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  • Father and Son: Remembers, 19

    Morning!

    I have read the Remembers* over and over.  I pray I can take heed to this one:

    “Jesus let us know how the Father dealt with evil while it was in His presence, and with his

    patient and kind treatment of Judas, Jesus showed us how to follow the Father’s example.”

    This one is so, so good!  It reiterates what you always say about God being a God of relationships:

    “There is nothing Satan would not do to destroy the fellowship of the Father and His children. At the same time, there is nothing he can do to destroy it.”

    Also, was a hedge needed around God’s angels because they shouldn’t be judged based on the time before when law and not grace/truth ruled in Heaven?  Or, because they were never intended to receive judgment from Jesus? 

    In the words of Sister Willie, “He done cooked it up now!” A seven-course meal! 

    Wendy

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    Hi Wendy,

    There was a hedge around all creatures in heaven until the Son was glorified to sit at God’s right hand.  Then, everyone in heaven was judged.

    Good question.

    Pastor John

    *Remembers 19 PDF

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1828804636243046574

  • Judas or Satan

    Pastor John,

    I apologize if you covered this and I missed it:

    Do the scriptures say that Satan entered Judas before Judas went into town and revealed Jesus’ whereabouts for 30 pieces of silver (Luke 22:3)?

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    It was before.

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    If so, was it actually Satan (in Judas) who gave up Jesus’ location to those men?  It seems that Satan would have done that if he could because it would have pleased Satan to put Jesus in a position where Jesus had to reveal himself as king of the Jews—which (he thought) Jesus surely would HAVE to do now to save himself from the men who wanted him dead—that is—if Jesus was ever going to occupy his place as a (worldly) world ruler—as Satan understood Jesus’ place to be.

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    What Satan did was equally what Judas did after Judas was possessed.  The Accuser didn’t make Judas do anything.  They were as one.

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    With that, and assuming Satan believed that once Jesus fulfilled his position as world ruler (Satan’s current position), Satan would be free to move into the higher position he felt certain was coming his way…

    If Satan believed he had Jesus in this “pickle” where Jesus would have to go ahead and occupy his place as world ruler (even if it wasn’t God’s time yet), would that have been reason (a good enough reason in Satan’s mind) to forever leave his glorious cherub body – believing that a new and better body waited for him just around the corner along with his assumed promotion?

    Thank you

    Jerry

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    Yes, Jerry.  I mentioned that in our last reading.  Here is one portion of the Father and Son book which dealt with that:

    “Satan’s original sin was pride at being “perfect in beauty” (Ezek. 28:12), and he would never have left his perfectly beautiful body to possess a human except in hope of receiving something greater.  It may even be that Satan thought that if he was granted to sit at God’s right hand, he would be given a body more glorious than the one he first had.  That may not be the case, but either way, the promotion he hoped for was of such glory that whatever was lost in the process of attaining it would be worth it.  That hope is the only thing that could have lured Satan out of his perfectly beautiful body to possess the lowly body of a mortal man.  The significance he attached to this mission is revealed in the fact that Satan had never before abandoned his body to personally possess anyone.  Sensing that it was a mission of unparalleled importance to God, it would have been a mission of unparalleled importance to him, as well.”

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1828177712545960211

  • Testimonial Moment

    Hey Pastor John,

    How are you doing this happy Monday morning?

    Yesterday during the meeting, I had a question that kept popping up in my head over and over. What does it mean to be alive in the spirit? As we went through the meeting: singing songs, listening to testimonies, just eating the food God had put out before us, and also giving us water to drink to replenish ourselves. It hit me, and when it did I could nothing but smile. Because I had found my answer right there in front of me. It had been right in front of me the whole time. Being alive in the spirit: it means that your holy Ghost is living through you in a moment of Jubilation, even if that moment of Jubilation lasts 2-3 hours. Has woken up and taken over your body to be in the body as one with Gods people. Knowing that I also concluded that being alive in the spirit also meant that you want to be so alive in the spirit, you are dead to everyone on earth that is lost and either doesn’t or don’t know the TRUTH. Because this earthly world wants nothing more than for us to be dead like them. YEAH, BE SO ALIVE IN THE SPIRIT THAT WE ARE DEAD TO REST OF THE WORLD. If the God they are worshiping wants them to walk around like zombies I don’t want it. My God keeps me alive and happy every single breathe I take. GLORY TO GOD. 

    I just thought I would share this amazing experience with you.

    Love you Pastor John.

    Alexander S.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1828172323490234631

     

  • Today’s Meeting

    Pastor John,

    We have been pretty sick over here the last few days. As I sat and listened to Jimmy T. testify today and watched you godly men get down on your faces before God, it touched me and provoked me to jealously. 

    It was a beautiful kind of jealously, a draw to be in that place with God. 

    I felt it again as I watched Michelle testify and heard the Spirit take over that testimony. I love it when Jesus testifies. 

    I don’t know the words to Darren’s beautiful song today, but I think I heard one verse say “if you are dry, …”  I felt that verse and found myself crying out to Jesus to be close to him. 

    It is amazing to me to feel so bad in body and yet feel so separated from that when the Spirit in me is talking to Jesus. 

    I felt the chasm between this flesh and the Spirit of God today. They really are two separate kinds of life. 

    I wanted to say how much I loved hearing those testimonies today because they are valuable and do something for you in Jesus. I am grateful to hear them.

    Elizabeth D.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1828169438774096321

     

  • Being Grateful

    Good morning, Pastor John, 

    I am so very grateful for the book A Story of God: George C. Clark, A Pioneer of the Faith. (The Pioneer Tract Society – Burlington, NC )  I am not done yet.  I read a little and let it settle, then read some more.  I have learned it is not about finishing the books I read quickly, but about absorbing the good news about GOD.  That takes me steady slow work.  This book has taught me it is ok to not like what GOD has done and be grateful for it at the same time.  It’s like I don’t like that they had to take my kidney, but I am very grateful that they did before it killed me!  I used to condemn myself for not liking what He had to do to fix me.  But I now think, or better yet, FEEL it’s ok to feel both.  

    I have awakened today with a mouth full of thank you.  I have felt His Spirit running through me several times already and needed to communicate how grateful  and happy I am to someone who would understand!  I am aware that there is a real chance there’s a hard trial coming and this could be GOD preparing me.  If so, I pray I will do the right thing right away and not bounce around first.  Otherwise I’ll just be happy until and after.

    I am grateful for all guidance in the Lord.  As I said I am feeling so very grateful today!  Thank You GOD!

    Mark W.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1827408599150145605

     

  • The Shewbread

    Hey,

    I have a question.  Do we know what the table of shewbread represents in heaven?

    Thanks,

    Lyn

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    Hi Lyn,

    The Scriptures do not speak directly about that part of the tabernacle, but it seems to me that the  shewbread represents the fellowship of the saints with one another before God.  Remember, Paul said that “The bread that we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ?  For we, being many, are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1Cor. 10:16b–17).

    I would also point out that the table was very short; so, there was no way to partake of the bread except on one’s knees.

    Hope that helps.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1827406141116031460

  • Tonight’s Reading: The Father and Son, “The Last Supper and Jesus’ Arrest”

    Pastor John,

    It was an honor to hear these things tonight. I feel like we were let into a secret place. It almost feels like everything before these Father and Son readings were parables, and now we are getting the understanding.

    This is holy ground. Makes me think of that song Natalie used to sing, “Holy Ground” by Charity Gayle.  

    Thank you.

    Jerry

    Father and Son Reading, 18 PDF

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1827384114212958536

  • Question on: Isaiah 14:12, “How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer….?”

    RE:

    Hey Pastor John,

    What a good read this is!

    I have been chewing on this for a couple of days now, especially this verse: “How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning…” “… who opened not the house of his prisoners?” (Isa. 14:12, 17b).  For Satan to be called “son of the morning” kind of struck me.  Is that a term of endearment for Satan?  I wonder…new thought for me…if Satan being thrown out of heaven was anything like how Adam was thrown out of the garden.  I wonder if God still loves Satan, even after having to throw Satan out of heaven? 

    Elizabeth D.

    In verse 17b, “who opened not the house of his prisoners?” 

    Still chewing on this. 

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    Hi Beth.

    No, God does not love Satan as He loved Adam.  He may have loved him when He first created him, but that didn’t last long.  “Whom the Lord loves, He chastens”, but He refused to chasten Satan when he became proud of his great beauty (Ezek 28:17).

    The phrase “son of the morning” means something like Paul’s description as a “messenger of light”.  Satan puffs people up with information they do not have, but he and his ministers cannot teach people the way Jesus and his ministers can.  The knowledge Jesus gives keeps God’s children humble; it does not puff them up.

    I am glad you are thinking on these things.  We are not prisoners to fear any longer.  We are free to think the next thought and ask the next question.  So, keep it up!

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1825653937086640185

     

  • Question: 1 Corinthians 4:5

    Good morning, Pastor John.

    In 1Corinthians 4:5 it reads, ”So, judge nothing before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and expose the intentions of hearts, and then from God will praise be given to each one.”

    Is this referring to when Jesus comes back in the end, or could “wait until the Lord comes” be referring to a present time when the Lord makes His judgement known to us on a particular matter?

    Thank you,

    Anna

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    Hi Anna.

    Paul’s words could be taken to mean the same thing Jesus taught about judging if you put two of Jesus’ commandments together.  First, Jesus commanded his disciples to “stop judging, so that you won’t be judged” (Mt. 7:1).  Then, he clarified what he meant in John 7:24, when he told them, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge righteous judgment!”

    Put together, those two commandments tell us that we, in our own wisdom, are not to judge anything, but are to receive from the Spirit whatever judgments we make.  So, yes, what Paul said could be taken that way, and that would be true.  We are to be led by the Spirit in our judgments.

    But I think that in the scripture above, Paul was speaking of the return of Jesus at the end of this age to declare God’s judgment concerning who will be saved from His wrath and who will not be saved.  For anyone at the present time, then, to claim to be saved is jumping the gun, to say the least.  Jesus will have the final word on that.

    Hope that clears things up for you.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think: 

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1825653236281520232

     

  • The Unity of the Father and the Son

    Pastor John,

    That is such a good email from Tom (see post 8/16/2024, Reading: The Crucifixion).  The last sentence of verse 21 that he copied stunned me:

    1. “…that they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me.”

    All that Jesus was doing and all that he is doing now is “so that the world might believe that you sent me.”  And by him doing so, men would repent and be reconciled to God, and be saved.  Jesus truly is the Savior of the world.

    Wow.

    Jesus’ unity with the Father convicts hearts, and it made the disciples believe, so that they too would find unity with the Father and Son, thereby convicting others.  And so forth, through the centuries. 

    I’m repeating myself, but the disciples’ newfound unity with the Father and Son was convicting the hearts of those looking on (just as Jesus’ unity had done) so that some, the ones God had chosen from the beginning, would come forward and find their own unity with the Father and Son…and so on.

    So the disciples being made one with the Father and Son through Spirit, made them fishers of men, the first of their kind (after Jesus), fishing for the hearts that God had ordained in the beginning to be His. And here we are today with the same holy charge, to live and be in Christ so that the world might believe that the Father sent the Son.

    Wow, brother John.

    When I think of bearing fruit, I see that it truly is so that men can eat and “taste and see that the Lord is good!”  If we aren’t bearing fruit – we really are being useless to God, being a reproach in front of men as to who and what he is.  That is frightening.  But God is wonderful.  We just need to soak up the rain, food, and sun(Son) that the Father sends, and we’ll bear much fruit!

    Whew!

    What a story. What an opportunity for life!

    Jerry

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1825652386016202998

     

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