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  • False Prophets

    Pastor John,

    Is a false apostle in the same kind of condition as a false prophet?  Meaning, just as a false prophet in the Old Testament once had to be a real prophet to qualify to be a false one, were false apostles once true apostles who had rejected the truth for another way?

    Jerry

    ==========

    Hi, Jerry.

    I don’t think that false prophets in the Old Testament had to be true prophets first, though that was the case with some of them.  What I have tried to convey, and perhaps poorly, is that false prophets were always men who belonged to God.  The Old Testament never calls the prophets of heathen nations false prophets because those prophets did not belong to God.

    Likewise, the “false apostles” of the New Testament were men who believed  in Jesus and truly belonged to God.  They were not unbelievers.  After all, Paul said they claimed to be apostles of Christ.  An apostle is one who has been sent  (that’s what the word means), and even though those false apostles were not sent by God to teach what they were teaching, they had been born again.

    ==========

    I was thinking about how you described Paul’s opinion of men in his day who taught lies about Jesus, versus the kindness God spoke to your father when he instructed him how to treat similar men.

    The apostle Paul was disgusted with the men that he described as speaking lies about Jesus.  I wondered if those men once had the truth but preferred a lie for whatever gain or reason.  While the man whom preacher Clark saw on television (that day when God told him not to speak evil of anyone who was speaking well of His Son) was perhaps giving his all out of a zeal for Jesus, but was teaching wrongly because God didn’t send him to teach and he had never really known the right way of the Lord.

    They sure are two different kinds of hearts.  God is very kind to those who ignorantly do the wrong thing, but do it with their whole heart.  I know that no one can know what God is thinking unless he makes it known, but that sounds like his goodness.

    Jerry D.

    ==========

    Yes, Jerry, that is true.  And that may have been the case when the Lord spoke to my father.

    It is certainly true that the false apostles of Paul’s day had heard the truth which Paul preached, and had rejected it, claiming instead that God sent them with a contrary gospel.  That is very different from those who have never heard it, and God is very patient and merciful with such.  We know that is true because we all have been in that boat.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1891561902615969930

     

  • Responses to: Zoli’s thoughts from Leviticus 26

    I loved these verses from Leviticus because I thought that these verses in Leviticus were prophetic regarding the holy Ghost entering our bodies.  The Father and Son take up their abode IN us, in our midst.  He writes these laws that we can now obey, in our hearts.  And not only does it make US happy, but that makes the Father and Son VERY happy…. because the Son is the happiest of all.  And the thing that will make Him SUPER happy, is when His children are ONE, and can walk in unity.

    Gary

    ==========

    Amen, Gary.  Jesus said it is the Father’s GOOD PLEASURE to give us the kingdom!

    jdc

    ==========

    This is so good, Zoli!

    I had a similar feeling when I woke up today. It was like a thought that went with a new feeling of how God sees giving us His kind of knowledge and feelings to grow. It felt like the happiness/satisfaction when you’re teaching someone a new thing and they really absorb it. If we’re feeling happy, thankful, a deeper feeling from God, etc… it’s because He already had it. He already felt what you’re feeling now in the spirit. He understands what we’re feeling completely! He created these feelings for us to have and was waiting for us to be in a place to receive it. Let us be ready to receive whatever God wants for us to experience! 

    Hahhaahhhaa. That makes us happy to even think about God making ‘happy’ to give it to us! He could have just left us here to die, but we’re alive because He cares about us. He created these feelings for us!  Be happy with God! 

    Wendy 

    ==========

    Pastor John,

    I was reading Leviticus 26 this morning, where God lays out for the children of Israel what He will do to them if they will obey him and keep His statutes (verses 3-12), and what He will do if the opposite happens and they refuse to follow His commandments (verses 14-39). 

    Verses 11-12 stuck out to me: 

    “And I will put my tabernacle in your midst, and my soul will not abhor you. And I will walk about in your midst, and I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

    God’s promise that He will “walk about in your midst” reminded me of the kind of relationship He had with Adam and Eve before the fall. Well, at least Genesis 3:8 seems to suggest that it was not unusual for God, back then, to walk about “in the garden in the evening breeze”, that is, in the very place where Adam and Eve lived.  And then I thought, Wow, this has been God’s heart from the beginning; for Him to be able to walk in the midst of His people, to have communion with them, that the whole point of choosing Israel, bringing them out of Egypt, and then giving them all the commandments through Moses was to restore the kind of relationship with men that He used to have with them in the garden, before Adam and Eve sinned. 

    And then I had a thought I had never had before.  When God promised Israel that if they obey Him, He will “walk about in their midst” and that He will be their God, and they will be His people, it was something God desired, something He really wanted from the depth of His heart.  When He made this promise, I think He was more excited about fulfilling it (even the word “giddy” came to mind), than the children of Israel were, then or any time later in their history. 

    In the past, when I read verses like this, I always imagined God’s mindset to be something like this: “If you, my lowly creatures, do what I require, and I will be satisfied with your conduct, I will have pity on you, and will allow you to enjoy my company a little bit.”  The thought that having fellowship with us is something God actually loves and enjoys, that He is literally HAPPY to “walk in our midst” is a kind of thought that had never entered my mind.  I surely didn’t attribute such thoughts and feelings to God while reading the Old Testament, but I’m pretty sure that has had an effect on how I imagined Him thinking about me or feeling towards me here and now.

    Wow, this is something I didn’t even think of, when I started writing this e-mail! 

    I pray that God will keep cleansing my heart and my mind of wrong thoughts and ideas about who He is and what He is like and that my thoughts and my feelings (about everything and everyone, including myself) would become His thoughts and His feelings.  I pray that I won’t allow superstitious fear to stop me from learning, embracing and loving new thoughts about God and His Son; thoughts I probably would have never dared to think before. 

    Zoli

    Comments welcome:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1888992343996428716

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Some thoughts from Leviticus 26

    Pastor John,

    I was reading Leviticus 26 this morning, where God lays out for the children of Israel what He will do to them if they will obey him and keep His statutes (verses 3-12), and what He will do if the opposite happens and they refuse to follow His commandments (verses 14-39). 

    Verses 11-12 stuck out to me: 

    “And I will put my tabernacle in your midst, and my soul will not abhor you. And I will walk about in your midst, and I will be your God, and you will be my people.”

    God’s promise that He will “walk about in your midst” reminded me of the kind of relationship He had with Adam and Eve before the fall. Well, at least Genesis 3:8 seems to suggest that it was not unusual for God, back then, to walk about “in the garden in the evening breeze”, that is, in the very place where Adam and Eve lived.  And then I thought, Wow, this has been God’s heart from the beginning; for Him to be able to walk in the midst of His people, to have communion with them, that the whole point of choosing Israel, bringing them out of Egypt, and then giving them all the commandments through Moses was to restore the kind of relationship with men that He used to have with them in the garden, before Adam and Eve sinned. 

    And then I had a thought I had never had before.  When God promised Israel that if they obey Him, He will “walk about in their midst” and that He will be their God, and they will be His people, it was something God desired, something He really wanted from the depth of His heart.  When He made this promise, I think He was more excited about fulfilling it (even the word “giddy” came to mind), than the children of Israel were, then or any time later in their history. 

    In the past, when I read verses like this, I always imagined God’s mindset to be something like this: “If you, my lowly creatures, do what I require, and I will be satisfied with your conduct, I will have pity on you, and will allow you to enjoy my company a little bit.”  The thought that having fellowship with us is something God actually loves and enjoys, that He is literally HAPPY to “walk in our midst” is a kind of thought that had never entered my mind.  I surely didn’t attribute such thoughts and feelings to God while reading the Old Testament, but I’m pretty sure that has had an effect on how I imagined Him thinking about me or feeling towards me here and now.

    Wow, this is something I didn’t even think of, when I started writing this e-mail! 

    I pray that God will keep cleansing my heart and my mind of wrong thoughts and ideas about who He is and what He is like and that my thoughts and my feelings (about everything and everyone, including myself) would become His thoughts and His feelings.  I pray that I won’t allow superstitious fear to stop me from learning, embracing and loving new thoughts about God and His Son; thoughts I probably would have never dared to think before. 

    Zoli

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1888960319755547115

     

  • Saving Noah before the Flood

    I had a thought last night while watching the video on the Flood that I have never had before.

    (Bing Videos)

    If people had believed that there was something to Noah building the Ark, they would have torn it apart or tried to take it over, maybe even killed him for it.  That ark was huge, and surely they noticed Noah building this ark, and yet, I cannot find anything said about their reactions to him.  God destroyed the earth because He saw that every thought and every intention of man’s heart was evil.  It made me think that God surely shielded Noah from the evil of those around him so he could build the ark.  Today you cannot leave a nice vehicle running in your driveway for fear of thieves.  In Noah’s days, a big sturdy boat or strong cut lumber would have been at risk. 

    There is no telling how much God has saved us from by hiding the truth from evil hearts. 

    Just thinking out loud. 

    Genesis 6:

    1. And Jehovah saw that man’s wickedness was great on the earth and that every thought and intention of his heart was altogether evil every day.
    2. And Jehovah regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved to His heart.
    3. And Jehovah said, “I will wipe man, whom I have created, from off the face of the earth, as well as the beasts, the creeping things, and the flying creatures of the sky. For it grieves me that I have made them.”
    4. But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.

    Beth

    Comments welcome:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1886590295464091766

  • The Flood

    John,

    This morning around the fire, we all were talking about the Flood video we watched last night at your house. (Bing Videos)  We got onto the subject of fish fossils in different layers of sediment, some being fresh water and some being saltwater species, and not being found at the same level with each other.  I was thinking about that some and I was thinking “what different does that make?”

    I got curious about salt water in the bible.  There is not one mention of the sea being salt water anywhere in the bible, before the flood or after, that I could find anyway.  The only place that it is mentioned is in James 3:12: “A fig tree cannot bear olives, can it, my brothers? Or a grapevine, figs? Just so, no fountain yields salt water and fresh.”

    I started thinking about what you said about how some men take the present and think it represents what happened in the past, and the way we see it now is the way it has always been.  But that is not true.  What we have now is the result of what happened in the past. What if all the water was fresh water until after the Flood?  Or later?  We know that the seas were gathered in one place just as the land mass was one land at creation, then God put the firmament in the midst of the waters, and it divided the waters from the waters (Gen: 1:7).  Was the rainwater salt water when it was divided?  What if God tearing apart the earth created salt water from all the minerals being poured into the waters that covered the whole earth?  We are not told, I know, but it was interesting just looking it up today in the bible and not seeing the sea being called salt water anywhere that I could find.  Maybe you know some place I missed.

    Stuart

    =========

    What an interesting thought!  Was the sea before the Flood salt water?   Maybe someone knows how to tell from the bone structure of fossils whether a fish is a fresh water or salt water fish.  But the pre-Flood world was so different from the world that exists now, we would have to ask how can anyone know for sure that the differing bone structure in fish before the Flood signified a difference between fresh and salt water fish.  Everything in the world, even the physics in nature, changed with the Flood.

    Thank you for the thought.  When we see Jesus, we can ask him all about it.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1886587477453889779

     

     

  • 1Corinthians 11

    Hey,

    I had another thought about 1Corinthians 11:17 to the end of the chapter, and I wanted to throw it out there.   I wonder if the Corinthians were starting to participate in a Christian-like eating ceremony and calling it the Lord’s supper, and Paul was having to set that straight.  Seems reasonable that he would be talking about both earthly food at same time as explaining the Lord’s supper to them.  Just a thought.
    Lyn
    ==========
    Hi Lyn.
    That may have been the case, Lyn, but if they were turning from Paul’s gospel and adding ceremonies to their faith, it seems odd they would have inventing a new ceremony instead of performing the ceremonies God gave to Israel, as other Gentile believers were doing (e.g. the Galatians).  Still, it is possible.  We know that Christians invented many ceremonies for themselves after Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 and that they have continued practicing them to this day.
    Thanks for the comment.
    Pastor John
    Tell us what you think:

  • Confessing Christ

    Pastor John,

    RE: Matthew 21:43–44:

    1. Therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and be given to a nation that will yield its fruit.
    2.  And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but whoever it falls on, it will crush him.”

    Confessing Christ now is “falling on the rock.”  Confessing Him in the end is the rock falling on you!

    Amen!

    Jerry

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1886582274063225003

  • What does the Bible say about being “whole”?

    Good Morning, Pastor John.

    I have been up reading and talking to Jesus and felt to look up everything Jesus says about being whole. In my mind I had a different prayer and reason to look that up, but something else hit my heart.

    If we, who have been given a new heart from God, with His laws written on it, and have God’s own spirit inside of us and guiding us, have any division or lack of blood flow among us and cannot come together as a whole body to praise God, than what did God sacrifice His son for?  It is like God breaking the Israelite Egyptian chains and parting the sea for them, only to have them wanting to turn back to Egypt.  If they who saw how very real God is didn’t want Him, then what was the point?  It is a terrifying thought.

    If we cannot praise God as a whole functioning body after being given the holiest and most precious gift He has to give, then what was the point?  It is terrifying to think God may feel that way, even for a second. 

    I feel like I understand that scripture about not leaving a gift on the altar if you have anything in your heart against your brother. 

    How can we, who have His most holy gift come before Him with any strife or division?  I feel like that would make God feel like we can’t even get it right with His kind of life in us.  And if we can’t get it right with being fed the purest food and an having an anointed man of God leading us, than how could we possibly think starving children of God can get it right?  What would starving children of God see in the well-fed children?  I pray they see grateful and humble hearts in us.

    These thoughts did two things in my heart today.  They made me want to not have one petty, fleshly feeling, just a fully functioning  heart shining up at God.

    And two, I don’t want any other one of God’s hearts to get damaged.  I want God to look down on every one of the hearts that He gave His holiest gift to, and see bright, shining hearts.  Thankful, grateful WHOLE hearts.  

    When we are in that meeting room praising God, I want Him to see the WHOLE room lit up!

    I don’t think I have ever seen that word whole as I do now.  Whole is all of Us.  It makes these scriptures different to me.

    Psalm 9:1 “I will praise Jehovah with my whole heart! I will tell of all your wonderful works!”

    Psalm 119:2 “Blessed are they who keep His testimonies; they seek Him with the whole heart.”

    Psalm 119:34 “Give me understanding, that I might keep your law, and I will observe it with my whole heart.”

    Psalm 119:145 “I cried out with my whole heart. Answer me, O Lord! I will keep your statutes.”

    Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with your whole heart.”

    1Corinthians 12:17 “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?”

    Ephesians 2:21 “In whom the whole building, being fit together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,”

    Ephesians 4:16 “From whom the whole body, fitted together and held together by the support of every ligament according to the work meted out to each individual member, produces the growth of the body for edification of itself in love.”

    Colossians 3:23 “And whatever you do, work at it whole-heartedly, as to the Lord and not to men,”

    1Thessalonians 5:23 “And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

    Luke 11:36 “If your whole body is full of light, not having any part darkened, it will be completely illuminated, as when a lamp gives you light with its brightness.”

    Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.”

    Beth

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1884313318258794580

     

  • 1Peter 1

    Hey Pastor John,

    As I was getting ready for bed, I asked Jesus to give me something to read.  I wanted to hear from Jesus.  Peter came to my mind, so I read him.  This is so good that I wanted to share. 

    1Peter 1:

    1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.  To the chosen sojourners of the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
    2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, even the sprinkling of blood, for obedience to Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace be multiplied.
    3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His abundant mercy has begotten us anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
    4. for an incorruptible, and pure, and permanent inheritance reserved in heaven for you
    5. who are kept by the power of God through faith for the salvation prepared, to be revealed in the last time.
    6. In this you rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are distressed by various trials
    7. so that the trying of your faith, much more precious than the trying of gold that perishes, though it be tried by fire, may be found worthy of praise, and honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ
    8. (whom having not seen, you love, and in whom, though not seeing him now, you believe, and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory),
    9. receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of yoursouls.
    10. Prophets who prophesied of the grace that has come to you searched for and diligently inquired about this salvation,
    11. trying to determine who or what time the Spirit of Christ which was in them was indicating when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and of the glory that followed.
    12. To them it was revealed that they were ministering those things not to themselves, but to you, which things are now reported to you by those who preach the gospel to you by the holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which things angels long to look.
    13. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
    14. as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to desires, as in your former ignorance,
    15. but rather, as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all your ways,
    16. for it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
    17. And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your sojourning with fear,
    18. knowing that you were not redeemed from your worthless way of life, received by tradition from your fathers, with corruptible things such as silver or gold,
    19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of an unblemished and spotless lamb,
    20. known indeed before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the end times for your sakes,
    21. who through him have faith in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope might be in God.
    22. With your souls purified by obedience to the truth through the Spirit unto a sincere love of the brothers, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
    23. being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the living and eternally enduring word of God.
    24. For, “All flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like a flower of grass.  The grass withers, and its flower falls,
    25. but the word of the Lord abides forever.”  And this is the word that is preached to you.

    I hope you and Barbara rest well.

    Love you,

    Michelle

    ===========

    Thank you, Michelle.

    Barbara and I read this together.  There are more benefits to reading and learning the Bible than I can even say.  This chapter from 1Peter is full of love and truth!  May God help us all to truly take it in!

    Pastor John

    Comments welcome: 

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1885339233235181690

     

  • Holy Ghost hum

    Morning!  I’m so thankful for the touches yesterday and feelings that we had.  Around the fire yesterday when the Spirit was falling so strong, I could hear a hum of beautiful sounds. It continued later when we were all together.  It made me have thoughts of the day of Pentecost when they described the sound “like a rushing mighty wind.”  It didn’t just blow through, but it sat on them, each one.  What a sound that was!  When we are together in Spirit, and praising the Lord together, there is a sound you can hear, and it’s beautiful.

    That sound is a foretaste of things past and to come! 🙂  As we were saying yesterday, we could sit around and talk about what God did or isn’t doing, or we can live it now.  I love knowing Jesus is still working in us, and the things he did, he is still doing!  To feel the touch of God is much better than talking about it.  And it’s still available to be felt!  No matter what somebody says about it, it’s available to all those who want it.  God is a now God! Until He says He’s not. 

    Amy B. 

    Comments welcome:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1883881160197185568

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