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

Pastor John,

Sunday was wonderful, and I’m still feeling it.  Saturday night was part one, and Sunday morning continued the second half.  Your preaching of God’s mercy on His children and His love to cause their suffering was touching.  Then on Sunday, the spirit had fallen a couple of times during songs, and I wanted to go out there and dance, but I didn’t.  Afterwards, I sat there talking to Jesus, asking him to please give me another chance.  Going another two weeks before we would be back seemed too long.  

I loved it when Tracey interrupted your sermon!  When you said, “Do you want to glory in your failures or in what God’s done?”, that was it!  Jesus had given another chance.  Once out there, I just felt like spinning!  It felt so good, like things were spinning off! ‍ Yay!  What a relief it was!  I felt so thankful to be able to do that.  

Yesterday while getting ready to take the kids to music lessons, the Lord blessed me with the sweetest feelings of everything being just exactly right. Thoughts of how my whole life has been exactly what I’ve needed–good and bad, and feeling the goodness and love of God in it.  It was thankfulness and sweet peace.

That’s my testimony about Sunday.

Love you!  Goodnight!

Cris

Pastor John, 

Good morning!  I loved the meeting Wednesday night!  The songs, the testimonies absolutely wonderful! 

This morning I was listening to an old disc and you said: 

“Jesus will and has put up with us and others while we struggled along, stumbling, getting back up, struggling.  He sees deep down in our hearts.  He’s going to get us over everything if we want to get over it.  If we want the victory, we’re going to get it.  He knows when somebody’s heart is right.  He’s nobody’s fool.” 

It made me think about Wednesday night.  You’ve always taught us that it’s all a matter of the heart!  Jesus sees our hearts.  If we want the victory…it’s ours!  He will give it to us!  I’m so thankful when Jesus helps us and brings things to our attention in order to perfect our faith!  How wonderful is that! 

I’m so thankful to be here, to be a part of this family!  Looking forward to this weekend!  I miss everyone so much already! 

Michelle 

Good morning,

I woke up this morning and read the texts from M——. After everything that I just learned from Jesus about repenting, and his mercy to allow us to repent from our bad choices, her text to you hurt my heart. I truly understand something so much clearer now. I understand how much everything depends on his mercy, and it IS coupled with fear. How foolish for us to think we can hold a grudge or get a wrong attitude, and then come to (or not come to) praise God when we feel like it. What if we have already pressed God past the point He is willing to go beyond? That was what Jesus was telling me.

I have no power. It is only his mercy, and he is full of mercy, but Jesus is no fool. I have that in my foundation now. I understand it. I pray for M—-, that she has not pressed Jesus past the point of repenting. I pray for mercy for her. I pray for any of us who might think we can hold a grudge one more day or stay away one more day, that we might be showered with mercy and repentance before it’s too late.

I pray I never forget the fear I felt when I heard “The Damnation Song” on the CD and felt like the Lord may have already turned me away. That fear was a soul-saving fear.

Beth