Pastor John,

Last night’s meeting was so good!  It took me back to this past year around our house. Big but it was good lessons along the way.

I always had such misconceptions of what the right relationship between a husband and a wife was.  I spent most of my life as what I would call the “leader” and as Alex would tell you, I came into our marriage with A LOT of trust issues in the beginning.

I remember the day I asked Alex very seriously, “Are you able to lead?”  At the time I was viewing it from a fleshly perspective and what I thought I knew about marriage.  But I was tired.  I knew I had spent a lifetime carrying a load that was not mine and longed for my place.  Over a short period, and Jesus fast-tracking us, I learned that leadership is not physical.  It is not someone barking orders or making demands.  It starts and ends in the Spirit.  It is not meant to keep you bound in a little box with no testimony, but to help you grow with Jesus.  The Spirit does not care if you are 25 or 45.  If you have life experience or not.  Jesus can teach you your space, and it doesn’t need to take decades to figure out, when truly walking with Jesus.

Times that Alex has had to set me back in my space, it has rarely been in human words.  It comes with a look and feeling of authority.  I can’t really explain it.  But it settles something in me.  It does not belittle or bully.  It just firmly sets everything in order so that we can both keep on keeping on.  Even in the times he has had to voice something, it still feels the same.  I love that.  There is a relief and rest in how Jesus has ordered things.  And it is not my job to tell him I “think” he is wrong.  

I remember one day I did feel a little misjudged/unheard.  Jesus thought otherwise because he told me it was not my job to manage Alex.  I remember the Spirit saying, “If I have an issue with him, I will tell him.”

I know I have so much more to learn along the way.  But what a year of learning it has been!  I want to learn the lessons now.  To be an example to other couples one day.

This week, I have been thinking about occupying my place in the body. Asking Jesus to show me why he has allowed me to be set apart.  I really want to step up and into what Jesus has for me.  The work here is so special, and I want to do my part to function.  After the meeting last night, I got to thinking that it is impossible to have a right relationship with anyone if the husband-and-wife dynamic is not what it should be.  How can I occupy my place in the body if things are not in order at home?  I can’t; it is impossible.  I can’t love my sisters with the love of God if I am sassy/snarky with my husband at home.  I cannot respect you or my brothers if I cannot respect the authority at home.  How can I humbly take correction or recognize the authority that you as our pastor have over the body?  Can’t do it.  Jesus perfectly designed marriage to reflect the order of the body, and I don’t think I really saw that until last night.  The truth is so simple, yet BIG. 

Talk to you soon!

Margo

Hi, Pastor John;

Your message in Eph. 5 last night reminded me of what the Spirit showed me about God’s order when I was in my early thirties.  I was going to work at 5:30 in the morning, and out of the blue, the Spirit asked me, “Who was created first, Adam or Eve?”  I replied, “Adam, Lord.”  Then another question, “Whose name did Judy take?” Again I responded, “Mine.  She became a Mellick and left her maiden name behind.”  Then he opened the order of things for my home, and I know it is for others, too. 

1- God

2-Jesus

3-A godly Pastor

4-Husband

5-Wife

6-Children

The first two in this relationship, and surely the third one listed, will not change unless Jesus takes the godly Pastor home to be with him. Jesus and his Father are doing just fine for eternity.  This is the chain of command.  If every home is in order, then fellowship will be experienced between each member of the family.  If any part of this order is not right, there will be trouble and strife. 

I pondered on this the whole day at work and knew I hadn’t occupied my space as head of household.  When I got home, I rehearsed this scene with Judy.  I hadn’t been the father to our children as I should have been, and let her take on my responsibilities.  Essentially, she was doing my job, and hers with the children.  I just went to work and came home and worked, ate, and went to bed.  This formula works!  Everyone should be looking up this chain of command for help.  All direction and instruction flows downward.  If one does not have children or a spouse, the only thing needed is to ask themselves, “Who is above me in my chain of command?”  If mommy or daddy are gone, “Who is above me?”  If my children backslide, “Who is above me?”  God will always have someone above you for our help.  Loners, as you have instructed us many times, will fail and fall (eventually). 

Love always,

Billy

John,

As I sat at the fire this morning, I was overwhelmed by a couple thoughts:

(1) in my 30s when I got a call from God to go to Him to be healed of a broken heart, the only place I knew to go to was a cult —Catholicism. I went there to learn what to do, say, sing, when to stand, sit, hold hands. I went there because I thought God was in the rituals. I thought to reach Him I needed to become a member of that cult. I had no idea of the freedom that the holy Ghost and Truth gives you to love the Father and His son the way they want to be loved not the way man wants us to be controlled. If there is a cult, it’s Christianity! 

(2) humility is so important. After I went to the Catholic church and became a member of that cult, I soon realized that it was a personality cult. The substance of Catholicism meant nothing, and all I had, and all I followed, were priests from diocese to diocese. But Jesus gave me the humility to see my error. I didn’t have the wisdom or knowledge to know where to go, but I stopped going to that cult. Humility is a requirement to real wisdom.

If Jesus hadn’t made me a humble person with a humble heart, I would’ve never let go of all of the things that I have been taught for 55 years about who I was, what I knew, and what was true. To let the scales fall off your eyes, be willing to see and act on what you see, and let go of all that you knew can only be Jesus and the holy Ghost! Oh thank you Jesus!!

I know that’s what it takes, a humble heart, to come to him and to stay with him. I pray for everyone who has wandered off the right path, that Jesus will humble their heart, to see the error of their thinking, and to feel the freedom that comes in living in the spirit.

Allison

Hey Pastor John,

After reading the Iron Kingdom chapter on Rituals, I decided to go through the Acts study online (https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_translation.html?tname=acts).  It has been so good to go back through this and gain knowledge, and it supplements the Rituals chapter really well.  In one of the teachings, you said, “It’s not possible for eternal life to be held by death.  If anybody is alive and believes in Jesus, he will never die.  Death is not in the kind of life you have.  The kind of life you have created death.  It’s death’s master, not its slave.”

And you said that we cannot have the fullness of peace or the fullness of righteousness or the fullness of joy yet until we are in His presence, but it sure put a prayer in my heart to feel as much of it now that I can.

Thank you for delivering all of these wonderful messages, and I am thankful that I believe and love it all!

Anna D. 

Hey, Pastor John! 

     I just want to say what a wonderful meeting we had today! I am so thankful for the blessing God gave me when I was out in the middle dancing in the Spirit. It felt so good to be completely willing to just do whatever Jesus wanted. That is a freeing feeling. 

     Afterwards, I sat down in my chair, and I was thinking about my experience. I thought about how I could feel Jesus pulling my heart out to the middle to dance for Him. Then, I had the thought that fleshly old me would want to just sit back and try to go unnoticed in the background, but when the Spirit is flowing, I have the power to go with the feelings. I was thinking that when Jesus pulls on our hearts, wanting for us to do something, all we have left to do is not be afraid to quickly go with what He has already put in our hearts. That’s what I want to do, not be afraid to respond immediately with what Jesus has already put in my heart. Those feelings are what are always right. Jesus is good, and it was so sweet today! 

     Thanks for everything, Pastor John. I love you.

-Hope M.

Good morning Pastor John,

I am looking forward to being there again to see you all in person!  I am planning to be there for Thanksgiving, the Lord willing.

While reading the Random Thought for Today (11/8), the one on “Anointed To Hear”* filled me with joy.  I know I have read this before with no real reaction.   But today when I read it, it went straight to my heart.  I felt so blessed.  I agree with Lou, “I am also anointed to hear.”  I believe we all are, who  believe what God gives you for us.  I instantly knew that without that anointing, I would believe anything and/or nothing.  I would believe Catholicism,  Baptist, worship crystals, or whatever the wind blew in that day.  I knew I/we are blessed by God!  To have a Pastor who is true to God, to hear the truth, and to believe it.  That is big!  The feelings I am feeling as I write this are making it difficult to type in a coherent way.   I feel like I should be dancing instead of typing.  But I had to share this belief in the value of our anointing while feeling it.  Now, it is up to us to be willing to change.  As we know, we cannot be more like Jesus without becoming less like us!

Thank you for being true to God and sharing what He gives you in your anointing.

Love

Mark W.

* Going to Jesus.com – Anointed to Hear

Good morning, Pastor John;

While going through the Old Testament course (Old Testament Course (Pt. 1) – Going to Jesus.com), I came upon this reading in Exodus 14:

23. Then the Egyptians made pursuit and went in after them—all of the horses of Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen—into the middle of the sea.
24. And it came to pass, on the morning watch, Jehovah looked down upon the host of Egypt through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and He troubled the host of the Egyptians.
25. And He removed the wheels of their chariots so that they could hardly drive. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Jehovah is fighting for them, against Egypt!”

I thought this was so good! I didn’t remember seeing in previous Old Testament classes that Jehovah was watching the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and the cloud and He removed the wheels off the chariots because Pharaoh’s army would certainly have overtaken the Israelites within a short time. The Spirit brought to my attention what He spoke to me in your doorway in 2001, “I have heard your prayers from the past ten years, and not one has escaped my ears.”  Jesus gave me the thought, “I was watching (out) for you, and when you were about to be overtaken, I removed the wheels from off the chariots that were pursuing you.”  After that thought, I had a scene of me walking through a sea on dry land while my pursuers drowned.  When God did that for me in 2001, I now have no more pursuers — only Canaan’s land is just in sight, as the song goes.  

I love finding the little gems that I overlooked in times’ past.  Every nugget is valuable. 

Judy & Billy