Weekly Thoughts

11/4/06 – Leaders, Prophetic Words

Hi all,

With recent accusations against another Christian leader we tend to think towards why and for what purpose the Lord allows these things to happen, and if true, to be exposed...

Certainly anyone in authority can be wrongfully accused and that accusation can ruin their lives...anyone from a daycare worker to a teacher to a politician to a pastor...can have others bring devastating accusations against them that even if proved untrue, taint reputations and plant seeds of doubt in the backs of people's minds.

My thoughts this week are centering more on this country and where it is going, as well as the body of Christ and what the Lord is doing with us.

Some of you will remember about 3 years ago when the Lord told me some things in prayer.

One day he told me there was a plot to bring shoulder fired missiles into the country "to try to shoot down Marine One, Air Force One, and/or commercial planes"...and "...you need to pray against it". I did so regularly over the next several months, and then one day in the fall news broke that the authorities had arrested some people trying to bring in about 5 dozen shoulder fired missiles. After that I asked the Father how the country was doing and he said: "OK for now, but watch out when Hillary takes office." So I've watched and prayed over the last 3 years. I wonder what 'watch out' means...

During the 2004 Presidential elections there was a different feel to the atmosphere, there was a definite spirit behind much of what was happening and I asked the Father what it was. He said: "It's the spirit of socialism. It can be delayed but it won't be stopped."

Many things the Father or Jesus tell me I take as subject to change. After all, in Matthew 24:20, after stating flat out that a leader called anti-Christ will come to Jerusalem 1/2 way through a peace treaty with Israel and telling believers to run when they saw it, he says in verse 20 to "pray that your flight is not in winter nor on the Sabbath."

That indicates that the anti-Christ is set in stone- it's going to happen- but the season of the year and even day of the week he comes to Jerusalem is subject to change via prayer.

But this I know, that socialism is gaining ground, and that means federal government will grow more intrusive into our lives and our economy will suffer for it. I hope the above things can be changed, but maybe not. He said it can be slowed, but not stopped...

Earlier this year I was driving along and talking to the Father and commented to Him about how much the country had changed in the last 10 years, so much so that I hardly recognized it. He immediately told me: "If you hardly recognize this country now compared to 10 years ago, I'm telling you the truth, 10 years from now you won't recognize it yet again for the changes coming." 

Early into the war I asked the Father what would happen to Iraq. Would the Persia that Ezekiel spoke about whom would ally itself with Russia to invade Israel in Ezekiel 38 be just modern day Iran, or would it include the land the Medo-Persian Empire controlled, which means Iraq-Iran?

He sidestepped the 2nd question and just responded to my 1st question about what will happen in Iraq: "It will all be undone." Usually when the Father or Jesus choose not to answer a question it's because I already know the answer...and since the Word says Persia, which means modern Iran, I've got to take it as just Iran...but still I wonder about what shape Iraq will be in...a puppet government of Tehran, or a democracy...when will it all be "undone" and what will it look like? I don't know...we'll just have to walk it out.

There are some important things happening next year in the spring, and in 2010, but the Lord hasn't shared full details with me yet, so I'm just saying this to alert you to prayer.

I'll just share one thing to keep in prayer. During a visitation in 1992 the Lord came and sat on our sofa and talked to me about things coming on this country. He spoke of war and economic difficulties, but he talked about what he was going to be doing as well. It was during that visitation he talked to me about house church, telling me that his people would be leaving traditional churches to once again start house churches. (Much of that visitation you can read on our web site)

But he also talked about President Bush and difficulties ahead. Because this was 1992 I assumed he was talking about the first President Bush...but I remember distinctly as the Lord was narrating events of President Bush's term he turned sad and broke eye contact with me, looking down to the floor as he stopped the narration about 2 1/2 years into his term in office. He changed the subject with that.

After Bill Clinton was elected to office I put much of the visitation 'on the shelf' because I didn't understand due to his whole narration having to do with President Bush. It wasn't until years later that the President's son came into the national picture and came to understand Jesus was talking about the current President Bush in his narration, and indeed the events he mentioned are happening as he told me.

So I've wondered about that sad look on the Lord's face and how the very atmosphere changed with his expression. He has that ability, being Lord...the very atmosphere changes its mood in relation to His...the first term at the 2 1/2 year mark was uneventful...so I am watching this term...depending on whether you count from election day or inaugural day about 2 1/2 months later, the spring of 2007 will be the 2 1/2 year mark - between March and June I would ask you to keep in prayer. The sadness on his face and the way he just stopped talking about it like it pained him to bring it up, made the think assassination..I don't know and he didn't say...I've kept it between my wife and I and some friends to this point, but with election day looming and so many things hanging on this election, I trust the readers to be in prayer over the next 6 months for the president.

On the subject of the body of Christ in the US let me share these thoughts. When the Lord came to me during a service in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in November of 2001 and told me to start our house church and house church network, I asked him why. At that point I was happy being a traveling teacher and had no desire to pastor again.

He told me it was "against a time to come" and to be a resource and balanced voice for the body of Christ, among other things, so I immediately said I would do it.

Over 2 years ago the Lord came and stood beside me during one of our house church meetings in Tulsa. He said we as a body were in a season of judgement, as he was asking people to deal with sins and the excesses of life. He said this was a season in which friendships would break up as one went further into maturity in Him and another would choose to stay where they were, spiritually speaking (which is actually moving backwards when you refuse to grow when God asks you to).

Suffice to say that the Lord is dealing with people and their sin, their finances, the rearrangement of what's important, asking them to step up and do what is right, and in relationships in Christ. 

I've shared in these pages before how during a visitation the Lord taught me about judgement, and I had the opportunity to ask him why he was so hard on Ananias and Sapphira. He told me that what they sought to introduce into his body could not be tolerated. (He prefaced his comment by reminding me that the whole of his body was in Jerusalem in those days)

He went on to say: "Many in this country cry out for revival, but I'm telling you the truth; if revival were poured out there would be many, many, Ananias and Sapphira's. Remember my son, the level of judgement is equal to the level of anointing."

The Lord is trying to get his body to wake up and deal with sin, priorities, and setting our house in order. There is a time coming on this country (economically and beyond) that we, the body of Christ, will be as giants in the land, walking in peace and provision while many around us are in fear and lack.

In the same way the Israelites were told ahead of time to prepare for a journey out of Egypt, and the way Noah's actions prepared his household against a time not yet seen, so will our actions today prepare us for what lies ahead.

I am not a doom and gloom person...but when the Lord told me our house church and network were partly in preparation of a time to come, and then he starts talking to me about things coming on this country and world...it is sobering. But I know that those walking in the Spirit will prosper during this time in every way, as a beacon for their neighbors to run to for help.

When hard times come...and many of us are walking through hard times now...it is the people you love and who love you that matter the most. That is why house church and what I have been calling, 'relationship based Christianity' are so important, and growing.

Statistics now over a year old by the Barna group, the US's leading Christian pollster, indicated that about 20 million people in the US now attend house church. That puts house church attendance about 1/2 between the #1 in size denomination Roman Catholics and the #2 Southern Baptists. Barna's numbers indicate that of those who attend church, 74% attend a traditional church, 19% attend both a traditional and house church, and 5% attend only a house church. (His numbers don't include "cell" churches) (margin of error 1.8%)

I'm not including these statistics to tout house church nor my own house church, but rather to show you that something major is happening in US Christianity...and it's 'against the time to come'.

The Lord always tries to get his people prepared before bad things happen...and the move to relationship based, home based church is for a reason...historically and in present day terms, house churches have flourished during times of persecution by government and culture, such as in China today...so then why do you think God is moving in this way today in the US where we have great freedoms? What do you think is coming, especially if the spirit behind socialism takes control of the government?

No matter the structure of your church, value the relationships!

Don't de-fellowship with someone over something stupid! (I know, the color of the sanctuary carpet isn't stupid nor what sister so and so said about this and that...ha!)

Remember again what I've shared when I asked the Father why in the world did he allow President Clinton to be elected. He told me: "Because he represents the sins of his generation, which are (primarily) two: Greed and lust. I allowed the events of his private life to be played out in the newspapers and airwaves of this nation that people might see their lives in his and say, 'See, he's just like me', and harden their hearts against me. Or, that they would see their lives in his and say, "He's just like me, I need help", and soften their hearts to me that they might seek me and find me."

Folks...we are in that time of choosing whether our robes of righteousness will be without spot or wrinkle, or whether we're satisfied with some dirt. The Lord is moving to clean us up, will we walk with him in these things?

My "Weekly Thoughts" will be taking a break next week as I'll be with our CWOWI affiliate in Houten, Netherlands (email: cwowi@solcon.nl) and house church conference there...more on the 18th!

 

Some thoughts about how the Lord is dealing with us...

Prayerfully,
John Fenn
cwowi.org