Hi all,
On Saturday the 7th my spirit was being stirred in a way I’ve not had in a while. I had taken Chris back to his group home and was trying to relax, but my mind continually returned to the unmistakable stirring in my spirit.
It wasn’t the Father, for when He stirs my spirit it is about core issues, as He is the Father, the Source of all good things. When He stirs one’s spirit it is ‘weightier’. The Lord however being God but also all Man, is lighter, more soul/emotion/life focused, more like a friend trying to get your attention. This was the Lord, trying to get my attention.
Unable to discern what it was beyond that stirring, I finally asked: “What is it Lord?” He immediately but very simply responded:
“The days are upon you, and on my body, where you must walk with wisdom, and be sober in this world.” I asked: “What do you mean by ‘sober’?” and He simply said: “Look it up.” So I did.
Wisdom is how to apply knowledge.
A chef has knowledge about ingredients for a meal, but wisdom is knowing how to put the ingredients together to make the meal. A mechanic has the knowledge about all the parts to a car’s engine, but wisdom is knowing how to put them together properly.
Knowledge was Solomon being informed by 2 women, each claiming the baby was their own. Wisdom was what to do with the information presented to figure out who was the real mother.
“Walk in wisdom to those outside (the faith), redeeming the time.” Colossians 4: 5
The word ‘redeem’ is exagorazo, and means to ‘buy up, to take advantage of a buying opportunity, i.e. “to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.” (Thayer’s Lexicon) It means are we spending our time and giving our attention to what is good, pure, peaceful, godly so that peace rules our soul? Philippians 4: 8
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 14:10: “There are many voices in this world, and none without meaning.” Focus on and take advantage of, those voices which are good, balanced, life-giving.
Wisdom takes knowledge and applies it properly – knowing what to reject, what to accept, and what to keep an eye on as things are thought out in our minds. Way too many Christians lose common sense in favor of weird and unbalanced voices on social media.
Quite honestly in my experience through the last 30 years, as the internet has grown, the ones who are most susceptible to falling prey to the weird and unbalanced, and fear based teachings claimed to be ‘of God’ – has been single or unequally yoked in marriage, middle aged women and men. They are spiritual islands, all to themselves.
Typically they have no church home, no close friends, and spend too much time on social media rather than having a balanced ‘diet’ of real, in the flesh friends. They usually have no church family, lay aside good teaching in favor of what fascinates them, rarely have daily work. In short, there is no one in their life to bring them back to balance. No one to shave off the rough edges. No one they know in real life whose opinion they value. They value the opinion of some stranger teaching a weird teaching that makes them think they have secret or little known but to a few information. And they reject common sense, logic, even science. They don’t know the Spirit of Truth in their spirit, or if they do, they ignore His witness to their spirit they are in error, knowingly rejecting Truth.
If their life was a pizza with 12 slices, they eat just 1 slice and throw away the rest of the pizza. The next day they get another pizza of the same flavor, and just eat 1 slice and throw the rest away. The rest of the pizza would bring balance and perspective, but they reject balance and objectivity. This is because that would mean they would have to do the hard work of having friends, risk going to church and having people in their life, and grow as a person and as a person in Christ.
They ignore ‘redeeming the time’ in favor of focusing on their current obsession.
The Lord’s warning to live with wisdom in these days encompasses all that and more. Balance, thinking things through, knowing the times and seasons, using common sense.
Sober in the Greek is ‘nepho’ and means in this context: ‘not intoxicated with the illusion of sin’s influence’. It means to be of sound mind, not intoxicated with the world’s culture. The word ‘nepho’ means ‘uninfluenced by intoxicants’. The question begs – What intoxicates me?
Is it a web site about conspiracies? Is it prophetic web sites where people are always telling their latest dream or vision or spiritual experience? What intoxicates? Going to the bars? Going to sports? Working hard for that paycheck? What intoxicates? Is is teasing the flesh with s*x either real or imagined? Does gathering with people you know, in the presence of the Lord and each other, intoxicate you?
We are in the times the body of Christ must judge itself. We see leaders falling left and right due to lusts held in their hearts for years, manifest in all sorts of sin. Judgement isn’t just on them, it is on everyone in the body of Christ. If you are call yourself a Christian, be serious about it.
The greatest adventure in life is walking with God.
“BECAUSE we belong to the day, let us live soberly…” I Thess 5:8
“…I would have you wise to that which is good, and unmixed/uncontaminated to evil.” Romans 16:19.
“If you belonged to the world (kosmos, world’s system/culture) it would love you as its own. But I have called you out of this world (kosmos, world’s system/culture).” John 5:19-20
The Lord is giving a warning about who we are. We are in Him and He in us. That is our identity.
We observe the world around us, while separating ourselves from the love of popular culture. I think things are going to change even more openly against conservatives, Jews and Christians. Either next year or in the next few years, I don’t know. But His word of caution is for the body of Christ world-wide. In another time the Lord had commented that a backlash against popular culture would happen (and in the US, EU and elsewhere we are seeing this), but then would come a flood of filth unleashed suddenly with persecution, blaming His people for preventing progress in the midst of great economic difficulty. I wonder if this is a warning about such a time ahead. I pray it may be delayed.
If this message from the Lord resonates with your spirit – to live with wisdom and soberness in these days, then you are hearing what the Spirit is saying to the body of Christ.
CWOWI and house church growth.
We are seeing more and more house churches start, and many who started around Covid, wanting to affiliate with CWOWI to be part of others on the same spiritual page.
House church is not glamorous. It doesn’t affirm your faith by lasers and smoke and music loud enough to require ear protection. It won’t excite you to be with hundreds or thousands in a service. It is mundane. It is living rooms. It is fellowship over a meal. It is personal prayer. It is taking turns sharing what the Lord is doing, or what is happening in one’s life. It is having people who are your safety net in life. It is having a group of people you know and who know you. It is people who care.
When Peter was released from prison by the angel late at night, Acts 12:12 tells us he went immediately to the house of John Mark’s mother, Mary. (Mark wrote the gospel of Mark). There late at night, people were praying for him.
The question is this:
If you were supernaturally released like Peter was, would you immediately know who would be praying for you, and to whose home you could go? In Acts 4:23 when Peter and John were released by the authorities, it says ‘they went to their own’ and reported what had happened.
Do you have ‘your own’ who would want to know what happened to you? Do you know who has your back, who is your safety net who will pray for you? Those in home based churches can answer ‘yes’ to these questions.
If this resonates with you and you have not yet read ‘Return of the First Church’, email me at cwowi@aol.com or john@cwowi.org and I will email you the PDF.
KWOWI; Kids Without Walls International – the next several months will see transition happening in KWOWI Uganda. Pray for wisdom. Their system is the old English colonial school system of boarding schools. That is good because many families cannot afford to feed their children more than 1 meal a day at home, and at school they receive 3 meals, clothes and care.
The current facility being rented has become inadequate as the numbers have grown (thank you sponsors), so we are investigating how to work within their school system and provide food, supplies and support for the children.
Thank you for your prayers for us. Thank you for your prayers concerning our son Chris as well – things going on with his group home.
We appreciate you very much.
John & Barb, Brian & Amy
