Hi all,
In the visitation the Lord taught me from I Corinthians 12:4-7. Last week I shared the foundational knowledge I had before that visitation. The key points are that all the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, charismatic, ministry, and motivational gifts, are all just a manifestation of the Holy Spirit given to benefit everyone.
That really, really has to be a revelation each person has. That we are all equal in Christ, all saved by the same blood, just with different functions. If you have that, you won't put anyone on a pedestal beyond their function in Christ - respect that yes - but don't think of them above the fact we are all saved by the same blood of Jesus. Be certain of who you are, but not arrogant, for we are all equal in Him.
What the Lord said
"You need to stop thinking of them as gifts, but as manifestations of the Spirit. You need to stop thinking of them as being within the four walls of a church, in a service, and realize I am in each person, and that all things were made by me and for me."
"The world labels gifts differently, but it is still me moving in my people." I asked for an example and He said:"Consider the apostle Paul. He would go into a city to make disciples, and be part teacher, part evangelist, part pastor part prophet, serving all. But in Corinth he worked for a while as a tent maker. Study a first century tent maker and you'll find they had to deal with setting up the business, gathering materials, manufacturing, marketing and sales. What the world calls (sometimes) entrepreneur, is in the church, an apostle. The same gift in him as an apostle, enabled him to be an entrepreneur."
Then we talked about my own life, and He walked me through different jobs I'd had, how the gifts in me that were being used in ministry also enabled me to work in various companies and jobs. And it was pointed out jobs that I'd had which weren't in my gifting, which explained why I didn't like them or weren't good at them.
I'll share two:
I was the Campus Minister for a ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. We held services and Bible studies on campus. We hosted concerts like The 2nd Chapter of Acts, Barry McGuire, etc. 1982-83 time frame for those of you who know who those people are, lol. We hosted up and coming teachers like Andrew Wommack, and so on.
What I thought I lacked was an evangelistic effort. I felt pressured that a campus minister should be an evangelist. So I set up a loud speaker and microphone in an outdoor area where students gathered for lunch, turned on the microphone ready to tell them about Jesus - and I couldn't think of a single thing. My mind was blank. I couldn't think of a single thing. I was so ashamed I packed up and left within 3 minutes. I was full of guilt, condemnation, confusion.
The next Sunday a visiting minister had a word for me. He prophesied saying:"I've called you to my people, and you'll teach many. You aren't called to the world, but to build up my people. From time to time some will come to me through your ministry, but that isn't your focus. You are called to my people, rest in this my son." Whew, I was at peace and have been since.
Related directly is that I'm not a salesman.
After coming to Tulsa in 1992, before being hired by the church, I got my insurance license and joined a company selling insurance alternatives and other financial products to government employees. We could genuinely do better for them than their government program for retirement. I could explain it well, teach it well, but I couldn't get people to sign on the dotted line.
Both those are related - both involve sales. One called evangelist, one calls insurance sales. Same gift, or rather the lack of the same gift.
By contrast I can teach a person the Word, I can teach them how to make pizza. I can teach them how to take apart a toilet or install plumbing or frame a house. It's all the same gift of teaching, just different function.
As the Lord and I reviewed my jobs (Barb says I had 39 jobs from 1980-1994) while also in ministry, just to put a roof over our head, sometimes working 2 jobs. I saw the gifts in me were the same, they just functioned in different ways within different jobs. But the same gifts. It didn't matter what man created for a job title, Christ in me never changed, He was the same gifts He created in me.
Suddenly it all made sense, I was 'de-churched' in that moment, or at least the start of it.
I remembered frustrated men working as managers in jobs while thinking they were called to be a pastor, and missing God or worse, disappointing Him. They were wrong.
What I realized is that they were pastors, their 'flock' being the people they worked with, who came to them with their problems and issues. These were men and women being pastors, who loved the people they worked with, were a tremendous presence for the Lord in that work place whether they ever shared Jesus or not. They loved their job not for the job, but for the people they helped and cared for at work. They were pastors because Christ in them had given them that gift, but man put a label on their job and they believed the label rather than Christ in them.
I remembered men who loved doing 'odd jobs' helping people out, thinking they weren't in ministry. They were often helping at church too with fixing things in the building. One man didn't think he was in ministry, and if I'd known then what I knew in this visitation, I would have told him more directly that he was in ministry for he carries Christ in him wherever he goes. The same gift of Christ in him that motivated him to fix things in the church building, also motivated him to fix things for people's homes - church members, neighbors, whomever.
I began to see that all things for us are sacred,
There is nothing that is secular for we have Christ in us. I stopped caring for titles and was able to see job descriptions merely as labels for gifts of God within each person.
The janitor who loves his job at school, being around the kids, imparting thoughts and wisdom to them as he could. In ministry.
In the visitation the Lord mentioned Psalm 68:18
It is the completion of Paul's thought in Ephesians 4: 8:"Therefore as he (the Psalmist) says, When He ascended up on high, He gave gifts to men, so that God might live among the rebellious." - the last line being the completion of Paul's reference in 4:8.
I saw that each of us have Christ in us. Equal, but with different functions. No matter man's label, it is Christ in us manifesting Himself whether it be organizing, or teaching, taking someone food when they are sick, to prophesying over someone. From giving money quietly to help meeting someone's needs, or fixing a toilet for a single parent - it is all Christ in us - who cares the labels?!
More of what He said next week, I've gone a bit long. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
http://www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
In the visitation the Lord taught me from I Corinthians 12:4-7. Last week I shared the foundational knowledge I had before that visitation. The key points are that all the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, charismatic, ministry, and motivational gifts, are all just a manifestation of the Holy Spirit given to benefit everyone.
That really, really has to be a revelation each person has. That we are all equal in Christ, all saved by the same blood, just with different functions. If you have that, you won't put anyone on a pedestal beyond their function in Christ - respect that yes - but don't think of them above the fact we are all saved by the same blood of Jesus. Be certain of who you are, but not arrogant, for we are all equal in Him.
What the Lord said
"You need to stop thinking of them as gifts, but as manifestations of the Spirit. You need to stop thinking of them as being within the four walls of a church, in a service, and realize I am in each person, and that all things were made by me and for me."
"The world labels gifts differently, but it is still me moving in my people." I asked for an example and He said:"Consider the apostle Paul. He would go into a city to make disciples, and be part teacher, part evangelist, part pastor part prophet, serving all. But in Corinth he worked for a while as a tent maker. Study a first century tent maker and you'll find they had to deal with setting up the business, gathering materials, manufacturing, marketing and sales. What the world calls (sometimes) entrepreneur, is in the church, an apostle. The same gift in him as an apostle, enabled him to be an entrepreneur."
Then we talked about my own life, and He walked me through different jobs I'd had, how the gifts in me that were being used in ministry also enabled me to work in various companies and jobs. And it was pointed out jobs that I'd had which weren't in my gifting, which explained why I didn't like them or weren't good at them.
I'll share two:
I was the Campus Minister for a ministry at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. We held services and Bible studies on campus. We hosted concerts like The 2nd Chapter of Acts, Barry McGuire, etc. 1982-83 time frame for those of you who know who those people are, lol. We hosted up and coming teachers like Andrew Wommack, and so on.
What I thought I lacked was an evangelistic effort. I felt pressured that a campus minister should be an evangelist. So I set up a loud speaker and microphone in an outdoor area where students gathered for lunch, turned on the microphone ready to tell them about Jesus - and I couldn't think of a single thing. My mind was blank. I couldn't think of a single thing. I was so ashamed I packed up and left within 3 minutes. I was full of guilt, condemnation, confusion.
The next Sunday a visiting minister had a word for me. He prophesied saying:"I've called you to my people, and you'll teach many. You aren't called to the world, but to build up my people. From time to time some will come to me through your ministry, but that isn't your focus. You are called to my people, rest in this my son." Whew, I was at peace and have been since.
Related directly is that I'm not a salesman.
After coming to Tulsa in 1992, before being hired by the church, I got my insurance license and joined a company selling insurance alternatives and other financial products to government employees. We could genuinely do better for them than their government program for retirement. I could explain it well, teach it well, but I couldn't get people to sign on the dotted line.
Both those are related - both involve sales. One called evangelist, one calls insurance sales. Same gift, or rather the lack of the same gift.
By contrast I can teach a person the Word, I can teach them how to make pizza. I can teach them how to take apart a toilet or install plumbing or frame a house. It's all the same gift of teaching, just different function.
As the Lord and I reviewed my jobs (Barb says I had 39 jobs from 1980-1994) while also in ministry, just to put a roof over our head, sometimes working 2 jobs. I saw the gifts in me were the same, they just functioned in different ways within different jobs. But the same gifts. It didn't matter what man created for a job title, Christ in me never changed, He was the same gifts He created in me.
Suddenly it all made sense, I was 'de-churched' in that moment, or at least the start of it.
I remembered frustrated men working as managers in jobs while thinking they were called to be a pastor, and missing God or worse, disappointing Him. They were wrong.
What I realized is that they were pastors, their 'flock' being the people they worked with, who came to them with their problems and issues. These were men and women being pastors, who loved the people they worked with, were a tremendous presence for the Lord in that work place whether they ever shared Jesus or not. They loved their job not for the job, but for the people they helped and cared for at work. They were pastors because Christ in them had given them that gift, but man put a label on their job and they believed the label rather than Christ in them.
I remembered men who loved doing 'odd jobs' helping people out, thinking they weren't in ministry. They were often helping at church too with fixing things in the building. One man didn't think he was in ministry, and if I'd known then what I knew in this visitation, I would have told him more directly that he was in ministry for he carries Christ in him wherever he goes. The same gift of Christ in him that motivated him to fix things in the church building, also motivated him to fix things for people's homes - church members, neighbors, whomever.
I began to see that all things for us are sacred,
There is nothing that is secular for we have Christ in us. I stopped caring for titles and was able to see job descriptions merely as labels for gifts of God within each person.
The janitor who loves his job at school, being around the kids, imparting thoughts and wisdom to them as he could. In ministry.
In the visitation the Lord mentioned Psalm 68:18
It is the completion of Paul's thought in Ephesians 4: 8:"Therefore as he (the Psalmist) says, When He ascended up on high, He gave gifts to men, so that God might live among the rebellious." - the last line being the completion of Paul's reference in 4:8.
I saw that each of us have Christ in us. Equal, but with different functions. No matter man's label, it is Christ in us manifesting Himself whether it be organizing, or teaching, taking someone food when they are sick, to prophesying over someone. From giving money quietly to help meeting someone's needs, or fixing a toilet for a single parent - it is all Christ in us - who cares the labels?!
More of what He said next week, I've gone a bit long. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
http://www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
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