From Post To Post
Building A Fence And Getting Well Through Prayer
By Phil Scovell
Uncle Fred was my father's oldest brother. He out lived all of his
other brothers and sisters and died just before turning 92 years of
age. He quit school in his teens because his father died so someone
was needed to run their Kansas farm. Uncle Fred was the oldest so it
fell to him.
Uncle Fred was a Jack of all trades, meaning, he could build or
repair, just about anything. He rode a horse to school and also ran a
seven mile trap line every morning and every night, by riding his
horse, checking to see if his traps had caught anything. He sold
animal pelts in town for extra family money.
When he retired, he moved from Iowa back to Kansas. He bought
some land just outside of Wichita and built a small house and garage.
He went fishing, maintained his house, planet a grove of trees on his
property, planet grass in his huge yard, and eventually, ran out of
things to do. He got tired of sitting around and watching the trees
grow, they were now 30 feet high, and watching his grass grow, so he
called and asked if my offer was still open about him moving to Denver
to live with us. I said yes, he sold his house, moved to Denver, and
we bought a house together. That was 25 years ago. The house was on
the same size of lot he had owned in Kansas, we had several trees, a
double car garage which he converted into his workshop, and for nine
years, he was the happiest man on earth.
Although Uncle Fred had never married, my children were like
grandchildren to him. We shared meals and I got to know my uncle even
better as we spent many hours together working on projects, putting up
fences, planting, tree trimming, and yard tending.
Uncle Fred told me one day that he had decided he would put up a
fence around his property in Wichita. It took several hundred feet of
fencing but putting up fence was nothing knew to this old farmer.
When it was finished, his property was protected with a perfectly
straight and squared and fine looking fence.
One day, Uncle Fred was sitting out on his front porch. A young
man had built a house across the road from him and he, too, had
decided that he needed a fence. Uncle Fred watched each night, after
the young neighbor came home from work, as the young man worked on his
fence. After several evenings, he saw the young man strolling across
the street. Uncle Fred said he knew the young man would be coming to
see him eventually because the fence he was putting up was so
unaligned, and off centered and corkscrewed, it looked as if a snake
had installed it. The young man asked Uncle Fred if he could tell him
how to make his fence posts as straight and as lined up as my Uncle's.
My Uncle laughed and offered to come over and help him.
When Uncle Fred finished telling me this story, I asked him just
how did he keep the fence posts in a straight line. I assumed, of
course, he followed his property line, which is, by the way, an
invisible line but that's beside the point. He said, "Why the same
way we used to plow a field. You find something in the distance to
sight on. Then you keep your eye on that tree, or whatever it might
be, and keep planting your fence posts lined up with what you are
fixed on in the distance. Then, when you are done, you can turn
around and look at the straight line you have followed and see that
all your fence posts are in line."
Now, you don't have to be a preacher to immediately recognize the
spiritual application and theological comparisons of this story.
Sighting on something in the distance? That sounds a lot like prayer
to me. Keeping your eye focused on what you see in this distance and
each of your fence posts will be straight? Sounds like building upon
what you learn through prayer to me.
Often, when praying with people as an intercessor, I explain that
this particular type of prayer we are doing is, first and foremost,
praying in agreement according to Matthew 18:19 which says, "Again I
say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father
which is in heaven."
Secondly, it is accountability, according to Ephesians 5:21 which
says, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."
Thirdly, each place of won victory, or place of permanent
healing, is like putting down one fence post after another as in
building a fence of protection as it indicates in John 1:16 where it
says, "And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace."
There is only one form of communications afford us as Born Again
Believers and that is prayer. Someone may emphatically theologically
disagree by insisting the Bible, God's Holy Word, is another form of
communications. I agree with that statement, however, in my opinion,
just the simple reading of God's Word is a passive form of communing
with our Lord. So is worship and praise and giving of thanks, for
that matter, but no matter how we view these forms of identity, they
are all, in one way or another, forms of prayer. They may be active
or they may be passive but they are all prayers to God or ways of
communicating with Him.
Where does one begin with this form of Christian life? "Set your
affections on things above, not on things on the earth," Colossians
3:2). This phrase actually means that you, and your thoughts, should
be Heavenly in nature. Why? Because, that's where things come from
that we intend to receive. This is why I often suggest that prayer is
exchanging our thoughts for God's. The problem so often is, on the
other hand, that the moment we begin to allow our thoughts to focus on
spiritual, or Heavenly things as we commune with God, we immediately
come face to face with blockages. These can take the form of doubts
that we aren't good enough, worries we aren't going to make it, the
fear that God isn't hearing us or is too busy to take time for our
problems, guilt that we have some sin we cannot control or get rid of,
or keeps returning, and that, we think, will keep God from wanting to
commune with us, and sometimes the blockages take on the form of blank
walls we just can't get around. This is often the time that agreement
in prayer, or accountability with another brother or sister in the
Lord, can help. Frankly, this is all I do when I pray with others. I
am an intercessor. No, not an intercessor that functions as Jesus
does but an intercessor who stands with a person who simply prays with
them in agreement so we can find the blockages which keep us from
having a normal and productive and enriching relationship with Christ.
Believe it or not, this is exactly what Jesus wants with us but the
Enemy attempts to hinder this relationship by destablization. If you
are blocked by anything that isn't allowing you freedom in your
spiritual and emotional relationship with Christ, I'll be glad to
help. Just call. Let Jesus begin building your fence of relational
protection by making your paths, fence posts, straight,
(Proverbs 3:5-6).
Safe Place Fellowship
Phil Scovell
Denver, Colorado
Mountain Time Zone
Phone: 303-507-5175
WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM
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