How I see
Hi all,
You know by now that when I write my "Thoughts" each week I am writing transparently, what is really on my heart, what I've really been thinking about.
What's on my heart today is to share some answers to the question I get asked most often. It gets phrased in different ways by different people in different locations, but it boils down to this: You see angels all the time and the Lord comes and visits you regularly to teach you or give you prophetic words about the world and the body of Christ; what do you do or have you done (to warrant that level of trust), and is that for everyone, can I do that too?
I'll share today what I think are some benchmarks in my life, and my hope is that people can walk closer to the Lord and Father.
The Father does things line upon line over the course of a person's life, that he may establish a foundation and build upon it as we allow. So how He trusts me enough to open my eyes to His realm regularly didn't happen all at once.
Back in the 1970's
My dad left our family (I'm the oldest of 4 kids) when I was almost 12, and it left a huge void in my heart. The dad I loved and admired left us and married another woman and promised to raise her two children as his own, which he did.
He had taught me how to shake hands firmly, to always shine my shoes, to make a good first impression by addressing a person properly, to find creative ways to get something done, and to always break a bill and save the change.
He had taught me to sail off the shore of Burt Lake in northern Michigan where we had a cottage, entrusting me even at ages 7-10 to sail the little Sunfish (basically a surf board with a sail, centerboard and rudder) way out into the lake for hours at a time.
He and I would make early morning runs to the bakery in Alanson for fresh cinnamon bread, or take the speed boat across the lake to the town of Indian River for breakfast, tie up at the bridge, and walk to the restaurant made of logs where a real Indian dressed in full native clothing was out front to greet customers.
Our big boat we kept in Holland Michigan, right on Lake Michigan, and as the oldest I was part of the crew taking orders from my dad the captain; loosing dock lines or tying them upon arriving (he taught me how to secure a line around a piling or dock cleat), entrusting me to be on the bow when coming into port, etc.
When camping he taught me to put up a tent, tie knots, use a knife, build a fire, and always leave the campground in better condition than when we left it; like even picking up other people's trash down to cigarette butts and tiny pieces of scrap paper. Many nights he and I would look at the stars and he'd point out the different constellations and talk to me about science and how the world was put together.
At home, many nights I would still be up late (past 10pm at that age was real late) and he would bring home Coney Island hot dogs for mom, himself, and me. They were loaded with chili and onions, and the 3 of us would eat them while my 3 siblings slept - I felt so grown up hanging out with dad and mom! Sometimes it would be a pizza from Pizza King - very thin crust and they grind, pre-cook, and crumble their pepperoni, so their was little grease, but a very distinct flavor. It remains my all time favorite pizza and a must when Barb and I are back in Kokomo where we grew up. (Indiana)
All that stopped
When dad left all that stopped. I was suddenly the oldest of 4 with a job to do. Baby sit them 2x a week while mom finished her Masters (MBA) degree at night school, mow the nearly 3 acres, empty trash, order my siblings to do homework, pick up the house, stack the dishes, and so on. Big change.
In my heart I was looking for a dad, to regain what had been lost. There were 4 years between dad leaving and me meeting the Lord. When I was 14 my mom allowed me to buy a pet Squirrel monkey I named Tilly, who died after a year, but filled something in my heart by her dependence on me and me loving her. Friend's dads included me in their family's outings during these years as well, which helped. But I was still looking for a dad. More than that, I was looking to pick up where my dad had left off.
Benchmark #1
When I came to the Lord at age 16 I began talking with the Father immediately, naturally assuming that my relationship with my Father God would be like my relationship with my earth father, just picking up where he left off.
I assumed he would tell me how to fix the lawn mower, how He put the world together, what chore to do next, and so on. I assumed my Father would mentor me like my father had before he left, and He did, so that's how I got to know the Father, and I still live that way.
My fellowship was and is with the Father first and foremost - that's who I love truest and deepest, who I talk to in normal conversation, who I hear when I receive instructions or am otherwise led, who I fellowship with. When I see angels and they have a message for me or to tell others, it normally starts out "The Father wants you to know" or "The Father wants them to know..." or "The Father says..."
The Father is my dad and has been since I was 16. I'm now 51. The apostle John said in I John 1:3 "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with the Lord Jesus Christ"; I find it to be in that same order in my life.
Therefore I have the same informality in my mind about fellowship with the Father as I would my own dad bringing home Coney Island hot dogs and hanging out, or having him talk me through a home repair. It's conversational, all day long. My most common prayer is "What do you think Father?"
Here's a snapshot of 24 hours to give you an idea. Thursday morning I drove to a convenience store to buy a gallon of milk. The truck just went 'click' when I tried to restart it. I asked, "What do you think Father?" and immediately I heard; "Check the negative battery cable". I did, it had worked loose, I pivoted it around to where it was tight again, and started the truck and drove home.
Yesterday afternoon I saw our neighbor working in his yard and said hello as I drove past, stopping briefly. He said our neighbor 2 doors down had died of cancer at 4am - he had been ill for some time, was a believer, Southern Baptist. When I first heard of his illness a couple months ago I asked the Father "What do you think, do you want to heal him or raise him from the dead if/when the time comes?" Immediately I heard "He'll be with me soon". When the neighbor said he died, I asked the Father "What do you think?" and he said "He's with me".
In between Thursday morning's truck not starting and Friday afternoon, I asked the Father more times than I can remember "What do you think?" Everything from a movie I was watching on TV where He said "There is no moral lesson here" to "What do you think I should do next?" - "Remember Barb said to par-boil the green beans and freeze them" to "What do you think about the boat?" - "It's fine, but tomorrow would be a good opportunity to bring it in for the season". (I have a small, cheap, old- built in 1973, sailboat)
So that's the first thing about my walk; my main fellowship is with the Father, and I keep a running conversation going with him all day. If I'm not talking I'm most often praying in tongues under my breath, though admittedly I go for hours where I forget or get distracted or busy working on other things, so I have to bring myself back continually to start praying in tongues again.
But I'm always thinking about how I feel the Father on the inside of me, continually shifting my mind's attention between the natural and what I feel or sense in my spirit. That's when I'm quiet and in listening mode, just relishing His presence felt inside. To know my Father is always in me and part of me and all I do is the greatest joy. No one and no thing can separate us, and unlike my earth dad He will never leave me. I have a deep well of peace that nothing can shake in that knowledge and it is the foundation of who I am.
When people ask me about why Jesus appears to me to tell me prophetic things or give me a personal word or instruction, the single biggest factor I can say (if anything has to do with me) is that we both love the Father first and foremost. I feel very close to Jesus in this way, so close I can't put the camaraderie into words. The word translated 'fellowship' in the New Testament comes closest; koinonia means "sharing in common". I feel a very strong commonality with him that is our love of the Father.
When my eyes are opened to the Spirit realm and Jesus comes walking over to me, my heart leaps to join his heart in our common love of the Father. It's like we're both about our Father's business and He is coming to share the latest thoughts from our Father with a brother and friend who has the same heart and motive and intensity for doing the Father's business. We're friends in that way, though he is Lord and Savior and I usually fall to my knees when I see him.
This is the common factor that knits it all together: I would not presume to love Him like Jesus loves him, yet to the extent a man can love the Father in this short earth-life with all my human frailty and limitations, to that extent, I love the Father as Jesus does, and we share that in common.
Therefore we have a trust between us. I don't want to see the Lord for the experience of seeing the Lord, I have no agenda to enrich myself by massive self promotion; but only to share with others what I've learned and how others can walk closer with the Father and Lord.
He knows it's not a pride thing nor something to be grasped, it's just normal Christianity. When he appears, my heart is to the Father and for the Father's will, as His is, so I'm "safe" so to speak. I'm not going to ask stupid questions, I'm not going to try to manipulate Him, I want only what He and the Father want.
Wrapped in all this is that I love people. My Father planned their salvation and my best friend carried it out - how can I not love them! Their love is in me. By this they'll know we are his disciples, that we love one another. I also have a willingness to love the process with a big picture, eternal perspective.
So I can see a TV preacher doing a commercial on TV for his program or church and the Father will just say out of the blue "He's going to die" or "He's having an affair" and the Father knows I'll take it to prayer and ask he or a marriage can be spared if possible, but not share that word with anyone. I can hear of someone's illness and ask the Father if it is to life or death, and he will tell me. I can ask about the economy or governments or whatever, and often He will just share with me. It's trust, it's personal, it's two friends talking.
In the way the Father is seeking those to worship Him in spirit and truth, wrapped up in that 'spirit and truth', is the trust factor the Father has in those people. He seeks those who walk in spirit and truth for that reason. No ulterior motives, no angle to be played, just pure worship in love. Anything He says is #1 for prayer and confidential, and only shared when permission is given to do so or the need arises and it's prudent or released.
Therefore my heart is not to place expectations on others other than what the Lord or Father is expecting of them at a given time or season in their life. My expectation is that people will do what the Lord wants them to do, and if they don't, or what they are to do but don't interfaces with my life, the Father will make up the difference in my life and they'll have to give account before the Lord one day for it.
Frankly that's the hardest part of ministry for me, even after 30+ years. At what point do I tell a person the Lord expects them to be doing something, and where do I let them work it out, especially if it is to my hurt? Like people who we sow into or they owe their spiritual life to us who should be giving back in the natural like I Corinthians 9 outlines, but aren't? Or the person whose marriage is on the rocks because they won't deal with issues, but we are the ones who get the call at 1am? Sometimes I don't know where to tell a person they need to do what is right and where they need to come to their own conclusion as unto the Lord that something is right.
Benchmark #2
As a teenager I also believed that the book of Acts was normal Christianity, praying in tongues, seeing the Lord, angels, people healed, demons cast out, persecution, and so forth was normal and the traditional churchianity I saw practiced around me for the most part was abnormal. I'd go to my mom's Episcopal church or my girlfriend's Congregational church (now my wife of over 31 years) and think 'this is abnormal, not the way the Lord intended'. I'd go to our little house based meetings and see the book of Acts played out and think 'this is normal Christianity'.
(Little did I know I'd be sucked into the vortex of traditional church for 20 years before returning to my roots!)
Since Adam and Eve clearly saw into the Spirit realm and the natural at the same time before they fell, and we have the Lord now, I thought it should be normal to be the same way. Elisha in II Kings 6 prayed that his servant's spiritual eyes could be opened to see what he the Seer/prophet saw - an army of angels surrounding them to protect them, and I believed it should be normal for me to be like that. It didn't happen until I was almost 28, but I believed it for those 12 years in between.
When people have said to me "I don't know what I'd do if the Lord or an angel appeared to me" I have silently thought to myself, 'It won't happen to you as long as you think and believe like that'. So much of it is 'according to your faith be it unto you', so if you count it as lofty and amazing and rare to have these experiences, that's what you'll get. If you truly renew your mind to believe Acts is normal and are willing to step out to that possibility no matter your current theology or practice, things will start happening.
Benchmark #3
I attended/graduated Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1979-80. What I learned there is the integrity of God's Word and I'm thankful. We were out in ministry in Colorado when some of Kenneth Hagin's "disciples" got off balance in several areas, but while we were there things were balanced and well grounded.
In II Peter 1: 12-21 Peter relates his Mount of Transfiguration experience - he saw Jesus in glory, heard the Father's voice, but concluded 'we have a more sure word of prophecy', the written Word of God.
What he was saying in our application is this; no matter your spiritual experience, the written Word of God is more sure than any experience. Therefore any experience will agree with and be subject to, the Word.
Building upon my love of the Father is the foundation of God's Word. If Jesus were to appear to me and I had my eyes opened to see angels and sometimes demons, but did not have the understanding Peter had above, I could get really off. People can have genuine experiences in the things of the Spirit and hear genuine words, but unless the bedrock of God's Word guides us, people get off by placing their understanding or interpretation on what they experiences, and some can get goofy. The Spirit and the Word agree as one.
Many times during a teaching visitation I'll ask the Lord "I'll need chapter and verse on that", and he readily provides it. The same when an angel delivers a message I don't fully understand, I'll ask for chapter and verse and it's immediately given.
With some people, they may have an experience but because they lack an understanding of the Word, they apply their religious tradition or charismatic fad teaching to their experience, and mix the genuine with the man made elements, and get off.
There's plenty of breakfast cereal out there; fruits, nuts, and flakes, but if one wants to be entrusted with spiritual experiences that are true and balanced, and communicate the same, that person must know the Word is more sure, and have a clear understanding on the Word as a whole.
Grace, grace, grace
The fact is these 3 things formed who I was in my late teens and early 20's. My love of the Father, my belief that Acts was normal Christianity, the foundation of the Word being absolute.
But the truth is, seeing into the Spirit realm doesn't require any of these 3 things because we can't make them happen, they are at the Lord's discretion. The Lord will open anyone's eyes to His realm as there is need. It's covered under the Charismatic gift called the discerning of spirits, under which all visions, spiritual dreams, and spiritual realm experiences are covered.
That said, the Father told me early on I was called to be a Seer, and in November of 2001 the Lord laid hands on me ordaining me as an apostle for the task of starting and building up house based churches, so many of these experiences happen to me as part of that call. Where one person might see the Lord once in their life if at all, a Seer is a prophet who walks in both realms as a matter of life. That's me.
But I would also say these 3 elements provided a foundation upon which the Father could call me as a Seer. The degree to which I let him construct that foundation is the degree that allowed him to open my eyes to the realm Seer, and that with balance.
If you relate to Jesus more than the Father, I'd encourage you to read Ephesians 1 through 3, hovering over 'the Father' and 'God' (meaning the Father) in the text. Many people pray to Jesus, asking him for things, which is totally contrary to what Jesus said to do and what the apostles practiced. (see John 16: 23-28; Acts 4:24-30; Eph 1:17-18, 3:14-19; Col 1:9-12) We fellowship with Jesus, but formal asking is to the Father.
Start asking the Father, talking to the Father, asking "Father, what do you think?" and you'll find a whole new world opening up. Next week I'll share more from my heart along these lines,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.iFaithhome.org
Hi all,
I was overwhelmed and deeply touched by the number of emails from people who were blessed from last week's Weekly Thoughts. Today I'm going to share a bit more about the Father and how I came to love him first and foremost, and then share other benchmarks in 2 weeks. I'll be traveling later this week and next, so that is why this is early and I'll be unable to send next week's email. The next one will be 10/31.
Picking up from last week
When mom and dad set us four kids down on his 35th birthday, some 4 months before my 12th birthday, we thought maybe something special was in store. We had no idea.
"I'm divorcing your mother and I'm divorcing you kids" dad said, and that moment was forever burned into my memory. Later mom said she couldn't believe he would say that to us and was absolutely horrified.
To her credit she never, ever, spoke ill of my dad, saying when I was older I'd form my own opinions, but she would do all she could to protect and promote her children's relationship with their dad. I'll always be thankful she took the high road.
When dad left my devastated heart and emotions went through a roller coaster ride including "If I wasn't alive they'd still be together" and "It was my fault because I made him mad because I didn't take out the trash when I was supposed to". I didn't understand it was something between mom and dad and we four kids were merely collateral damage.
But the Father God was gracious enough to give me insight that something was coming. About 15 months before he left, mom sat me down in private to tell me dad was selling the boat on Lake Michigan, and the cottage on Burt Lake. I was SO hurt that he didn't even ask my opinion, that there was no discussion. I thought it was sort of 'our' place, a family place, and my happiest times were at Burt Lake and the boat.
He replaced the boat and cottage with a motor home, and we took a couple camping trips in it, and went to Indiana University football games where it was tailgate party central that fall. Then he sold it and bought a plane. One day Mom told me through her tears "Your dad didn't want the cottage, or the boat, or the motor home, I guess now he doesn't want me."
To say I felt helpless would be a gross understatement. Mom had shut the bathroom door but I could hear her crying and insisted on her opening the door, thus she shared those thoughts with me as she soaped up and removed her wedding band, through tears continuing "I thought I'd wear this to my grave and it would be passed on to your sister or someone, I never planned to take it off."
Other friend's dads
As a result of these things and so much more, I was very much aware of my feelings and the feelings of those around me. Like the old Amy Grant song that observed "the same sun that melts wax hardens clay", I could have hardened my heart, but instead I just searched for a father. I shared last week how a few dads of my friends filled in the gap between age 12 and 16 when I met the Lord.
A friend my age, Emerson Harvey, and his family were instrumental in my life. I got into Boy Scouts at my mom's urging because Emerson was involved and Dr. Harvey was a Scoutmaster or helper or something, but felt like a fish out of water because the other boys all had dads and I didn't, so dropped out a year later at the same rank I had going in: Tenderfoot.
Scouting wasn't the only casualty in my search for a dad: I took art lessons, but dropped out. Took SCUBA lessons, but dropped out. Took flying lessons, but dropped out.
I often hung out at their house, and I learned to snow ski because Dr. and Mrs. Harvey asked me along on a family outing to Sugarloaf in Michigan (near Traverse City, only miles from Burt Lake, which was good of the Father God to allow, though I didn't know Him yet).
Later they'd move to Evergreen, Colorado and we'd visit at spring breaks and summer. Dr. Harvey always called us "men", as in "C'mon men, we only have to cut and stack ONE cord of wood today". But he also let us shoot his .457 Magnum hand gun, took us skiing, and such. He's in heaven now, and I look forward to telling him how much influence he had in my life, but I suspect he knows.
Another friend, Trip, and his mom and dad were important too. So much so they became "Uncle Del and Aunt Betsy" to me and many afternoons after school Trip and I would watch "Get Smart" in his dad's study in their humongous house.
Uncle Del owned a prosperous company and they also had a lake house exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes from home, on Lake Maxinkuckee. While I enjoyed water skiing and taking their bass boat back into the channels to sneak up on sun bathing turtles and catch them in a net before they could escape off the log into the water, they also had a 16' Hobie catamaran sailboat.
That sailboat, I know now, the Father planned for me as it filled another void - I so missed my little Sunfish and the times on Burt Lake! When I was 17 I took Barb out one day and was horribly impatient with her, giving her the tiller before she had a clue how a sailboat worked - we turned it completely upside down so that when a boat came along and pulled it upright, mud from the lake bottom was stuck to the top of the mast!
That was her last sail for about 25 years - no joke!
Looking back
When I met Jesus at 16 and immediately began getting to know the Father, I could look back and see how He had ordered my life and provided thoughtful things along the way: Tilly, my pet monkey, let me love a pet and be loved the year I was 14. Dr. Harvey, the ski trip near Burt Lake, and how his house always felt peaceful, secure, and orderly. Uncle Del and how he included me as part of the family. The Hobie sailboat to fill that void and so on.
They were examples of the Father God though I didn't know it at the time. They were His messengers and ambassadors in my life. When I met the Father it was a natural transfer of the positive things I had seen in my own dad, and the men named above, to the Father God. I was determined to take the best of what I observed around me and bring those elements into my life, and knowing the Father God as a dad brought it all together.
Barb could tell you and I readily admit, I was/am still affected by a lack of a dad in the house from ages 12-18. Example: She was used to her dad always emptying the trash, but when we got married I told her "Empty it yourself". (Somehow though, I'm now the one to empty the trash - how did that happen?)
Dad had taught me to open doors for mom, so when dating Barb I knew how to be a gentleman, and a month before we got married the Father talked to me in a Father/son afternoon about treating her like a queen, loving her as His Son had loved me, laying down my life, and so on. I've been so imperfect, by my heart is in the right place.
Point is, the instructions the Father gave me is how I observed Dr. Harvey and Uncle Del treat their wives, so it was a natural application. And that's how and why the Father God is still my dad and my prayer life is mostly conversational with the Father. My hope is, and what I observe now in my sons is, that they saw how I treated their mom and they know the Father too, and carry it on to their wives and children.
And on it goes
But as I sit here typing this out, our oldest son, Chris, is sitting in a recliner a few feet away watching Sesame Street. He will be 30 on December 23rd, born 2 days before Christmas; his doctor spent most of that day home waiting for his own son to arrive for the holidays. Thus when Chris went into fetal distress at 2pm, the doctor didn't feel like getting to the hospital to check him out until 7:25pm, and immediately determined they needed to do an emergency C-section.
But St. Francis hospital couldn't find the pediatrician on call, so Chris wasn't born until almost 9pm. The cord was around his neck in a slip knot, cutting off the air with each contraction. Mentally, he is 4 years old, just a big kindergartner in an adult body. Handsome, with his mom's dark hair, he would be my size if normal (6'6"/2 meters).
When he was 8 months old we had just moved to Colorado a couple months earlier and needed a family doctor. Chris wasn't sitting up normally, not having any strength in his torso. Barb took him to the doctor and called me at work in tears. The doctor said Chris was retarded, had Cerebral Palsy (a general term for any brain injury occuring during labor or delivery), and to put him in a home and forget we ever had him - just go on with our lives and have more babies down the road.
Devastated? You have no idea. Our first child, all alone in a new town, new state, no family or friends around. Once we recovered ourselves we gave Chris his bath that night, laid him on the plush bathmat, and laid hands on him for healing. While we've seen little miracles here and there we haven't seen "the big one".,
The biggest "little miracle" we've seen was one night when he was 3 Barb cried out to the Father in desperation because he wasn't talking nor sitting up - he rolled across the floor like a log - and suddenly she heard "Mommy" upstairs and found him sitting up in his crib. From that day on he began talking and crawling.
My Father's heart and my father's heart continue with a Fathers/father's love for my children to this day. That Chris is how Chris is, continually stirs up the Father's heart in me. He is our responsibility so we've rearranged our lives to help meet his needs. It's what the Father would do we believe, and He has blessed us and confirmed that in so many ways.
My point is, walking with the Father and being in touch with his heart keeps one's priorities in proper order. Like circles within circles, the innermost is myself, my wife, and our children. Because Chris has never 'grown up' we've lived for 30 years as if he is that 4 year old, though he now lives in a group home except 1 night and 2 days per week. (24 years in our own home)
By contrast
In Chris' group home is a daughter of a missionary couple, I'll call her "F". F is about Chris' age, considers him her 'buddy', and we know that the Spirit of God in her bears witness with the Spirit of God in Chris, which is the basis of their friendship.
F is in the ICU right now, terribly depressed because her mom and dad headed back to the mission work in Africa. F started having seizures and got depressed, losing the will to live, when her mom told her she was leaving for 6 months or a year.
Chris nearly died a year and a half ago from depression and no will to live due to our travels and distance from home, just as F is experiencing right now. How can you tell a 4 year old I won't see you for 6 months to a year? With Chris, even being gone more than a week upsets him, thus a massive change in our lives over this past year to move closer to him.
This missionary mom told F that the devil is doing it to her and she must overcome - putting all the guilt on their daughter (instead of on the mom and dad as it should be). This couple is of the belief that if they care for God's people in Africa He will care for their daughter in ICU. With her in ICU, she left to join her husband and F's dad in Africa...wow.
I believe that's backwards and not the Father's heart because I feel His hurt inside me. How perverted religion is, that makes us that we think if we save the world but lose our family we have done God a favor!
I went into such detail in my life so you could see how and why I started talking to the Father and thinking of him like He was/is my dad. Anyone can do that. I wanted to share the things the Father laid out for me in my natural dad's life, the men who filled the void, and how that heart of the Father carries on to my own son(s) today. You can do the same, and just talk in conversational style with the Father about your life, past, present, and future.
Chris and F know Jesus, and know when they get to heaven they won't have wheelchairs and such. Chris says he's going to fly and be a pilot "when I grow up", and F wants to run fast (she can barely walk now).
When they were talking F to get a CT scan recently, the aide told her they had a machine that could see inside her to see her brain and lungs and heart. Her eyes widened in excitement: "Will they be able to see Jesus living in my heart!?"
Yes F, I think so. If not, they're blind.
See you in 2 weeks,
John Fenn
www.iFaithhome.org
Hi all,
Back from one trip but leaving on another next week, so after this Weekly Thoughts the next will be the 14th.
Programming note: My Sid Roth radio interviews will be aired the week of November 9th on visitations and the prophetic, and the week of the 23rd (Thanksgiving week for US readers) on the subject of house church. The TV interview on visitations and the prophetic will be the week of January 11 on his show "It's Supernatural", and the interview on house church will be in February.
In this 3rd installment I'll continue to answer the question I receive most often: How do you see angels and the Lord's realm, and is that possible for everyone?
Here are the benchmarks in my life that I wrote about in the first week:
1) Know the Father, fellowship with the Father, love the Father as Jesus loves him first and foremost.
2) The book of Acts is normal Christianity; Baptism with the Holy Spirit, healings, house based church, experiences with angels, persecution, casting out demons, prophetic words - that's normal, what I see around me in churchianity is abnormal Christianity.
3) All experiences and revelations are subject to the Word of God. If not found chapter and verse in the Word it must be consistent with the Word and Father's character or it gets put on a shelf or rejected. The Spirit and the Word agree. Always.
From week 2: It's all grace, but loving the Father #1 and knowing Him, talking all through the day to him in conversational prayer, asking "What do you think?", is the single most important factor on a foundational level.
But now to answer the question: How I actually see in the spirit realm
On October 1, 1986 Jesus appeared to me for the 2nd time (the first being in April of that year), but the first of many teaching visitations down through the years. Now when he appears to me its more often to tell me what he's doing in the body of Christ or some event to happen in the world while in the 1980's and 90's it seemed he focused on teaching me things - guess my theology needed some work!
Due to space here I can't write in too much detail, but you can order my book Pursuing the Seasons of God from our web site for this and many other visitations and experiences in the Spirit.
First point from October 1, 1986 visitation
The first thing the Lord did was refer me to Luke 16:19-31 where a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus both died. In their respective places they saw and spoke to one another, heard one another, one spoke of being in torment in flame and wanting a taste of water, they remembered their former lives, and so forth. They were still using what we'd call the 5 physical senses: Taste, touch, sight, smell, hearing.
When a person dies their body ceases to function, but they, the eternal part of them, their spirit and soul, are just as they have been their whole life. The Lord told me though their bodies were dead and buried, they retained their senses. He said "The root of your physical senses is actually in your spirit man."
Our spirit man looks like us, we still talk like us, we think like us. It is your spirit and soul that you live by on this earth. Remove spirit and soul and the body drops dead.
This body is more like a set if clothes built for containing the real us, our spirit/soul, in a physical world. But our bodies are of the earth and to the earth they will return. One day we will receive a glorified body, made of eternal heavenly material.
In fact, one of the first things the Father spoke to me when I was 16 or 17 was this: "When you receive your glorified body you'll find it's not 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."
This means our physical senses only function in the physical world, but their roots are tied to the spirit realm. Our spirit man's senses operate in the spirit realm just as the two men in hell and Paradise could still talk, hear, see, taste and (evidently) smell.
The spirit man's senses
During this visitation the Lord told me "Think of your mind as being the middle point of a teeter totter, switching attention back and forth between the physical senses on the one end, and your spirit man's senses on the other."
"When the Word uses words like discern, perceive, and witness, it is describing the act of the mind picking up on (noticing and paying attention to) the spirit man's senses." At this point of the visitation I asked for chapter and verse, and he referred me to two examples in his life, and one in Paul's.
Because we were standing outside in a little village in Mexico at the time, I didn't have my Bible with me, but I knew it well enough to be able to verify what he was saying. Still, I was experiencing THE eye witness to, and author of, events that happened nearly 2,000 years ago, so it was rather like a friend relaying to another about something only the first took part in, helping the other fill in the gaps to his understanding.
He continued: "Remember the man let down through the roof by his friends." (Mark 2:1-12 - I immediately formed an image in my mind of the house) "No, it's smaller than what you are thinking." (I shrunk the house down to very small, more like a single room in most homes today) "That's about right, but much more crowded than what you are thinking, packed in, and there were people at the windows, leaning in, pressing to hear." (I adjusted the picture in my mind) "That's close enough."
"When I told the man his sins were forgiven the scribes did not like it. I saw their body language, but that only served for me to look to my spirit man's senses. I perceived, discerned, in my spirit what they were thinking. This isn't mind reading, nor did the Father speak to me, this was me picking up what my spirit man's senses were sensing. You must train yourself to do the same. You must train your mind to continually switch back and forth between the physical world around you and your spirit man's senses."
He continued: "Remember when I was on the way to Jairus' house and the woman with hemorrhaging was healed when she touched my clothes." (I pictured the scene.) "The street was smaller and more narrow than what you are thinking." (I adjusted.) "And I was using the disciples for crowd control, in fact you'll remember after this I only allowed Peter, James and John to come with me, the others I left behind to block the street so we could have some privacy." (Luke 8:46)
"I perceived power flowing out of me to the woman. There I was, being pressed and shoved and grabbed on all sides, yet I still had the presence of mind to switch back and forth between my physical senses and my spirit man's senses, and that's how I perceived healing power flowing out to her. Again I'm telling you that you must train yourself to continually switch your attention back and forth between your physical and spiritual senses."
"Paul learned how to do this too" he continued. "He was in Lystra and there was a crippled man in the group listening to him teach. While teaching Paul perceived in his spirit the man had faith to be healed. Even while teaching, his mind was shifting back and forth between physical senses and what he sensed in his spirit. This is how he perceived the man's faith. You must train yourself to continually switch your attention back and forth between your physical and spiritual senses." (Acts 14: 8-9)
I knew that in the oriental mind set of the Lord and the New Testament, that when something is repeated 3 times it carries special weight and emphasis. Think of 'verily, verily' or 'truly, truly I say to you', so I knew he really, really, wanted me to make this a lifestyle.
What I just shared, anyone can do. As I have shared before, I know I am a teacher, prophet/seer, and apostle, but without this visitation I wouldn't be nearly as sensitive as I am to the Father's voice. Anyone can do anything I have shared from "How I see #1" through what I just wrote.
Examples
He then shifted gears: "You've already been doing this to some degree. When you and Barb went into the shop in Boulder at the Pearl Street mall where you sensed another spirit, how did you do that?" I shared that we went in and immediately felt a heaviness and almost sweet in a deceptively sweet way in our spirits, then we looked around and saw the crystals and Buddha statutes and new age material and put two and two together.
He said that's exactly what he was talking about. Then he asked "When you receive a word of prophecy or word of knowledge in church, how do you do that?" I shared that "I'll be going along in a service then notice something stirring in my spirit man, and then give my attention over to it, even if I am singing or listening to a message, so I can get the fullness of what's being received."
"When you give a prophecy, do you do it with your eyes open, or closed?" That caused me to think, and suddenly I realized, "I usually do it with my eyes closed" and knew why, but he said it immediately. "You close your eyes to shut out the physical senses so you can concentrate on your spiritual senses, don't you?" Now I prophecy with my eyes wide open, but that's merely because of experience doing this and nothing else. At first, I had to shut my eyes to be able to concentrate and block out the physical senses.
You too do this
All of us have seen a person that is depressed, and we sense that heaviness. We have all sensed when something isn't quite well with a person, whether picking up on strife, anger, sadness - physical senses offer clues sometimes, but we then shift attention to our spirit man and put it all together.
Because we have the Spirit of Truth within us He will always tell us the truth, and sometimes that 'telling' is by bringing to our remembrance the feeling of an evil spirit we have had experience with. I know people who grew up around alcoholics, so they can see or meet someone and just by the witness in their spirit, tell that person is an alcoholic.
When you live long enough, and then take the time to remember to commit to memory what a particular (evil) spirit feels like in your spirit man's senses, you can immediately discern what that witness is in your spirit. Alcoholics, drug abusers, religious spirits, pride and arrogance, anger issues, lust, homosexuality, strife, poverty, depression, and so forth - once you've been around those things, a person can easily remember what that feeling is in their spirit man, and what it is if they first and at every occasion, commit that feeling or witness in their spirit to memory. Think on it, remember what it feels like.
The same happens with the things of the Lord. The trouble is, most traditional church services are led by people who are afraid of the silence, afraid to let people pause to close their eyes to sense what their spirit man is sensing. But it doesn't just have to be in church, for most all of the miracles Jesus did were interruptions to his schedule, yet he was always switching his attention back and forth between physical and spiritual senses.
It didn't matter whether it was leaving Jericho and encountering blind Bartimeaus, the wedding at Cana, the woman in the crowd mentioned above, or even the multiplying of loaves and fish - they were all unexpected interruptions in the midst of other things going on, yet he responded by listening to his spirit man's senses.
Hearing, smelling, in the spirit realm
I was very, very, tired one Wednesday night in about 1999, and had to rush the 35 minutes home to get Barb and the boys, then rush back to the service. Because of my position in the church I had a front row seat, meaning there was nothing but floor space in front of the platform before me. Having been living as Jesus had instructed me in 1986 for about 13 years at that point, during the service I was switching my attention back and forth between spiritual and natural senses, and sensed Jesus in the service.
I looked to my right and saw him walking my way (I will share about seeing in the spirit realm in 2 weeks). He came over in front of me and I knelt down and then bowed over forehead to the ground, palms up. But he was standing very close, so that the folds of his robes brushed my hair, so I looked up and my face was right in the folds. Then he began shifting his weight back and forth from one foot to the other, saying nothing.
As the folds of his robe brushed this way and that across my face, I began feeling refreshed. The aroma of his robes and being in his presence caused the fatigue and stresses to dissolve away until I felt so very much better. I thanked him and told him I felt so much better now, and he said "Star knows I'm here tonight, so I'm going to go talk to her." Star and her husband Nathan are now in McAllen, Texas on staff at a church there, but when she was a student she heeded the things I taught about this and the Lord began opening her eyes to see in his realm. A couple of times she would come up to me after a class and ask if I knew there was an angel behind me, or if I knew I was glowing bright white in the Spirit, etc.
Then the Lord spoke to Barb and encouraged her, and then walked away in Star's direction. As he was going I asked "Lord, what was that?" (meaning the aroma and experience) and he said as he continued to walk "Look it up!"
I knew part of the smell had an almost cinnamon aroma to it, which in the KJV is 'cassia', so I looked it up. "Thy throne O God is for ever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a right scepter. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God (Father) has anointed you with the oil of gladness above all others. All your clothes smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia..." (Ps 45: 6-8)
I've never smelled an anointing oil with that exact aroma. But how did I smell his clothes? It was my spirit man's nose. When people hear angels, how do they do that? It's with their spirit man's ears. Your spirit man occupies the same space in your body that your body does. It's an overlay, with your physical senses and your spirit man's senses occupying the same space, just different realms.
A couple more thoughts, then I'll close for now
This is why when an angel or the Lord ministers to a person they often touch the person's shoulder or head (spirit man's head or shoulder) and the person will feel that pressure in their spirit man's shoulder or head. Almost like a slight weight, or warmth - they are touching the spirit man's body because they (angel or the Lord) are in the Spirit's realm.
Anyone can train their mind to be sensitive to their spirit man's senses. If you apply yourself, as Hebrews 5:14 says, 'Strong meat is for those who by reason of use have trained their senses to discern between good and evil", you can train your senses to be discerning. Anyone can do what I just shared, but you have to make it a way of life.
Once you understand that your spirit man senses the spirit realm, and that you have the Holy Spirit of Truth within to lead and guide and bring to remembrance, you become like a person living in two realms at once, and that's what I'll share next time.
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org
Hi all,
First a note to my new friends from the Sid Roth interviews; this is the 4th installment of this series, if you would like #1-3 write and I'll send them to you. Also, my book Pursuing the Seasons of God goes into detail of some of my visitations, available on our web site, www.supernaturalhousehurch.org.
Review
I last shared 2 weeks ago before a ministry trip, about my October 1, 1986 visitation where the Lord taught me about the spirit man's senses, from Luke 16: 19-31. You'll recall it is the story of 2 men who died, 1 found himself in hell, the other in Abraham's bosom or Paradise. They saw one another, spoke to one another, heard one another, and the one wanted to taste water as he was in torment from the heat.
Though their bodies were dead and buried, they retained what we call the five senses in their spirit/soul. Our physical senses touch the physical realm, and our spirit man's senses touch the Spirit/spirit realm.
You'll recall the Lord told me the New Testament uses words like "perceive", "discern" and "witness" to describe the act of the mind noticing and picking up on the spirit man's senses.
He told me that my mind was like the middle point of a teeter totter, with my physical senses on one end and my spirit man's senses on the other, and I must train my mind to continually shift attention back and forth between physical and spiritual senses.
He used the example of Luke 8:46 when he was being mobbed on all sides, yet a woman who needed healing barely touched his clothes and he felt power going out of him. Though his physical senses were active because the crowd was pressing in on him, he had the presence of mind to notice his spirit man's senses as he felt power go from him to heal the woman.
Continuing; we all do this
I shared last week that being aware of our spirit man's senses is how people hear angels sing or smell the aroma of the Lord. It isn't in the physical ears or nose, but in the spirit man's senses these things are noticed. This is how when praying some have felt the Father's or Jesus' arms enfolding them - enfolding their spirit man in arms of love.
When a person's name we haven't thought of in some time crosses our mind several times in a day or week, then we find out later they were in need of prayer at this time, we learn that was the Holy Spirit bringing them to our remembrance. Our mind picked up on their name being brought up in our spirit man.
We argue with the Lord, our mind convinced that all logic says to go in a certain direction, yet down in our spirit we have the distinct leading/hunch/premontion/witness to do something else. Our mind weighs out which way to go, our physical senses telling us one thing and our spirit man's senses telling us another. We have all done these things (and kicked ourselves for missing God by making the wrong decision).
All these things are the act of our mind perceiving something in our spirit and weighing that information against what our physical senses or logic are telling us.
Rough flight?
A woman came walking down the aisle of a plane I was on, just one of many passengers, but she caught my eye. I was seated on the left aisle with 2 seats on that side of the plane. We were taking the short hop from Denver to Colorado Springs, about a 17 minute flight, but one that crosses the Palmer Divide, a 7,000 foot ridge that separates the Denver area from Colorado Springs, and is notoriously bumpy.
As she came down the aisle her forehead was creased with lines of stress, her face muscles taut. As soon as I saw her I shifted my mind to my spirit to get a sense from the Spirit of Truth what this woman was feeling that I might pray for her. I didn't know if she was angry, stressed, or what. But as soon as I shifted my attention down to my spirit man I felt it: fear.
I began praying for her under my breath, and sure enough, her seat was the window seat next to me. As I stood up in the aisle to let her get to her seat I greeted her, but she said nothing. She quickly and tightly buckled her seat belt and then solidly gripped each arm rest and looked straight ahead.
Though my physical senses only saw a petite woman of about 70 years, my spirit man sensed her fear, and I continued praying for her. Then I very silently under my breath took authority over the spirit of fear and commanded it to release her, and asked the Father to let the peace on and in me from Him, settled on her.
I then greeted her again, and she replied that she hated flying and was scared to death. I assured her I was in peace and the flight would not crash, and that I'd prayed it would be a smooth flight as well. Suddenly her death grip on the arms of the seats released, her face relaxed, and I shared about why I was at peace.
Strife
I admit it. I like toying with Jehovah's Witnesses' theology when they come knocking on my door. The goal of course is that they might repent and come to the Lord, but one couple in particular loved to argue. These were the last JW 'witnessers' I allowed in my house however (this was 1985), and here's why.
Countering each of their talking points over about 45 minutes I showed them chapter and verse, and shared from personal experience about the Lord. They were perplexed, their arguments had no merit, and when I asked them for specific answers to their doctrine they said they'd check with their elder and get back to me.
As I closed the door behind them, Barb and I started talking, then somehow we started arguing. So we sidestepped that issue and talked about something else, but that too stirred up strife between us. We had each turned grouchy and in a bad mood. Thirty minutes went by before Barb said something to the effect of: "Do you feel it?" I said "Strife, from the JW's".
Physically our house was the same. Same living room, same sun shining through the windows. But the atmosphere of our home was strife. You could feel the tension and anger and strife in the air. How did we feel it? With our spirit man's senses.
Together we said "We take authority over the spirit of strife that came into our house with the Jehovah's Witnesses, we command you to leave and go back where you came from, because we certainly don't want you, in Jesus' name!" Suddenly I saw and we both felt that spirit leave, taking with it what appeared to be a black fog or cloud from our living room...the peace of God returned and that's why I've not let a JW in our house since.
The Moony
Some of you may remember the "Moonies" from the 1970's and early 80's. Devotees of Korean Rev. Sun Moon, most noted for mass marriages, Moonies went door to door like the JW's for a time. One young lady came to the door and I invited her in and listened to her speech.
She was just your average person, nothing appeared physically wrong with her, but as she talked I prayed, and shifted my mind's attention to my spirit man, where besides the sickly sweet deceptive spirit that many eastern religions carry with them, I also felt a physical ailment. Something was wrong with her but I didn't know what, just that if felt lower, like feet or legs.
Knowing that healing is the dinner bell call to salvation for the unsaved, after she shared, I shared the truth about Jesus. Then I ventured a question: "Do you have anything you need healed of? I listened to what you said, and you listened to what I shared. The difference is that Jesus is willing to confirm the truth with signs following. If need healing are you willing to risk that what I shared is the truth by letting Jesus heal you?"
She admitted that her feet were painful nearly all the time due to defective arches, and she was in pain right at that moment. As we stood up I put my hand on her head and commanded her feet to be healed, and gave thanks to Jesus and the Father for healing her. Suddenly her strength left her and she fell backwards (me barely able to catch her and let her down gently), and stayed on the living room floor for 2-3 minutes.
When she got up she was healed and felt "light and airy" she said, and we visited some more. Being a careful sort, she wouldn't pray openly to receive the Lord right then, but promised she would go home and read a New Testament and pray to Jesus.
Overlay
Once you learn to continually shift your attention back and forth between your physical senses and what your spirit man is sensing at any given moment, you begin living in both realms at once. I should say, you've already been doing that, but now you become aware of the Lord's realm whenever you think to shift your attention to what your spirit is sensing.
It's like an overlay where both senses exist at the same time, they just overlay and compliment one another.
Some of you may have had experience with a printing technique called "four color separation". One time we had a poster made for a school group from a photograph of Aspen, Colorado's famous "Maroon Bells" mountains. To give us an idea of what the finished product would look like, the printer had a white board, then overlaid that board with 4 sheets of plastic, each one made up of just one color that was in that photo.
Over the white board the printer slowly laid down the green, then blue, then yellow, then red plastic sheets, and when the last sheet was down, the picture was complete, sharp, and beautiful.
When we sense things in the physical realm and then turn our attention to the spirit man and those senses, it is like the spirit man's senses are overlaying the physical like the poster example above. It provides spiritual sense information to go with the physical information.
As I shared in past weeks this is how Paul, while teaching in Acts 14: 8-9, "perceived" a lame man had faith to be healed - he felt it in his spirit man's senses. It's how Jesus "perceived" the thoughts of the scribes after Jesus had told the man let down through the roof in Mark 2:6-8 his sins were forgiven.
This too is how I see angels (or demons) in the spirit realm. I can't say that the Lord will open everyone's eyes to see in that realm, but I can say that if you will apply what I've been saying, you will at least be able to sense what the anointing is, what the Lord is about to do in a service, and even when angels or the Lord are present and where they are.
But the real value of training yourself to continually switch our attention back and forth between both sense realms, is that we walk closer to the Lord, and are more sensitive to fulfill his will in our lives, or those around us who need him.
Next week I'll share about a visitation I had this spring where the Lord gave me a prophetic word for our nation and the body of Christ.
Until then,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org
