Hi all,
Since last month’s newsletter we have been able to have a home visit with Chris, and he was thrilled. The State allowed the group home professionals set their own visitation policy, which opened the door for Chris to come home.
Chris was home 5 days and 4 nights, and each morning he woke up the first thing out his mouth was, “So dad, where are we going today?” or “What are we doing today?” After 100 days locked in the group home, he was eager to run errands around town with dad, and the clerks at the various stores treated him like a conquering hero, so happy to see him. He was thrilled. Thank you for your prayers! As it stands now, we are back on our weekly home visits.
Prophetic
When the Lord told me last December we were close to a time when house church would be THE way (the most popular way) of doing church, I didn’t link it with the sickness He was talking about, but that is what has happened. But many are considering not going back to their auditorium church. We are seeing huge increases from all over the world of people wanting to start house churches, or those who want to know if there is a house church around them. Others have deep spiritual questions needing answered.
Our Zoom web meetings are helping some of these people meet us and others on the same spiritual page, and the use of web audio/video meetings is becoming very popular as well. But with the increase of people comes the need to spend time in email, phone, Messenger, Zoom and Skype with many of them to answer questions, offer suggestions, and get to know each other. It is very time consuming, and we appreciate your prayers for wisdom.
I shared in one of our Zoom meetings He had said: “You need to pray about this, for as it stands now the nation will suffer the deaths and/or removal of 3 national leaders…” He didn’t say when, or even if those 3 deaths/removal would take place this year – He just said there would be 3 ones of note that will affect the US.
I take it seriously. Pray for this nation, for when He says ‘as it stands now’, it means the timing is subject to prayer, perhaps even stopped if not delayed.
He visited me again about a month ago in the worship during one of our house church meetings and talked of miracles and answered prayer, and where they would be found. In many ways this visitation was similar to the one in 1991 when He spoke of how I came out of: “…what you call the charismatic renewal, when My people left the denominations to seek Me, because their needs were not being met…You will see another exodus, but this time from the churches that came out of that time, for many of them have become as rigid, inflexible, and set on their own agendas as the denominations that preceded them. They have considered themselves cutting edge, but are in fact way behind what I am doing….” and many more things at that time in the fall of 1991.
When the Lord says something to you, even when a great length of time has passed since He spoke it, because He is always in the present, that which He spoke long ago comes to remembrance as fresh as it were spoken a few minutes ago.
A month ago in the visitation, almost like picking up on that conversation from 1991 He said this:
“In the charismatic renewal many of My people left their denominations to seek Me, because their needs were not being met, because they found little life in their denominations. They started meeting in what you called ‘prayer & praise’ meetings and that is how you were raised in Me. That is where you found miracles, answered prayer, the flow of the Spirit, and friends in the unity of the Spirit. Though there were efforts to bring Life and the miraculous of the Spirit into the denominations, and there were a few bright lights at that time, those lights went out with the passing of key people and time.”
“This is important what I say to you now: House churches will become known as the place where miracles happen, where prayers are answered, where the Spirit moves, where there is love and unity in Me. Today, many of those auditorium churches that consider themselves cutting edge, relate being cutting edge to the use of technology. This is how far they have fallen.
“But truly I tell you, My cutting edge has not changed; I’m moving in relationships. In the home meetings my people will once again find the miraculous, the answered prayer, the move of the Spirit, free flowing worship, the support and friendship and fellowship in Me that their hearts have sought so long, as they grow up in Me. People will find miracles and answered prayers in house churches, and house churches will be sought out because the contrast between most auditorium churches and house churches will be stark. Many of my people are having their eyes opened even now, with great sadness and dismay, realizing the church they’ve attended that was always considered on the cutting edge, is in fact dead or dying on the Vine.”
“What is coming to so many of My people is a lifestyle of the miraculous. Something you’ve walked in for years, but new to so many. Where seeing answered prayers, healings, and miracles are just part of normal life in (Biblical) house churches and among the people involved. So much so, many will be sought out by others as ‘knowing how to pray’ and ‘when they pray people get healed’, and things such as that. And in this nation, in the same way if you were in Me in Acts 2-4 you had your material needs met, but many on the outside struggled, so too times are coming that contrast will be seen, even in this nation, between those on the outside and those in Me.”
He said all these things and a few more of a more personal direction very quickly and then moved on around the room to minister to others. It left me smiling in reflection, for He is always more excited about what He is doing than what is going on in the world. He was so ‘matter-of-fact’ about it, walking over to me to share that in the midst of Him walking around the room laying hands on or speaking to many others in that house church meeting – just relaxed, sort of ‘by the way this is what is going to happen’ and then He moved on.
I was struck how we (the body of Christ) in the past have made such a big deal about a move of God in a ‘revival center’ we might call it, while our meek and lowly of heart Lord prefers the home, to work within the framework of relationships.
We were raised in a church culture that looks for the gifts of the Spirit to move in a regularly scheduled church service or during meetings there with a special speaker. And the Father has been gracious in those times, but how often do you see hearing and miracle meetings in the auditorium churches today?
It seems that much of church culture has been narcissistic for some time, that I would call the ‘me’ church. If discipleship and growing in Christ is even mentioned, it is from the perspective that believes disciples are made by anointed meetings. But the Bible teaches disciples are made by spiritual fathers and mothers. That means a relationship based faith. Being in Christ is all about being a disciple – a learner who applies what they learn into their life from observing the lives of people they know.
If you aren’t interested in that, then house church isn’t for you. But Jesus has never changed; He is always about growing people up in Him, to be the best people they can be, the best human beings, not the best ‘Christian’, but the best person they can be. Anyone can say they are born again, but that is unproven. God designed it that righteousness is proven within the framework of relationships.
The gifts of the Spirit have always been in the midst of where people live; food multiplied out in the open air, water turned into wine at a wedding reception, the blind and lame healed out on the street and so on. Many of Jesus’ miracles were done in homes, from Mark 1 when people came to the door of Peter’s mother in law’s house, to blind men approaching Jesus at a meal, to synagogue meetings, which at that time were meeting in homes that saw the lame and maimed healed. In Acts chapters 2 through 4 we see miracles and healings, provision and unity as they met from house to house. Over 30 years later Paul understood the miraculous was still so common among the house churches, that in his letter to the Galatians he asked in 3:5: “He who does miracles among you, does He do it by the Spirit or by the reading of the Mosaic law?” The body of Christ is returning to our roots, even in the west and places known for the auditorium format of church – returning to home based churches, returning to relationships in Him.
We each have Christ in us, the hope of glory. We each have the authority to use the name of Jesus to command evil spirits away, and to command healing. Start applying what we read and know mentally, into our lives and those around us.
October conference, 8-11th in Tulsa
If you are considering attending our October 8-11 conference in Tulsa, now just about 2 ½ months away, please let us know – we can work with you on payments but we will need to close reservations in about 6 weeks. Consider joining us as it will be a time rich and deep in worship, teaching, fellowship, and meeting lots of instant new friends. Getting to know others on the same spiritual page is one of the intangible special things that happen.
This month’s series is about our Sabbath rest. We are praying during this summer we all find our rest and peace, and can maintain that peace in Christ while this crazy world swirls arounds us. Thank you for your prayers, your giving, and being in our lives.
Much love and blessings!
John & Barb.
