The Strength of Seeing

The Strength of Seeing

by Chip Brogden

Most people look out and see themselves surrounded by an enemy. That is why they live their lives in desperation and fear of what may happen next. They see the devil everywhere they look. They are full of stories about what the devil is doing to them (or what he might be doing). But the overcomers look around them and see something different. They do not see as other people see. That is why they overcome.

To be an overcomer does not mean that we deny the existence of the enemy. We are not going to overcome by pretending we are not really surrounded. Denying the existence of the adversary will not make him disappear. We acknowledge and admit that there is a real enemy, a real spirit of Antichrist, that is out to destroy the Remnant and hinder the Testimony of Jesus. We also acknowledge and admit that more often than not, this spirit of Antichrist seems to get the advantage over us.

Even so, the issue is not the enemy. We may look at the enemy, study him, and build an entire movement around different ways to fight him. We can write books and hold seminars on “spiritual warfare”. But when we look out from the mountain, what do we really see? Here is the difference between those who overcome and those who are defeated: it is not in their ability to fight, but in their ability to SEE, and this seeing is not of themselves, but is of God...

Click here to read the rest of this article:
http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/the-strength-of-seeing.html

LK10: Ultimate Treasure Hunting

Dear LK10 Family,

Ultimate Treasure Hunting

One of our LK10 Values is that ministry (of all kinds) grows out of listening for the Lord's directions.  A great example of this is Ananias in Acts 9.  You know the story...

Saul (later Paul) was on his way to Damascus "breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples" (v. 1).  Just outside the city, a "light from heaven flashed around him", he fell to the ground, the Lord spoke to him and he lost his sight.  His friends had to lead him by hand into the city.  And, for the next three days he didn't eat or drink anything.

Meanwhile, in Damascus, there was a disciple names Ananias.  In a vision, he was given an assignment by God.  "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.  In a vision, he (Saul) has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hand son him to restore his sight."  (v. 11)  You can read the rest of the story in Acts 9.

Two things I want to point out.  First, that God was working preveniently (before Ananias ever showed up) in Saul.  Second, that God communicated a specific assignment with lots of details to Ananias.  Talk about ministry growing out of listening!!!

Did you know that this same kind of thing is happening today?  In this video, Mina Millen and her friend, Athena Hultgren (San Jose, CA), share stories about specific assignments the Lord has been giving them and their children.  They call it "ultimate treasure hunting".  Click on the link, not the photo.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm9K_h3mnQc

Amazing opportunity for deeper training!

Forty five years ago, feeling called into the ministry, I moved to Pasadena, CA to begin studying at Fuller Seminary.  Although in some circles, Fuller was seen as an excellent graduate school, I slowly developed a conviction that this was no way to train men and women for ministry.  The classes were highly academic and theoretical with very little practical training or experience ("We don't do that at the seminary.  Get that in your local church.").  And, very little community.  (Again, "We don't do that at the seminary.  Get that in your local church.")  Those of you who know me will not be surprised that I made my complaints known.  But, I was just a "kid" so what did I know.

Fast forward 45 years.  And, now my good friend, Dr. Kent Smith, is pioneering a new approach to graduate level training that integrates learning with deep community and practical experience.  This training embraces all of the values and practices that we talk about in LK10!  Actually, Kent has been putting this into practice for the the last 10-12 years in Abilene, TX at Abilene Christian University.  What is new is that you don't have to go to Abilene to be part of this training!

More details about the MAGS (Master of Arts in Global Service) program in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlkkeUCz7j4  (Click on the link not the photo.)  For more information contact Kent at smithpk@acu.edu

Believe me when I say that, 45 years ago, I would have enrolled in this program in a heart beat!

The Cross Never Fails

The Cross Never Fails

“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
1 CORINTHIANS 2:2

Religion seeks to reform a man; the Cross seeks to crucify him. Religion may fail to bring about the desired result, but the Cross never fails to achieve its end.

Mankind will pursue morality, virtue, spirituality, even perform religious works and good deeds, in order to avoid death on a Cross. But there are no wounds, no scars, no evidence of having ever died and been made alive unto God. Either a man has never died, or he has died and been raised again. You cannot fake a resurrection.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

John Fenn, The Way the Father & Lord Think #3

Hi all,
We were hiking in Colorado's high prairie south of LaJunta. Back then I could carry Chris piggy-back while the younger two boys scrambled up small cliffs and down canyon walls. We found lizards and tarantulas, hawks, and this day, something that took us totally by surprise.

With Chris on my back I climbed a mesa (flat topped hill common in the US west) while the others followed - not too steep that Barb and the boys couldn't make it but enough that two boys ages 4 & 7 would be challenged. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a black speck low on the horizon coming towards us fast. It was a B-1 bomber with wings swept back. The B-1 can sweep its wings back for high speed flight, and they use south east Colorado as a training area for high speed ground-hugging flights.
 
"Boys! Look! A B-1 bomber is coming right at us!" We'd laughed and joked as we climbed, imagining buffalo (bison) herds, Indian war parties, prospectors and settlers in covered wagons, so when I said a bomber was heading towards us, their reply was 'Ha ha dad'.

 

I said, "No really, look!" in an urgent 'hurry, hurry' voice that finally got them to look up. We were near the summit of a mesa just off the road which seemed far below, and just as we looked up, almost eye to eye with us, a B-1 bomber flew by - with not a sound until it passed. Then suddenly a deafening, bone rattling roar shook us it continued along its zig-zag path between the mesas. We were dumbfounded, and thanked the Father for allowing us to experience such a thrill, amazed at His sense of timing.

Believing His Word and Spirit instead of popular church culture
And so it was I was telling a class at the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs they already have an open heaven, and the then-current fad teaching was error and not what the Father thinks about it. At first they sat in stunned silence when I told them the Father says we already have an open heaven.

I told them - You have peace with God the Father! He is at peace with you. He not only loves you, He likes you. He recreated you, birthed you, then adopted you all in one motion. He thinks He is at peace with you and you have full access to Him, why do you think otherwise? I quoted this passage: "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...by whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand." Romans 5:1-2

Then someone said, "Ha, ha, right John", as if I had just said a B-1 bomber was coming at us.

"No really! Look!" I insisted they follow me through the pages of the New Testament, and as we read verse after verse one lady got angry as if the B-1 had just flown by and she got blind sided by the shock wave.

She took it personally, saying, "Are you telling me I'm wrong!?" as she stood up with a 'You want to fight?' stance and all the finger pointing you would expect. "That I've spent thousands of dollars going to conferences and airfare and hotel bills and offerings and cd's and you are saying you are right and all of them are wrong? No offense, but who are you?"

I told her it wasn't that I was right and they were wrong: "I am telling you what your Father thinks on the subject, and you are unknowingly committing idolatry by elevating man's teaching above His thoughts and His ways as revealed in balance of the Word." That didn't go over real well with her. I can't imagine why.

What He thinks
As long as I was offending religious spirits masquerading as cutting edge charismatic revelation, I thought why not continue. "You think you have to yell and scream and gather thousands to convince God to open the heavens for you because that's what you've been taught, making Him your adversary. Imagine His surprise that He has been wrong this whole time and ____ _____ is right."

"Funny Father God! He thinks He has blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He thinks He has adopted you by Jesus so that you are His kids and part of a royal family, having full access to all that is His. He thinks He has seated you together with Him in heavenly places in Christ. He thinks you are a new creation in Christ and you now have access into this grace." (Ephesians 1:3-6, 2:6, I Peter 2:9, II Corinthians 5:17, Romans 5:1-2)

"All you have to do is just turn a thought towards 'Father' and you have His ear. He is in you. So who do you believe, your favorite teacher and church culture, or what our Father thinks and says on the subject?"

What really bothered her
After a coffee break she calmed down and returned to class. She told me what bothered her is that I was speaking with authority, as if I really knew what I was talking about. She said I wasn't talking about Him like the others, I was talking from Him. She felt fooled by the hype, but now she could see the truth in the verses.

She 'got it' - A light dawned, and for the first time she knew she had been believing doctrines of demons and/or man, and now she had great peace and joy, "The Father really likes me, not just loves me, but likes me, and He lives in me as proof...wow. I can rest in what I have in Him. I know now I live in an open heaven."

Lighten up - the art of knowing
In the same way Jesus turned water into wine but said nothing about it to draw attention to Himself, so too is He working today, humbly, meekly, with a lowly heart - but people's flesh want the spectacular so they tune out His thoughts as they run for the spectacular. His thoughts are just that - thoughts - unseen, quiet, revealed to us personally in our spirit - so that is where we must look for them.

Hebrews 4:6 lists several elements of Christian life, the first 2 being: - "...enlightened (Had the revelation from the Father that Jesus is Lord), have tasted the heavenly gift (born again)..."

Enlightened. Also translated as illuminate, in Greek this is 'photizo', from 'phos', meaning "light". It means down inside a person 'a light goes on' to shine revelation into their spirit and soul. This happens before we are born again and leads us to Christ, and it should be a way of life after we are in Christ. My life revolves around enlightenment - this is where communion with the Holy Spirit is found.

Peter's exclamation in Matthew 16:16 that "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", was the result Jesus said, of the Father showing Him that fact. Revelation came first, then the act of confessing it.

Jesus spoke of 'enlightenment' in John 6:40: "And this is the will of Him who sent me; That all who (1) sees the Son and (2) believes on Him, will have eternal life." First you see Him inside, then you act on it, believing. That 'seeing' takes place in your spirit & soul, and we all went through that time of enlightenment.

Jesus continued in verse 45 saying, "Everyone (1) who has heard, and learned of the Father (2) comes to me." The Father first starts dealing with you inside - enlightenment - and THEN you believe.

I live for and in illumination - revelation. It is the single most important element in my walk with the Father. I want to know His thoughts on all things. Paul prayed for 'enlightenment' for the Ephesians and Colossians:

"For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened to know..." and "That you be filled with spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge..." (Ephesians 1:15-18, Colossians 1:9)

These are the 2nd most common prayers I pray for myself, the 1st being: "Who or what do you want me to pray for Father?" and "What do you think about it (anything in my life) Father?" and/or "What are your thoughts Father?" (When someone expresses an opinion). These are by far the most common 'thing' I pray.

Forsaking our ways and thoughts and accepting His invitation to come up to His higher ways and thoughts in Isaiah 55, means enlightenment and then taking that revelation and changing our thoughts to His. It means change, rearrangement of what we believed and why. It means going against the grain of popular church culture if that culture thinks contrary to His thoughts.

This cannot happen as a matter of just book knowledge. Knowing His ways and thoughts comes from personal revelation - actually knowing Him, letting His Life change us from the inside out...next week, how to do that, as I'm out of space for today...until then,

Blessings,
John Fenn

Remember to use cwowi@aol.com for email to me

John Fenn, Understanding Prophecy and this Year #3

Hi all,

I've been talking about prophecy given in our day about world events that may happen in the coming months and years. The question is: How do we react when a well known speaker says God showed him California is going to fall into the ocean, with the Mexican peninsula of Baja becoming an island and the ocean filling California's central valley? (For instance)

 

What are we to react to prophecies that speak of a soon coming collapse of the US and world economy, riots, and lawlessness? Are we to store up food and water? How do we get God's wisdom on these matters?

 

The Holy Spirit and your spirit

Jesus said, "When He the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth because He will not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak to you, and He will show you things to come." John 16:13

 

Paul confirms this in I Corinthians 2:9-12 saying that "Eye has not seen nor ear heard the things that God (Father) has prepared for those who love Him. But He reveals these things by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of the Father God...even so the things of God no man knows, but the Spirit of God only...and we have received the Holy Spirit so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God the Father."

 

This is important because...

Jesus said the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. That means if you are praying for a Mercedes, but the Father has given you a Volkswagen, the Holy Spirit is going to share that a VW has been provided. He will tell the exact truth as the Father declares it.

 

If a preacher says something that is all the rage and everyone around you says 'Yea and Amen', but in your spirit there is a grievance that what the preacher said is wrong, He is telling the truth no matter who the preacher is. If you say something you shouldn't and you feel grieved inside but your head hasn't a clue what you said wrong, the Spirit of Truth He is letting you know what you said was wrong (and if you spend time asking the Father what it was He will reveal it to you).

 

And if you have peace in your spirit about making a decision that takes you in a certain direction, but your head is full of questions, the peace is the Father's communication to you by His Spirit that it is indeed the direction you are to go and heaven has determined peace for you.

 

Following peace

Walking in faith often involves following that peace even when the mind and emotions are swirling and seeking details. If there is peace in your spirit then you need to control your thoughts and emotions and focus them on that inner peace.

 

The giving of peace to your spirit is the Holy Spirit reporting to you exactly what the Father has prepared for you, and that peace is the Father's opinion on the issue at hand - if there is peace, be at peace.

 

That means when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, a collapsing economy and horrible things coming to the nations of the earth, and you wonder what is going to happen to you, immediately switch your attention to focus on what is in your spirit. Do you sense peace, or is there something that bears witness and says it applies to you?

 

Wisdom from God feels like...

"The wisdom that comes from God is like this: First, it is pure. It is also peaceful, gentle, and easy to please." (James 3:17, ERV)

 

God's wisdom is pure and peaceful and gentle. So when you have a revelation of something bad about to happen, what does it feel like? I've found that even if a revelation from the Father is of something bad, that revelation is wrapped in His peace. That peace as I said above, is the Holy Spirit saying He has received from the Father and Lord that all will be okay, provided for, and grace given. If He puts peace in your spirit it is heaven's word to you saying the Father has it covered!

 

The wisdom from the earth feels like...

"This wisdom is not from above, but is earthly, devilish, sensual (sense oriented, not of God's spirit oriented). For where envy and strife is there is confusion and every evil work." (James 3: 15-16, KJV)

 

Notice the attributes of earthly wisdom - sense oriented (fear, panic, emotional,) confusion, strife. Wisdom from the world makes a person panic. It makes them think they must act immediately or all will be lost. Wisdom from the world causes strife, confusion, and opens the doors to other sins. It lacks peace and instead stirs fear.

 

The way it plays out...

Following peace often feels like stepping through a door that is slightly cracked - you peer inside, see all is fine, so step more inside. Peace is like that - you sense peace, so you follow it until there is a 'hold' in your spirit...usually that means there is something to do in the natural, or you are waiting for something to happen in the natural...and then that peace wells up in your spirit again and you take a few more steps forward.

 

Let us say a believer has been reading on the Internet the latest horror someone says will soon come upon the earth that they dreamed or saw in a vision. Or perhaps someone has been studying world economics and can see that changes are happening that align with some of the true words from God people have been sharing, and they wonder what if anything they are to do.

 

What to do?!?

 

Good principle

The guidelines for giving to others in the New Testament provide wisdom for knowing what if anything we should do for our own future needs. In II Corinthians 8:12-13 Paul is talking about the Corinthian's giving an offering to the disciples in Jerusalem. His guideline for giving is this:

 

"...if you are willing, it is accepted according to what a person has, not according to what they don't have. For I don't want you to ease their burden while creating a burden for yourselves. But now at the time of your abundance you can help them, and when they are in abundance and you in need, they can help you, so there is an equality."

 

It is accepted according to what you have...I receive emails pretty regularly from people asking if they should store up 1-3 year's of food, and in the next breath state they don't have extra money to do that all at once. My response is this - if you feel you should do this, then do so according to what you have, not charging it, not going into debt, but here a little and there a little, so as to not create a burden.

 

Again, go to your spirit - do you sense peace even though you have confusion and fear in your mind? Then go with the peace and discipline your thoughts and emotions to be obedient to that peace - when Jesus needed to feed a crowd of 5,000 men plus women and children, all they gave him to start with was a boy's lunch. But Jesus said, "It is enough." If you are in peace, then heaven is saying to you, "It is enough." 

 

It also helps to retrace in your mind all the things He has brought you through, every bit of faithfulness, every provision, every grace through the years. Holding that history in your thoughts helps bring assurance He will also be there in your future. One of my favorite quotes from Corrie ten Boom is this: "It is never wrong to trust an unknown future to a known God."

 

The promises of the Bible are real and true and not dependent on economies, governments, or money. When confronted with lack, ask the Father: "II Peter 1:3-4 says all things that pertain to life and godliness have been provided, so please reveal your provision Father!", and watch Him provide. Use common sense, stay in peace! New subject next week, until then, blessings,

 

John Fenn

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

 

 

 

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