Pastor John, 

I went back and listened to what you said about zeal without knowledge from God.  These last few years, I have prayed asking Jesus to please let me hold onto my zeal, but without knowing how vital the knowledge of God is to go with that zeal!  Without knowing that, what I have been praying so desperately for Jesus to let me have might have harmed me IF it were not for the mercy of the Lord, that we have an anointed pastor to teach us and guide us.  Jesus has been teaching me what that really means.  We don’t even know what to pray for without hurting ourselves!

Jesus has so lovingly put in place everything we need, to be taken care of.  What about all God’s people out there, following men with no anointing?  Just men with their own ideas, and their own agendas, and nothing from God!  I feel so very, very blessed, and so very small!

I feel like I am seeing what we have been given more clearly.  I woke up thinking about it.  I feel very loved.

Beth D.

Pastor John, 

Yesterday’s message regarding zeal for God, without knowledge, gave me a brand new perspective on this scripture, from Hosea (4:6): “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” 

I have always considered that scripture to mean that God’s people wither and perish for what they DON’T do, due to lack of knowledge.  But now I see how all the more, destruction can come from what God’s people WILL do because of the lack of the knowledge of God. 

In our time, buildings (and human beings) are being blown up; wars are started; hatred abounds; and misappropriated love toward what is evil is everywhere. All of this is due to the lack of the knowledge of God, but a zeal to go forward in his name, nonetheless.

A prayer for “zeal for God,” without having the knowledge of God is a prayer for more energy to – go in the wrong direction!

I have never considered this.

Thank you for that! 

Jerry

Hey Pastor John, 

You know that expression, “What a difference a day makes?”  I was just laying here thinking, wow what a difference the holy Ghost makes. 

I love the feelings today.  I felt like everything was lifted and all that remained was me and Jesus!   

It was perfect!  I LOVE living!  I love living with my family! It is complete satisfaction!  

Michelle 

Pastor John, 

I loved what you said today about zeal and about knowledge from God.  This is what I heard from you: Zeal can take you anywhere, good or bad, and zeal can be used anywhere, rightly or wrongly; pray for knowledge from God.

This changed my whole heart on zeal.  I have held zeal very high on my list for a while now. I pray often for Jesus to please not to take my zeal away.  I have been attributing zeal with life.  But the Spirit is life.  It felt so good today when you taught about this.  Zeal can be used anywhere!  Zeal is used everywhere.

And there is no difference between the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews, the Athiest – without the holy Ghost, they are all in the same condition.  They are all serving the same dead god.  I know you have said this, but today it just seems so much clearer. The five pillars of Islam are just like Christianity or Jewish rituals.

I know Jesus can use zeal, too, and I want to have everything Jesus wants me to have.  I want to have the exact amount Jesus wants me to have.  But, boy, this sure changed how I looked at things.  I had zeal on the top of my list! 

Beth D.

Hi John.

I can’t recall how many times that I have read and listened to the tract: Spirit of a Serpent, Spirit of a Dove, but it has been scores.  Every time that I listen to it, there are new thoughts and feelings in each of the sections: “the serpent”, “the Dove”, “the Stone”, and “Jesus”.  There are so many things that I have learned about myself and others listening to your words.  In my recording room the other night, when you read the section about shooting the dove and then finding it alive – that is the section that hits home to me the most.  God’s children are referred to sparrows in the Bible, and look how God cares for them!  And Jesus said that we mean more to God than small, fragile sparrows. 

The Lord reminded me, through your testimony concerning the dove that you shot long ago, that the opportunity to receive God’s mercies and to love one another is a precious gift.  God can heal wounds, and a broken reed He can straighten, and a smoking flax He won’t quench.  His mercies are new and available every morning.  All of God’s little sparrows are precious in His sight, and if the mind of Christ is in us, we feel the way God does about them. 

Just wanted to share some feelings.

Billy

Wow, Pastor John. 

I was sitting here typing, thinking on the Lord and some things that we, as frail human beings, experience in our daily life. 

I was considering how we can easily get engrossed in our work, beating and banging away all day, trying to produce as much as we can, sometimes losing sight of the fact that the Lord sustains us, not our job – the job is just the vehicle by which he delivers that blessing.  Or he can just rain manna 🙂 

As I was thinking on these things, and how we may give ourselves over to worry during turbulent times in our field or industry, or even the global economy, and how we may worry about whether we will have a job.  Or we get concerned about the amount of work we have now, and whether it is enough to sustain us, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “That is the equivalent of Nebuchadnezzar stepping out onto his balcony and declaring in his heart, that he was responsible for all that his eye could see.”

The Lord was telling me that to worry about your future is to boast that you are responsible for your past.  To worry about what will come is to say in your heart that you are responsible for all that your eye can see – and not the Lord!

I have never seen it quite that way before!  I love that thought from Jesus!

Jerry

Hi Pastor John, 

I wrote these two things down the other day.  I heard them from the Lord.  They were good to my soul.  I want to share them.

“Real repentance is not turning away from ungodly behavior, but turning away from the ungodly spirit that is causing you to act that way.”

“Repenting of ungodly behavior will clear your conscience for a day.  But repenting of the spirit causing you to fall into that behavior will clear it for a lifetime.”

Jerry

Pastor John,  

I heard this from the Lord this evening – it’s the truth, I enjoyed hearing it. I wanted to share it.

———–

If cussing and drinking could send you to hell then not cussing and drinking could get you into heaven, and neither one is true. It is the nature of the flesh that is going to send you to hell, if you go there, whether you ever yield yourself to its ungodly desires or not. Alternatively, it is being born again of God’s holy nature that is going to allow you to see heaven, if you get there. 

The nature that you allow to live in you while on this earth will determine your eternity, your behavior will simply be the result of that. 

Jerry

Hi Pastor John, 

Tonight’s meeting was so good.  And everything that was said about expectations, and disappointments, etc., was just perfect and tied in perfectly with my prayers lately. 

Last night I was driving home from work, and I was praying and trying to get my thoughts straight about things; in particular my life and not having been married and being alone, missing out on family, having a husband and so on.  I just laid it all on the table before Jesus again.  Usually, I end up protesting, and I will be frank about it – and I know this is bad, but I usually would pray, “I don’t agree; I don’t like this.  I just don’t agree (with what you’ve done with my life),” and I would complain a lot.  I didn’t do this with a bad attitude; I said it to be earnest before the Lord about how I felt – he is the only one that can deal with me about it.

Well, last night was different, and I don’t remember how I got there, but my prayer was different, and I was earnest about it.  I was praying “Jesus, I agree with what you’ve done in my life.  Everything you’ve done is right.  You’ve always acted perfectly in my life in response to my actions and what I’ve done.  I agree with you.”  Pastor John, it felt so sweet driving along, praying that prayer over and over again.  I felt the change in my heart about that, and I still feel it today.  And I am so thankful for that.  I’m glad I prayed earnestly before about how I felt – how “I disagreed”, but I’m gladder that I now agree with Him.  I don’t want to lose this, so I am going to keep telling Jesus I agree with him.

Jenny