Hi all,
Receiving these teachings meant I had to change my thinking that the gifts were only manifest in the church, or among believers.
During the time I was being taught these things, I in turn taught them to 2nd year Bible school students. One man came up to me after class saying I had just explained something to him the Lord had told him, but never made sense.
This man owned a heating and air conditioning business.
He said: “The Lord told me, ‘You are an apostle in the heating and air business.’ Now I understand my call.” The way he grew his business was very ‘Bible-like’. He would get to know men who owned their own heating and air business, the vast majority were older men and it was just them and 1 or 2 helpers.
He would buy their business and keep the business owner on the payroll working their customers for a year or so, then let the man retire, keep his 1 or 2 helpers continuing to work the customer base he had brought into the larger company. He had about 5 men whose businesses he had bought, working for him at any given moment. Not only that, he was gradually turning ownership of the larger company over to his employees with the goal of the company being able to go on with the employees running it, so he could retire.
It was like Paul and the churches in his ‘network’. Corinth, Philippi, Colossae, and so on. He was gradually turning responsibility to the churches and the local leadership as his ministry expanded elsewhere. Paul’s letters make it clear each individual must take personal responsibility for their own lives. I understood why the Lord told this man he was an apostle in the heating and air business. How he ran his business, mirrored Paul’s pattern with the churches, and it was a Christian business with believers throughout, or employees gradually coming to the Lord.
Since then
People have said they aren’t in ministry because they work a ‘secular’ job. But there is no such thing as ‘secular’ for a believer, for Christ is in us. They are already pastoring people, or in sales winning people to the Lord while also earning a living in sales. They realized it is the same Christ in them that brings people to Jesus, or a sale. That sounds rather rough, but the kernel of truth is there.
In the Bible school class I asked how many were prophetic, and several hands went up. Their current jobs were things like accounting, Human Resources, policy writers, lawyers. The prophetic gift that could look at numbers or a policy or their legal standing and tell them where they or that company would be a year later. The same gift in operation in church setting or a Bible study happened when God gave them a word of wisdom if that person did this, then that would happen, and if they did that, then this would happen. Same gift, same Christ in them, just different structure to flow through based on work or church. But the same gifts.
In the visitation
I realized the mercy motivated person would be in direct conflict with a prophecy motivated person – who saw things cut and dried, right or wrong. An exhorter might be in conflict with a prophet. An organizer in conflict with someone who just wanted to serve.
As soon as I started to raise a question about conflict I realized that all these manifestations of the Holy Spirit are found in Christ. He could rebuke His friend Peter, for saying He should not go to the cross in Matthew 16, while also having mercy on the woman caught in adultery in John 8. All these manifestations of the Holy Spirit are found in Him. All our emotions are therefore, found first in Him.
After this visitation was ended
A few days later the Father started talking to me again about our personalities. He said He will usually speak to us according to how He created us.
He said: “To a prophecy gifted (energy gift) person, I will speak directly and to the point, which may seem harsh to others, but to them, that is how they see things. But to one graced with mercy, I will speak gently, even if the subject is urgent or of great importance.”
“To you, because I created you able to move slowly, thoughtfully, with deliberation, I will deal with you realizing it will take time, that you will think things through. But to another I will speak directly, bluntly even, and to them as being with great urgency and immediate importance. Usually, it is according to each gifting that I speak to and deal with people, for how they are is part of me and my personality.”
Years later I was talking to a mother of 4 daughters. She said that when the girls argue among themselves it is hard for her because a bit of her is in each of the 4, and she can see each daughter’s point of view. It reminded me of that conversation with the Father. He is in each of us, and will speak to us according to how He created our personalities. The person we have conflict with is created in Him too, so the Father understands each person’s perspective and point in a conflict, and will work on each to bring balance and understanding between the 2 people.
The Father made me feel so relaxed, for I admit up to that point I had often thought after hearing someone speak with great urgency and insistence, that whatever He said to them must be for me. I realized the mistake I had made was taking how He dealt with that person and tried to make it my own – wrong. That the tone He used with others, wasn’t the tone He used with me. And I was okay with that. Paul said in Romans 12:3 that to each is given the measure of faith. I learned not to compare my ‘measure’ with someone else’s ‘measure.’
The Father returned to the subject…
…of a person’s emotions being raw so they were among the first to perceive His emotions. He talked of shifting my attention to my spirit to sense His presence, scanning in my mind what He wanted to do. To ask Him if He had anything for people I met in public – the stranger shopping at a store, the waiter or waitress, the clerk at the register.
The truth that suddenly came upon me is that we have emotions because He first has emotions. All the feelings we experience in the human condition, He had first. But He is a spirit, a Holy Spirit, so His emotions are founded in right-ness on every level, and sensed in our spirit.
You may be from different backgrounds, race, socio-economic levels, age
But if you focus your attention on the grace in that person, you can love that grace, and in turn love that person. Start with learning how they got saved – you can love that grace – and build from there.
Our emotions are often stirred for unjust, ‘un-right’ reasons. Many form an opinion and get angry if X person doesn’t act like they think they should. They’ve been judge, jury, and executioner in their own mind and the object of their wrath hasn’t a clue why they are angry.
This is where He deals with us, wanting us to align our emotions with His emotions. How many times has a person entered a conversation thinking they will bring the wrath of God on that other person, only to find compassion and grace welling up out of their spirit? That is the process. Giving way to His emotions in our spirit, allowing them to flow out our soul and through our body to positively affect our world.
Learning not to form opinions, to stop our emotions where His emotions stop, knowing they answer to Him, not us. Judge the fruit of someone’s life as we are commanded, but not their motive or place in Him – that is His realm, not ours.
Shift your attention to your spirit, down inside of you where you sense His presence. There you will find the Father’s emotions ready to be poured out to your spirit and outward to those in your life…pray in your spirit to build yourself up, it helps increase your sensitivity to the things of the Spirit…there is so much more on the subject, but we need to move on.
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
