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    Roadmap for Spiritual Growth
    Roadmap for Spiritual Growth
    Roadmap for Spiritual Growth
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Roadmap for Spiritual Growth

    By John C. Fenn

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever thought, ‘God, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it!’? Or, wished that someone would just explain how to grow in Christ and what that looks like? Jesus did that very thing at the start of His ministry, in a deep teaching full of revelation that on the surface seems almost child-like in simplicity.

    Unfortunately most teachings on His message just scratch the surface and stay on that ‘Sunday School’ level. Set in the culture and history of His day, Jesus laid out a roadmap for growth, starting from the new birth all the way to maturity in Him. For anyone wondering what they are missing in their walk or asking what He wants of them, this book is a breath of fresh air and will bring revelation, balance, and confidence to your life!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn C. Fenn
    Release dateFeb 24, 2016
    ISBN9781310393617
    Roadmap for Spiritual Growth
    Author

    John C. Fenn

    John and Barbara Fenn were born in Kokomo, Indiana and grew up just a few miles from each other. They attended the same kindergarten, went to many of the same neighborhood birthday parties growing up, and had mutual friends. Barb even attended John's confirmation in the Episcopal Church when they were twelve years old. They began dating as teenagers and were born again together and baptized with the Holy Spirit at age sixteen. Each attended Indiana University after graduating high school and were then married in 1978. In early 2002 John and Barb founded the Church Without Walls International of Tulsa (CWOWI), a house church network, emphasizing relationship-based Christianity. The seeds of CWOWI were planted in 1992 during a time of prayer. The Lord Jesus appeared to John in a visitation and shared some of what He would be doing in the future. Part of the Lord's plan was an exodus from many of the "para-church" organizations that were raised up after the Charismatic renewal of the 1960s and 70s. This would produce a movement of more "para-church" organizations, home prayer meetings, and also home-based churches. On November 4, 2001, during an evening church meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, Jesus appeared again to John. As both John and the host pastor fell to their knees, Jesus laid hands on John and told him to start a home church network "based on my Word and the things you've learned through the people I've brought across your path this year." The Lord said He wanted it to be called The Church Without Walls International. The next month, CWOWI began meeting in the Fenn home, and is growing and gaining affiliate house churches as relationships develop. Known for teaching with anointing and by revelation and flowing with the gifts of the spirit, his heart's desire is to make known the ways of the Father God. Church Without Walls International (CWOWI) is dedicated to making disciples of Jesus Christ through the establishment of a network of related house churches around the world.

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      Book preview

      Roadmap for Spiritual Growth - John C. Fenn

      Roadmap for Spiritual Growth

      Copyright 2016 John C. Fenn

      Published by Docs2eBooks at Smashwords

      Cover Design by Melanie Smith

      Unless indicated, quoted Scripture is taken from The King James Bible.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and have become invalid.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      About the Author

      Other Books by Author

      Connect with Author

      Introduction

      Have you ever thought, ‘God, just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it!’? Have you ever wished someone would just explain how to grow in Christ and what that looks like? Jesus did that very thing at the start of His ministry in a deep teaching full of revelation that on the surface seems almost child-like in simplicity.

      Unfortunately most teachings today on His message just scratch the surface and stay on that ‘Sunday School’ level. Set in the culture and history of His day, Jesus laid out a roadmap for growth, starting from the new birth all the way to maturity in Him. For anyone wondering what they are missing in their walk or asking what He wants of them, this book is a breath of fresh air as it brings revelation, balance, and confidence to your life!

      Index

      Chapter 1

      Matthew 5 begins as a private conversation between Jesus and His disciples where He teaches His disciples, His core group. He lays out for them things they can’t understand; things that will happen after He is resurrected from the dead and has ascended. He puts it in terms so they can grasp the core truth but be taught in a larger sense after the Holy Spirit comes.

      It is interesting to note that the end of Matthew 4 sets the tone. Matthew 4:25 says there followed a great multitude of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem, Judea and beyond Jordan. Decapolis is a group of ten cities on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. Matthew 5:1 says: and seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came to him.

      That scriptures sets the context and that is important to understand. Jesus sees the crowds in Matthew 4 and says, I am getting out of here. He heads up the mountain where His disciples come to Him and He teaches them how to grow in Him. The pressure of ministry and His popularity has grown and He wants to impart to His core disciples the principles of how to grow in Him, and the process of it.

      By the time Chapter 7 ends, the people who had been looking for Him have found Jesus and the disciples. If you read it carefully, you can see how the tone shifts from talking exclusively to His disciples, and especially when He talks about seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in Matthew 6:34. And, in Chapter 7, He is clearly talking to a larger audience.

      I point this out is because it gives us a little glimpse into the private life of Jesus and the disciples in the first 12 or 13 verses of Chapter 5. Matthew 5:2 says, He opened his mouth and taught them saying... The word taught here has to do with the word dogmatic. In other words, He said it repeatedly. He didn’t say the beatitude just one time. He expounded on them as He was teaching. What is recorded is the core truth but it is clear that He repeated the truth and said it in different ways to communicate to these men. These guys were not born again, the Holy Spirit didn’t come to them until the Day of Pentecost. So, Jesus puts things in terms they could understand and there was much more depth to it than what was recorded.

      The Poor in Spirit

      The first thing Jesus says in Matthew 5:3 is: blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now this is where we really have to change our minds and the way we think about those who are not born again. He was not saying the poor, but the poor in spirit. Poor in spirit means the non-born again person. We were poor in spirit before we knew the Lord. We didn’t have the Holy Spirit and we weren’t born again. And, the reason they are blessed is because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

      This is a change of thinking, folks. If you have been raised in a church that looks down on the unsaved or you have thought of them as second class citizens or that you can’t have any fellowship with them, or what fellowship has light with darkness (which is a valid scripture in 1 Corinthians 6), there is a tendency among some Christians to shun unbelievers. But Jesus was saying, they are blessed. They are poor in spirit and they are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

      Paul expounds upon this in 2 Corinthians 5. Notice what he says in verse 16: from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh or, from here on out I will not know anyone just by the flesh. In other words, I will know them by their spirit. And in verse 17 he says, if any man is in Christ he is a new creation, old things passed away and all things have become new. And you can go back to verse 14 where he says the love of Christ controls us because Jesus died for everyone, so from here on out I will not know you according to your flesh, your status or the things of the world, I will know you according to verse 17 that says you are a new creature in Christ because the old is passed away and everything has become new.

      In 2 Corinthians 5:18–20 he gives us the key: because all things (that is, all things that have become new) are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is to say, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not

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