Hi all,
I first want to point out a few events seen in the headers above.
Tulsa conference in October
Every other year we hold a national conference in Tulsa, and this year the dates are October 7-9 (Columbus Day weekend). Registration information is in the headers above, and in our Weekly Thoughts as well. Oklahoma is an open state, leaving masking up to the individual. We have reserved rooms large enough for everyone to have enough seating space to feel comfortable.
Besides having a long weekend to meet with others on the same spiritual page and all the refreshing that comes from that, there will be free flowing worship, teaching, personal prayer, time for Q&A, and just spending time with one another over meals and free time.
We open Friday night with a short meeting, introductions, going over the schedule and so on, recognizing it is a travel day for most. Saturday after breakfast we’ll start with a morning session, then catered lunch, followed by an early afternoon meeting either Q&A or specific subject, workshops, or panel discussions. After an afternoon break we will reconvene for dinner followed by an evening session of worship and ministry. Sunday morning after breakfast will be ‘house church style’ in small groups where everyone who desires will get prayer and the time to pause and see what the Lord would say or show.
It is a family event, and we do limit the size of our conferences to maintain that sense of closeness. Once we are full, we are full.
1 day meeting in Phoenix
We will have a 1 day meeting in Phoenix on Saturday, April 9. Registration is in the header above and in my ‘Thoughts’ and e-newsletters. We will start at 9:30am, then take a break for lunch (provided), then an early afternoon session with a break mid-afternoon, then return for an evening of worship and ministry.
International conference in the Netherlands
Our international conference is in the Netherlands June 4-6, Pentecost weekend, which is a national holiday in the Netherlands. It will be held at the beautiful Emmaus house, a monastery turned retreat center, in a rural setting within walking distance or short distance to the small town of Helvoirt. It’s quaint, peaceful, and refreshing. It too is a family event.
The conference is ‘all inclusive’, 3 meals a day with motel-like private rooms, and a nice dining area where you can get to know people from all over the world over meals and free time. Typically people from about 8-15 nations attend, and it’s like a big family reunion. Especially this year after having not met for a couple years, we are especially looking forward to see old friends once again, and meeting new ones.
Also remember we post our Zoom meetings in the headers above the Weekly Thoughts and e-newsletters. If you sign up to participate you may need to put an alert on your calendar to remind yourself.
The Spirit of Truth
One of the separations coming within the body of Christ is the difference between those who consider gaining knowledge to be maturity, versus those who actually live their lives in transparent godliness.
Being honest with yourself: “If you have bitterness, envy, and factions in your heart, don’t exalt or hold onto that, don’t lie against the truth.” James 3: 14
This is a verse about being honest with yourself. Don’t lie to yourself about your offense, strife, ‘factions’. It doesn’t matter how many notes collected over the years a person has from wonderful teachers because that does not make one mature. What matters is what is truly in the heart – and being honest with yourself about anything ungodly there.
I’ve frequently said that living in grace is far more difficult than living under the Old Testament Mosaic Law. The law only dealt with actions, looking for a time when His law would be written in our hearts, making us live righteously from the heart outward. Grace require purity of heart, motive, and thoughts towards one another.
He said ‘lie not against the truth’, in other words, admit it to yourself. Don’t lie to yourself that you aren’t struggling with factions, strife and such. Admit it, admit your sin first to yourself and then anyone you sinned against, and enter into His peace in your heart once again in those areas.
That little thing right there, is what separate a mere believer from a disciple. You can believe in the Lord but never work on heart issues. Disciples take every impurity of the heart as something to be dealt with for the joy of becoming more Christ-like. It is the far more difficult choice.
It is the work the Lord is doing in the hearts of millions who hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. This is the judgement where the house of God is judged first – in honesty, transparency, godliness in our hearts – this is fine tuning for some, the breaking of major strongholds for others.
Making allowances for one another
Paul wrote extensively using different words and phrases, in several places about how we should; “Be kind to one another, tender hearted (sympathetic), forgiving one another for God forgave you…” Ephesians 4: 32
What we find in house church is plenty of opportunity to be kind to one another, make allowances for one another, and opportunities to exercise tender hearts towards one another. A typical house church may have people from all walks of life before they found Christ, and if you don’t find and perceive the grace of God in their life, you may find you have nothing in common, and that fools a person into thinking ‘I don’t like them’. If you perceive God’s grace in their heart, what they’ve been through to find Christ, you will ‘like’ that and love the person…but you have to apply yourself to that.
It is the ‘perceiving the grace’ mentioned in Galatians 2: 9 where Peter perceived in Paul the grace, and gave the right hand of fellowship. Peter didn’t understand all Paul was doing, but he perceived God’s grace in Paul. On that basis they became friends and coworkers in the Lord.
If you don’t do that, house church is messy. Relationship based faith is messy. It stretches you. It challenges you.
All over the body of Christ the Father is stirring hearts to work up long-hidden secrets of grudges, prejudices, strifes and other forms of immaturity. It isn’t the devil at work, it is God bringing long buried darkness in the hearts and souls of believers out into the open to be dealt with. What that person does with the ugliness of their thoughts, emotions, and motives determines whether they will step into a new level of maturity, or retreat into the darkness in those areas of their hearts.
When the Lord starts asking us to deal with envy, strife, divisions, don’t blame the devil – allow Christ to be formed in us by working through who made us angry and why we felt that way and then what Jesus would want us to do- what He has said in print and in our hearts to do about it. Responding positively to Him and cleaning up our hearts, is the first step of judgement in the body of Christ now upon us.
Purity of motive. Wise as serpents to the ways of the world, but harmless as doves. That speaks of purity in the heart to all. The Father lets the sun shine and rain fall on just and unjust alike, and we are to be just like Him – but that requires an honest assessment of the thoughts and heart.
Blame doesn’t empower you, it keeps you stuck where you are. How we justify our anger or offense:
When someone takes a long time, they are slow we get angry. But when we take our time we are being thorough.
When someone else doesn’t do it they are lazy and we get angry. When we don’t do it we are just too busy.
When someone breaks a rule of etiquette they are rude and we are offended. When we break the rules we are just being ourselves.
When the coworker works to please the boss they are doing it to gain favor, when we do it we are just cooperating.
When someone else gets promoted they get all the breaks. When we get promoted we are being rewarded.
We judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our motive. When we stop justifying our anger or offense and realize it when that anger is unjust and that offense is just our pride or fear, then we are able to grow.
We are to judge actions, not the heart. The heart is God’s realm which is why He deals with us up being upright.
Prophetic – what to look for
When the Lord visited me in December, He spoke about what He is doing around the world in the body of Christ. Among those things is a growing separation between the culture of God and the culture of the world. Some of that is seen above.
As those who attend the auditorium continue to decline in numbers, we will find more and more the place where people see answered prayer, healings and miracles in their lives, is in those small groups, home churches, and small gatherings with friends on the same spiritual page.
Statistics are the average auditorium church is running at 30-50% attendance compared to pre-covid, showing more than half the congregations are staying home, joining online meetings and small home-based groups. This is where disciples will find that network of support and the genuine relationships so many are looking for. The relationships found in home and family-based meetings will become that source of stability and support in the midst of troubling times.
What the Lord is doing marches on regardless of world events, and He is where our focus should be. We are so thankful for you, feeling like the people of CWOWI are like a ‘safe haven’ for us and each other, and we have such peace about these times. Blessings! John & Barb, Brian & Amy
