Hi all,
Barb and I want to thank those who
continue to support us and CWOWI both financially and prayerfully. This
last month several have given more than your normal giving and it has
helped us catch up, and we are so thankful. Thank you so much, we are
glad to be a blessing to you, and you have blessed us!
Prophetically speaking
I’ve shared earlier this fall that He
said there would be several things on many fronts happening from fall
through spring. That has certainly been the case, ranging from the Paris
attack to world market gyrations to North Korea setting off a nuclear
bomb and more.
Earlier this month Saudi Arabia broke off
diplomatic ties with Iran, which partially fulfills Ezekiel 38:13. When
Russia/Iran invade Israel it says: “Sheba, and Dedan, and the
merchants of Tarshish and the young lions thereof will say to you, ‘Have
you come to take a spoil?’” Sheba and Dedan will at least
diplomatically and perhaps militarily, object to Russia and Iran’s
invasion of Israel. Sheba and Dedan are understood to be modern day
Saudi Arabia. So the setting of Saudi Arabia against Iran is another
piece of the Ezekiel 38 puzzle falling into place.
World economies will stumble, political
unrest and social upheaval will continue, and even nature will cause
people to sense the balance of natural systems seems off balance. But He
is speaking to me more about the body of Christ.
Focus
The Lord appeared to me and laid hands on
me in November 2001 and told me “You’ve been doing the work of an
apostle, but now I’m laying hands on you as an apostle for this task; I
want you to start a house church and house church network, and structure
it in such a way to facilitate the development of house churches around
the world.”
I had understood from scriptures that
apostles help start and oversee balanced family based churches that meet
in homes – the whole of the New Testament is written by apostles doing
house church writing to people doing house church, making the whole
context of everything from the 5-fold to the Lord’s Supper to
intergenerational relationships to benevolence all in the home.
Recently the Lord has been teaching me
about Paul’s ministry and what made him unique, and how in a much, much
smaller thread of truth, what CWOWI is all about is similar, and I’ll
share part of that here. It is relevant because in the coming days it is
what the Lord is asking of the whole body of Christ.
Up until Paul the body of Christ was
rather unfocused and undefined. They just existed in the born again
experience, but little beyond that in terms of specific teaching on
growth in Christ. There was no more than 2 years between Pentecost in
Acts 2:4 and Acts 8:1 where it says the persecution was so bad ‘every
disciple left Jerusalem for Judea and Samaria except for the apostles’.
As they resettled in Judea and Samaria,
Acts 8 tells of Philip coming to Samaria to the newly resettled
disciples, preaching Jesus to those who hadn’t heard, and acting as it
were to confirm what these replanted disciples had been sharing about
Jesus. And God poured out His Spirit so that many were born again,
healed, and delivered, and ‘there was great joy in the city’.
The big picture was seen, but they lived
in the born again and Baptism with the Holy Spirit experience and didn’t
go much beyond. The practical details about how one walks out faith
wasn’t taught. People were being born again, healed, delivered, but they
were entirely unfocused beyond that. Who would lead them into maturity?
Who would instruct them in growth as human beings and as disciples
after the born again event?
Paul’s ministry, the Lord has been
sharing with me, largely resulted in causing the body of Christ to focus
on the priorities of faith and life, to cut to the core issues of life
in Christ, to take people beyond religion and merely being born again
believers, into maturity as disciples.
Look at each of his letters and the
issues of the heart and practical life he brought up as he wrote: Issues
of personal lifestyle and holiness. Issues of walking in love, of
sorting through personal decisions on what to believe about everything
from eating meat sacrificed to idols to what if any day was considered
more holy than another, to thieves giving up stealing in order to get a
job so they have money to give to those in need, and so much more.
On a much, much smaller scale, don’t get
me wrong I am in no way trying to exalt myself, but am sharing what the
Lord has been saying to me in context of the body of Christ as a whole,
but that focus is what I’m called to as well. To focus the body of
Christ and teach practical truths and application of our faith that we
might go on to maturity.
And that is in large part because we are
at a time in world history and in the body of Christ, the Spirit is
saying to the body to focus and grow up. The season that allowed the
body of Christ to wallow in self-absorbed faith, of making God our
servant instead of us, His, of rushing from this fad to that newest
‘thing’, is over. The Lord is saying to focus, to the body. Leave that
vague, undefined ‘Yes, I’m a Christian’ and move on to exactly what you
believe, why you believe it, and how you are seeking and knowing Him
each and every day. It is the time to stop following the pack, the fad,
the formula, and get the temple in order – we are living temples – get
our house in order. Focus.
Perhaps you can sense this call to focus
on the essentials in your own spirit, in the practical application of
your own faith, but haven’t been able to exactly identify what it is. It
is the Spirit saying to the church, focus. Many will have the
opportunity over the next couple of years to either confirm they wish to
stay in the ‘babyhood’ stage so to speak, and deal with the world as
the world would, their faith taking a back seat. But many of those same
people are, and will, sense a call to go deeper, to cut to the core
issues of faith and life and go on in the Lord. It is a call to
establish priorities which come about after first experiencing a grace
in the heart.
Also, it isn’t headline grabbing, but
you’ll hear of various synonyms for house church more and more – simple
church, micro-church, mini-church and so on – and though many will be
nothing more than cell groups centrally controlled by the auditorium,
‘relationships’ will become the ‘in’ thing in many circles. I keep
hearing ‘set your house in order’ for the body of Christ. The ‘trickle
down’ effect of that word is valid for each of us, organizing, tying up
loose ends, debts, strengthening home and family – maturity, maturity is
where we are headed, and many more this year will fall to one side or
the other as things become exposed that were once hidden. Will be an
interesting year!
I want to mention our Dutch conference
April 21-24, Thursday-Sunday. If you are doing house church this would
be a great way to meet and get to know people from about a dozen other
nations and make new friends in a relaxed retreat format. You should
plan to arrive the 20th but can stay over to see Holland to the 27th
making a week of it. One of the amazing things about CWOWI members and
leaders traveling with us and to conferences is those solid friendships
that develop.
For example, this past fall a group of us
from Arkansas, Mississippi, Montreal, and Manchester, New Hampshire
made a loop around New England visiting house churches, starting with
visiting the Parker’s in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Since then some of those who went on that
trip have continued to stay in touch with each other by Skyping once a
month the Parker’s during their house church meeting - joining their
house church meeting – connecting house churches from Montreal, Arkansas
and Scotland all at the same time connecting to the New Hampshire
meeting for one big house church meeting!
I really believe the CWOWI conferences
are unlike any other conferences I’ve ever seen because of the focus on
getting to know one another, and our depth in the Lord that results in
very anointed meetings and worship. The relationships are rich, and if
you are doing house church and want to come, email me or Wil and Ank our
Dutch hosts, at cwowi@solcon.nl
Thank you again for being in our lives,
so much is happening around the world, some of which I cannot speak here
on such an international email. But know that in spite of danger and
persecution, the Lord is advancing.
Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.
Blessings,
John and Barb
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