I just wanted to thank Jesus for his sweet, sweet power of the Holy Ghost, sweeping over my heart and soul last night! To just lie there on the floor feeling his power, and releasing me from my burdens, thoughts, and cares of this life, feeling his sweet washing power sweeping over and over inside of me! All I could feel going over and over inside me was Jesus, Jesus feel my heart, cleanse me from me, I need more of You!  

How can people live without it? Oh, how I thank him for the GOOD HOLY GHOST! ! 

Jimmy T.

Hi Pastor John,  

I was thinking about how beautiful the young people looked praising the Lord Saturday evening. The thought “garment of praise” came to mind. When I looked up Isaiah 61:3 in our translation, it shows “mantle of praise”. It is hard for me to think of a “mantle of praise” being the same as a mantle like Elijah passed on. In my mind I think of a mantle as representing an anointing.

I looked up the word mantle to reference how it is used in the Bible, and it seems to be many times as a robe or clothing. To think of Jesus wrapping us in his spirit and allowing us to praise him moves me deeply. What I saw on the young people was pulled from within them and they were submitting to that heavenly draw. I feel it every time I watch the video. Thinking about a garment of praise, I can picture Jesus standing there in the room with us, covering each of them that night.

I guess when Jesus chooses one to anoint, he is laying a heavenly cloak upon them.  Brings tears to my eyes thinking about Jesus laying a cloak upon you, Pastor John.

I don’t know anything more beautiful than the truth, Pastor John. 

Isaiah 61:3

“To provide for those mourning in Zion — to give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a mantle of praise instead of a weary spirit — that they might be called, “trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah”, that He might be glorified.”

Beth

Pastor John,

The Spirit spoke to me this evening while you were preaching. I will try to describe it.

I needed to use the bathroom and I was getting uncomfortable because of it. Determined not to miss anything I finally told (myself) with the intent of settling the matter, “I’m not going while he is preaching, it’s too good, I’m not going!”

After letting myself “have it” there in your basement, I then recalled attending a meeting of brother Benny Hinn’s, some 12 years ago in Tennessee.

Brother Hinn started his service that night by telling everyone that we were all there for the purpose of getting something from the Lord. He then went on to tell us that in a short time some of us were going to start feeling restless, or get the feeling that we needed to go to the bathroom. He then fixed his eyes on us all and said sternly, “Hold it!” (referring to the bathroom) “God is worth you waiting on, and worth you being uncomfortable for.”

After recalling brother Hinn’s words tonight, from his meeting some 12 years ago, a feeling came over me of how very much “in order” those instructions were to everyone.  I thought to myself, Benny Hinn told us to “hold it” that night, because he knew his words from the Lord had VALUE.

The Lord then interrupted that thought of mine, pastor John, with this:

“and you who do not require that your children mind you the first time you speak, do so because you know your words DO NOT have value.  GET VALUABLE!!

What the Lord is passing out has value!”

Thanks,

Jerry

 

The humility and grace inherent in your writing, Pastor John, is breathtaking to me.  I weep when I read such heartfelt, honest writing.  Do you know why I weep?  Because I identify with it…with what you wrote…with your same feelings. 

In 1994 (24 YEARS AGO!), I came to know the truth through brother Gary’s efforts (his radio broadcast and the tracts he sent me).  Then, after my eyes had been opened, and after I had fully repented, I was born again…and then I’ve drifted for quite some time, also wondering why Jesus revealed such profound and wonderful truths to me, yet not to others.  I have been alone, mostly, for 15 years; but of course, remaining dedicated to you and our family in Christ who have also continued to stay in love with the truth.  And I’ve always wondered where I fit in… into the work God has given you..and I still do not know.  I have beside me a wife who has also fallen in love with Jesus and this truth, and we are excited about discovering how and where the Lord will lead us, and if/when my talents can be put to use in some way for the benefit of your work…or perhaps my own work, to share this truth to those who are hungering to know it.  

It seems that very few, indeed, are hungering and thirsting for the truth, as I always was.  “Jesus found me“, I tell  people, because I was looking but not finding true rest in religious church groups.  I obeyed His call to come out, and it has made all the difference in the world, sitting under your tutelage and being blessed—and persecuted—because of it. 

I love what you have written.  It is good for a man to examine himself, to see if he is truly in the faith—and why!

Please pray that I may find my place in God’s plan.  I am not sure of where I fit into the big scheme…but I have a heart that yearns to know…and so does my darling wife, Allison. 

Looking forward to our visit in a few days. 

Brad

Pastor John, 

I was reading this morning and this really struck me.  I never really considered being an enemy of God because of sin.

Romans 5:

10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Verses 7 and 8 really touched me.

Romans 5:

7. Rarely will someone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, one might possibly bring himself to die,

8.but God commends to us His kind of love, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Matthew 5:

44. But I say to you, love your enemies; bless those who curse you; do good to those who hate you; and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,

45. so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust.

Beth D.

John, 

I enjoyed immensely the education you gave on translating in tract room last night, thank you!  It just cements in the fact that we must have the spirit to lead us.

I am thankful if I have any little part in getting the message to the Jews.  I feel like we are just starting to understand why the Jews  were confused and rejected the messiah.

My, my, when will I learn that Jesus just meant what he said, “You search the scriptures; in them, you think you have life, but they are they that testify of me.  And you won’t come to me.”

Now, Jesus is allowing you to see him in the scriptures.

Looking forward to Revelation Sunday Night.

Wendell

 

Pastor John, 

While praying today the Lord told me, all transgression is against Him, there is no transgression against me- the person.  I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be a reflection of my Father in Heaven.  I am supposed to decrease, while He increases in me.  If I will humble myself and realize that I am nothing, that is my safety, my security.  That will keep me from ever being offended.

When Jesus walked the earth, he took nothing personally, he was nothing, he was no one – in his eyes; he was a worm.  Jesus knew all spite, all hatred, all malice, all wickedness and misunderstanding that was directed at him, was really aimed at his heavenly Father.  And he prayed for those who felt that way- that God would forgive them for their attitude, toward God, not him!

If we will walk in that place, knowing we are nothing, it makes it very easy to forgive.  In that place we can’t be offended.  We can easily pray for those who misunderstand or aim to hurt us, or do so without intending to.  We can seek the Lord for them as Jesus did, knowing that all praise heaped upon us by men, for doing well, belongs to God.  And all hatred heaped upon us by men, for doing well, belongs to God as well.  We can just pray for them, knowing that God watches over our soul.

The Lord told me once, many years ago, “Taking care of you is what I do, while you are taking care of other people.”  

Jerry

Pastor John,

Last Wednesday evening when we got together, you spoke of a message on liberty that you told us you once carried in your Bible for over ten years, hoping to share it with a certain congregation, some day.  You explained that it was a message on the kind of liberty that the apostle Paul tried to show to God’s spirit-filled Gentile children throughout his New Testament travels.  In sum, you said that it was a message of liberty from ungodly commandments of men, and at the same time, a liberty to hear from and to be led by the Spirit of God and in all things. 

In Paul’s time, that liberty meant freedom from the works of Moses’ law (which never applied to the Gentiles anyway).  And for the children of God today, it is freedom from any yoke (whether it calls itself Christianity, or anything else) that is not the yoke of the sincere love of God and the nature and the will of God – and the mind of Christ that is created in us when we repent and Jesus baptizes us with holy Spirit, His Spirit.

You told us that the kind of freedom that God offers His mature children who are of the mind of Christ would kill God’s children who are otherwise minded, which included most if not all of my congregation years ago.

That liberty to be holy and free in the Spirit, and the peace that is necessary to learn of God, is a gift from God, and it does not exist everywhere in this world. 

I want to share a piece of a popular document, if I may, from Mr. John Adams.* I have considered it nearly every day since last Wednesday’s meeting.  This man had wisdom enough from God to understand that the liberty given to the United States, is a gift; a gift of freedom to those who are good, but destruction for those who are otherwise minded.  This moves my heart when I read it.  I love the reminder, and I love the wisdom of God that I believe was on this man as he penned this document.

Jerry

From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798

   John Adams

October 11, 1798

Gentleman,

While our country [United States] remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and (is) incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence [the care of God]. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practicing iniquity and extravagance, ………and while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.   Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, (these all) would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

==========

Thanks, Jerry,

I underlined the part of John Adams’ words that struck me.  The Constitution is, as he knew, wholly inadequate as an instrument of government for an immoral nation.  And this society is at that point now.  Whether we like it or not, what America needs is a good king who will rule by decree and put a stop to the obscene and wretched nonsense that claims its right to exist under the Constitution.

The drawback to having a king, of course, is that even good kings in this world die, and wicked kings will take their place.  That is what happened with Rome.  The (relatively) good Emperor Augustus Caesar was followed by three patently wicked and cruel emperors. 

Let’s put all our hope in Jesus, and be prepared in our souls for him to come.

Pastor John

*https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102