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  • “Into All the World”

    https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt07-25

    I love when Jesus does this! It goes along wonderfully with what we ate for dinner last night! 

    I was thinking last night about responding like Satan in the wilderness as he tried to “help” Jesus be the Messiah!  I thought about times I have wanted to encourage a brother or sister going through a trial, thinking I was doing good, trying to lift them up, when maybe God wanted them low!

    Whew, we really do have to train to get still and listen just like Jesus did.  It makes the stories of Jesus not healing or not responding, come alive.

    I find that kind of exciting, to train to be like Jesus.  Ha!  It’s really a training to do nothing (of ourselves)!  It makes me think of Sandy: “The whole world has it backwards!”

    I love this!

    Beth D.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816898718064410736

  • Last Night’s Reading on the Temptation of Jesus

    Hi Pastor John,

    I cannot stop thinking about last night and what we read.  I knew that in this flesh “there is no good thing” but when you said that everything this flesh desires is what Satan desires. That really took my breath away.  My first reaction was, “No!  Everything like Satan really?”  What a sobering, honest truth about us humans.  To let that really sink in gave me a greater understanding of what Jesus has done for us.  He has given us a way of escape from being like Satan.  Jesus has made an escape for us!  An escape from this flesh and a way into His righteousness!  I’m just overwhelmed in the love that I feel every time Jesus gives us a clearer understanding of what he has done.

    I went to bed last night so thankful.  Thankful that he chose to put his kind of life in us!  I feel so incredibly blessed and humbled to be able to hear and take in what we have been given!  

    Thank you, Pastor John!  I’m thankful for every meal you and Jesus give us!

    Michelle 

    ==========

    Hi Michelle.

    It is very humbling to be taught by Jesus.  The true knowledge of God does not make us proud; it makes us to know that we are hopelessly lost without God’s mercy!

    I don’t remember saying that everything the flesh wants is what Satan wants.  I apologize for leaving that impression.  Satan is a very orderly being, Jesus said, and I am sure that he often has as hard a time getting people to do his will as Jesus does.  Rioters, vandals, drunkards, druggies, and other such people are contemptible to Satan, and his ministers often rail against sinners like that.

    Still, as you said, it is eye-opening and very humbling to realize how much our human nature agrees with how Satan thinks.  Our hope of escape from that fallen nature is God’s mercy, and whoever realizes that is blessed.

    “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, those who hope in His mercy.”

    Psalm 147:11

    Pastor John

    God Had a Son, 15 PDF

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816896271984083328

  • The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness

    Hi Pastor John, 

    Tonight was so good. The reading was packed with gold nuggets.  It’s amazing to re-think Satan and that we would have been in agreement with him if we’re in the flesh.  And also that the temptation in the wilderness was NOT an attack by Satan, nor was it a temptation against Satan, but a temptation against the flesh!  That’s AMAZING!

    I am not worthy to hear and take in all these incredible truths, but I thank God I am here to hear.  I wish all Gods children’s could know them.

    Thank you for teaching them, and thank you your labor in the truth.

    Jenny

    ==========

    John, 

    This reading from Wednesday night is wonderful reading.  I can feel it opening up a whole new place in my heart as I read it; it’s taking my heart and soul inside to the places I have long for.  I can actually feel it changing me inside!!  I have a heart FULL OF THANK FULLNESS this morning!! 

    Jimmy T.

    God Had a Son, 15 PDF

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816893716529045638

     

  • Satan Giving Up His Body

    David C. asked a very good question in the meeting last night that I didn’t have an answer for.  His question was something like, “If Satan was so proud of his beautiful heavenly body, why did he abandon it to possess Judas?”  After the meeting, somebody suggested to me that Satan didn’t mind giving up his beautiful body to possess Judas if he thought that he was going to be given an even better body to sit at God’s right hand and reign with him.  That was something that I had not thought about it, and it might explain why Satan was willing to possess Judas.  He knew, of course, that Judas’ body would die at some point.  So, he was thinking either of having another body given to him, or he was thinking that being elevated to sit at God’s right hand was such a great honor that it was worth giving up his beautiful body.  Exactly what he was thinking is one of those things that has not been revealed.

    Note: Please add your comments and questions during the meeting when we are discussing the subject.  If you tell no one but me after the meeting, I’m the only one that benefits from it.

    ==========

    Hi Pastor John, 

    In giving up his body to possess Judas, Satan could not reoccupy his beautiful heavenly body?  Or could he?  Why could he not just go and repossess his former body?  If he could not, does this mean Satan is now without a body since Judas died and since Satan didn’t get the promotion he anticipated?

    Jenny

    ==========

    It appears that the heavenly beings who possessed men in order to mate with women (Gen. 6), they were not allowed to return to their first bodies (cf. Jude 1:6).  It would be the same for Satan.  He is now, as Peter said, walking about like “a roaring lion”, seeking whom God will allow him to “devour”.  But he is also waiting for that man called “the Beast” to come, so that he might possess him and continue his onslaught against the Jews and those with the Spirit of God (Rev. 12:13–17, where the woman is Israel).

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816889808184058076

     

  • Us!

    Good morning!

    I have been listening to the Old Testament classes on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNb4hCN3ATs&t=251s) and I have very much enjoyed it.  The stories and the abundant amount of truth and love, and then, just listening to us!  I LOVE us!  This morning, I was listening to the class where we went over whether or not the Sabbath Day was moral, ceremonial, or civil.  I remember this so well, just like I was sitting there again.  I love listening to us go back and forth and then laugh at ourselves as we finally come to understand the true answer.  AND your patience with us as we go about it. It makes me thankful to have you, a teacher, to guide us!  Just listening to this one class lets us know we would be easily persuaded or moved or not confident in ourselves.  Thank the Lord for sending us a guide!  No one can understand the Bible and our history without being taught by the anointing of God.  And what a story it is!

    I loved listening to us this morning.  “We are characters….”

    Amy B.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816575214542618737

  • Revelation 12:9

    Pastor John.

    Recently at the beach (with you) we read about the temptation of Eve in The Garden of Eden. We then considered at length whether the serpent there was Satan, or just a creature influenced by Satan.

    Tonight I read this in Revelation 12:9:

    “The great dragon was cast out — that serpent of old called the Devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out onto the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

    Is that verse referring to the serpent who was with Eve in The Garden?

    Jerry

    ==========

    Hi Jerry.

    The answer is yes.  That verse in Revelation is one reason I say that Satan was involved, one way or the other, with the serpent in the garden of Eden.  The Bible doesn’t give any detail about what kind of connection there was, unfortunately, but there had to be one.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816115823666253912

     

  • Being a “Help Meet” for a Husband

    Good morning Pastor John.

    I have been talking to Jesus and “digging my hole” for him to plant truth in.  My new prayer is, “Help me be a help, meet for my husband.”  I found a few things interesting during the dig: 

    • God told Adam not to eat of the tree of life before He created Eve.  I didn’t know that.  Somewhere in my mind, I pictured God gathering them together and laying out the rules.  That is verse 16 &17 of Gen chapter 2.  Then immediately after that, God says it is not good for man to be alone and the next 7 verses are God creating a help meet for Adam.
    • Eve was created after there was not a help meet for Adam found among the animals (Gen. 2:20). 

    I tried to look up the Hebrew word and meaning of “help meet” and found ezer kenegdo.  Over and over, I found that dictionaries tried to turn that meaning into something more of “I am woman! Hear me roar,” which is not what God says in

    Genesis 3:16.

    When it is all said and done, I know in my heart what a “help meet” is.  Not saying I am great at it because I think there is a tendency in women to be a “help-mat” more than a “help-meet”.  It all comes back to the perfect order of God.  If every heart is in its place, then God’s perfect and wise design naturally occurs.

    That is the part I love the most.  God really has everything set up so that even “fools shall not err.” It is all perfectly designed for success — if we just live in our places.  There is a lot of love in that!  A lot of love in knowing God wants us to succeed so much that He designed everything so we can. 

    God is rooting for us! I love that! 

    Beth D.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816113627138548005

     

  • The New Source of Water

    Hi, Pastor John.

    I thought this was interesting when I was reading about the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: 1-25.  The well was dug by Jacob close to the city of Sychar, which doesn’t mean much, only that it’s by a well dug by Jacob.  However, when you look it up geographically, it sits between two famous mountains that Israel had to pass through when God commanded blessings to be declared from Mt Gerizim on the south side of Sychar and curses declared to Israel from Mt. Ebal on the North side. 

    The disciples went into Sychar to buy some food when Jesus and the Samaritan woman met and had their conversation.  Jesus spoke to the woman and said in John 4:22, “Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when you’ll worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” 

    Centuries before, God’s laws were read from these two mountains as Israel passed through them, but now, God has written them in our hearts so that we my hear God’s Spirit tell us what is truly good and evil.  No wonder Jesus said in John 4:13-14, “Everybody who drinks this water will get thirsty again, but if anyone drinks the water that I will give him, he will never thirst again.  No, the water that I will give him will become within him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” 

    I think it is really interesting that he replaced that outward well to draw from for thirst with a living “spring” flowing from the inside out.  No more worshipping on a mountain or in Jerusalem, but it’s “spiritually and truly” from the heart.  I think it’s pretty neat, knowing the geography and then how things connect from the Old Testament to the New Testament.  Nothing was by chance. 

    Billy

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816108610465763626

     

  • A Conscience before the Spirit Came

    Pastor John,

    My daughter and I were talking this morning about the law and ceremonies as being a shadow of what God was going to write on His children’s hearts after the sacrifice of Christ.  I told her that God used the law to teach His children about Him and to prepare their hearts for being led by the spirit. She asked a question and I don’t think I was able to make it very clear. 

    How would you answer this?

    Her question: 

    So before the sacrifice, they didn’t have a conscience? 

    Beth D.

    ==========

    Hi Beth.

    Yes, people had a conscience before the Spirit was given, unless they had done so much evil that their hearts were dull to shame.  Israel got that way, and God complained that, like a harlot, they could no longer be made to blush (Jer 6:15; 8:12).  No sin was shameful to them.

    What is important is that the conscience of ancient people would bother them if they had not obeyed the rules they had been taught.  They were taught what was good, and if they didn’t do that good, and they still had a heart that could feel, they were ashamed.  This holds true regardless of whether or not what was taught as good was, in fact, not good in the sight of God.  A lot of Gentile nations were like that.  Remember, God told Jonah (4:11) that the Ninevites didn’t know their right hand from their left (as far as good and evil were concerned).

    Because of Jesus, the Spirit now creates a true knowledge of good and evil in our hearts so that we need not be taught rules of conduct by others.  This was prophesied by Jeremiah: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their heart.  And I will be their God, and they will be my people.  And they will no longer teach, each his fellow and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord!’ For they will all know me, from the least of them even to the greatest, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:33–34).

    Hope that helps.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1816103945699238078

     

  • Old Testament and Father & Son Thoughts

    John,

    I love the consistency and simplicity with God’s law! In the Old Testament class, we have started learning about the law and how most of it was the same before, during, and after the old covenant! It’s so great to know how simple it was/is for God’s people if they followed these laws. (Old Testament Course (Pt. 1) – Going to Jesus.com) Then, during the old and new covenant, He gave us examples in the Bible where He forgave people for disobeying the law because He saw their hearts. God’s order is so perfect! God also put the civil law on hold after the new covenant until we reign with Him again! What a burden it would be right now to try to manage the civil situation just in the US (much less, internationally) with the state of this world and the division among God’s people. It’s another example of God’s mercy towards us.

    I went back and listened to the first chapters of The Father and Son readings. One of the things you discussed was the kind of life that each being has.

    I was thinking about it in parallel with the reading from Wednesday. Jesus was born biologically to Mary and we were born biologically to parents here. At that point, we were all given a natural human being kind of life. But, then, when the dove descended and Jesus experienced what he called being ‘born again’…that’s what happens to us when we receive the Spirit. THAT’s the birth we need to be celebrating and running with…that’s our family, our feelings, our thoughts. That’s when life really begins!

    Wendy

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1815046270479667650

     

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