Hi all,
I shared last week some of the first things the Father spoke to me, which helped transform my thinking by allowing me to un-believe the past truths about myself to reach for and grasp the New Testament reality of life in Christ.
Another thing the Father spoke to me when I was a teen that helped me look to the 'big picture' was this:
"You'll find when you receive your glorified body, it won't be subject to the natural laws of the earth." I asked, "What do you mean?" He replied:"If you want to walk you can walk, if you want to run you can run, if you want to float you can float, if you want to fly you can fly, if you want to be somewhere at the speed of thought, you can be there."
Why did this have such an impact on me? Because it got my eyes off me and my past and who I thought I was, and onto the future with Him. It broke my attention on little old sorry me and all my guilt and anger and everything else to look to the future.
I've found that same principle is what Paul did, as he told the Philippians in 3:13-14:"I don't think I've taken hold of these things yet, but this one thing I do; I am forgetting those things behind, and reaching forward to those things ahead of me, to the prize which is the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus."
The next thing...
Ephesians 1:3 captured my attention for weeks:"Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ."
That is New Testament reality. No matter my circumstance, no matter what I feel about me, no matter what parts of life I don't understand and want to be different:I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heaven.
Verse 4 continues:"...He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world..." That is NT reality. You and I have been adopted, chosen by God long before the foundation of the world.
For me as a teenager whose dad had walked out on the family to start a new one with someone else, it rocked my world. I had to think on the fact no matter what happened or what will happen on earth, I was chosen, adopted, by the Heavenly Father. And it was all determined before the creation of the world.
By my Father. Not the one who walked out on the family, but by my heavenly Father. And He wanted me and made plans for me to be in His family before the world was created.
These are foundational verses for all of us, but for me as a teenager, it changed what I thought of myself. I've seen these same truths change many adults since then. But these truths will only change someone's life if they apply themselves to thinking these thoughts while rejecting their old thoughts.
That is the process of 'renewing the mind' as Romans 12:1-2 say. There is no other way to change presented in scripture. The laying on of hands if for blessing, or for setting apart for God's use, for receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit, or for healing - but no where in the NT is the laying on of hands presented as a cure-all for one questioning their salvation, or absorbed in self-guilt and unforgiveness.
Each person my accept the New Testament realities as presented, and only then, when they start thinking those thoughts, are their emotions and thoughts changed.
What the NT says about prayer
This last part runs contrary to the thoughts of many Christians, yet I present it repeatedly, for there is always someone who is changed by it. It is so radical many Christians have questioned me when I have taught it. Yet if you don't change your thinking and your practice, you'll never be effective in prayer nor in fellowship with the Lord. This New Testament truth is foundational:We ask of the Father, not of Jesus.
In Luke 11 Jesus said, "Pray this way:Our Father who is in heaven..." Not:"Jesus, I ask..."
In John 16:23 speaking of when He would ascend to heaven:"In that day you'll ask me nothing. Truly, truly I say to you; Whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you."
Every prayer in the NT is to the Father. In Acts 4:24-30 when Peter and John are released by the authorities, they go back to their people and gather them to report what happened, and to pray:
"Lord, you are God, who has made the heavens, earth, the sea, and all life in them....now stretch forth your hand to heal by the name of your holy child Jesus."
Paul in Ephesians 1:17-19:"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him..."
Paul in Ephesians 3:14-20:"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you according to His riches in glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit in your inner man..."
If you are asking Jesus for something in your prayers, prayer becomes a hit and miss practice. Legally it is the Father who is the 'Father of lights' and from whom 'every good gift and every perfect gift' comes." (James 1:17-18)
These truths, that we have been blessed with all heavenly blessings by our Father, that we are seated in the heavenlies with Him by the Father, that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that the Father is to whom we pray - is New Testament reality.
To walk in His ways. To make these truths real in our lives, you must reject thoughts contrary to them. You must reject feelings that are contrary to them, and make yourself think and feel in agreement with them.
These are the ways He thinks of us
We are told in Philippians 1:5:"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus..." We are to think of ourselves as the Father thinks of us.
He thinks of us as His children, born into the family when He by His Spirit recreated our spirit-man. He thinks He adopted us as well. He thinks He has blessed us in the heavenly places with all spiritual blessings. He thinks He has given us authority to use the name of His Son to combat the evil one. He thinks you and I have His mind in us, the mind of Christ. He thinks, "...in the ages to come He will continue to show forth the exceeding riches of His grace which is towards us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:7)
If our Father in heaven thinks that, Jesus thinks that too. Should we as royal children of the Father, we who have been translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, think like that too? Stay with it, spend as much time as needed in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2, and Colossians 1 until those truths become a reality. Once you have those in you, then you think His thoughts and it makes hearing the Father so much easier - for you are thinking alike.
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
I shared last week some of the first things the Father spoke to me, which helped transform my thinking by allowing me to un-believe the past truths about myself to reach for and grasp the New Testament reality of life in Christ.
Another thing the Father spoke to me when I was a teen that helped me look to the 'big picture' was this:
"You'll find when you receive your glorified body, it won't be subject to the natural laws of the earth." I asked, "What do you mean?" He replied:"If you want to walk you can walk, if you want to run you can run, if you want to float you can float, if you want to fly you can fly, if you want to be somewhere at the speed of thought, you can be there."
Why did this have such an impact on me? Because it got my eyes off me and my past and who I thought I was, and onto the future with Him. It broke my attention on little old sorry me and all my guilt and anger and everything else to look to the future.
I've found that same principle is what Paul did, as he told the Philippians in 3:13-14:"I don't think I've taken hold of these things yet, but this one thing I do; I am forgetting those things behind, and reaching forward to those things ahead of me, to the prize which is the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus."
The next thing...
Ephesians 1:3 captured my attention for weeks:"Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ."
That is New Testament reality. No matter my circumstance, no matter what I feel about me, no matter what parts of life I don't understand and want to be different:I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heaven.
Verse 4 continues:"...He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world..." That is NT reality. You and I have been adopted, chosen by God long before the foundation of the world.
For me as a teenager whose dad had walked out on the family to start a new one with someone else, it rocked my world. I had to think on the fact no matter what happened or what will happen on earth, I was chosen, adopted, by the Heavenly Father. And it was all determined before the creation of the world.
By my Father. Not the one who walked out on the family, but by my heavenly Father. And He wanted me and made plans for me to be in His family before the world was created.
These are foundational verses for all of us, but for me as a teenager, it changed what I thought of myself. I've seen these same truths change many adults since then. But these truths will only change someone's life if they apply themselves to thinking these thoughts while rejecting their old thoughts.
That is the process of 'renewing the mind' as Romans 12:1-2 say. There is no other way to change presented in scripture. The laying on of hands if for blessing, or for setting apart for God's use, for receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit, or for healing - but no where in the NT is the laying on of hands presented as a cure-all for one questioning their salvation, or absorbed in self-guilt and unforgiveness.
Each person my accept the New Testament realities as presented, and only then, when they start thinking those thoughts, are their emotions and thoughts changed.
What the NT says about prayer
This last part runs contrary to the thoughts of many Christians, yet I present it repeatedly, for there is always someone who is changed by it. It is so radical many Christians have questioned me when I have taught it. Yet if you don't change your thinking and your practice, you'll never be effective in prayer nor in fellowship with the Lord. This New Testament truth is foundational:We ask of the Father, not of Jesus.
In Luke 11 Jesus said, "Pray this way:Our Father who is in heaven..." Not:"Jesus, I ask..."
In John 16:23 speaking of when He would ascend to heaven:"In that day you'll ask me nothing. Truly, truly I say to you; Whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you."
Every prayer in the NT is to the Father. In Acts 4:24-30 when Peter and John are released by the authorities, they go back to their people and gather them to report what happened, and to pray:
"Lord, you are God, who has made the heavens, earth, the sea, and all life in them....now stretch forth your hand to heal by the name of your holy child Jesus."
Paul in Ephesians 1:17-19:"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him..."
Paul in Ephesians 3:14-20:"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you according to His riches in glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit in your inner man..."
If you are asking Jesus for something in your prayers, prayer becomes a hit and miss practice. Legally it is the Father who is the 'Father of lights' and from whom 'every good gift and every perfect gift' comes." (James 1:17-18)
These truths, that we have been blessed with all heavenly blessings by our Father, that we are seated in the heavenlies with Him by the Father, that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that the Father is to whom we pray - is New Testament reality.
To walk in His ways. To make these truths real in our lives, you must reject thoughts contrary to them. You must reject feelings that are contrary to them, and make yourself think and feel in agreement with them.
These are the ways He thinks of us
We are told in Philippians 1:5:"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus..." We are to think of ourselves as the Father thinks of us.
He thinks of us as His children, born into the family when He by His Spirit recreated our spirit-man. He thinks He adopted us as well. He thinks He has blessed us in the heavenly places with all spiritual blessings. He thinks He has given us authority to use the name of His Son to combat the evil one. He thinks you and I have His mind in us, the mind of Christ. He thinks, "...in the ages to come He will continue to show forth the exceeding riches of His grace which is towards us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:7)
If our Father in heaven thinks that, Jesus thinks that too. Should we as royal children of the Father, we who have been translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, think like that too? Stay with it, spend as much time as needed in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2, and Colossians 1 until those truths become a reality. Once you have those in you, then you think His thoughts and it makes hearing the Father so much easier - for you are thinking alike.
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
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