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 destabilization.  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).


The Curse That Works Is The One You Believe
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