Good Morning Pastor John,

Last night’s meeting was so good to me. I love how Jesus comes around, grabs my hand, and loves me.

I have been in the trenches with Jesus. The past week I have been downright frustrated. Not bitter, but just the feeling of ugh Jesus, I know you have a plan, but why has a specific journey for Alex and I been so hard and heartbreaking. I started condemning myself over my frustration and sadness. I started to have a feeling that it was not normal, and I should be just peachy with every circumstance. What you said last night broke everything I had been feeling. “Don’t pretend to love everything God does.” In my Spirit it was relief. I don’t have to fake it. I am not broken because I was frustrated. It didn’t mean I loved Jesus or the truth any less. The sadness and frustration were real feelings. Just as the happiness and joy are real along the way. I know one day I will rejoice completely and see every little thing Jesus did during this time in our lives. I am so grateful that we are allowed to have normal feelings as we walk through hard journeys in this life. That it is okay to tell God we don’t like something and question it. I love what was said about complaining up instead of out. That is where it matters. I am so thankful I complained up last night and Jesus sweetly took my frustration.

I have been reading in 1^st Samuel.* It stood out to me that Hannah did not complain during her journey. Not even to her husband, after Peninnah kept provoking her. She took her requests straight to God. She went up instead of out and God heard her requests. I pray that Jesus teaches me more of how to do that. To keep coming and showing up to Him. To keep doing the right thing even when the journey is hard. 

I hope I got all of that out where it makes sense. 

It feels so nice to have the Spirit refresh you. I feel a sigh of relief today and it makes me tear up that Jesus loves us that much. I feel like he has dusted me off, set me back upright and said come on you got this.

I hope to see you soon!

Love,

Margo

* https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_translation.html?tname=1samuel

Hi John,

I went and re-listened to your message that Vince just posted on Youtube (Unveiled Faces –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvWOHRh4nGY)

It’s a great message and very worth listening to again…..  In that video, you asked me about something I shared from reading Psalms recently.  I had noticed that David often referred to his “enemies” and how much he asked the Lord to deliver him from them.  Of course, he had physical enemies, but I was asking the Lord what that would be in our time, and I heard something like, “Your enemies are spirits, or voices” (that trouble you and keep you from the real me, is what He meant.   It’s an internal thing now.  I didn’t do the greatest job of explaining that in the video, so I thought it may help to explain what the Lord was showing me about this.

For example, two Psalms that stood out to me were Psalm 27 and 31 (and many others in that section).   In Psalm 27, David starts out declaring that the Lord is his light and his salvation, and the strength of His life, and who should he fear (but God)?  Then he says in verse 2 ,”When my enemies came upon me to ‘eat my flesh’ (devour me), they stumbled and fell because of God.”  That’s what spirits (voices) do.  They devour us and make us fearful and send us into retreat.  Then David says in verse 5, “For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in His pavilion,” so that David would  dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and be set upon a rock.  And so that his head will be lifted up above his enemies all around him.  And THEN he will offer in God’s tabernacle sacrifices of joy, and he will sing praises to God.” And in verse 12, David says, “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty,” and he ends by saying, “Wait on the Lord!  Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart.”  These spirits are lying and cruel.  But God has the strength we need.

Another good Psalm is 31, where David starts with, “In thee O Lord do I put my trust, let me never be ashamed.  Deliver me in thy righteousness” and “Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, thou hast set my feet in a large room. . . .  But I trusted in thee O Lord.  I said, Thou art my God.  My times are in your hand.  Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.  Lord, make your face to shine upon thy servant”

These are just a few of many Psalms, where I can replace the word “enemies” with the words “spirits” or “voices”, and it puts it into the now.  We are dealing with influences all the time.  People, voices, spirits, all trying to separate us or back us up from the One who is our rock and our salvation.  And David always met it with praising God, and trusting God, and speaking out the praises of his heart to the Lord.

Anyway, I hope that makes a little clearer what I was trying to say.  It reminded me of how you taught us that we can substitute the words “holy Ghost” for the law, statute, etc., in Psalm 119, and that was so helpful.

I finished a song called “Unveiled Faces” to kind of go along with your message on the same.  Hopefully, I can sing it before too long. 🙂

Gary 

Hey, I stumbled across this yesterday as I was working on the Corinthian study.  This paragraph stood out to me because of what we have been talking about lately concerning healing and faith in God.  Here, you are stating a question about the Corinthian saints and their faith:

“Why will it be only when their faith is increased that they will be able to see who Paul is?  Because nothing, even the most obvious truths, can be believed without faith.  The Corinthian’s are struggling because of a lack of faith, not a lack of attention and care from either Paul or God, not from a lack of spiritual gifts, not from a lack of real experiences in the holy Ghost, but a lack of faith.  Worldliness had crept in and robbed them of faith.  Paul is continually pointing them to spiritual purity (unmixed worship and doctrine) so that their faith can be restored and increased.  It is by faith that we understand anything that is from God (Heb. 11:3); it is not by intelligence that any man knows Him or His ways.” (Pastor John)

It made me think of you, your efforts, and your admonishments to us on how to stay pure and holy before the Lord.  And how each time the Lord gives you something, you pass it on to us, to tweak, clean us up, or pass on truth for us to believe in – to increase our faith, and to keep worldliness unmixed with our worship.  Paul was always working.  And because of the Corinthians lack of faith, they could not see who Paul was for them.

I thought about the conveniences of life that we have and how those things can creep in unawares.  You can see how those things can dull your faith and you can become satisfied or complacent with things (in the sense of becoming unaware of or unwilling to address potential dangers to your spirit, deficiencies (things lacking spiritually), or the need for further effort or improvement (being lazy spiritually or puffed up).  It seems that you can believe in miracles, have experiences and spiritual gifts, but if you don’t put aside worldliness, you won’t increase in faith.

We watched your message last night about not being a part of the “Gentile religion” [Christianity], where you were talking about gleaning faith from others in Christ but not taking on their doctrine – even the Gentile religion is a form of worldliness.  We’ve seen the evidence of that.  There are so many things that can dull your faith, even if we are like the Corinthians.  They had spiritual gifts and experiences and were not lacking much.  But their faith being dulled meant, in the Corinthians future, falling away from the truth Paul taught them. Whew!

It got my attention yesterday.  You wrote this over 30+ years ago, and it still stands today, just as Paul was dealing with it centuries ago.  I have a thankfulness in my heart to know these things and also a prayer to not let my/our faith fail and be overcome with worldliness of any sort.  So that our faith will be increased! 

Amy B.

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Pastor John,

I give this paragraph a big amen.  I have been searching my heart and soul, and praying for godly sincerity and godly humility – something this world knows nothing about at all!  MY heart has been hurting, longing for what Jesus has for us!  There are no frills or thrills in this world for me, nothing like Jesus!  I feel like I’m just going thought the motions, longing to be consumed with HIS LIFE HE HAS GIVEN ME.

Jimmy T.

Hello Pastor John!

I hope you’ve had a productive week full of blessings!

I have been listening to “The Kings” study on line. (Old Testament Course Materials – John Clark, Sr. ) As I was listening to the quizzing before the class the thought hit me.  Yes the Israelis were made rich when they left, but they left with much more.  When they arrived in Egypt they were herders.  When they left they were masons, wood workers, metal wrights, doctors.  They learned the Egyptian’s skills and knowledge in those 430 years.  So they were able to build, make fine linens, brass and gold articles for the tabernacle and the temple.  They, even to this day, make and build many things that are remarkable. A blessing for the world.

I love having thoughts I have never had before.  Especially when listening to, or reading something, or just thinking about things of God which I thought I knew.  No matter what I read anymore I try to read it with wonder of what will I be taught today.  Give me a fuller understanding of the things of God is always what I try to keep in my heart.  Especially when reading something I think I know.  It’s easy to be open when reading something new, but reading, or watching something 10 or 20 times it’s not as easy.  I am grateful to God for giving me this heart.  

Miss you all,

Mark W.

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Thank you, Mark. I had never thought about what skills the Israelites might have picked up in Egypt during the years they were in slavery.  Excellent observation!

Pastor John

Hey, I love the thoughts you told us Tuesday morning about tapping into the love of God and believing that Jesus WANTS to heal us!  I immediately thought about your translation of the story in Matthew 8:

2. And behold, a leper came and bowed before him, saying, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
3. And Jesus stretched forth his hand and touched him, saying, “I do want to. Be clean!” And his leprosy was immediately cleansed.

I’ve always loved that story, especially the way you translated here because it relays the love of Jesus so well.

The feelings were so good, that afterwards, I was praying and talking to the Lord.  I started off by saying “Lord, help us get to where you are.”  And then, he started talking to me.  He said, “Don’t get accustomed to ‘bad things’ in your house.  Get accustomed to good things in your house.” And then….he paused, and sweetly said, “Like me. :).  If you have your mind on Me, there are no ‘bad things’ because I am good.”  That immediately turned my thoughts to “all things” and the message that “all things work together for good to those who love God.”  If we are living our everyday life with Jesus in the forefront, the good things override the “bad things” we deal with in this life.  It doesn’t mean we don’t go through things or have concerns, but his goodness carries us through.  There was a lot of love in that.  I spoke right back to him and said “That is good” 🙂  It was a sweet conversation….well, actually, he was talking, I was just listening.

Reminds me of this scripture: “It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.”  Because He WANTS to!

Sweet!

Amy B

Hi Pastor John,

The Spirit woke me up this morning.  This is what was said, “Don’t complain about anything that I have given to you.”

I sat on it a while today while I was reading in Kings/Chronicles during the time of the divided kingdom.  A few thoughts came to me about how important it is for each of us to be happy and live the truth that God has given to our hearts. 

There were two stories that stood out to me: 

• In Numbers 20, the Israelites grumbling about wanting to go back to Egypt because it had better resources (food, water, etc.). After all that God had done for them: all the miracles, the food, the water…they were complaining! They had forgotten where they had come from and didn’t believe God for where He was taking them. 
  • This generation hurt themselves by complaining. Because of their complaints, God cursed them and they were never allowed to see Canaan’s land. 
  • But also, they provoked Moses’ anger so much that he struck the rock for water instead of speaking to it asGod had   So, the beloved prophet of God could not enter into Canaan’s land, either.  
• In 2 Kings 5, the story about Naaman and Gehazi, Elisha’s servant. Naaman was a humble man with great power in Syria but still willing to receive counsel when he was hesitant to obey Elisha after Elisha told Naaman to wash in the Jorden River to heal his leprosy. 
  • When Gehazi went to Naaman and lied to him about Elisha wanting money for the sons of the prophets, he was effectively complaining about not having enough earthly wealth. 
  • Ultimately, Gehazi wasn’t happy with the life that God had given him with Elisha. Elisha!  A doubly blessed prophet of God who followed in Elijah’s footsteps and God had blessed him for it (with earthly and heavenly riches).
  • Because of this, Gehazihurt God and Elisha’s hearts. Elisha lost someone who was close to him and Gehazi (along with his lineage) was cursed with leprosy. 

So, the negative impact of complaining about what God has given us is always about more than only you and your circumstances.  If you’re complaining – either through deeds and/or in your heart – you’re hurting more than yourself.  You’re saying to God, “I’m not happy with the life you’ve given to me.”  The people around you can feel your discontentment, so why would they want to be like you?  You’re unhappy!  I don’t think I would have followed Jesus if he was constantly grumbling about why God had sent him down to earth to die for our sins!  And Jesus went through the worst of it for us; so, ask God to help you be content in the situations He has given you as opposed to complaining about what you want instead.  It makes me think of that verse from 1Timothy 6:6: “But godliness with contentment is an exceptional means of gain.”  The gain here is happiness, peace and joy in the holy Ghost!  The heavenly gains!  I don’t want to desire earthly silver and gold when I can support and encourage the Elishas of God’s kingdom instead.  We want our Christ contentment light to shine to support each other!

I don’t know how to end this email, exactly.  I knew what God was showing me about my own life and what to change, so I was thankful for that knowledge.  But, the bigger realization of this made me cry out to God to help me understand Him more and ask Him to please keep us humble to accept/see where God is in all situations.  Life can be tough sometimes; we really go through things in this life that hurt deeply and are confusing.  But, we can be happy and content in knowing that God has been and always will be God to us…and for us.

Wendy

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Hi John,

I was reading Deuteronomy this morning, and thought the same thing as Wendy.  It cost Israel greatly to grumble in the wilderness. I believe the old man (our flesh) seeks to have something to complain about.  Reminds me of what the Spirit has been talking to me about too (which I sang about recently):  “I’m fine, you’re fine, everything is fine.”  I want to be careful to put that into action. We have so much….. Thank you Wendy for the reminder.

Gary