This message was preached by Lynn Fowler for Churchill Christian Fellowship’s live streamed service on Sunday 10th May 2020.
This message was preached by Lynn Fowler for Churchill Christian Fellowship’s live streamed service on Sunday 10th May 2020.
An “Armchair Chat” given by Lynn Fowler for Moe New Life Christian Centre on Wednesday 6th May 2020
3:12 Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
Throughout the book of Hebrews the writer’s primary purpose is that his readers should take to heart the lessons to be learned from the ancient Israelites. These stories are not merely history, to be learned as an academic study. Nor are they written simply for the present generation to shake their heads (as we so often do) in disbelief at the behavior of their forefathers. Rather, they are object lessons from which both the readers of the first century and we today should learn for our practical Christian lives.
So, “take heed”. The fate which befell the ancient people of God, their exclusion from His rest, may also come upon His people today if they demonstrate the same heart attitudes.
… an evil heart of unbelief …
As they stood at the edge of the Jordan, the unbelief of the people was demonstrated not only in their response to the spies’ report, but in the very premise on which they were sent in to spy out the land of Canaan.
God had already promised them two things: firstly, that He would give them the land; and secondly, that it was a “land flowing with milk and honey.” When God told them to send someone in to explore the land, it should have been simply to find the best route by which they could do what God had said they would do: go in and possess it.
Instead, Moses sent the spies in with this mandate: “See what the land is like; and the people living there, whether they are weak or strong, few or many; and what the land is like where they live, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they live in, whether in tents or in strongholds; and whether or not the land is productive; and whether there are trees there or not.” (Numbers 13:18-20)
God had already told them it was a good land. In telling the spies to check out its productivity, Moses was expressing a lack of belief that the land was really as God had said it was. God had already told them that He would give them the land. In telling the spies to check out the strength of the people and their cities, Moses was expressing a lack of belief that God was indeed able to take them in and enable them to conquer.
When the spies returned, the seeds of unbelief that had been sown at the beginning of their mission were reaped as a harvest of rebellion. We need to take great care about the seeds we sow in our hearts, and in the hearts of others.
It should also be noted that there is a difference of degree between a lack of belief and unbelief. Lack of belief may be simply an uncertainty, an inability to rise up and take hold of the things that God has said. Unbelief, on the other hand, has become a positive assertion that what God has said is not true. Moses’ lack of belief – his uncertainty about the promises of God, which had been expressed in the framing of their mission – had been, by the time of their return, hardened in the people’s hearts into a positive unbelief. They believed God could not do what He had promised, that He could not or would not give them the land. They believed that if they were going to take it they would have to do so in their own strength, and they believed that their own strength was not enough to stand against giants.
The reason God calls such a heart attitude “evil” should be obvious: the people were, in effect, calling Him a liar. It is a very small step from “lack of belief” to “unbelief”. If we do not embrace God’s promises as absolutely true, then it is easy to move to the place where we see them as positively false.
… in falling away from the living God
After their lack of belief had moved to positive unbelief, the people very quickly moved to rebellion. Once their hearts had moved away from God, their actions quickly followed. Once they had departed from His grace, it was easy for them to depart from His command.
It has always been this way. In the Garden of Eden, it was not rebellion that came first, but unbelief. In accepting the doubt planted by the devil’s “did God really say?”, our first parents chose to believe that God was not truthful and therefore not to be trusted. When someone is not to be trusted, it is natural for us to refuse to obey that one.
We need to take care that we do not follow this same route. Every time we fail to positively believe the Word and the promises of God, we set ourselves up for unbelief – a heart attitude that says that God and His Word are not true and not to be trusted. And every time we move into unbelief we set ourselves up for rebellion. Truly, a heart of unbelief moves us away from the living God.
Message preached by Rev. Dr. Lynn Fowler at the live-stream service for Churchill Christian Fellowship on Sunday 26th April 2020.
I don’t give out a lot of prophetic messages, but this has been sitting in my spirit for the past couple of weeks, and I feel that the Holy Spirit is saying I need to put it out there.
I was thinking about the whole lock-down situation that has resulted from COVID-19, and the Lord dropped the word “confinement” into my spirit. We are certainly being confined because of this virus, but there is a deeper implication to that word. When a woman is about to give birth, we speak of her as “going into confinement.” That is because in former times a woman in the final stages of pregnancy did exactly that. She was shut in her room with drawn curtains, and nobody was allowed to visit her. During that time she had one purpose only: to focus on the upcoming birth.
I believe the Lord is saying that the Church is in confinement because she is about to give birth. This is a time for focusing on what God is about to do, not being distracted by the things of the world and all the conspiracy theories that are running around. It is a time of preparation: preparation for the travail that is about to come. As any woman who has been through childbirth will confirm, it is painful and (except for the very few who have a quick labour) it is hard work. Right now, in this time of confinement, we need to be preparing for the travail that is coming by refocusing our attention and renewing our connection with the Spirit of God.
It doesn’t stop with the birth. Particularly for a new mother, the arrival of her child brings a total change to her life. She has to learn new skills to care for the baby. Likewise, when this revival is born, many of us will find ourselves required to do things that we had never imagined ourselves doing. Like the new mother, we may feel out of our depth and overwhelmed. We will need to draw closer than ever to the One who is able to make us able. The new mother finds that there are things that she did before that she is no longer free to do, and if she is breastfeeding even things that she used to eat that she can no longer eat because it might affect her milk. Likewise, as we nurture the newborn revival, there will be things that we can no longer do – things that are not sinful in themselves, but that could damage the growth of the revival. What are those things? I suspect that they will be different for each of us. This is not a time for blanket, one-size-fits-all answers. Nor is it a time for running off to the nearest prophet to “get a word.” This is a time when more than ever we need to be seeking to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us personally.
As I continued to think about the situation, and about other times in history when something similar has occurred, I thought of the Flu pandemic of 1918. Then the Lord led me to think of what came after that pandemic: the Roaring Twenties, a time of unbridled decadence as people threw off the restraints of both the pandemic and the Great War that had preceded it. I believe the Lord is saying that this is Satan’s agenda, to compress the world so much that when the restrictions are lifted there will be an explosion of depravity that will make what we have seen in the past few years look like child’s play. All the conspiracy theories that are flying around are simply a distraction to keep God’s people from seeing what the enemy is really up to. The church needs to rise up in our authority in Christ and tear down these plans. We need to declare in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that the current restrictions will cause people to turn to the Lord rather than to seek release in depravity. We need to repent that our failure to take up our mandate in God has allowed this world to deteriorate to its present level of depravity. We need to constantly declare that the revival to which the church is about to give birth will not be overwhelmed by the flood of evil that the devil wants to unleash in this world.
Church, stop fussing and fretting about the situation. See this confinement as a blessing and use it as a time to refocus on the Lord. Stop getting caught up in and promoting all the conspiracy theories and see the real purpose of the enemy, and rise up in authority against it.
Lynn Fowler preaching at the live-streamed service for Churchill Christian Fellowship on Easter Sunday 2020
When I began ministry 45 years ago, I was a regular supply preacher in a number of churches. In most cases, this meant that I would be taking the service in one of several churches in a circuit, whilst the regular minister took the services in the other churches. One of the circuits where I ministered regularly was quite a distance from my home, so I would often stay on the Saturday night with the minister and his wife, and we became good friends. He was a delightful fellow, but totally obsessed with the Illuminati, and convinced that we would be under One World Government within the next few years. Needless to say, that hasn’t yet happened.
As I write this, the world is in the grip of COVID-19. Many countries are in lockdown, or close to it. Responses range from absolute panic and terror, to panic stockpiling, to indifference, to a contemptuous belief that it is all a hoax. Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. Some Christians are digging up every end-time scripture they can find and claiming that the rapture is about to occur any minute now. Some pastors have defied government directives and continued to hold services, with the result that some of their members have come down with the virus. Others, who have followed the directives and closed public meetings, whilst seeking every means possible to continue to preach the Gospel and minister to the needs of the saints, have been accused of lacking faith or of obeying man rather than God.
Where do we find sanity and balance in all this?
Firstly, in relation to COVID-19, the fact that we are Christians does not guarantee us immunity against disease. Paul experienced sickness (Gal 4:15.) So did Timothy (1 Tim 5:23) Trophimus (2 Tim 4:20)and Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25-27) – and that’s just those that are actually mentioned in the New Testament. Even more telling is James’ injunction, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14.) If faith gave an automatic immunity against sickness, why would James be exhorting sick Christians to seek healing?
True faith must be anchored in the Word of God. Since the Word does not promise us immunity, to believe that we cannot catch this virus, or cannot spread it to others, is not faith but presumption.
This does not mean that we should be afraid of the virus, or of any other disease. The Lord Jesus Christ is still on the throne, and His Name is still above every other name in heaven or on earth. Whether our faith keeps us from getting the virus, or whether it simply enables us to go through it trusting the Lord for the outcome, is in His hands. However, it does mean that we should take normal, common sense precautions, not only for our own protection but for the protection of others.
So how should we respond to government restrictions? Churches have been closed – isn’t that telling us to obey man instead of God? Shouldn’t we rebel against that? Well, actually, no. The Church has not been closed, only church buildings have. The Church is not, never has been, and never will be the building. The Church is the people of God, the Body of Christ here on earth. We have not been forbidden to preach, pray, or care for people. We have just been asked to do thing differently for a while. If we are ever forbidden to preach or pray, I will be one of the first leading the rebellion. In the meanwhile, stop getting your nickers in a knot and try to find creative ways to BE the Church.
Moving on from the virus itself to the conspiracy theories surrounding it: Is it all part of a plan to bring in the One World Government? Has the virus been deliberately released by China (or some other source) to destroy the world economy? Is it part of a plan to reduce the world population? My answer to these and all the other conspiracy theories floating around is maybe, maybe not. Time will tell. Whichever way it goes, we do not get to control the outcome, so there is no point in fretting about it before hand.
Are we in the end times? Is the Book of Revelation being played out before our eyes? Again the answer is maybe, maybe not. Certainly as we look around the world seems to fit the Biblical picture. But bear in mind that Christians throughout the ages have looked at the events of their particular era and thought the same thing. It is entirely possible that we could be every bit as wrong as they were.
The thing is, if we are at the end of the end times (bearing in mind that Biblically speaking the end times started with the resurrection of Jesus) then things are going to happen that are totally beyond our control. When you read the book of Revelation, it talks about some stuff that could be truly scary if we choose to focus on it rather than on Jesus. In 6:8, it speaks of a quarter of mankind being killed, and in 9:15 of a third of (the remainder of) mankind being killed. Put those two together, and it means that before the return of the Lord the earth’s population is going to be reduced by half!
Of course some Christians, who are looking for an easy escape in the Rapture, will say we will be gone by then. I personally don’t believe that, and I can make a very good case to prove from the Bible that we will not be caught up to meet the Lord until He is actually returning to earth (not seven or three-and-a-half years before in a secret Rapture.) However, there is not space for that in this article, and it is not needed for the present purposes. Regardless of when Jesus returns, and regardless of what point at which we will be caught up to Him, He will keep us through it all. He kept the nation of Israel for 40 years in the wilderness, and He is able to keep us through whatever lies ahead.
The thing that disturbs me most about all the stuff that is going on in the Church at the moment is that so much attention is being given to what the enemy may or may not be doing. Conspiracy theories and all the rest give way too much attention to the devil, and in doing so actually give him power. Church, let’s refocus. Let’s stop talking about Satan and his works, and talk about Jesus. Let’s get our eyes off what the devil is doing and onto the King of kings and Lord of lords, the one who overcame Satan 2000 years ago at Calvary, and who is returning as a glorious, victorious Conqueror!
Rev. Dr. Lynn Fowler preaching at Moe New Life Christian Centre on Sunday 15th March 2020
Rev. Dr. Lynn Fowler preaching at KOGMI’s Healing and Revival Meeting in Morwell, Victoria, on Saturday 14th March 2020.
3:10 Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’
The writer is continuing the quote from Psalm 95, and of course the speaker is God. The word grieved implies much more than sadness, carrying the idea that God was offended and indignant with the people and their behavior. “That generation” refers primarily to those who refused to enter the land of Canaan at the time when Moses sent in the spies, but probably extends beyond them. After all, it is highly unlikely that there was any huge difference in attitude between them and the generation that had been raised by them! The behavior during the time in the wilderness bears this out: there is never a suggestion that it was only the older generation who grumbled, griped and rebelled.
In fact, the word “generation” may not be referring to an age group, as it normally does in English. In Biblical understanding, a “generation” may also be a race – those who have been “generated” from one individual – and it is quite possible that this is the sense in which it is used here.
… They always err in their heart …
God is not talking about a one-off occurrance – in which case it is possible that someone could have accused Him of unfairness. Rather, this has been an ongoing situation spread out over 40 years. This was surely a long enough time to fully demonstrate what was in the hearts of the people. It was not that they were seeking to walk with God but occasionally stumbled along the way. No, they were constantly rebellious, pulling against God and His purposes every step of the way, complaining about everything He did, and refusing to submit to either God or Moses. God’s judgment against them was not a knee-jerk reaction to a momentary indiscretion, but a sober assessment of the evidence of 40 years.
His summary of the situation is that they “always err in their hearts”. Their heart attitude is off-course, and because their hearts are wrong their actions are likewise so. Behavior always begins in the heart, and what is in the heart will always be worked out in behavior.
… but they didn’t know my ways.
It was not that they had not known in terms of intellectual understanding. There was absolutely no reason why they would not. God had given them His law in minute detail. He had demonstrated His power before them through miracles, signs and wonders. He had given them leaders to teach them and lead them. They would have had to be blind, deaf and severely intellectually challenged to have not known God’s ways in that sense.
Again, the Biblical understanding of “knowing” is far richer than ours, and includes the sense of embracing, of owning: of knowing in an experiential sense. This they had not done. God’s law had always remained external to them, something imposed upon them from outside rather than something that had taken root in their hearts, and out of which they lived. They had not even begun to enter into an understanding of God’s heart and thinking – of the “why” behind the Law. To a very large extent, God was to them no different from the gods of the surrounding nations: not personal, but just a somewhat larger idol.
11 As I swore in my wrath,‘They will not enter into my rest.’
At the immediate level, this is talking about the land of Canaan, and referring to those who previously had refused to enter. Yet, as we have seen, they were not the only ones who walked in rebellion and criticism throughout the time in the wilderness. In one sense, we might even say that the ongoing behavior of the whole nation during those 40 years added up to something considerably worse than their initial refusal to cross the Jordan.
The key lies in the next chapter, in 4:8 “If Joshua (not Jesus, as in the KJV) had given them rest then He would not have spoken afterward of another day.” The nation did indeed enter in to Canaan, but they did not enter into God’s rest. Even in the natural, they were faced with ongoing wars and battles as they strove to take the land from those who already occupied it. We can only wonder what it could have been like if they had walked in joyful obedience to God. Would He have gone ahead of them and driven out the inhabitants of the land so that all the people of Israel had to do was walk in, take over, and live in peace and security?