First the Ear (Chapter 26)

First the Blade 

© 2019 by Larry Nevenhoven

Chapter 26

Building Mustard-Seed Faith (k)

Like most believers, I was a sponge when I was first saved in 1985. This openness to spiritual teachings had its good points, but also had a few bad ones. One of the bad experiences happened at a Full Gospel Businessmen meeting.

I attended that particular Saturday night meeting to hear a man give his testimony. The man and his message are long since forgotten, but I still remember what happened afterward when I hung around, visiting with believers.

As I talked with friends, a man approached and joined our conversation. The group of friends then broke up and left, but the man continued talking with me. We talked about various things and then he asked a question.

“Larry, where do you go to church?” he said.

“Corpus Christi Catholic Church,” I replied.

He shook his head. “Too bad!” he said. “I used to attend an Assembly of God church, but now, I go to a Word church. This is where God is now moving in America.”

The man really thought he was helping me, but instead, his words were judgmental seeds, which planted themselves in my heart. The seeds were later watered and eventually grew into a deep-rooted belief that believers must attend specific churches or they were out of the will of God.

I eventually departed the Catholic Church and attended a small non-denominational church. It was at this church where I began speaking more and more prophetic words.

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. (Luke 6: 45)

Although we believers would all like to be perfect vessels so the Lord can speak whatever He wants to say through us, I haven’t met a perfect vessel in my thirty-four years of seeking Him. The stream of Christianity we associate with, the teachings we listen to, and any judgmental attitudes, which may be rooted in our hearts, often help to shape our prophetic words.

The importance of prophesying is not lessened because of our imperfections. We must give grace to people when they speak prophetic words and then graciously judge the prophetic words in love. Don’t kill the messengers, okay?

At the same time, each of us needs to continually ask the Lord to set us free from whatever hindrances we may have in our hearts. And guess what? We all have them.

 

Over a period of weeks in the early 1990’s, I had a dream and a deep impression about moving to a small town of 6000 people, forty miles north of where I lived in Iowa. The dream even included a certain house on a specific street, which I needed to visit.

I finally loaded up my rust-bucket of a pickup truck with my belongings and headed out.

My only problem was I only had just a few coins in my pocket and no bills in my wallet. There was barely enough fuel in the gas tank to drive forty miles.

When I arrived in the city, I quickly found a small park and spent time in prayer. I drove to the house, which I saw in my dream. The people living there welcomed me and I prayed for them. They even invited me to attend their home fellowship that evening.

But something failed to materialize after the fellowship meeting?

(Continued…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)