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  • Stay Ready!

    Pastor John,

    I woke up at 4 this morning.  Lying there, the Lord brought back memories of 2001.  All those heart feelings!  And not always understanding what was happening!  I just started praying for us all and how we get moved sometimes over the little things.  Pastor John, those times were very tough inside your heart where only God can go!  Some of those times were also the best times.  You could feel him close.  As I was lying there praying, I heard the spirit softly say, “I am coming to visit again.  Stay prepared!”

    Jammie

    ==========

    Hi Jammie,

    I have been praying a lot to be prepared for whatever the Lord has determined for us in the future, whether good or bad.  One thing is for sure, namely, whatever it is, it will be too late to get ready for it when it comes.

    Pastor John

  • “Not Healed” from the GCC Stories

    Hey Pastor John,

    Last night I was reading more in the George C. Clark stories and read “Not Healed”, the story about when a woman had come to your father for healing but she wasn’t healed.  Your father was troubled about it and asked Brother Hunnings about it, and he reminded your father of times when Jesus “could do no mighty miracles” because of unbelief.  That settled it in your fathers heart, and he returned to his work of healing.  Then I read this, and it has weighed on my heart:

        “How much faith and how much power Brother Clark must have begun to exercise if what surprised him was not when miracles happened but when they did not!  Who in our time is surprised and perplexed when someone’s prayer to be healed is not answered?

         Somewhere in the saints’ march through time, we have been deceived and robbed of the glory Jesus died for us to possess.  The body of Christ has clearly lost something that must be regained if we ever hope to be the community of faith that Jesus wants us to be.  That something was touched on by Brother Creech, Brother Clark, and a number of other Pentecostal ministers in the early part of the twentieth century.  May God help us to regain it and, this time, cling to it unto perfection.”

    Then this morning going to work I was listening to the cd from 7/22/15, “Gods Above it All”, when Brother Earl was telling his dream and the experience he had.  What stuck out to me is when Brother Earl said that in the beginning of the dream he was trying to convince the people of the power of God and how “The word of God can come to you and it can convince you!  There is something more that comes deeper with healing.” 

    It really fit with what I have been reading about your father. 

    It really stirred up some feelings when you wrote that saints’ through the time have been deceived and robbed of the glory that Jesus died for us to possess.

    Michelle

    =============

    Hi Michelle,

    Pray for the Lord Jesus to again fulfill the scripture that says, “Then I restored what I did not take away.”  He has returned to his people the blessings they threw away many times, and unfortunately, we need him to do it again.

    Pastor John

  • Psalm 148:14

    Hi Pastor John,

    Is “the horn of His people” in Psalms 148:14 referring to Jesus?

    He also exulted the horn of His people, the praise of all his saints, even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him.  Praise ye the Lord.

    Thank you.

    Billy M

    =========

    Hi Billy,

    No, not directly.  In the Old Testament, one’s “horn” refers to one’s overall status and well-being.  To have your horn exalted was to be happy and blessed.  For example, when Hannah was blessed with children, she exulted, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord…”  Suffering Job, on the other hand, spoke of his horn being in the dust (Job16:15).

    Of course, the whole Old Testament proclaims the hidden Son of God.  He is, in one way or another, in every verse.  So, when I answer you “no”, that should always be kept in mind.

    Thanks for the question.

    Pastor John

     

  • Wonderful Meeting (August 16, 2015)

    Wow, John, that message today was good about “placating God” with a burnt offering the way He told Moses to do it.  If it was done any other way, he would still be angry with sin because of the way it was done.  Like David said in Psalms, God “is angry with the wicked everyday”!!!  Jesus did what he did so that the Father would be placated with those who repent and receive his spirit – as long as they stay under that blood that he shed forth on our souls.

    I love what God has done for his people!  He made a way for the ones who were his before Jesus came, by giving them the law so that they would be ready to receive his Son when he came later, and if they loved his ways, they were ready.  This has helped me love the law even more than I did already; knowing how much a covering and a way out from sin the Law of Moses was for his people.  Wow!  How much more does it mean to us to know that his Son came and what he did for all his people!!  By the Spirit, he has washed the inside of us forever!  He is our life.  This is the way of life!

    What a wonderful meeting today!  I could feel a stirring in the Spirit.  That feels so good!!!  It is strong, full of substance, life-giving power. I could feel the power and love in what Earl said about God being our friend.  God, be our friend, so we can know you more!  Darren’s song, and Gary’s song!  Wow!  Thank you, Jesus!  What power in the prayer today!!

    Stuart

     

  • Destroying the Temple

    At the end of Mark, some false witnesses accuse Jesus of saying “I will tear down the temple…” but did Jesus ever say that?  In Mark 13 he says that “no stone will be left on another” but he didn’t say he would be the one to tear it down.   I can’t find in the gospels where he ever said that. It sounds close but the meaning is so different.  Amazing how words get twisted.  Ironically, THEY were the one who destroyed the temple to which he was referring.

    te.

    ============

    Hi Token,

    No, Jesus never threatened to tear the temple down, either his own or any other one.  But those false witnesses used some of the words he said, which lent some credence to their lie.

    The most effective lies always have elements of truth in them.  Two of the three things the serpent told Eve in the garden of Eden were factually true, and the third thing he said was kinda right.

    Jesus didn’t fall for the trap.  He stayed quiet and let them do what they were determined to do to him.

    Pastor John

  • No Excuse

    Pastor John,

    About 10 years ago, Jesus let me know that there is no excuse for not doing the will of God, even if someone else does not.  Even If people truly believe in their hearts that they have been done wrong, God still holds them accountable for her response to the wrong they think they have suffered; that is, for the spiritual direction they choose afterward.  A story from Matthew 15 illustrates this.

    When that Canaanite woman in the book of Matthew 15 pleaded for help for her demon-possessed daughter, Jesus told her, to paraphrase, “It is not good to pass out God’s goodness to you dogs.”  Now, that Canaanite woman then had to make a choice, but there was only one acceptable way that she could choose in response to what Jesus had just said to her, and she took it when she humbled down even lower.  That woman was created to ask Jesus for help.  She was also created to be called a dog that day and then to choose, as she did, the one acceptable response after it happened.  From what God showed me, I believe that woman would have to answer to God if she showed up at the Final Judgment having not received that healing for her daughter.  That healing was her destiny – if she made the right choice.  Her walking away from what she was created for was not an option, not one that God would accept, anyway.   I have seen others, in a sense, be called a dog (or think they have been), and then think they are justified to choose a way other than the way of truth.  But we are not allowed to do that.  There is not another way that leads to eternal life. 

    That is what Jesus was showing me then, a decade ago:  no matter what happens, I am responsible for doing the will of God.  If someone errs along the way, and does me wrong, God will sort that out.  There just isn’t an excuse for me to do wrong because of who He is and the way He loves each of us, personally, all the way home. 

    God can touch everyone’s heart right now who had made the wrong choice, and fix them. He did it for me.

    Jerry

  • Judges 6:12–14

    Hey Brother John,

    I was reading the story of Gideon in Judges.  I have a question.

    Judges 6:12-14  And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.  And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?  and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.  And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites,  Have not I sent thee?”

    My question:  When the Lord said “Go in this thy might,” what exactly was the word “this” referring to?  Was it his faith that the Lord was in control of every aspect of his life?

    Thank you.

    Billy H.

    ===========

    Hi Billy,

    This portion of scripture from Judges provides us with an interesting scene, and it is one that we can take much from if God opens our eyes.

    Did you notice where Gideon was when this angel came to him?  He was hiding from the Midianites behind a winepress as he threshed out a little wheat to make himself some bread.  There he was, so afraid of what the Midianites would do to him that he didn’t even want to be seen threshing wheat and an angel suddenly appears and calls him a “mighty man of valor”.  We know from that, that God was speaking to the Gideon that He saw, not to the Gideon that anyone else knew – including Gideon himself !

    God was about to bring out the Gideon that He alone could see, and then use that Gideon to deliver Israel.  The “might” that was in Gideon’s heart was his faith in the God that he had heard about, the God that had been testified about by his ancestors.  Gideon believed in that God, and he loved that God, but where was He?  Gideon wanted to know Him, but where was He?  That was Gideon’s question.  Nevertheless, Gideon believed in that God, and that genuine faith was the “might” that made Gideon a “mighty man of valor”, and man whom God would use to save His people.

    How does God see us?  We may be in hiding, like Gideon, and oppressed, as Gideon and Israel were, but what does God see?  If God sees faith in His Son, and love for the truth, he will use us to bless His people.  And like Gideon, it doesn’t matter to God whether we can see ourselves doing that; it only matters what he sees.

    Thanks for the question, Billy.

    Pastor John

  • “Oh, How Lofty Are Their Eyes!”

    Pastor John,

    It is amazing how proud this generation has become!  I used to wonder how it was that people would see all the plagues in the book of Revelation come on this planet, and yet those people in that time still would not turn to him for forgiveness.  But the more I see the pride and self-will of our generation; I can see how it will happen.  It is taking place as we walk through our time on this earth right now, and it will wax worse!

    Proverbs 30:13 – There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up!

    I thank Jesus for the place he has put us in on this earth, the realness, the truth, the light shines on what is right, no matter what law this world makes or how many believe it our not.  God is right, and his ways are right, no matter how much people don’t believe it.  May God help us stay in His ways and take the persecution that comes with the precious name of Jesus!

    Stuart

     

  • The Incense Altar

    Hi Pastor John,

    Am I reading this right, that the incense altar was in the Most Holy place?

    Hebrews 9 (your translation.)

    1. Then, behind the second veil, was the tabernacle called the Holy of Holies,
    2. having the golden incense altar, and the ark of the covenant, completely covered with gold and in which was the golden pot containing manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant,
    3. and above which, overshadowing the mercy seat, were the cherubim of glory — of which things there is not now time to speak in detail.

    I believed and thought I read in the O.T., where the incense altar was in the holy place before the veil, and not  in the Most Holy Place???

    Thanks,

    Billy

    ===============

    Hi Billy,

    Yes, you are reading that rightly, but notice that the author of Hebrews does not actually say that the incense altar was inside the veil; he only says that (1) the Most Holy itself was “behind” the second veil and that (2) the Most Holy “had” certain things, including the incense altar.  In other words, as I read it, the incense altar properly belonged to the Most Holy room; however, if God had placed the incense altar inside the Most Holy, the priests could not have burned incense on it every day as God demanded.  So, He commanded Moses to place it just outside the Most Holy, in front of the veil.

    Pastor John

     

  • August 10 Pearl

    Pastor John,

    This “Pearl” (below) would include the man Jesus, would it not?  John more than accepted Jesus when he came to him.

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    Without a doubt, what Preacher Clark said in that Pearl would have included Mary’s son.

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    I’ve been thinking about this.  The Law of Moses made sacrifices available if a person erred in certain ways.  Would a person who made the prescribed sacrifices then be regarded as perfect under the Law?

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    Yes.

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    And was that condition all that was required of the man Jesus?

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    Yes.  Mary’s son was only required to keep the law that God gave to Moses, just like everyone else in Israel.  And as Preacher Clark’s Pearl suggests, John’s baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River was Jesus’ receipt from God, showing he had obeyed God, just as that baptism was everyone else’s receipt for obedience.

    ==========

    Also, I’d been thinking about the things John the Baptizer said of Jesus, in particular, “Behold the Lamb of God” which he said at least twice.  Reading the passage just now I realized that whenever I have read, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,” (John 1:29) I have assumed that it meant Jesus was coming to John to be water baptized but that does not have to be the case. In fact, the following verses really only make sense if the Son of God had already taken up his abode in the man Jesus’ body.  From the other gospels it seems Jesus went immediately to the Temptation after he was baptized by John, so perhaps Jesus was in fact returning to Galilee via Jordan (where John was) after the Temptation at the time of these verses in John.  Maybe I was alone in thinking that Jesus was coming to be baptized, but it showed me how I read things with assumed understanding.

    Damien

    ==========

    We certainly do have to stay alert to avoid assuming too much when we read the Bible.  I, too, have always thought as you did about John 1:29.  And I see what you mean about the following verses.  Very interesting!

    Pastor John

    pearl 081015

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