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  • The Hidden Son

    Brother John,

    The reading of the Father and Son is revealing things I have never heard said before. Some of the things are so intimate – and make it so apparent that Jesus and His Father are in charge of every single aspect of life and creation.

    Something that has struck me most is the continued revealing of the hidden Son of God.

    It isn’t a one-time event but a continued unmasking of the One who has done – and is over – it all.  He is “it all.”  He is in everything and everywhere.

    I read the book of Genesis a couple of weeks ago and the story of Joseph, where he was given over to death by his brothers, but who was instead raised to the pinnacle of power and glory by his God.  And Joseph later revealing himself as alive to those guilty brothren, and having nothing in his heart toward them but goodness and love.  I thought of Jesus one day revealing himself to his brethren the Jews who had offered him up to be killed, and Jesus having nothing in his heart for them but the same love.

    The scene just moves you to tears.

    Last night, in the song you sang that Gary wrote: “Ask of me,” the lyrics speaking for Jesus said, “I didn’t ask for gold, or silver too….I only asked my Father…for you.”

    The song reminded me of king Solomon, who God had offered anything his heart desired.  But Solomon, didn’t ask for gold or silver, but just to love God’s precious people.  Just like Jesus.

    Everything in creation is preaching the Son who was with the Father in the beginning.

    Jesus the most blessed of his Father.  And we are invited to be joint heirs with Him.

    It is too much to take in.

    Jerry

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1791468575623942482

     

  • Father & Son – Prophecies

    Hey Pastor John,

    I really enjoyed the reading last night!  There were many incredible facts pointed out that I had never considered before.  The reference to Judas and the setting of the price, wow!  And to love us before the foundations were created… what is time to God?

    While reading through the prophecies last night, I noticed that ‘time’ seemed to be of no issue.  The prophecies were recorded in past, present, and future tense, and in different narratives/perspectives.  Some were as if the Son were giving a live commentary while watching the events unfold.  It reminds me of Rev. 4:8b, “who was, and is, and is to come”  

    Is there any rhyme or reason behind the tenses and perspectives used in the prophecies?

    Thank you for your hard work!

    -Johnny

    =========

    Hi, Johnny,

    We have never been able to find a consistent applicable rule for translating the verb tenses in the prophets.  Hebrew verbs in general are difficult to deal with.  Sometimes, to make a sentence make sense, you have to translate the verb according to the obvious sense of the sentence instead of the grammatical tense of the verb.

    The short answer for that, then, is no.  As far as we have been able to tell, there is no significance to the verb tenses in Old Testament prophecies.  No rule can be applied across the board.

    The perspective issue you mentioned is a different matter.  I think it is always important to note from whose perspective the prophecy comes.  In fact, that is often the key to understanding prophecies.  That issue is more important than the verb tense, in my judgment.

    Hope that clears things up.  Thank you for the question.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1791465381556637910

     

  • Who does the baptizing of the Spirit?

    Pastor John,

    I have a question about who baptizes with the holy Spirit.  In the scriptures below it sounds like Jesus baptizes people.

    Luke 3:16.John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you with holy Spirit and fire!”

    Acts 2:32.   This Jesus has God raised up, of which we all are witnesses!

    Acts 2:33.Moreover, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the holy Spirit, he has shed forth this which you now see and hear.

    In what we read tonight, you wrote “Every time the Father baptizes a repentant soul”, and that makes it sounds like the Father baptizes. 

    I have always wondered if it was the Father or the Son who was baptizing.

    Thank you,

    Randell

    =========

    Thank you, Randell, for noticing that.

    God anointed the John the Baptizer to baptize with water, and He anointed Jesus to baptize with the Spirit.  That much is clear.

    Having said that, though, in both cases, God was in charge of who was baptized.  That is why John refused to baptize certain people; God would not allow it.  And that is also why Jesus refuses some who ask for his baptism.  Jesus is (as John was) God’s agent for baptism, yet God gets the credit, and it isn’t wrong to acknowledge that.  

    It is the same way with creation.  The Son was God’s agent in creation, but every time Jesus mentioned creation, he said God did it

    So, yes, Jesus is the one who baptizes, but he does so only according to the will of God.  It is impossible to draw a firm line between them; they work together, as one.

    Thank you again.  I hope that clears it up for you.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1791457229008220299

     

  • Montanus Reading: Deliberate Evil

    Pastor John,

    Tonight, for the first time, I saw that the founders of the religious system of Christianity did not arbitrarily choose (or make up) the rules for Christian worship.  Seeing that their rituals have no biblical basis, we can see their real motives. Those founders designed Christian worship procedure to quieten, block, quench, and otherwise terminate the real spirit of God from functioning within their heretical institution.

    My Jesus in heaven!  What evil is it that men would knowingly devise a religious system with the purpose of keeping God’s presence (his Spirit) out of their worship.

    What then on earth (or elsewhere) were/are they worshiping?

    May God help everyone with a heart that wants OUT of that dreadful institution and desires to serve Jesus in spirit and in truth.

    Jerry

    ============

    Hi Jerry.

    I don’t believe the founders of Christianity knew what they were doing, but they were certainly following an evil spirit instead of Christ, and that resulted in the expulsion of the Spirit of God as the leader of God’s people in worship and doctrine.

    Yes, may God help everyone inside Christianity but who has a sincere desire to serve Him to escape it and be made free.

    Pastor John 

     

  • Montanus Reading

    I had to stop and get this out before I sanded my next board!  If I don’t, who knows how it will turn out! 

    I feel like Jesus dog-eared a page of the Montanus reading in my heart!  Last night when you were talking about God knowing our hearts, and that is why we received His spirit and that is why we are here, I felt like Jesus opened up my rib cage so my heart could fit inside of my chest!  I had the best thoughts come!  And then, they were echoed by page 15.  It was almost more than I could take in.  Look how wonderful this is….even when we don’t know our own hearts are His, God knows.  We do not have to know anything!  God knows. 

    Page 15:

    “Still, in spite of the centuries-long effort of Christian leaders to snuff out the life of the Spirit –  even after Rome’s power was placed in their hands – the Spirit was never completely quenched. God is too faithful for that, for hungry souls may always find His grace, even if they do not fully understand Paul’s gospel.  We are saved by grace through faith, not by knowledge.”

    I will never look at that the same way again.  We are saved not by knowledge, but by the faithfulness of God.  That is what my heart heard.  And not in a weird Christian way of the “get saved” doctrine, but in His way in His Truth! 

    And today when we were reading again, all I could think about was how much I love that God has set it up the way He did.  I love that if we are full of Him, we do not fit in the lie of Christianity.  Not in any sect of it!  What a loving safeguard is in place for us, and for any heart God has out there!  I thought, what a mercy and a blessing that the disease of Christianity can’t stand us when we are full of the Spirit.

    I thought about how as a child in the Catholic Church, I was taught to not even move unless it was to kneel, sit, or recite at their command, and how beautiful it is that God made sure His holy Ghost will not fit there.  That makes yielding to Him when He moves in us even more beautiful to me.

    “Even a fool not err” because God is faithful!

    Beth D.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1787868575820087441

     

  • Short Dream This Morning

    Hi Pastor John, 

    In my dream, I was writing and singing a part of a song to the Lord. The only line that I remember is, “I want to fall in love with you all over again, Jesus.” Suddenly, I felt such tremendous feelings of love from and to Jesus and those feelings pulled me into the page of the song that I was writing. 

    I woke up feeling so loved and so very thankful if what we have been given and have with one another. 

    Love always,

    Billy

    ========

    That is wonderful, Billy!

    Solomon said, “A dream comes by a multitude of busyness” (Eccl. 5:3).  You must have been busy lately thinking about the wonderful things of God.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1787865147983192542

     

  • The Law and Perfection

    Hey sir how you doing tonight? sorry it took me so long to write you.  I am a friend of Margo, and she sent me your email to personally ask any questions i have based on the HOLY GHOST and HIS word. while i was reading todays thought of the day, which was: Thought For The Morning 05-02 Keeping the Law, Part 1.*  If god is perfect in every way possible and teaches how to be of perfection, then why would he create laws that could not keep us, is it to test our faith and see how we handle temptation and worldly behavior, or am i looking at it from the wrong perspective. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your night and stay blessed. 

    Alex 

    ==========

    Hello Alex.

    Thank you for writing.

    Everything God does has purpose, and the purpose for the law He gave to Israel was to prepare Israel for the Messiah that He would send them, His Son Jesus.

    The prophets prophesied with words, but the law was prophecy in activities such as sacrifices, holy days, holy places, religious clothing, etc.  We would have had no way to understand what Jesus did for us without God providing us the concept of sacrifice, priesthood, etc.  All those things spoke of Jesus.

    The law God gave Moses could make no one perfect because nothing but the holy Ghost can do that.  But as Paul said to the Galatians, if there were such a thing as a law that could make people perfect, it would have been the law of Moses (Gal. 3:21).  The Son is so great that the law was holy, just for telling of his coming.

    Thank you again for writing.

    Pastor John

    * Going to Jesus.com – Keeping the Law, Part 1

     

  • After Death

    Good morning pastor John! 

    I was listening to what you said at the funeral service and it brought up the question in me that death always brings up, which is, what exactly happens when we die?  I don’t know why the thought of sleeping and not going straight to Jesus troubles me, but it does.  Maybe it is just some left over baggage and wrong ideas from Christianity.

    I want to go straight to Jesus when I leave this world.  I daydream about that moment! 

    Yes, I know it doesn’t matter what I want! 

    Yet, I have been pondering that, and trying to remember everything I have learned thus far from you, and going through what scriptures I can find.  I just wanted to ask you a question to make sure what I think I remember is correct.

    When Jesus died and descended into the heart of the earth for three days, he preached the gospel to those that were down there.  When he left there, he took Abraham, Lazarus, and others that were not on the side of Torment, with him? 

    And the thief on the cross, Jesus said he was going to be in Paradise with him, that day?  “Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, today you’ll be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43).

    Beth D.

    ==========

    Hi Beth.

    In my book, “What the Bible Really Says about Hell” this is explained in some detail.  Before Jesus ascended back into heaven, Sheol (or, Hell) was divided into two parts, Paradise and Torment.  Jesus transferred Paradise into heaven after he ascended into heaven and cast Satan and his angels out.  The righteous, as spirits without bodies, still go into Paradise when they die, but Paradise is no longer in the heart of the earth.  Paradise is now where Jesus is.  Saints in Paradise do not have their new bodies yet, however; Jesus will give them new bodies when he comes and resurrects them from the dead, implanting their happy spirits into the glorious bodies God has prepared for them.

    Don’t worry.  If we love and obey Jesus while we are in these fleshly bodies, whatever he does with us after we shed them will be good, and we will love it.

    Pastor John

    My book on Hell can be found here:

    https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=hell 

     

     

  • Christian’s First Duty

    If someone were to ask me what a Christian’s first allegiance lies, I would say that a Christian’s first allegiance is to the government.  And in spite of all that they say, they have proved that is true by fighting for the governments they are under.  In both world wars, Christians on both sides used Jesus’ name as they prayed, and the proceeded to kill each other for their respective governments, which the real Jesus forbids his people to do.

    Pastor John

    ========

    John,

    This is so true!

    Based on my experiences with some Christians, it is right up there with the “get saved” doctrine.  When you stop and put it in perspective, things really haven’t changed from the time of the Crusades.

    Wendell

    ========

    Hi Wendell.

    In reality, things have not changed since AD 325, when Christianity began.  Christianity began as a religio/political institution under the wing of the Roman Emperor Constantine, and it has never been anything else.

    Pastor John

     

  • Mark 14:61b

    RE: Mark 14:61. But he was silent, and answered nothing.  Again, the high priest questioned him, and told him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?”

    Jim,

    Regarding your question about the “told him” in our translation of Mark 14:61, I have checked, and that is an accurate translation.  In Matthew 26:63, which describes the same scene, the high priest “answered and said”, but here in Mark, the high priest “questioned him and told him”.  That difference in translation reflects the different verbs involved.

    Admittedly, Mark 14:61 is a little awkward, but I decided some years ago that in our translation of the gospels, we would compare the gospels in detail where they tell the same stories, and so, produce a translation which reflects such grammatical subtleties as that.  That is certainly not the only way to produce a good translation, but it is the path we chose.

    Thank you for the question.

    Pastor John

     

     

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