Transcription
Hey everybody, John Fen here, Church of Walls International (CWI.org). We are a house church network. We celebrate the gathering of saints by meeting in homes. It's all about family; it's all about family, friends, neighbors, co-workers gathering together to meet in homes to do the business of the Kingdom, as I'm about to explain. CWI.org. What am I talking about? Getting into the flow.
Have you ever been in a meeting? Have you ever listened to somebody pray and they're like, "And God, we command this, and we speak blessing over this, and we forbid this, and we're doing this, and and and… we just speak to that devil," and you go to Mars, or whatever the case is? You get the idea that Earth is telling Heaven what to do. "Father, we command this, and we do this, and I proclaim out here blessings…" and and and… It's like Earth is telling Heaven what to do, folks. That's not the flow, and you wonder why nothing happens. It doesn't feel right; there's no anointing to it; there's no presence of God in that. The reason is Earth doesn't tell Heaven what to do; Heaven tells Earth what to do. Luke 11: The Lord's Prayer—"that your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." Okay? We want the Father's will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. We don't want our will to be done on Earth and hope that Heaven agrees with it. We don't want our will to be done on Earth, commanding Heaven what we want, and we're just going to make it happen. We're going to grit our teeth; we're going to declare; we're going to confess; we're going to proclaim; we're going to bind; we're going to loose; we're going to do all this because we're going to have our way. No, no, no, no. It's the other way around: Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Even Jesus said in John 5:19, "I only speak—or excuse me—I only do what I see my Father do." In John, chapter 17, verse 8, Jesus said, "Father, I have given them your words, which you gave me." The flow is from the Father to the Head, the Son, and then to us. The flow is from Heaven down to Earth—the Father, through Jesus as the Head, to us. Let me explain this in Matthew chapter 16, verses 16, 17, 18, 19. Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" Because everybody else is saying, you know, "He's Elijah coming back; he's Jeremiah resurrected and reincarnated," who knows? John the Baptist raised from the dead, etc. They just didn't know who Jesus was. And Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And Jesus said, "You're blessed, Simon son of John, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you; it was my Father in Heaven." The Father revealed to Peter who Jesus was. Folks, that right there agrees with John 6:45, where Jesus said, "Those who have heard and learned from the Father come to me." John 6:45: "Those who have heard and learned from the Father come to me." It is all about the Father. He gives revelation; he opens our ears to hear Him. We learn about Jesus. We wrestle with the issue of Jesus. So many people, you know, they're Christians now, and they think, "I wish God would talk to me. I've never heard the Father God." Oh yeah, you have—before you were born again. It was the Father God wrestling with you about the question of Jesus, the stirring in your heart that you heard when your friend told you about Jesus, or that altar call, or whatever the case was. That was the Father God in your spirit. You see, He is a spirit, who is Holy, and He communicates to your spirit—Spirit to Spirit—and and and… He reveals to you who Jesus is, so that you, like Peter, proclaimed, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Flesh and blood didn't do that to you; it was the Father who showed that to you. It's the same for every single one of us. We've all heard from the Father (John 6:45), and then we came to Jesus. We've heard, then we learned of the Father, and we made the decision for Jesus (John 6:45). So that's the flow.
So Peter then said—Jesus says this to Peter after he says the Father has shown this to you—he says this: He said, he said—and now let me explain; there are two Greek words here. Jesus uses a play on words that has been misunderstood by many, even carried down to this day. He uses a play on words. There is the word *Petros* (ptroos), and it means a small stone. And then there is the word *Petra*, which means mountain. Okay? Jesus uses this play on words, and He says this: "You are Peter (*Petros*), that is, you're a small stone, but upon this mountain (*Petra*), I'm going to build my church." Now what are we talking about? This is how it sounded, all right? And He said, "The gates of Hell will not prevail against it." The word "gates" there—today we would say the town council, the mayor, the leadership of the city—because in ancient times, the leadership would sit at the gates of a city to make decisions. They would grant marriage licenses or they would deny marriage licenses; they would grant building permits or they would deny building permits—things of that nature. The leadership sat at the gates. And so Jesus literally said this: "You are a small stone, but upon this mountain, I'm going to build my church, and the leadership of Hell cannot prevail against it." Now what the leadership of Hell cannot prevail against is not the man Peter; it is the revelation from the Father that is a mountain. This lines up with what Daniel saw about the mountain that fell on the toes of the great image and it rose up and became a whole mountain and a whole kingdom that filled the Earth. The mountain is Jesus, is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, as revealed by the Father to each individual. All right? That's what it's all about; that's what Jesus was talking about. That's why He said in the following verses, "Whatsoever you bind on Earth shall have already been bound in Heaven; whatsoever you loose on Earth shall have already been loosed in Heaven." He is saying, "Ecclesia, you're the leadership of My body on the Earth; you're at the gates of the Kingdom. I'm giving you the keys of the Kingdom"—not the key to the kingdom, but the keys of the Kingdom. If I have the keys to my house, it gets me in the front door; if I have the keys to my house, it gets me into every locked room in the house. It's not just one key; it's a whole keychain full of keys. I'm giving you the keys of the Kingdom based on the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, as revealed to us by the Father. And that brings us to the word *Ecclesia*, or church. Many pastors will say to you, "Okay, the word 'church' means 'to be called out.'" Don't let them play words on you—play with you on that. That's a partial understanding; that's a partial truth. Literally, in Jesus's day and before, the word *Ecclesia* was used in the city-states of ancient Greece, like Sparta and Athens, and lots of little villages and towns all over the—all over the Greek nation. And when there was an issue in the Kingdom—they were city-states, so there were like their own little nations—when there was an issue to be dealt with, they would call an *Ecclesia*, that is, a gathering of the cities. In other words, they were invited to a meeting; they were called out to a meeting to conduct the business of the Kingdom. Pastors have co-opted this and changed the meaning to think that *Ecclesia*, which is translated as church, means "to be called out from the world." No, no, no, no. That's not what it means. It means you—maybe they don't want you to know—you're called to help conduct the business of the Kingdom. And so that's why we—I'm talking—we, that is Church of Walls International—that's why we gather in homes. We're there to conduct the business of the Kingdom. Which, and what's the business of the Kingdom? The Great Commission: "Go into all nations and make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you." The Great Commission is not, "Hey, you've got to be born again." The Great Commission is "make disciples in all nations." Read Matthew chapter 28:20 on down for yourself, or Mark chapter 16; read about it. The Great Commission is to preach the kingdom to every creature on the Earth and to—and to say that the—you are to be taught how to become a disciple, a learner. Make disciples. He didn't say, "Get people born again." That happens, but He said, "Make disciples by teaching them everything I commanded you." So when we gather together, folks, it's not to pay attention to the shape of the Earth, or or whether we have to go through a rigorous big routine to get before the court of Heaven. It's to focus on the fact that we come boldly to the throne. Christ lives in us. This is what's going on in my life. I've got something God showed me; I've got something God has taught me this week. This is what's going on. Pray for me, etc., etc. It is the business of the Kingdom. The business of the Kingdom is discipleship. So that—that is why, when we—The Lord's Prayer—"Let your will be done, Father, on Earth as it is in Heaven"—and we come to Jesus through a revelation from the Father, He's trying to get His will done on Earth by revealing to us who Christ is—the Son of the Living God—and based on that mountain, we conduct the rest of our lives based on revelation from the Father, and the leadership of Hell can't prevail against it. And we walk in such communion with the Father that when we bind or loose something, we are doing that because we have sensed in our spirit it's already bound; it's already loosed, and we are just in the flow from the Father's throne to see His will done on Earth. So when we gather together, folks, it's not to give you a break; it's not to sit for you to sit there like a bird in a baby's nest, you know, and have the pastor drop spiritual nuggets into your mouth—spiritual chicken nuggets in your mouth. It's there so that you can conduct the business of the Kingdom, so that you can further your walk in discipleship. Amen. God bless.