contradict His purpose in a meeting by interrupting Himself. 

And there are some who shake because they like the attention, in a sick way thinking somehow they are more spiritual because they shake. But what if that shaking is not the flesh, but a demon? 

How the Holy Spirit uproots a demon so that it manifests

In Matthew 12:25-28 Jesus is accused of casting out demons by the power of the devil, but He responds: "If I by Beelzbub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. But if I cast them out by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you." 

Jesus worked then and continues now to work with the Holy Spirit to cast out demons, for His whole ministry is cooperating with what the Father wants to do by His Spirit*. Jesus hasn't changed which means we as His body must also cooperate with the Holy Spirit in ministry. *John 5:19 

No one just walks up to a person and says "I command that spirit in you to come out" - the exception in scripture being the person knows they have a spirit and wants it out, their will with the Holy Spirit bringing it to the surface to be dealt with, or a parent of a dependent child asks on their behalf as it manifests.

Notice in Jesus' ministry spirits were manifesting when Jesus cast them out, 'pushed to the surface by the Holy Spirit' for lack of a better way of saying it. We see this in Matthew 15: 21-28 with the woman whose daughter was tormented, evidently as she spoke with Jesus, and in Matthew 8:28-34 where two men possessed with demons manifesting came to Jesus, who cast the spirits out. 

In Mark 1:21-26 Jesus is teaching and a demon in a man starts manifesting during His teaching, and He casts him out. In Mark 5 a man with 2,000 demons led by Legion came running to Jesus to be delivered. 

We see this same cooperation with the Holy Spirit in Acts 16 with Paul who was followed by a slave girl with a 'spirit of divination', saying; 'These men are servants of the most high god and show us the way of salvation', which in Greek culture was Zeus the sky god, so this spirit was lying about Paul and Silas, and Paul cast out the spirit as it manifest.  

As it was then it is now; the Living Word and Spirit agree and work together.

A person convulsing because of a demon is doing so with little or no control over it - the Holy Spirit pushes it up to manifest so it can be cast out. A person convulsing in the flesh can regain control quite easily.  

If you ask a person if it is God on them or if God is on them because they have a demon, you will know by their reaction - a demon will often speak up at that point with a hate filled response, and if in the flesh a person will look at you like you're crazy to suggest they have a demon. If its a demon tell it to leave, and if the flesh try to help them grow a bit by regaining control of their body. And if they won't cooperate, then know there are times you have to give up on people not because you don't care, but because they don't. 

I never got to what the Argentineans said...So next week Argentineans, where gold dust, feathers, and jewels came from - and more...until then, blessings!

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

0 Comments

Weirdness God? #2 (Convulsing?)

6/20/2015

0 Comments

 
Hi all,

Last week I shared 2 examples of God's presence causing (Adam & Abraham) to fall into a 'deep sleep'. What I'll do today is compare more scriptural examples of how a person reacts to the presence of God against how a demon treats a person. Once we see the differences we can rightly discern when someone near us in a service acts a certain way. 

Foundation - God always leaves you in control.

God will never make you be out of control of your body. When Paul is writing to the Corinthians he provides social advice on how to act in mixed company as a guest in someone's house. You may recall that the founding of the Corinthian church consisted of Jews, Greeks, and Romans all meeting in the Roman man Justus' house. Acts 18:7-8 

So Paul writes them in I Corinthians 14:26-32 about such things as taking turns, and if you have a word from God but there is no opportunity to share it, just keep it to yourself (you have not sinned). He also said that if you have a word to share and the person next to you also has a word, let them go first - in other words, manners and politeness are required in home based gatherings of the church. 

He also says anything you say will be judged, meaning just because you claim you have a word from God doesn't mean it has to be 100% accepted by everyone else that it is from God - if you speak out it may be challenged, accepted, or rejected. No one has the right to violate personal space and all retain the right to refuse any 'word from God' for them anyone thinks they have. Love and politeness are guidelines.  

And then Paul sums it up with this: "For the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets." (v32) 

In other words - anything you have from God will always leave you in control. In these verses he is emphasizing things being done decently, in order, in politeness, and with an awareness you are a guest in someone's home - therefore your spirit is subject to you - whatever you think you have from God, it can wait for its turn, or not at all. What you have from God is still subject to you! 

God will never cause you to be out of control, but by contrast look at the demonic:

"And a man from the group cried out, saying, 'Master, I beg you to look at my son, my only child. A spirit takes him and he suddenly screams, and throws him into a convulsion...And when the boy was coming it threw him to the ground in a convulsion, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed him, and gave him back to his father." Luke 9:39-42 

"And there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out...And Jesus rebuked him saying, 'Hold your peace and come out of him.' And the unclean spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek." Mark 1:23-26 

God will always have a person be in control of themselves as scripture says, yet the devil is just the opposite. The sad fact is, many leaders today don't know a demon manifesting when they see it. They don't know to tell their people the difference between the flesh (many love the attention they get when they shake and convulse), the devil, or God.  

Casting it out from across the platform

I was on staff at a large church and was required to host a team of revivalists who wanted to do a series of meetings to bring their 'revival' to Tulsa, complete with all the shaking and convulsing and yelling and screaming that the Toronto, Brownsville, and Smithton revivals were known for - and I won't ID where this team came from other than it was one of those.  

As I stood on the platform, some 30 feet away (9.5m) a young lady who was a student at the school where I was the Director, came down front for the altar call and started shaking violently. I immediately knew it was a demon, but the 'revivalist' guest speaker approached the woman and told her God was all over her, and to just yell out to Him. 

I kept thinking they were going to cast the thing out, but they only kept urging her to yell to God all the more, mistaking a demon manifesting for the Spirit of God on her to 'bless her' or something - never realizing the poor lady had a spirit that needed cast out.  

As I was the host I knew the lines of authority in the Spirit, that I was in charge of the meeting over and above the guest ministers, but so as to not embarrass the guest speaker nor the young lady, I spoke up barely above a whisper as I looked at the woman now convulsing violently: "I take authority over that spirit and command you out of her right now in the name of Jesus!" No one else heard me but the demon. 

Immediately she fell limp to the floor, seemingly passed out or asleep for a few moments. I made my way across the platform and off to that side while the guest speakers continued paying for others at the front, and when she was awake, offered to pray for the young lady, which she readily accepted.  

She described the torment she had undergone while the minister kept urging her to cry out to God, a war of voices inside her that was tearing her apart. On the one hand she heard hatred for God and screaming while she argued back she loved the Lord and wanted free - and this is what struck me - she kept wanting the minister to set her free, but they did not.  

Then suddenly the thing left her she didn't know how, and she was at peace once again but feeling rather empty. I told her how I had cast the thing out of her and to forgive the ignorance of the speaker because they didn't know better, and then laid hands on her for a fresh in-filling of the Holy Spirit - and immediately the Spirit of God was all over her; her hands went up, tears of joy ran down her face, and she said she felt such peace she hadn't known, but had come to the front for exactly that. 

The particular demon and how it got into her years earlier before she had known the Lord are not important here, but she had just been born again that summer and decided to go to Bible school to learn more. 

Again - look at scripture and how our bodies and the Spirit of God

In John 18:5-6 the authorities come upon Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamane and the text says this:  "Jesus said to them, 'Who are you looking for?' And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." And He said to them: "I AM" and when He had said to them 'I AM' they moved backward and fell to the ground." 

That is a case of being 'slain in the spirit', where the power of God is so strong the human body loses its strength and simply falls to the ground, for 'I AM' is the one who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus stated at His arrest that He is the I AM with power to cause His captors to fall backwards to the ground because He wanted to make the statement He was going voluntarily to His fate, as He casually waited for them to recover themselves, dust themselves off, and arrest Him. 

Jesus claimed to be I AM in Matthew 14:27-28 for as He came walking on the water to the boat He said: "Take courage, I AM, now stop being afraid." To which Peter replied; "Lord, if you are (the I AM), command me to come to you on the water." Immediately Jesus said, 'Come'." 

He also claimed to be I AM in John 8:58: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."  

And John would later report in Revelation 1:17 that he was 'in the Spirit' and saw the Lord in glory, with His voice as a trumpet and face and hair pure white light and eyes as flames, and he says "I fell at His feet as a dead man." And the Lord touched him and told him not to be afraid. 

That would appear to be a case of being 'slain in the spirit' as being afraid was separate from the act of becoming as a dead man upon seeing Him. 

A whole lot of shaking going on

In scripture as seen above, the body's reaction to the presence of God is to lose strength, described through the centuries as fainting, or as scripture so bluntly states, becoming like a dead man. But there is no example in scripture where a person lost control of themselves in convulsions, only demons take over a person's body so that they lose control. Next week, what the Argentinean's asked me...until then, blessings.

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

0 Comments

Weirdness from God? #1

6/13/2015

0 Comments

 
Hi all,

There are times a person's spirit is stirred as Paul's was when he saw the city of Athens completely given over to idolatry*, and that is my condition today concerning the newest fad coming out of Bethel Church in Redding, California and churches like it, called 'grave sucking'. *Acts 17:16 

For the most part I hold my peace about the shaking and convulsing, though I will address that in this series - to lay out what is God, what is the devil, and what is the flesh - but today I am talking about the fad of 'grave sucking' or 'anointing grabbing'. 

What is 'grave sucking'?

Grave sucking is the practice of believers going to the graves of dead saints to make physical contact with the grave to get the anointing of the dead saint by transference, during contemplative prayer. They often will sit, lay down on, or lay hands on the grave or tombstone to accomplish this. 

The premise is that people feel they can swiftly advance in spiritual power or jump-start their spiritual lives or destiny by going to the graves of dead saints and suck or 'grab' that person's anointing to themselves. It has been explained as receiving a sort of spiritual inheritance, and as a sudden large cash inheritance can change a life, so too they say, can a sudden spiritual inheritance received by grave sucking move their spiritual life quickly forward.  

It is an error that twists an Old Testament event, using the case of 2 men burying another when they saw some Moabite raiders coming*, and wanting to get out of there, quickly lowered the dead man into Elisha's nearby grave. To their surprise he sprang back to life upon touching Elisha's bones. *II Kings 13:20-21 

Grave sucking as it is taught, it doing the same thing spiritually - grabbing the dead saint's lingering anointing. When I first heard of grave sucking I thought it was a joke, but the more I checked into it the more I realized it was a sad truth, and since I just spent 3 days in Redding and learned much more than I ever wanted to about it, I just can't shake my grievance and sadness for the self-deceived souls practicing this.  

Readers can easily do a web search about this practice and even see publicly posted pictures of Bill Johnson's wife, Beni, lying on C. S. Lewis' gravestone 'grave sucking' and Bethel students 'grave sucking' at Evan Roberts grave in Wales, among others. 

Years ago there was a TV show that would start out with say, the Space Shuttle blasting off, and then trace backwards through the centuries the various little discoveries that led to the technology enabling us to build such a vehicle today. 

That's what I am doing in this series - not focusing on the error, but to go back in time to this truth and that truth which when compiled together will provide us a means to rightly discern what is happening and why. 

A little history, and what the Lord told me

It may surprise some to learn that in the 1700's a wave of revival swept through Europe, Britain, and the soon to be United States, including among the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and Disciples of Christ (Congregational). Trembling, shaking, groaning, falling to the ground - all were signs they said that the power of God had come on a person.  

In the US we had the 'Shakers' who were known for this, though now they are mostly known for the Shaker style of furniture. And of course many know of the Quakers who evidently quaked but refused to shake :) 

John Wesley considered these body movements to be the body's natural reaction to God's Spirit and love, rather than an outright supernatural event. In the 1800's people like Finney reported these happening in his meetings, and by the time I came to the Lord in the 1970's Pentecostals were called 'Holy Rollers'.
 

Holy Rollers

Barb and I were born again and Spirit-filled as teenagers and attended Charismatic home based groups 2-3 nights each week, which her mother didn't understand, having only her own German Lutheran early 20th century culture to understand us by.  

So when Barb and I were to be married in her family's Congregational church, her mother asked us with all sincerity if there was going to be swinging from chandeliers or rolling on the floor as part of the wedding, as that just won't do among the Congregationalists - she was visibly relieved when we assured her there wouldn't be any of that (though I desperately wanted to tell her we might cast out a demon or two to see how she would react, but decided not to tease her like that).  

Most attribute the phrase 'slain in the spirit' to Kathryn Kuhlman to describe a person 'slain' by God's power and becoming therefore as if dead, though it is also known by other names.  

What the Lord told me

Learning now that for at least 3 centuries shaking, quaking, and falling have been part of charismatic life, we need to look at scripture to see if it is in there, which will provide a baseline of truth to be able to understand if today's manifestations are God, the devil, or the flesh.  

During a time with the Lord I asked Him to teach me about what was Him and what wasn't in being slain in the spirit. I had wanted Him to go point by point in straight, never changing, doctrinal statements that x is from Me, and y isn't from Me, but that's not what He did. It went like this:
"Lord, on the subject of being slain in the spirit, what is the earliest time in scripture where that happened and what should a person expect from the experience?"  

Him: "When I caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam* so I could do surgery on him to form Eve's body. And you'll note that while that was physical surgery, it was also of the soul for I took from his being to make her, so that together they two were one in Me**. Today when it (slain in the spirit) is of Me, like with Adam, I will often do what you might think of as surgery on their soul for healing and sometimes physical healing as well." *Genesis 2:21, **Genesis 5:2 

(In Genesis 5:2 it says: "Male and female He created them, and called their name Adam in the day in which they were created." Eve did not receive her name until later after their sin, in 3:20-21 when the Lord made a covering for their sin, clothing made from the shed blood of an animal, thus clothes are a shadow and type of God's covering for man.) 

He continued

"The next time was with Abraham when we were making covenant* and a deep sleep came upon him, allowing Me to assure him of our relationship and tell him of his future and the future of his descendants. Today, when it is of Me, I will often do something similar with people, assuring them and giving them peace about the present and showing them some of their future, and they also often renew themselves in Me in response, as Abram did then." (*Genesis 15 covers the whole event, but v12 says a 'deep sleep' came upon Abram in the same terminology as with Adam) 

What I took from that teaching was that when a person is 'knocked out' or 'asleep in the Lord', it is for a purpose, not a show - not a sign that endorses some man or woman as the anointed prophet and God certainly doesn't want any 'courtesy drops' from anyone. 

I've seen 'downloads' in people we might say today, of new things and healing of old things when they've been 'asleep in the Spirit' - a peace replaces emotional fear, turmoil - that sort of 'surgery'. The other thing with Abram was covenant things, deep things in a person's heart about their walk with the Lord and the settling of their destiny, and similarly I've seen people awaken with a new sense of destiny and purpose. 

I will close with that for today - more next week, until then, blessings!

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

 

 

 

 

0 Comments

Sin Not Sins #4 (Casting calories out)

6/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Hi all,

"I don't understand what I'm doing wrong; I'm casting the calories out of my desserts but I've still gained 10 pounds!" (4.5kg) "John, I just want you to pray for me so the devil will never again tempt me with sex." 

These 2 people wanted to avoid personal discipline and accountability by spiritualizing their issues. Jesus took away the sin of the world, so we shouldn't we be empowered to control various appetites?  

Key #1 - Dealing with the pleasure of sin

For me, I learned long ago to confront temptation with the fact I love the fellowship of the Holy Spirit I feel in my spirit more than I love sin - so I focus on essentially, "Why should I do or say that sin when it would disrupt the sweet presence of God I feel in my spirit?" When I do that, turn my attention away from the temptation and onto my love for Him, the allure of the sin is instantly removed. I value my fellowship with Him much more than I value a momentary pleasure of sin. 

Every person who has initially come to me for help with an habitual sin, as best as I can recall over these 40+ years of walking with Him, had never to that point been confronted with the fact they enjoyed the sin - which is the human condition - we love the sin.  

They've wanted demons cast out, practical tips on not setting themselves up for sinning, and prayer to be strong - but had never thought about the key to it all - dealing with the pleasure of sin and what do you love more - the fellowship of the Spirit or the feeling that sin provides?  

Hebrews 11:25-26 reveals Moses chose his path based on his love of God more than his love of the sins of Egypt. That is the heart issue each of us has to deal with - acknowledge the love of the pleasure x sin gives, then decide to crucify that love by making the choice to focus on our love of God when confronted with sin. 

This point #1 is a heart battle that can take years, or merely a moment in time. A person must search down inside themselves with honesty, and down in that space, bring up how much they love the Lord, the fellowship of the Spirit, and think through how sin is a temporary high at best. Once a person settles their love of the Lord deep in their heart, sin will lose its appeal. Wrestling with the love of sin can take years. 

Key #2 - Replace don't just stop

When John the Baptist was baptizing people he didn't tell them just to repent of sin, but to replace that sin with a righteous act*. Most of traditional Christian culture just says stop sinning, which isn't fully scriptural - the truth is to stop sinning and then replace it with something righteous. *Luke 3:11-14 

Replacing one act with another is a redirection of thoughts and actions. If the computer is your gateway to sin then before sliding into that sin, get up and go do something else. Replace one action with another. If you open your mouth to exalt yourself above another or to plant gossip or seeds of strife, instead say something nice about the person. Replace sinful words with words of grace.  

Key #3 - Don't think about how to do it

Christians in Paul's day were just like us. His advice was to settle in your heart that you love the fellowship of the Spirit more than you love the sin. Romans 13:14:

"Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." Romans 13:14 

The phrase 'put on' (the Lord Jesus Christ) is the word 'enduo' where we get 'endue'. Endue means to invest in, to empower, to provide a quality or authority in a person. We are endued with power in Christ but when confronted with sin, we must make a decision to walk in that - to 'put on' or empower ourselves in Christ.  

The phrase 'make not provision' is the Greek word 'pronoia' which is made up of 'pro' (before) and 'noia' (to think). Paul is literally saying "Make a conscious choice to be empowered with the Lord Jesus Christ and don't think ahead of time how you will fulfill the lusts of the flesh." 

These 2 elements - empowering ourselves in the Lord rather than thinking ahead of time how we will sin, can only be done through fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ - not a cold principle, but a focus on talking with Him and fellowship with and worshipping Him when tempted.  

Redirect your thoughts to plans of something else rather than plans of how to sin. Replace one set of thoughts with another set of thoughts, replace your focus from the sin onto Him. Center on your love of Him. 

Trend is to co-exist with the sin, to rely on grace

When a person wrestles with his or her love of the pleasure of sin, which can takes decades, there is often a delicate 'demilitarized zone' established that results in an outward and true Christian life with a little sliver of sin kept back for oneself to enjoy now and then, in a hidden-to-the-eyes of man balancing act that isn't so hidden from public view nowadays.

All around us we have headline examples in the Christian world of believers 'coming out' with this or that lifestyle of sin, in what is in reality a revelation they've declared a demilitarized zone concerning their sin, they are tired of fighting it, so they've decided they are just going to live with it and let the world know. To me the issue isn't a sin issue, but a love of God issue, a lack of revelation with Him issue.   

#4 - Walk in the Spirit

Co-existing with habitual sin isn't an option the NT presents, and Paul simply says "If you walk in the Spirit you won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh."* 

For all the formulas out there, for all the positive confessions, for all the material on spiritual warfare and inner healing, Paul says simply to walk in the Spirit and if we do that, we won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That's what Moses did, and he did so because he resisted sin from choice of fact; that he loved God more.  

Paul lists some of the works of the flesh, which is often in our day called demonic, as our culture tends to blame the flesh's desires as demonic -  but Paul says the root is not demonic, but merely the flesh (demons can become involved, but the root is the flesh):

"Adultery (sexual imagination), fornication (act of sex outside of marriage), lasciviousness (absence of restraint, indecency), uncleanness (sexually perverted, morally unclean), idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance (cut in two, purposeful strife), emulations (jealousy, exalting oneself over others), wrath (explosive anger), strife, seditions (standing apart from others in strife), heresies (self-willed opinion which refuses to acknowledge or submit to the truth of a matter), envy, murders, drunkenness, revelings (drunkedness, carousing around) * Galatians 5:18-21 

If we rebuke say, a demon of adultery without dealing with the sexual imaginations that originate in our own flesh, we'll never gain victory. Deal with the love of God and the love of sin as per #1 above, and then any demonic influence in the flesh will find no place and soon go off looking for someone else to tempt.  

And the way to counter these sins is what he said before listing them: If you walk in the Spirit you won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. 

When I wake up the first thing I think/pray is "Morning Father, do you have anyone you'd like me to pray for?" Then I lay in bed for a few minutes praying quietly in my spirit as names flow through my mind, trusting as I pray in tongues He is providing the content of those languages according to His will. I love the fellowship with the Father, feeling the Spirit of God within - such peace, such assurance. I'm not perfect by any means, but I've tried to show in this series that Jesus took away the sin of the world, and then gave us the Holy Spirit so we could focus on our love for God, and fellowship out of that love in a normal conversational relationship.  

New subject next week, blessings,

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

 

 

0 Comments
    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2023
to donate
Photo used under Creative Commons from widakso