JOHN FENN –PROPHETIC WORD 1

JOHN FENN –PROPHETIC WORD 1

Hi all,
The last 3 weeks I've shared in very practical terms some of the events prophesied in scripture about the end times. While there are things the Father has told me about events in the natural realm in our future like hurricanes and earthquakes, today I have a prophetic word from a different perspective to share.

Please allow me to lay some ground work first - I may make some generalizations to make a point, but it's to put a visitation I had in context, so bear with me:

Relationships
Christianity is a relationship based faith, revolving around the family and extending outward to friends, neighbors, co-workers and the unsaved. After all, the first command is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as our self.

I'm born again because I raised my hand
A person can say they are born again, but righteousness is unproven all by itself. Unless you link 'loving your neighbor' in your life with loving God with your whole being, you're only applying 1/2 the command. God designed righteousness to be revealed in relationships with people of like faith, so the evidence of a person's walk with God is the relationships they have with other believers.

In the NT we see closely networked home based churches sending people, resources, and money back and forth to each other as there were needs. They got to know each other, depended on each other, and were in constant communication. This is most directly seen in Acts and within and at the ends of Paul's letters - look at all the people and travel and resources mentioned!

In the 300's AD, when Christianity was pulled out of homes and into the auditoriums of what has become the traditional church, the importance of keeping close relationships with other believers fell by the way side.

"The church" went from being a group of believers to a building of brick and mortar, and the relationships likewise shifted from people, to programs and buildings. Loyalty to people ceased, loyalty to 'church' began.

Being involved in each other's lives was replaced by spiritual busy-ness in church programs. Spiritual busy-ness has the appearance of spirituality, but it lacks the close relationships our faith was designed to be expressed in. Loving your neighbor as yourself came to mean 'let me give money to the church program', and let that take care of them, rather than me having to get personally involved in someone's messy life.

People become "spiritual islands" as a result, surrounded by a sea of no one. Volunteers stand side by side working together for a good program, but don't know each other nor are they involved in each other's lives past 'hello' and 'see you next week'. Surrounded by people, many are lonely and alone.

In the mean time, 1700 years have passed
When you combine 1700 years of that culture with the economic prosperity and independent thinking of today, you end up with a culture of the self-oriented believer in Jesus.

By self-oriented I'm not talking about outwardly selfish people that no one wants to be around, but rather Christians who are oriented to themselves first and foremost, content with not being in relationships with other believers, content to not have anyone speak into their lives nor do they desire to speak into other's lives. They are wrapped up in their lives and their little world and don't have the time nor inclination to be involved outside themselves. They don't want to be put upon or expected to do anything or have any responsibility (or accountability to others), so they remain detached.

Some examples of self-oriented faith
A married couple with no children, both professionals, decide to back away from church so they can concentrate on their work. While claiming they are so exhausted nights and weekends they can't possibly be involved in church, they often get out of town weekends in recreational pursuits. They give little if anything of their time, money, skills, or themselves to others. But they declare how they love God!

The young family that treats church as a 'We'll make it if we can' sort of thing - they can't get going for a morning service, but Sunday afternoon will find them out and about to stores and family. They can't even put $5 in the offering because things are so tight, but have the money to drive across town or for a meal out and the occasional movie or other recreation. But they love God and x church or minister!

The person that picks and chooses which church they will attend based on the guest speaker or maybe the worship. They appear to be a serious believer, even a disciple, but they enjoy floating too much to give up their 'freedom'. But they received so much when x minister was in town, and wasn't that worship team anointed at 'First Church' last week?

The young family that attends church to drop the kids off in the nursery and children's church so they can have some adult time in the service, never mind that strangers are doing mom and dad's job of telling their kids about Jesus, they just need a break and to 'sit under the anointing'. Church becomes their babysitter.

The person who says they just can't take the traditional structure of church anymore and so go to house church, but the reality is they carry the same expectations into house church they had in the traditional: How does this serve ME? How will this get ME excited? I'm so empty, how does this fill ME? Rather than wanting to be part of a solution to effect change, they are still thinking the church exists to serve them.

All these examples are people who have lost sight of, or perhaps never understood, that Christianity is relationship based faith rather than program or pastor based. It's not glamorous, though we see miracles, healings, and true growth, but it involves getting to know others closely over time, being committed to them, and having them speak into your life as you speak into theirs.

These 'spiritual islands' live in a pretend world, yet are so wrapped in their comfortable blanket of self centeredness they have no idea where God is really moving, which is in relationships. They are what James called self-deceived, being hearers only of the Word and not doers.

All these examples and so many more, are simply people who don't have close Christian relationships high in their list of priorities of life, if at all. Yet that is exactly opposite everything in the New Testament!

They value free weekends more than meeting with others of like faith, sleeping in more than meeting with others, freedom of choice rather than committing to others, content in their lazy motive of using a church as a free babysitter, or yearning for spiritual goose bumps instead of making the effort to get to know people. It is self-oriented faith, inwardly focused and directed.

Where is this prophetic word you mentioned?
The danger my friends for "island Christians" is when the economy goes really bad, or they have a personal crisis, or a tragedy strikes, or Christians are being persecuted, or that island believer doesn't have enough food to eat, they have no one to turn to for help.

If they aren't in close relationships with other believers they will find just how all alone they really are.

Already I'm hearing stories of people who have gone to their traditional church for help to pay bills, but have been turned away. Folks, when it comes to paying the mortgage on the church auditorium or paying your mortgage, which do you think gets paid?

During a recent visitation the Lord told me "You will begin to see an economy 'below the radar' of the larger economy, just as in the book of Acts and the New Testament when they took care of each other. It's already happening in other parts of the world, so see what I see, people giving of themselves and their possessions to help each other, networking together in love with pure motives, seeking only the betterment of their brother or sister in Me. You will hear of giving, sharing, bartering, trading, so that my people who are part of this economy will suffer no lack, and many will advance and prosper even in the economy of the world, even in uncertain times. You will also hear of supernatural provision including the multiplication of food, for as those who are in this flow, are flowing with what I have said about how true faith is expressed, for the Spirit and Word are one. They will be flowing with the Spirit and as such see many miraculous things..."

He went on about other things, but that's not to share now. This isn't doom and gloom friends, for he also said that the (US) economy would appear to level out a bit, but the overall trend will be downward.

This isn't a word about lack in the world's economy, but rather a word about how the body of Christ is (finally) rising up and actually BEING the body of Christ, doing what scripture says we are to do, caring for each other and looking for each other's best interest no matter whether the economy of the world is red hot or sliding backwards. Matthew 25, which depicts how Jesus at his return will separate the sheep from the goats, says of his sheep: I was hungry and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you visited me...enter into the kingdom prepared for you.

When you see this behavior happening on the personal level as it was practiced in scripture and intended, it means the body of Christ is rising to the level of the first church once again!

I have more to share next week, but I can tell you it is the spiritual islands, the self-oriented Christians who stand to be hurt the most because they are in relationships with no one. The cure of course is to grow up, but with sins of pride (which is what this is), not even God can move on them, the proud person must humble himself and choose to grow in Christ as He intended, expressing the righteousness of God through and within relationships.

I need to close this for now, but will pick it up next week. For those who have ears to hear, this is a prophetic word. Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

Until next week,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.iFaithhome.org