Hi all,
How can you tell the difference in the 'feel' of the Father, or Son, or Spirit?
 
The Father is the Source. 
He is the giver of every good gift*, He created us to be the first fruits of His creation, He so loved the world He gave His Son*...so His presence is weightier, more 'dense' or 'thick'. It is the Father who deals with core issues in our hearts like who we are, what is our purpose, why were we put on the planet. Very often just being in this 'thick' holy presence allows Him to do a work in our being that our minds don't 'pick up on'. But most people recognize we need to sit, be still, and be quiet during these times.   *James 1: 13-18, John 3: 16
 
In a service for instance, while in prayer or worship when the Father starts dealing with core heart issues, those are the times it feels like to say anything, or to move about, would be somehow wrong. It is a very hushed atmosphere. Silent, just soaking, sitting, sensing Him. Often it feels like your feet at planted in concrete, you just cannot move when His presence is so thick and He is dealing with core and very private issues in people that our minds don't often perceive.
 
The presence of Jesus 
The presence of Jesus is lighter, more in the soul and emotional realm. It is quite comfortable and 'normal' feeling in His presence. What you feel right now in your spirit, is the exact same when He is actually there, but intensified and magnified. Your spirit man recognizes Him and will often 'leap' or 'get excited' or even feel overwhelming peace, is the only way I know how to describe it. The first time I saw Him in a teaching visitation, which was October 1, 1986, my mind kept wondering why my spirit man was excited like butterflies in my spirit, yet not the nervous kind - just excited - then I saw Him. 
 
He is quite obvious when He is around if you have trained your mind to switch attention to your spirit man. But a person has to accustomed to switching their focus to their spirit man, before they will ever sense their presence. Train yourself.
 
All this is through the Holy Spirit 
The Holy Spirit is recorded in Acts as speaking several times to people, and maybe you've heard His voice too! To people who are unaccustomed to hearing Him, they often report that it sounded like an audible voice, or loud, or both. But in fact in about 99.9% of the time from my experience listening to people I've talked to, it has been the Holy Spirit they heard and it wasn't audible, they just had never heard Him before. He is always clear, concise, direct, and arrests your attention.
 
Remember that Jesus told the disciples in John 16: 12-13: "I have many things to say to you, but you can't grasp them now. However when the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, that is what He will speak. And He will show you things to come." 
 
After the angel had spoken to Philip in Acts 8: 26 to travel down a particular road by Gaza, we read this in v29-30: "The Spirit said to Philip; 'Go near, and join yourself to that chariot'. And Philip ran..."
 
The Holy Spirit doesn't speak of Himself, so the true author of the instructions the angel gave Philip to take that road, and the One from heaven directing Philip, was the Father or the Lord. We aren't told, but we are told the Spirit merely repeats what He hears. Philip would have heard within him, loud, direct, concise instructions - look at that verse and see how direct it is. 
 
In Acts 10: 4-6 an angel appears to the Roman Centurion named Cornelius, and tells him to go to Joppa and inquire at the house of a man named Simon who was a tanner of leather, and lodged there was a man named Peter. And he would tell Cornelius what he needed to do. 
 
After Peter saw the vision of the sheet with the different kinds of animals, which had nothing to do with dietary things, but rather that all people were cleansed by the Lord and able to hear the gospel, Acts 10: 19-20 records: "...the Spirit said to him; 'Look! Three men are looking for you. Go with them nothing doubting, for I have sent them.' Then Peter went..."
 
The Holy Spirit in prophecy
In Acts 13: 1-3 we have 5 men, prophets and teachers by function in the body of Christ, fasting and praying and waiting on the Lord. They are a very international and interracial group:  Barnabas from the island Cyprus, Simeon "that was called Niger (dark skinned, from central Africa)", Lucius from Cyrene (eastern Libya), Manaen who had been brought up with Herod, and Saul from Tarsus (of Cilicia, southern coast of modern Turkey).
 
As they ministered to the Lord it says: "The Holy Spirit spoke saying, 'Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.' And when they had fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them on their way." 
 
The Lord never changes, so what He does now in our midst is what He did then. Therefore noting we are told these 5 men were prophets and teachers, it is clear someone had a prophetic word, hearing the Holy Spirit say those words. And Luke who wrote it down for us focused on the message rather than the messenger. The ultimate speaker from heaven was again, either the Father or the Lord Jesus, but as with Philip and Peter above, we are not told which. 
 
Another example of the Holy Spirit in prophecy
In Acts 21: 11 the prophet Agabus takes Paul's belt in illustration saying: "This is what the Holy Spirit says (as he wraps his own hands and feet), 'This is what the Jews will do to the man who owns this belt, and turn him over to the Romans.' And when we heard these things..." 
 
Here we are told that Agabus heard the Holy Spirit Himself speak those words. For me personally, that is what happens when I give someone a prophecy or words of wisdom - Usually I hear the Holy Spirit Himself, directly. Who is behind the Spirit can often be perceived by the one hearing the message, for being the Spirit of Truth, He accurately and precisely repeats what He hears. 
 
If you remember what I said above about the 'heavy' feeling of the Father and the lighter, more soul oriented presence of Jesus, that is what I sense when I hear the Spirit speaking. So I can tell if it is the Father or the Lord speaking via the Holy Spirit. Sometimes though it is the Spirit speaking, I hear the Father doing the speaking, and sometimes the Lord. Get to know the differences by experience in your own time of worship and prayer and 'the fellowship of the Holy Spirit'. 
 
I realize for many reading this it seems to be deeper than what most teachings get into. But at the same time, many will be able to think back over their lives and remember times they sensed the Father or Lord, or even heard the Holy Spirit. 
 
For me, when I first wake up I tell the Father good morning, usually compliment Him (praise) on a beautiful morning, and ask if He has anyone He wants me to pray for. But what I love more than anything, is always feeling Him inside me - that presence, that warmth of His being in my spirit. I've learned to continually shift my attention between the natural senses and my spirit man, for so the Lord commanded me to do so during that first teaching visitation of 10/1/86. It changed my life. 
 
We'll pick it up here next week: The vague 'witness' of the Spirit, and knowing the difference between an angel and the Spirit. 
 
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
Continuing...
The word 'fellowship' in the NT is 'koinonia' (coin-o-knee-uh). It means 'common', 'sharing in common', 'participation with', 'communion with', 'sharing in'. In the New Testament it is translated 'fellowship', and 'communion'. In a sentence: The share which one has in anything.
 
In II Corinthians 13: 14 Paul says this, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God (the Father), and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." 
 
In Philippians 2: 1-2 he said, "If there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any sympathy, fulfill my joy and be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." 
 
To have 'the fellowship of the Spirit' you first have to recognize His presence in your spirit
What I do is this: The first thing in the morning when I wake up I shift my attention to down inside me, the area of my chest and mid-section, though not on the physical, but sensing the Father's presence in my spirit, which is felt in that area. 
 
It is from there when I say 'Good morning Father, is there anyone you want me to pray for this morning?' (first to His 'list' before I get to my list), names or faces float up to my mind and I pray in the Spirit quietly for them until their name or face passes before me and another one takes their place. It is there during the day I sense a grievance when I say or do something wrong, and it is there I feel a surge of joy while my mind wonders what my spirit knows but my mind does not yet know.
 
I have learned to shift my attention back and forth multiple times a day, often just to feel His presence. I love to worship by connecting down inside me to the core of why I love the Father and Lord, and do so by first sensing His presence inside, and singing and worshipping to that presence. From there is flows up and out of me to the Father.
 
Sometimes I will shift my attention to my spirit to compare what I sense in my spirit while someone else is talking to me - He is the Spirit of Truth - so I listen to what they say, or what they email me, or what they message me - and compare that with any sense in my spirit, for He will sometimes 'fact check' what they are saying. There are times I'll read an email or listen to someone and know they are speaking the truth, or they are speaking out of hurt, or trying to protect something down deep inside - and sometimes nothing because that may be none of my business. 
 
You can also watch an advertisement for a movie or TV show and check inside to see if there is a wrong spirit attached to it. He is the Spirit of Truth, so get used to comparing what He is 'giving off in your spirit' versus what others are saying. The doctor give you a negative report? Check with your spirit - is the Holy Spirit confirming that by a heavy feeling, or is there peace? 
 
I will check inside me, in my spirit, to see if the Spirit of Truth inside has anything to comment on or to give witness to something said.  
 
This is the point of fellowship with the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. 
When I was a new believer in my teen years I SO wanted to hear the Father's voice - THAT was my focus, to somehow tune in to His wavelength on a consistent basis. Back then, which was the mid 1970's, car radios were tuned using a knob you turned to find a particular radio station's frequency. When you got close to that frequency suddenly out of the static you could hear a voice from the station, and as you slowed the turning of the knob to a very slow turn the voice became louder - then whoops! Too far the other direction, so you would reverse your turn and turn back to where the voice was strongest - back and forth a tiny bit until you had the absolute strongest signal possible. 
 
THAT is what I felt like trying to hear the Father's voice. Trying to tune in to hear Him out of the static of other voices or just my own. I would be right on the mark sometimes, and then suffer through a dry time of not being able to 'tune in' - and I'd work at it until I had that 'wavelength' again. I did this by calling to remembrance those times I 'hit it' and remember what His voice sounded like, purposely imprinting on my brain what I was doing when I heard Him, what He felt like, what He sounded like - so the next time I would not be so dull of hearing, but could 'zero in' on His voice right away.
 
I spent a lot of time, a LOT of time remembering each and every time I got it 'right', calling those times to remembrance again and again, over and over. I examined where it came from - the direction - so I could determined when it was me (came from the brain above my shoulders) or when His voice and presence originated in my spirit man and then floated up to my mind. 
 
But at some point I realized while trying to hit the right wavelength I had missed the larger truth and the larger necessity: To first sense His presence inside. That waking up first thing and sensing Him inside me was like have the whole 'radio station' in my spirit. I no longer needed to 'fine tune' things, I just looked for and felt the larger Presence in my spirit, for I learned that out of that comes His voice. It is out of that Presence the subtle feelings, witness, and directions come from.
 
It is a larger reservoir of His presence inside 24/7 from which 'the Voice' comes - and I learned if I focused on His larger presence inside, then I could very much more easily hear His specific voice when that came. That's the key. To sense His presence first and foremost. From that presence His voice, His subtleties, His nuances, come. 
 
The sensing of Him down inside is the 'sharing', the 'communion' and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. 
Learn to feel His presence in your spirit. Learn to shift your attention several, many, times a day from the sense realm of the physical and mental, to your spirit. When the doctor says thus and so, check in your spirit if there is peace or need to pray. 
 
When a person is talking to you shift your attention down inside to see if the Spirit of Truth 'fact checks' what they say. When you read a news report on the computer or listen to someone, check for that resonance in your spirit - don't just react from your emotions, but first shift attention to your spirit. Many Christians are better at reacting to the spirit of fear than they are the Holy Spirit, and that is a very sad observation. 
 
What I'm saying here is how you learn to stay in the fellowship of the Spirit. Be with Him in these and many more similar ways. He is within 24/7, learn how to shift attention to your spirit to sense Him there. 
 
But John said in I John 1: 3: "That which we've seen and heard we share with you that you may have fellowship (commonality, in common) with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."
 
While we can have the fellowship of the Spirit 24/7 as we sense His presence in our spirit, we can also have fellowship with the Father and Lord. And though we sense the Father or the Lord, or the Holy Spirit through the Holy Spirit, you can tell the difference between them. I love the fellowship with the Father the most, He is the One I've spoken with since I was a teen. He replaced my earth-dad and has never left me. He is the One I know best. 
 
How do you tell the difference between Father, Son, and Spirit? 
And that's where we'll pick it up next week, and also we'll see the Holy Spirit speaking in Acts, and define for people those who have said they heard 'an audible voice' - and more. Until next week, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com 

Hi all,
Last week we established why we ask the Father in prayer rather than Jesus or the Holy Spirit. The question then naturally arises; "How can I fellowship with the Lord, or with the Holy Spirit?"
 
What the NT says about 'fellowship' with the Father, Lord, or Holy Spirit
"God is faithful, who has called you into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." I Corinthians 1: 9
 
"Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, if you have known the fellowship of the Spirit..." Philippians 2:1
 
"That which we have seen and heard we share with you, that you also may have fellowship with us: And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and which His Son the Lord Jesus Christ." I John 1: 3
 
These are the verses in the New Testament that speak directly of fellowship with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. And there are no prayers to the Holy Spirit. That's it, in spite of the common teaching about talking to the Holy Spirit, in spite of the many services that open with inviting the Holy Spirit's presence to be there (He is already there, for Christ is in every believer and He is there He said where 2 or 3 are gathered - so the prayer is in error).
 
Just think about all that people believe is God about the Holy Spirit, but is not. And because He is truth, He cannot go into error with them, thus leading to much frustration in the body of Christ about not feeling or sensing or hearing the Spirit, all because they've believed the wrong things of Him and are therefore looking in all the wrong places. 
 
If a person wants to pray to the Spirit the Father won't stop them, but if they want the most of their time and fellowship with the Father and Son, if a person wants to be accurate in prayers, they have to adapt to what scripture actually says rather than what a favorite TV preacher, author, or pastor says. The words of Jesus and Paul have to carry more weight with us than a modern preacher or teacher or book. 
 
Slight detour - defining the unpardonable sin
All we know of the Father or Lord is through the Holy Spirit. Scripture Paul says is 'inspired' and Peter says, was written by men who were 'moved by the Holy Spirit' (II Timothy 3: 16, II Peter 1: 21). From scripture to our fellowship with Him; it is via the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is THE link with God on the earth. 
 
Therefore the unpardonable sin is to reject (blaspheme) the Holy Spirit. He is the One on earth offering salvation. Jesus told Nicodemus in their private night time conversation in John 3: 5-8, a person must be born by the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. If a person rejects the Holy Spirit's work of bringing salvation, they are lost. Jesus died for others, not for Himself, so that is the 1 sin of rejecting Jesus is the only one not covered by the cross. 
 
Jesus was warning the religious leaders in Matthew 12: 24-32 who said He cast out demons by the power of Satan, while Jesus said He did it by the Spirit of God. That act of attributing the works of God (which is done by the Holy Spirit) to the devil is to walk dangerously close to the unpardonable sin, for they were rejecting the work of the Spirit, the Agent of salvation.  
 
Back to the subject
Our Father is in heaven. Jesus ascended to heaven and is in the realm of the Spirit where He is until He physically manifests at His return. If you or I see Him or sense His presence, He is there in the Spirit realm - not a hologram, not a reasonable facsimile of the Lord - but it is the Lord Himself. 
 
Our eyes can be opened to His realm, and in the Spirit realm we sense or see or hear Him through the Holy Spirit. The apostle John stated in Revelation 1: 10 "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard a voice behind me..." He saw the Lord, via the Holy Spirit, his eyes opened to His realm.
 
It is the Spirit that is the link between heaven and earth and the One in ministry on the earth today - He reports accurately as the Spirit of Truth, all that He hears from the Father or Lord for us. 
 
Jesus said, "I have many things to say to you (to the disciples), but you can't receive them now. However when He, the Spirit of Truth has come, He will speak to you and guide you into all truth, for the Holy Spirit speaks nothing of Himself, but whatever He hears, that is what He speaks, and He will show you things to come." John 16: 12-13. 
 
Jesus said He would speak 'many things' to them, through the Holy Spirit after He has come - which was at Pentecost. So if the Lord talks to you or me today, it is through the Holy Spirit. As Paul said, the Holy Spirt searches the Father to see what the Father has provided for us. I Corinthians 2: 9-12
 
Another detour, but as long as we are clearing up confusion and killing off traditions of men, why stop now? 
I might take a slight detour to add that Paul indicated that it is also possible for believers to have fellowship with demons, for he says in I Corinthians 10: 20-22: "But I say, that the things the Gentiles (non-believers) sacrifice to, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I don't want you to have fellowship with demons. You can't drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of devils (the practice of a 'toast' sacrifice to a god)." 
 
Paul was referring to the teaching of some that you could be a 'good Christian' while also making sacrifices to demons in the pagan temples, which was common for the ratifying of business contracts. I cover this in my 'Jezebel' series for this teaching was the sin of the woman the Lord nicknamed Jezebel in Revelation 2:20. Her city, Thyatira, was the center for labor unions (guilds) in the Roman Empire. For a person to buy or sell any wholesale product or even real estate meant confirming the contract by an offering to the god or goddess of that union and having sex with the temple prostitute. She taught you could be a follower of Jesus while giving in to such practices, for which she was strongly rebuked by the Lord. Get the series if you want to study it in more detail. 
 
The conclusion is that yes, it is possible for Christians to have and know demons or Paul would not have said "I don't want you to have fellowship with demons." In fact in my 44+ years of walking with the Father I've cast more demons out of believers than unbelievers. They cannot inhabit a Christian's spirit, but can oppress their mind and/or body. 
 
But a Christian can also merely 'fellowship' with demons as Paul said, by dabbling in occasional sin, much as offering sacrifices to a god or goddess to close a business deal or buy/sell a house and then have sex with the temple prostitute would be an occasional thing in Paul's time. It would be like today the man or woman with the occasional porn habit, or one who goes to clubs and such where they know are people and atmosphere that has demons. Or any believer who truly loves God but just keeps this little habit of the flesh entertained every so often. They fellowship with demons every now and then.
 
They have fellowship with the demonic in a temporary way, then ask to be forgiven and go on with their Christian life. Paul was talking to believers about stopping their sacrifices to the gods and goddesses and sex with prostitutes. Remember, these Corinthians were charismatic, zealous for God believers, but in many ways deeply flawed. But they were growing in Christ - Paul's longest communication with any church is I and II Corinthians - their flaws in life yet acceptance by the Lord. Paul told them they would make the rapture in I Corinthians 15, and that they would rule over the world and angels in the age to come in I Corinthians 6:2, and their strife and envy was wood, hay and stubble, that would be burned in judgement in I Corinthians 3: 1-15, provides hope for us today!
 
The word 'fellowship' means 'to have in common', 'to participate in common with', and is intended for believers in fellowship with the Lord. But some Christian can also have a common agreement with demons, or fellowship as Paul wrote. 
 
I see these detours though needed, took me away from the subject of how to actually fellowship with the Father, Lord, and Holy Spirit and how to tell the difference between them. It made this week's 'Thoughts' extra long - I apologize. I promise to do that next week....until then, blessings!
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

The Holy Spirit: How to know Him... #2
 
Hi all,
Last week I shared how every prayer request in the New Testament is to the Father, not Jesus, and there is not a single prayer to the Holy Spirit either. There is mention of fellowship with Jesus and fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and I will define and help guide how to do that in this series. But all prayer requests in the NT from the Lord's Prayer on, are to the Father. 
 
The reason is quite simple: The Father planned salvation, Jesus was (merely) the way it was accomplished.  From the Common English Bible (CEB): 
 
"All of these things are from God (the Father) who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. God (the Father) was reconciling the world to Himself through Christ, by not counting people's sins against them. He has trusted us with this ministry of reconciliation." II Corinthians 5: 17-19
 
People don't realize when they call Jesus the Word of God, just whose Word He is. He is the Word of (from) God the Father to mankind: Be reconciled to Me! If a father tells his son to go outside to tell the rest of his brothers and sisters to come inside because its late, the kids outside don't ask to stay out longer to the son who is merely the word of the father, the messenger. 
 
They ask the father who originated the message and sent the son in the first place. Jesus is the Word of the Father, the carrier and messenger and even author of our salvation urging us to come inside. But the Father is the Source of the invitation, not Jesus. We ask the Father. Not the Messenger. 
 
I use this example frequently: A father tells his son to wash the car. The son washes the car using water. We could say the father washed the car by using his son, and both father and son could accurately say it was the water that washed the car. We are the dirty car, the father is the Father, the son is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the water. One could correctly say the Father washed us, or the Son washed us, or the Holy Spirit washed us. Each has a different function. One planned it, One did it, One was the agent used to do it. 
 
The flow
In Matthew 3:16 as Jesus came up out of the water at His baptism we see the Father spoke audibly, then the Spirit descended and settled upon Jesus. From the Father to the Spirit to Jesus. Today we are the body of Christ and the flow continues: The Father to the Spirit to the body of Christ.  
 
In John 15:26 Jesus stated, "But when the Comforter has come, Whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me." 
 
This revelation, that the Holy Spirit 'proceeds from' the Father is key. He comes from and proceeds out of the Father to us. Think of it this way: The Father is on His throne in heaven. We are Christ on the earth. There must be a link, a bridge, a means of communicating between heaven and earth. That is the role and function of the Holy Spirit. He flows from heaven to earth. He is in both places at once.
 
We must also understand what Jesus said of the Father in John 4:24, the Father is a Spirit. Therefore He will communicate to our spirit. He is not a mind. We must look for fellowship with Him and communication from Him in our spirit, not our mind. 
 
The Holy Spirit is the One in ministry today on the earth, to think of it another way. 
The Holy Spirit is the One here today, given at Pentecost, sent from the Father to empower us and so that we might know and fellowship with the Father and Lord Jesus. All we have, all we hear, see, and do in the Lord are through and in the Holy Spirit. When a person sees Jesus it is indeed the Lord, but our eyes are opened to His realm by the Holy Spirit. A person is born again by the Spirit. Any experience a person has with God is by the Spirit. He is the One on earth today, communicating accurately and truthfully what heaven is saying and communicating to us. 
 
This is why Jesus said in John 16:13 that He is the Spirit of truth and, "..He will not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He hears, that is what He will speak." The Holy Spirit only repeats what He hears in heaven. 
 
He initiates nothing of Himself, which is why it does no good at all to make a prayer request to Him, to ask Him to do thus and so - He is merely the link between heaven and earth. He merely repeats what He hears. Just like at Jesus' water baptism above: The Father through the Spirit to Jesus on earth. Today that 'Jesus on earth', is us. The flow is the same.
 
Paul shared it in a different way
Paul elaborated on Jesus' statement that the Holy Spirit only repeats what He hears in I Corinthians 2: 9-16 first quoting an OT verse: "Eye has not seen, neither ear heard, neither can we imagine the things that God has provided for those who love Him. But, God (Father) has revealed these things to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of the (Father) God." 
 
The Holy Spirit is right now searching the heart of the Father God on our behalf, seeing what He has provided for us, and then when He finds something, communicates that with us in our spirit. 
 
This may be as minor as guiding your steps to that empty parking space close to the store you asked the Father for, to communication in your spirit by peace that you got that job you interviewed for. The Holy Spirit as Jesus said, does not speak of Himself, but only what He hears. He searches the heart of the Father looking for His provision for our lives.
 
The Father is the Source of your answered prayer
"Do not err my dear brothers and sisters. Every good gift, every perfect gift, come down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no varying to His character, nor even a hint of change at all. He chose to give us birth by His Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first crop from the harvest of all He created." James 1: 16-18
 
How to fellowship with the Father, the Spirit, and the Son...until next week then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com