Hi all,
Thanks to generous donations we were able to help 15 families in the CWOWI family with hurricane relief, and they are still in the midst of recovery and rebuilding. As funds come in we will continue to send it to them as needed or requested. Please visit our web site for updates on this and other things happening in the network. (www.cwowi.org, network, network updates) or click/copy this link:
The pig project has been opened by the government of Uganda once again, so if you’d like to help with that we’d like to buy them another 20 pregnant sows. (Each sow and training is $175 USD or $3500 for 20) The first groups of 20 each are having piglets now, and a few piglets from those litters are being given to other house church members – the goal being to help everyone become financially secure and a blessing to those around them. Thank you for your help.
We also have a couple leaders in 2 different nations who want to start their own business. I’m working with them on a business plan, and if you’re interested in helping a start up email me at cwowi@aol.com or if you donate to help one of these leaders just mark it as such in the memo section either online or through US mail. Catch a man a fish and you’ve fed him a meal, teach a man to fish and you’ve fed him his whole lifetime.
The next Zoom meetings are Wednesday, October 27 at 7pm Central US time, and Saturday the 30th, 10am Central US time. Check the header above and in the space above the text in my Weekly Thoughts for links. Zoom doesn’t send out reminders of meetings people schedule themselves to join and neither do we, and we don’t take attendance, so once registered set reminders for yourself of the day, time, and meeting number so you can join us!
We are only about 2 weeks away from our New England conference, October 8-10, and so look forward to seeing old friends in person once again, and meeting new friends! There is such value to meeting in person, and the Lord’s presence is always amazing to minister to our hearts.
The New England conference is our last ‘big trip’ for the year, and we’ve begin praying about 2022. We will be planning a conference in Tulsa next year, and elsewhere in the US (and we hope Canada).
We are especially hoping to be able to hold EU conferences next year, the first being in the Netherlands June 3-6. The Lord knows. It is interesting the way He works. At our last conference in the Netherlands in the retreat center we had been going to for years, the Spirit bore witness in several of us (and it was discussed at that time) that would be our last big gathering like that, at least for a time. The witness, the feel in our spirit, the sense was that future meetings in the EU would be smaller and in different nations rather than a larger one-time meeting each year. We are still waiting for the opportunity to go back to the EU to see the smaller more numerous meetings happen, but having to adjust did not catch us by surprise.
Times and seasons
That witness in our spirits about how future EU meetings would be held, is the same way Christians around the globe bear witness that something different is happening in the world. What is that we all sense? It can’t be explained away, and the voices ‘out there’ spouting fear about covid or politics or the economy can’t silence that deep inner sense we all have that things have changed. There is something in our spirits we sense….
Paul explained ‘the rapture’ in his first letter to the Thessalonians in chapter 4. Then in 5:1-4 said before that happens:
“But of the times and seasons brethren, you don’t need that I write you. For you know the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…but you are not in darkness that the day would take you by surprise like a thief in the night…”
The phrase ‘times and seasons’ is ‘chronos and kairos’. The root ‘chronos’ is where we get chronometer and means ‘time viewed in sequence’ while ‘kairos’ means a space of time without clearly defined borders and boundaries. In the same way spring can sometimes look like winter, and another spring day may look like summer, the boundary of the season of spring isn’t well defined. Of those sequences and seasons we are not blind nor are we caught by surprise.
A thief breaks in to one’s house to take what doesn’t belong to him. To the unbeliever that’s what the Lord will be doing when He comes to take His own – like a thief in the night. To them He came to take someone(s) who doesn’t belong to Him – a spouse, child, or grandchild, or other relative or friend. We know the times and seasons because we can sense it in our spirit. But to the unbeliever, they are going blindly about their business and will be taken by surprise.
How should we live while surrounded by this darkness and blindness of others?
In John 11: 9-10 when the disciples asked Jesus why He wanted to go back to the area they recently sought to kill Him, He said: “Aren’t there 12 hours in the day? If you walk in the daylight you won’t stumble because you see the light of the world. But if one walks in darkness they stumble because they have no light in them.”
The Greek word ‘stumble’ is ‘proskopto’ and means ‘to hit your foot against’, and by common use, to become offended because one tripped or hit their toe/foot along the path. The implication is anger and offense is involved of those who walk in darkness for they keep getting tripped up by unseen things along their path. But we are in the light and can walk confidently in the light in us, is the way Jesus phrased it.
Circumstances said where He was going was dangerous, but the Father was leading Him through the danger in the timing of the Spirit. He was being led by heaven. If you walk in heaven’s light you won’t stumble. It is the same image Paul used – we are not in darkness that the times and seasons would take us by surprise. He will provide. He will guide. Walk in the light you have, don’t be afraid, and just walk in the light and be focused on that, and let the darkness be the darkness. Don’t fear it, just listen for His voice, do what is right and proper in His light and you won’t stumble.
The question and concern I have, is this: Do you know Christians who have turned a blind eye to the times and seasons we are in because they love the world and their worldly life? When the Lord gave messages to the 7 churches He concluded with: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” That indicates some Christians didn’t have ears to hear, they were listening to other voices.
Those who fill their minds with what other people are saying – with reasonings and arguments about politics, covid, religious doctrine, only serve to further deaden their ability to hear the still small voice in their spirit that tells them something is different.
Paul wrote in II Corinthians 11: 3-4 that Satan by subtle deception deceived Eve, and his fear was they would be similarly deceived. How? He said it was ‘that your minds would be corrupted by leaving the simplicity of faith in Christ, to receive another gospel, another spirit, another Jesus.’
The phrase ‘minds would be corrupted’ is ‘phthrae ta noemata’ which means ‘your minds would shrivel up and away’ from the simplicity of faith in Christ. (the image of shrivel is of a plant shriveling up when the life is taken from it)
In other words, a person in deception will shrivel or withdrawal from simplicity in order to embrace a complicated faith – a faith of the emotions, of the mind and ‘higher’ reasonings that justifies itself by those reasons and emotions. Is that you or someone you know? Paul said that is deception by subtlety, craftiness of Satan.
The only recourse is to repent and return to our first love – a pure and simple faith in Jesus. There is such peace in maintaining a simple faith, a simple trust. Do what is right, what is wise, but don’t complicate the mind with the voices of others when Jesus plainly said in John 10: 4-5, ‘My sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow, for they don’t know (recognize) the voice of strangers.’ If you have followed other voices, if you’ve been guilty of recognizing the voices of those with a wrong spirit, repent and return to simple faith.
There is a great awakening happening in the body of Christ right now – that is one of the more obvious signs we are getting closer to the return of the Lord – Christians are starting to ‘tune in’ to the times and seasons. Pray those you know will be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him so the eyes of their understanding may be opened…
Thank you for your continued support! We appreciate you!
John & Barb, Brian & Amy
