Bro John,
Recently, I’ve been going through some of the papers we’ve read during the meetings and there is so much good food to eat! I didn’t even realize that I had set up a separate folder labeled “Good Reading!” I had two favorites:
“Your Vision or God’s?”
You talked about getting out of college and how the world had used you up. You had no energy left to form a future image of yourself, nothing had to be the way you wanted it to be, you were desperate to be led, completely willing to do as you were told, a real follower of those over you in the Lord; those elders had a great love for the Bible so you followed them in that, humbled yourself to whatever the Bible said just as you humbled yourself to them.
After teaching the Old Testament class at the community college for several years, you realized that you had learned the Bible so well because God had pieced together “here a little and there a little” because you had surrendered your mind and soul to His mind and soul. You had no interfering self-visions, no opinion, no preference, hated your own thoughts and your own ways, afraid to have things your way because of what they had done to your life, so why want them any longer?
Now, Bro John, this is getting really good to me! You asked this question: “Do you really know what your ways have done to you? If so you have trashed all your self-visions and prayed for God to grant you His vision for you instead. You will never know God or the Bible unless you are willing to let go of your self-vision and let God renew your mind.”
You talked about the old saints that used to say, “you must come low.” You said we must have a heart to believe whatever He says – even it is contrary to what we’ve always thought or always wanted, or always judged to be right! The secret of God is with the humble, bruised, battered and with those who are so beaten down by this life that they are not just willing but begging God to have His way. and have discovered how desperately needy they are and are seeking Him and His will for them.
Now this is great too! “When we bring nothing to God’s table, when we are completely willing to eat whatever Jesus puts on our plate, the holy truth that Jesus serves us will create understanding within us as we swallow it. It will give us the knowledge of God. The truth of Christ will shape our spirits; it will inform our attitudes and determine our choices. It will keep us from sin and make us perfect before God.”
You told the story about Uzzah touching the ark and God’s judgment about kidnapping and instantly you thought the same thing and if we have an opinion about that after hearing God’s judgment of the matter, then we are fools, holding on to our own opinion. Then you said “I believed that whatever God said and did was right, and nothing He said or did displeased me. Displease me? Who was I to dare be displeased with God? I had no vision for myself, no dream, no plan, no desires for the future that interfered with His work in me. My Heart was soft in His hand, and He molded me. And I am persuaded that He will do the same for every moldable heart.” Wow, what a sermon that is!! My first thought after reading this was, we have no excuses, none!
Then you spoke about having visions for others and that was good too.
My second favorite was this:
Chapter 8, The Revelation of the Father *
You talked about Jesus telling his disciples that their Father was very pleased to give them the kingdom and they didn’t even know what the kingdom of God was or how God planned to give it to them, but that it would make the Father very happy to share with them His kind of life and to bring them into His family. “And though the Bible does not explicitly say so, we can be sure that when the disciples entered into God’s kingdom on Pentecost morning, the happiest participant in that event was the Father Himself. Since He was in heaven, His great joy is not recorded in the Bible the way the ecstatic joy of the disciples is recorded. Overwhelmed with the power of God’s kind of life, they staggered down from the upper room where they had gathered, into the streets of Jerusalem, drunk with joy and proclaiming God’s greatness in languages they did not understand. But the Father in heaven was having a glorious time as well, In fact, it was His joy that those disciples were feeling.”
That is so sweet to me. God fills us up so many times with an overflowing joy and we rejoice in the spirit, speaking in tongues, dancing, shouting, jumping, rolling, laughing, crying or whatever else is in the spirit and God is in heaven loving it, enjoying it, having a glorious time too with us because it is His joy that we are feeling, He’s sending it down to us to enjoy along with Him. Even though we can’t actually see Him, we sure can see and love watching our brothers and sisters enjoy the feelings of the spirit. My heart is saying more, more, more, God. My prayer is for me/us to be in a condition to be blessed like that and to make God very happy!!
I have very much enjoyed my reading this week and I thank you so much for working so diligently to provide all this for us.
Sheila
* From Pastor John’s book, God had a Son before Mary Did.
http://goingtojesus.com/gtjr_text/books/pdfs/fatherandson.pdf