Identity in Love
When we lack identity in God’s love we will have fears to deal with since it is love that casts them out. 1 Jn.4:17 Fear leads to control; a lack of vulnerability, having walls up.
“In a shame bound family system there tends to be rigidly defined boundaries. This causes the development of self to get cut off early. Children learn to value defiant individualism over the ongoing dialog of relationship.” (Facing Shame) Most teenage rebellion can be found right here!
A Quick Church History
In the early 1500s, Martin Luther restored to the church understanding about Jesus Christ. This spawned years of revival based around concepts of salvation, redemption, and righteousness. In the 1800s there began Holiness and Pentecostal movements, that led to the healing revivals and the Charismatic movement and others that restored to the church understanding about the Holy Spirit.
In the early 1970s James Dobson began teaching that the family is important and how we parent makes a difference. He suffered persecution for this in the early days. In the latter 1970s John and Paula Sanford started teaching that, it not only matters how we parent but also how we were parented. They received much persecution for these concepts and yet today it is widely held that how we were fathered and mothered has a big impact on us and if there is resultant wounding it needs to be healed.
The Feasts
The Passover feast brings focus to Jesus. Pentecost points to the Holy Spirit. I believe the Feast of Tabernacles will emphasize the Father. Malachi 4:5-6: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
Fathering
We have a fatherless generation on the earth today. Fathers give us our identity, security, and destiny. I believe in the final move of God there will be a huge emphasis here. Teaching will abound and older believers will know how to father newer believers into both wholeness and walking out their callings effectively. Broken, spectator Christianity will come to an end!
1 Corinthians 4:15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers…
Father’s Love Letter is an incredible tool for us to hear the Father’s love being spoken over us.
I always use the Father’s Love letter in the conferences I teach on the Father’s love in many countries. In these events we see lots of restoration between fathers and their children. Father’s Love letter is available in 80 languages and so no matter where I find myself I can use this powerful tool by Barry Adams to help minister Father’s love to the people we work with.
I recently saw the movie August Rush. There were children in an orphanage, they would spend their days dreaming of the time their parents would come and find them, even at eleven years old. I believe we all have a deep need to know a father loves us. Father’s Love letter is an excellent tool to begin ministering this to each of us.
To learn more check out the web page at: http://www.fathersloveletter.com/
For our resources at Fountains of life: http://www.fountainsoflife.org/
Check out Squidoo article http://www.squidoo.com/FathersLoveLetter
We had a great week of ministry teaching at Shiloh Place’s Agape Reformation School. I taught on how to walk as a son to receive our inheritance and on how to preach experientially. Cyndi and I together taught on ministering Father’s love in missions from our series “The Value of Cross Cultural Ministry.
Check out Shiloh Place www.shilohplace.org
Check out Agape Reformation article http://www.shilohplace.org/Downloads/Articles/Article26-EnteringIntoTheAgapeReformation.pdf
Robert Hartzell’s materials www.fountainsoflife.org
Greetings
Today was the last day of the conference. The church here is a worshipping church which really seems to help people to be open. We had a tremendous ministry time today as most everyone in the conference was weeping as God touched them. There was a very successful business man who cried in my arms for at least 15 minutes.
We also saw some physical healings once again. Several women had pain in their chest and stomach and were completely healed. One kept poking herself in the stomach showing the pain was gone. Another lady has had a foot problem for seven months receiving weekly injections for the nerves and unable to move it, she was in tears as she showed all of us how she could now move it. This has not only been one of the more open places I’ve been recently but also one of the hungriest. On top of the meetings I have done 6 one on one ministry sessions with 6 more after the service in the morning.
One of the sessions was very interesting. It was a lady who has lived in Venezuela for about 20 years but is from Cali, Columbia. In her childhood her dad would always talk in favor of leftist guerilla groups and as a teenager she joined one! She was involved for a number of years. At 18 she became pregnant and her mother refused to help her with the child, thinking she would then just return to her activities with this group “19 de Abril”. She had fallen in love with a Venezuelan and so moved here. Four years ago (16 years after coming here) she became tired of never having any peace and always having nightmares from her time in the guerilla group and all the things she had done. She got saved in the church we are working at. One thing interesting that she said is that she has seen in the Bible that we are not supposed to take advantage of the poor, which is part of what these guerilla groups do. They get people stirred up and against the government on the basis of their poverty. As I ministered to her today she forgave her dad for influencing her in that way and received healing over the regret she had over how her life would have been had her dad influenced her toward an education.
Thanks to all who have been praying. We have also had a lot of warfare over this event. I have never seen more sound system problems in my life. Then after the service the pastor will check and find nothing wrong. My Spanish has also gone well which was a big concern of mine as it has been two years since teaching a conference in Spanish.
Agape Reformation Mission
Pastor Tawaichi in northern Thailand was in our pre-conference training to help minister at the altars during our meetings. On the first night we did not see him at the end. The next day he told us, “After your message I had to go home and repent to my wife and children before I could minister at the altar”. This testimony is what we believe God to do in pastors’ and leaders’ lives in all our conferences.
FOUNTAINS OF LIFE exists: To See People Equipped to Intimacy with God and to Fulfilling Their Destinies in His Love. Isaiah 58:12 Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of paths to Dwell In. Our faith is that people will become free; finally seeing the things that have hindered them in their walks with God, sometimes for many years. God has anointed us to help people discern their breach and find paths of life to dwell in. “Over 90% of Indian pastors beat their wives”— an Indian pastor. During our last conference in India, Pastor Michael stood in for all Indian men and repented to all the women present for the way men have treated them. Then, the men pastors all spoke blessings over the women! Foreign national pastors are truly on the frontlines, reaching the un-reached in their own native tongue and cultural understanding. We believe that equipping these leaders is the best possible investment of the time and resources God has entrusted to us. We have changed our name from Fountain of Life Ministries International to simply Fountains of Life. We like the simplicity of this. We desire to be used by God to bring His “source” of life to many places around the world. To date we have held conferences and seen testimonies like the ones in this article in 23 different nations! Thank you for standing with us and helping to make that happen! Much love, Robert and CyndiRead Jack Frost’s Agape Reformation http://www.shilohplace.org/Downloads/Articles/Article26-EnteringIntoTheAgapeReformation.pdf
Pastor Juan said, “I called my children and repented to them and told them I love them; when I get home I will also repent to my church and tell them I love them.” We hear testimonies of restitution and an embracing of agape values in place of works in most every conference we do. But during the earthquake in Peru, as the church and relief agencies were mobilizing quickly, I thought, “Who is attending to the emotional ‘earthquakes’ in people’s lives on a day to day basis?” While in Peru we heard of a pastor who had built a very large church over many years. Many other churches were started all over the country as a result. A pastors network developed and they all loved this leader because he had a gift to make these various pastors feel supported and encouraged. Unfortunately today he has left his wife of many years and is living in the US with his secretary. I know of a very similar story in Manila, Philippines. In India—most pastors physically abuse their wives. As a minister, you minister what you are. So what is coming down from these pastors as a standard over the men in the churches they preach in every Sunday? We believe in ministering healing and loved based values, not placing ministry above family, not having identity in how big we can grow our ministries. If we can stem the tide of the earthquakes in people’s lives, we can effect even more relief in families than in cases of natural emergencies. For every leader that begins to embrace these values, they will in turn influence all they minister to. Thank you for helping us in this task!
Agape Reformation in Father’s Love
When I was around 8 years old a couple of kids in the neighborhood had a fort. They told me and another boy we had stay out. We walked away angry at not being included, so later that day we went and tore down the fort. Hurt people seek to dominate by controlThe good news of the Gospel is a message of loving inclusion. Gal 2:3, 4—not even Titus…, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. This occurred (this question of circumcision arose) because of false brethren secretly brought in, who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus…Some false brethren came in their midst to “spy out their liberty”, to question their faith, “are you circumcised?” Many church movements today have their rules that must be followed or fellowship is withdrawn. Churches too often have cliques, like high school, that give or deny fellowship based on their standards being met. Wounded people (including Christians) tend to move toward control. Any doctrine or Christian activity (evangelism, prayer, Bible reading, worship) not based in love will gradually move into legalism. You are “acceptable” if you comply and “out” if you don’t. They are hurt people seeking identity in what they do rather than who they are in Christ. Really, there is no “in-crowd”, just a hurt crowd. Only hurt people have a need to exclude others. Gal 2:12a—For before that certain came from James, he (Peter) did eat with the Gentiles.There is something so warming and healing to be received in fellowship. I am sure the Gentiles had a real good feeling as the “head man” of Christianity at that time would eat with them. Gal 2:12b—but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.When certain people came from James, Peter, out of the fear of man, moved into exclusivity; he withdrew and separated himself. I’m sure the Gentiles felt bad being cut off from fellowship, kept on the outside. All of us can at times succumb to fears and put up walls. God is after us ever moving deeper into trust and to extend love. Jack Frost’s Agape Reformation article http://www.shilohplace.org/Downloads/Articles/Article26-EnteringIntoTheAgapeReformation.pdf
In the beginning of every year, I (Cyndi) take the first month to seek the Lord for a word for the coming year—to prepare for what the year has in store. This January I heard the word “change”. I thought, “Okay, this is going to be an interesting, possibly challenging year ahead.” In many ways God has challenged us personally. One of our board members recently told us to “Go for the Glory!” God is calling us to greater faith and hence effectiveness in all we are doing around the world. Am I coming up to this? As I’ve just returned from ministering in one of Shiloh Place Ministries’ Agape Reformation schools, I’m pondering all the changes that happened in me and all the students that attended and I’m thinking, “What makes us want to change and can we change ourselves?” Well, there are 3 things I believe that cause us to change: 1) We have to hurt enough that we have no choice but to change, 2) We have to learn enough that we have hope for change, and 3) We have to receive enough unconditional love that we are motivated toward change. Pain is a great motivator for change, we’re just sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we just want the pain to go away. The Word gives us hope that we can change. There are ways of forgiveness, repentance, confession—these paths that teach us and reveal a means by which our hearts can change. Change from the inside out. What about unconditional love? Why is this so important? Because love covers…love never fails. Love holds the net under us as we launch into new things; it holds our hand as we confront the difficult people in our lives; it causes us to be unashamed of our past and allows us to look forward to our future. Love matures.
Change is always scary but not allowing God to change us is even scarier! God’s love allows us to jump into all He has, so lets go for it and do great things for God!
Father’s Love Motivation
There is in God a love motivation for the preaching of the Gospel and Christian living that supersedes everything else. We live in a fear-based world that seeks to use control to diminish its insecurities. So often this has colored our Christianity. Galatians 1:1 says, Paul was sent out not of man—not of his own effort or according to man’s cunning, scheming or striving. Vs.2, 3—he was sent to the Galatians and speaks grace and peace to them. Grace, the free, unmerited gift of God’s love and the peace that comes from the cessation of our own works. Verse 4—Jesus gave himself for our sins (the total opposite of man’s effort, living for “number 1”), that He might deliver us from this present evil age. The age we live in is evil—full of wars, oppressive dictators, poverty, greed and corruption, using and abusing one another. It’s a world system based in selfishness. Verse 6—Paul marveled that they turned away from their calling into the grace of Christ to another gospel. This other gospel was a thing of legalism being promoted by the cunning of the Judiazers. A gospel which destroys the grace of Christ and puts salvation and the living of the Christian life on a different basis. With law comes control. Law says you are accepted or rejected based on how well you perform the laws, the standards for acceptance. This is not only true of legalistic “Christianity” but of all other major world religions. It is true of the mafia, where a strict code exists that the breaking thereof is met with death. Inmates in prison operate under a system of rules for conduct and survival. Much of business culture has its own “norms of acceptance, ways deals are struck”. Clicks in high school are the same. We live in a present evil age. Control is about fear and fear is about self—controlling and using others to get my needs met rather than trusting a loving God. God has called us into the grace of Christ, to be a people of love and compassion. We are to win the world, not by fear tactics of hell and doom but by love and acceptance. To be a people so passionate for the love of God we will gladly lay down our lives. Not moved by fanaticism or zealotry or even taking a stand for righteousness sake but rather for the passion of seeing love touch the lost and hurting! No longer calling people to get right with an angry God that hates sin, but demonstrating a love that hates the way sin hurts and longs to see healing come. This is a profound difference to the way much of the gospel is presented today. I believe God is calling us to the purity of a love motivation. Check Out Father’s Love Letter http://www.fathersloveletter.com/Learn about Father’s Love at Shiloh Place www.shilohplace.org
