Hi Pastor John!

I had a pretty amazing experience this morning. I feel like I need to add a disclaimer to the beginning of this email stating “content may include wrong thoughts.”

I got up at 5:30 am this morning.  I couldn’t sleep so I put on a Netflix show called “Full of Grace”.  It is about Mary, Jesus’ mother.  About halfway through the movie, there is a scene where Peter and James (some other disciples were there but not named) were discussing Saul and Barnabas teaching Gentiles that they did not have to follow the law. James was concerned that by the Gentiles not following the law, they would not walk in the spirit every day, but would fall away to false teachings and sin. James said that the Gentiles did not even know the law.  I was amazed to even see this on TV.  There were some good parts to the conversation.

Well I started thinking about what TV James said.  I thought about what learning about the law in the Old Testament taught me.  I feel like it helped have a better understanding of God’s heart.  I know the spirit is all we need, for the spirit will lead us into all truth, but I am so thankful to have learned about the law. The Gentiles would have been blessed to have learned about the law from the Jews if they could only have learned it just to learn more of God.

It makes me so thankful to have the spirit and learn of the law and to understand what God used the law for. I also thought, “Well, maybe the Gentiles would have been hungry for the knowledge and would have sought every scripture or law just to know more of God.”  God had me, a Gentile, read the Bible.  That was one of the first things God put on my heart.

Would the Gentiles have learned any of the law?  Would Jewish believers and Gentiles have spent a lot of time together or would they have been separated because of the law?  Would Paul have taught them the law to show them the heavenly shadows of Christ?

These are unfinished thoughts, but I wanted to share them.  I feel like there is this big obvious point that I already know but can’t put it all together.

Know what I mean?

Beth

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Hi Beth.

I love it.   Please keep having those unfinished thoughts.  They are beautiful, and who knows? Jesus might just answer those questions and finish your thoughts for you.

Pastor John

Bro John,

What you said tonight about not having any condemnation is what Jesus has been telling me to be thankful for.  He would bring it to my attention, as if to say, “Don’t you love how that feels?” And I would just start thanking him.  I know that not everyone gets to have that opportunity, to even feel what that feels like.  To be clean before Jesus is worth everything.

I’m very thankful tonight!

Natalie

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Pastor John,

That was a wonderful message from the Lord last night (9/7/2016) about being free from condemnation which brings fear of everything – except the right kind of fear, that is, the fear of God. You could feel the love of God in your message for us from God.  How he does want us to be free of this flesh and walk in his Spirit!

The message was very sobering, and it definitely makes you self-check yourself and pray, “Is there anything I need to change or do . . . or not be changing or doing?
It really comes down to the two commandments, and then the other one, that Jesus gave:
1) Love God with all of your heart, mind, soul & strength.
2) Love others as yourself.
3) “Love each other as I have loved you”.

There are good things that Jesus has given to every one of us and wants to give to us from the Father.  condemnation will hinder us from receiving those good things, and bury them if we don’t walk in the Spirit.

I love love.  I didn’t get to experience much love growing up, but Jesus has put me here where I can experience it everyday, and I thank him and you very much for that.  Someone who cares for my soul. That is no small thing!

Billy M.

Pastor John,

Among everything else today that was beyond description, the following, spoken by the Spirit through you, was a gem that “takes the cake”.  You said something like this:

“Do you know what you still have to overcome?  You still have to overcome whatever it is that you aren’t yet thankful for!”

That is perfect Pastor John. It is Truth!

Thank you for today, Jesus! 

I don’t have to worry about overcoming that… It overcame me!!   🙂

Jerry

Hi Pastor John,

Knowing and loving the doctrine of God will save us.  I love the Random Thought for today.   The doctrine will keep us, protect us, love us rightly, and help us to grow and change.

This world has a “come as you are” doctrine or “you are a unique individual” doctrine; no change is required by such doctrines, or necessary.  What is left out is repentance and living in the Spirit.  I loved the reading in Titus last night in the meeting, but knowing that Titus would eventually leave Paul, it was sad.  Nevertheless, Paul endured in “sound doctrine” even when all of those around him did not.  His eyes were on the prize.

This race is a marathon and not a sprint.  And to follow what the spirit is saying now)will give us the endurance to run it, and be saved at the end.  The prize is an eternal life of joy and peace in a body that will know only joy and peace. 

http://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt09-01

Just makes you want to shout.

Billy

Hey John, 

After the meeting last night a few people came to me saying they liked my testimony, and I asked them if they remembered me telling the dream a few times in the past, but no one did.  Anyway, I thought I would share it, because it was a great dream and I am very thankful for it!

When I was around 11 or 12 years old I went to bed thirsty and for some reason I didn’t want to get up to quench my thirst.  When I fell asleep I dreamed getting up to get a glass of water.  While drinking the water I pulled back the curtains to look out the window and I saw the stars falling, and they would disappear before hitting the ground.  They stopped falling and began to spin in a circle to the right in the sky (When you mentioned the angels ascending and descending with Jesus I wondered if these were angels spinning in the circle instead of stars).  All of a sudden Jesus came like a super hero through the center of the stars that were spinning saying something loud, but I don’t recall what he said.  I immediately raised my arms speaking in tongues.  The next scene Jesus was calling out names of who was prepared to meet him.  He called out my father’s name and I asked if he would wait on dad.  He took a moment and nodded yes and that was the end of my dream. 

A few years after my father passed away, I was writing this dream in a book of testimonies I have started and when I got to the part of the dream about my dad, Jesus reminded me of something I asked when dad almost died in 2010.  I was at the hospital the night before dad was about to die and I prayed to Jesus, “I am not ready for you to take my dad.”  Dad pulled through and he was with us almost another year.  I know it is a little out of context with Jesus coming back, but I know that part of the dream goes with what I prayed in the hospital. Jesus reminded me.

Matthew 24:29-31:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Mark 13:24-27:

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”

Cathy B.

Hey,

I’ve been reading in Psalms and I ran across this verse a little while ago and found it encouraging. Psalms 68:11 “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.”

Billy H.

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Hi, Billy.

Yes.  And may God save us from publishing anything in His name except the word He gives.

Pastor John

When my Grandmother gave this testimony in a Sunday afternoon prayer meeting, she was close to 80 years old.  It was just a year or two before she died.  And most of her testimony was actually in English! 🙂

Pastor John

04:13 Sister Edna (Grandma):  “One thing I want to thank God for is a good doctrine. (speaking in tongues) Them that are seeking God’s doctrine’ll get alright[?].  Them that are teachin’ man’s doctrine, they’re just goin’ on, and they’re gettin’ so ‘good’.”  Praise God!  There used to be a scripture they teached me was [about] tobacco.  It said, ‘Taste not; handle not.  With the using, all of it will perish.’  It tells you what it’s [really] talking about.  ‘After the doctrines and commandments of men.’  I’m glad, I’m glad of God’s doctrine.  D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E!  God’s doctrine.  I thank the Lord for the doctrine of God ‘cause I love it, and I don’t care who knows it. (speaking in tongues)  No, I’m a-standin’ for it – for 50 year!  (speaking in tongues)  (more speaking in tongues)  Praise God!  The doctrine of Christ is goin’ to live on.  It’ll never die!  This is somethin’ that don’t die!  It just as fresh today as when I got it.  It ain’t gone dead, and it never will die.  I’m so glad of it, I don’t know what to do. (speaking in tongues) (more speaking in tongues)  This thing is living now. (speaking in tongues)  I’m so glad of it!  My Father is rich!  Praise God.  They’re fussin’ over the inheritance down here, but I’ll tell you one thing.  My Father’s rich.  Got it all in His hands. Praise God!

Hi John,

I love what the word of God does for us.  I love seeing and feeling burdens being lifted off of us and others when the word of God comes, as it did last Wednesday night (8/17/2016). This way is so simple that sometimes we can’t believe that it is that simple.  This flesh fights it all the time.

I am so glad and thankful that God gave us his spirit and this way of life in the truth, to live every day.  I am so thankful for the order he has given us in this life, an order ordained by his spirit through his Son for us to walk in.  We have a man of God and a pastor that is led by the word of God to help us and guide us as we walk in this world while we are here.

And when that word is spoken by you, as it was Wednesday night, we all feel the relief it brings, and it is always right on time.  He knows our every need.  All we have to do is just believe it, just as you have said in times past about how to learn the Bible; you just believe it!!  When the word of God is preached, if we just believe it, it changes us inside and out, and it is not a hard thing to do.

I love the relief I feel.  I love the peace I feel.  I love how happy I am while walking through this world of discord. In the word of God there is harmony and agreement and peace.  It comes with order and satisfaction for who we are and what he has made us in this life. We are only happy if we walk in that place that he has given to each of us. I just feel so blessed and thankful for you and everyone else he has put around us. I just want to value it more and more every day. It is not a light thing!  All we have to do is look around ourselves and see how we all would be without the power of God in our lives. Thank you John!!

Stuart