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  • The Dangers of a Carnal Mind

    Pastor John,

    This latest Blog is so good!  Ben and I just finished a wonderful conversation after reading this blog and I wanted to share.  I was telling Ben what I have heard you say many times that when you receive the holy Ghost, it’s like being nailed to the cross. You’ve told us that even though you may be nailed to the cross, that flesh is not willing to give up so easily.  And there have even been some who survived the cross after they were taken down.  You have told us that we must let that flesh (our carnal mind) die!  And how many times when praying for us, have you laid hands on us and exhorted us to, “Let Him Live!”   I told Ben that we have two choices:  we can feed the flesh or we can feed the Spirit.  How do we feed the flesh?  It boils down to how we spend our free time:  What we watch, what we listen to, what we read, where we go, who we spend time around.  Are we feeding our flesh by mostly doing those things that our old carnal nature always loved, or are we feeding our Spirit by “taking time to be holy”.  We have the choice.  Are we going to feed the flesh and starve the Spirit, or will we starve the flesh and feed the Spirit?  Only by feeding our Spirit, will we be able to develop the mind of Christ and have the strength we need to overcome this world.  

    It was so encouraging to read this line at the end of the blog, “But if we live according to the Spirit, even the weakest of us will overcome the world”.  That says to me that anyone with the spirit of God can overcome this world, no matter how weak he may feel.  We may be weak, but He is strong so let’s let Him live!

    Hurry home, we all miss you!!

    Lee Ann

    ==========

    The Danger of a Carnal Mind

    Immediately, while he was yet speaking, Judas appeared, who was one of the twelve, and with him a large multitude with swords and clubs sent by the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders. Now, the one who betrayed him had given them a cue, saying, “Whoever I kiss is the man.  Arrest him, and lead him away under guard.”  And when he had come, he went up at once to him, and said to him, “O Rabbi!  Rabbi!”  And he kissed him affectionately.  Then they laid their hands on him and arrested him. . . .  And then Jesus answered and said to them, “Did you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me?  I was with you every day, teaching in the temple, and you didn’t arrest me.  But this has happened so that the scriptures might be fulfilled.”  And then they all forsook him and fled. Mark 14:43–46, 48–50

        God sent His Son to the best people on earth, Israel, whom He had chosen and blessed with His law and with His prophets.  They were the best people, not because they were in themselves better than others, but because God had given them His law and His prophets to prepare them for the coming of His Son, their Messiah.  No other nation was even close to being prepared for the Son because no other nation had been given the blessings that God had given to Israel.  Had God sent His Son to any other nation on earth, the people there would have ridiculed him more viciously, abused him cruelly, and killed him much sooner than the Jews did.  Jesus survived as long as he did in Israel only because the human nature in Israelites had been tamed, to an extent, even within those who did not honor God’s law and prophets.

        Paul listed some of God’s blessings on Israel in his letter to Roman believers:

        Romans 9:

    1. There have even been times I prayed to be accursed from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
    2. who are the Israelites, whose are the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service   of God, and the promises,
    3. whose are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, is Christ, who is above all.  God be blessed forever.  Amen.

        The Bible makes it very clear that most of the people in Israel failed to take advantage of those blessings and be prepared for the Son.  But some did; some were thankful for God’s mercy, and they obeyed His law and believed His prophets.  Jesus’ disciples were among them.  They were among the best of the best.

        At the same time, before the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the disciples were without the Spirit (Jn. 14:17) and were still carnally minded.  They still had hope for a worldly kingdom (cf. Acts 1:6), and sometimes, even during the Last Supper, they bickered over who would occupy the most exalted offices in that kingdom (Lk. 22:24).  They were still, as Paul would later say it, “in the flesh”, instead of in the Spirit.  That is why in the Garden of Gethsemane, “they all forsook him and fled.”

        The disciples had done very well to stay with Jesus until they arrested him at Gethsemane; they did the best that carnally minded men could do.  Nobody on earth could have done any better.  But they needed more power than they possessed at that time to go with Jesus all the way to the cross.  That is the point that we do not want to miss.

        The best that any of us can do as long as we have a carnal mind is to make it to the garden with Jesus; we cannot go all the way with him to the cross.  The disciples loved Jesus, but they loved their own lives more.  They feared God, but when the hardest trial came, they feared men more and forsook Jesus and fled quickly into the night.  Jesus kept his disciples from falling as long as he was with them; he said so in his prayer to the Father at the Last Supper: “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name.  Those you gave me, I watched over, and not one of them has been lost except the son of damnation so that the scripture might be fulfilled” (Jn 17:12).  But Jesus could not keep them from deserting him in the end.  They didn’t have the spiritual strength to go with him all the way, and there was nothing Jesus could do to change that except to die for them and offer himself to God as a sacrifice for their sin so that God would give them the same strength He had given to Jesus.

        David was moved by the Spirit to say that man, even in his very best state, is altogether vanity (Ps. 39:5).  The disciples proved how true that was when they forsook the Holy One they loved in order to save their own skin.  But Jesus was not surprised or disappointed.  He knew that even the best of the best people on earth could not go with him all the way to the cross and that they would desert him.  Human nature cannot go all the way with Jesus.

        In 1981, Jesus taught me that our greatest enemy is not Satan; it is our natural, carnal mind that does not and cannot know God or please Him.  The natural, carnal mind with which we were born is more than just a hindrance to us; it is deadly.  It is not just different from God’s ways and thoughts; it is contrary to them.  “The flesh [that is, our fleshly nature] desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh.  These are opposed to one another,” Paul said.

        If we who have the Spirit fail to develop the mind of Christ that is in the Spirit, if we remain carnally minded even after being given the Spirit, we may never see the face of God.   Even the best of us will come short of the glory of God if we continue to think and live according to our fleshly nature after being made new creatures in Christ, partakers of God’s divine nature.  But if we live according to the Spirit, even the weakest of us will overcome the world.

        My friend, your night with Jesus in the garden surrounded by an angry mob is coming.  Pray to escape your carnal mind, for the carnal mind will cause you to make the wrong choice, to forsake Jesus – and it will justify you for doing it – so that you, like his carnally minded disciples, flee into the darkness.  No, our greatest enemy is not Satan; it is our own carnal nature, the old us that was without hope and without God in this world.

  • Matthew 6:23

    Hello John,

    I’ve been in Matthew lately and wanted to share something and get your thoughts on it.  I went back and read through the Sermon on the Mount again tonight.  I felt a strong urge to read it again even though I had just read it last night, and this time I got stuck on Matthew 6:22: “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”

    At first, I got stuck on the word “single” and started looking into why Jesus used that word.  I read the sections before and after again for context. Right before it, He says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” and right after it He says, “No man can serve two masters.”  The word single made more sense to me then.

    But the part that really got me was the next verse: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

    I struggled to understand this in the context of what I thought Jesus was teaching about divided allegiance.  But then I started thinking about something much bigger.  What am I actually using as light to guide me through certain events, even small ones?  And how do I make sure that what I believe is light – really is light and isn’t actually darkness, something coming from my own desires, fears, reasoning or something else that is leading me towards darkness?

    I searched for other verses about light and found Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” and then verse 130: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple”.

    Is that part of what Jesus is teaching here?  That our eye has to be single toward God because anything we allow to guide us apart from Him can actually distort how we see everything else, and that the way we examine what is guiding us is by bringing it back to His Word and seeing whether it is moving us toward obedience to Him with a pure and undivided heart?

    It just seems like this went really well with an overarching theme I’ve been learning lately.  It can be so easy to think we’re seeing something clearly when we’re actually being guided by something other than the Lord.  That makes “how great is that darkness” feel a lot more significant and dangerous to me.

    It makes Jesus’ words about building on the rock instead of the sand land differently with me too.  It’s easy to unknowingly build on sand if we are not careful.  But we just have to let His Word be the light that guides us, and then actually do what He says.  Sounds simple, until it’s not. 

    The more I think about all of this, the more overwhelming it feels to imagine trying to stay on this path all alone.  How impossible that feels. It makes me appreciate and understand the necessity of fellowship so much more.  We need God’s people around us whose light is shining, too, who can help us see when we’re getting off the path and point us back toward the Lord and His Word.  I’m truly thankful for that.

    Hope you all doing well over there.  I’ll be glad when you all are home. 

    Ronnie E.

    ==========

    Thank you, Ronnie, for sending this.  The part about the benefits of fellowship is so good!

    I also thought this part of your email was excellent: “It can be so easy to think we’re seeing something clearly when we’re actually being guided by something other than the Lord.”  That is the pitfall into which so many have fallen, and a pitfall into which we will also fall if God’s Word does not guide us.

    The most important thing to remember is that God’s Word is a person.  It is the Son of God, and he “is alive and sharper than any two edged sword.”  That living Word “was in the beginning with God” and “came and dwelt among us.”  He is the Word that Paul wanted to “dwell richly” within us.  And in Revelation, John saw that mighty Word of God returning to earth on a white horse, followed by all the saints of God.

    The Bible is precious and profitable, as Paul said to Timothy, but the Bible can never replace being led by the Word of God.  Without the Word of God in us, leading us in understanding as we read the Bible, it is impossible to understand what we are reading.

    Thank you again for writing.  Take care until we see you again.

    Pastor John

     

     

  • When believing ends

    Hey John,

    I had some wonderful thoughts and feelings yesterday evening, and I’m not sure how to say what I’m feeling here.  Will you help me?  I feel like something is right in front of me, but I can’t quite get a handle on it.

    It happened while I was listening to your “Kings” videos on Vince’s YouTube channel, “TheSpiritIstheWitness”.*  I don’t remember exactly how you said it, but it was something like, “You don’t have to figure out your place in the body.  You just walk in the Spirit, and you’ll realize one day that you’ve been in your place.”  And, “God doesn’t make mistakes.”

    That also brought to my memory what you’ve said in meetings: “Jesus gave you the feelings you have,” and “You didn’t do this… and you can’t take credit for it,” etc.

    Trying to articulate the feelings, I compared it to a job promotion I received once.  When management met with me to tell me I got the job, I took them at their word.  I left there with a start date, and never doubted that the job was mine, even though I hadn’t started yet.  I was trained in how to do the job, and once I transferred to it, believing it happened wasn’t even a thought.  I was just there.  I simply obeyed and fulfilled the requirements of that role – though, early on, I felt like an imposter, as I felt unqualified.. and technically, I was.

    I like how King Hezekiah acted early on, how he was so young and called those old men “sons.”  He believed, learned his role, and when he saw and understood it, he was all-in.

    That made me think that once God puts you somewhere, it’s done.  There’s a point when you are not supposed to keep believing that He did it anymore; you just live from it and obey.  When God puts me somewhere, it is no mistake. T hat’s the best place now and forever, unless God changes it.  That’s simply where I am at now, and I must live that as truly as my nose has been put on my face.

    And if I or someone thought it was a mistake, it’s because we’re trying to take credit for something God did, for the feelings He established in my heart.  If I doubt myself or anyone, I start rebelling against God’s order in the kingdom, regardless of our position within the body.

    To obey those feelings Jesus put in my heart, the desire to really, really want to love Him and His people, the desire to know the truth about the One who created all things, He put them there, not me.  It’s as if my heart was birthed from those feelings, and I must dwell in that place if I’m to live in perfect love.

    I have had a few very strong desires in my heart that I’ve asked the Lord to fulfill in my life.  And until yesterday, I didn’t realize there was this one in there: to stop believing.  I don’t mean I want to stop believing in Jesus.  I mean I don’t want to keep believing that something is true after He has already done it.  I want to live it, and pursue the things I cannot receive in this life.

    I know I have heard all this before, but I feel like something is coming into focus that I’ve missed.  I wish I could word this better but don’t know how. What am I feeling here??

    Hope you are well,

    -Johnny

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

    Hi Johnny.

    I dont think you need any help expressing what you are feeling and seeing.  That is so good!  What you have written can hardly be improved upon.  Go ahead and live that way.  I wish that all of God’s children everywhere could see that what Jesus (not church religion) has done for them in the holy Ghost is perfect and that they can rest in that holy work.  Seeing what you are seeing and trusting God like that will make you invaluable to the saints around you and will lead you into eternal happiness!  Let’s go there together!

    Pastor John

    * The Kings – part 1/18 – John D. Clark, Sr.

     

  • Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect

    John,

    I want to share some thoughts I had while reading Matthew 5.  I enjoyed each verse, but when I came to verse 48, I paused to consider what Jesus was saying.  “Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.”  I tried to imagine what the disciples may have been thinking after hearing these words: “Be perfect, just as your Father (Jehovah) … is perfect!”  “Wow! How is that possible?” 

    I soon found out that I was wrong trying to use the modern day definition of “perfect” to understand what Jesus was saying.  Some modern definitions of perfect are: something that is flawless, exact, or completely suited for a specific purpose, (e.g. “a perfect score” or “perfect weather for a picnic”).

    I decided to research the ancient Greek meaning of the word “perfect”. Here is what I found: Teleios (perfect) as an adjective means having attained an end or purpose, complete, full grown, whole-hearted.  Some comments I found said, “Something that has reached its intended completion or maturity, rather than merely ‘flawless’”.  And, “something is perfect when it functions exactly as its designer intended.” 

    One example I saw compared a modern day definition to an ancient one using an acorn.  A modern perspective would see that an acorn is shiny, symmetrical, not cracked, and otherwise perfect.  An ancient Greek perspective may have been that the acorn is perfect (teleios) because it will become a fully grown oak tree, mature, and bearing fruit.     

    I still wasn’t quite satisfied with my understanding of Jesus’ words.  So, I decided to go to your Matthew study posted on the YouTube channel, “The Spirit Is the Witness”: Matthew Study (5:31-48) – John D. Clark, Sr. (This is a wonderful video.  I highly recommend it.)   There, you explained that Jesus was not giving commandments in chapter 5.  He was describing a way of life, specifically his and his Father’s way of life.  You went on to say that in the Old Testament, God required His people to be holy because He is holy.  However, in this New Covenant, we are holy as He is holy. Jesus has made a way that we can be like him and His Father.  The verses in chapter 5 describe a way of life that was impossible for those listening to Jesus to live at that time.  However, “What is impossible for men, is possible with God.”  

    Later that evening, Suzi and I continued our reading your book God Had a Son Before Mary Did.*  I still had the thought of Jesus’ words in my mind, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Then we read the following text: “God’s children are happiest when they occupy their appointed place in the order of God and acknowledge the places occupied by others.  When you are in the place that you were created to be, you feel contentment, for your place is not an it.  Your place is a who – you!  The “place” God has for you is your life as the person God intended you to be from the foundation of the world.  Only in that place, only in being yourself in Christ, will you ever experience perfect peace and joy.  That is why envy is compared with cancer (Prov. 14:30); it eats away at a person’s gratitude for the who that God has made him.  Envy is a tacit way of grumbling about God’s order, and it stirs up strife (Rom. 13:13; Phip. 1:15).  To avoid envy and strife, we need only be thankful for who God’s order is and for where we belong in that order, for as we follow the right who into the knowledge of God, we stay content with our portion from God.” (God Had a Son Before Mary Did, pg. 446, 1st. par., hard bound book) 

    John, I believe that what you wrote in the text above describes what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5, particularly verse 48.  Living the way that God has created for us is perfection by any standard.  It is void of the fear of making mistakes.

    I am thankful for you and your work.  May we be perfect (together) as our heavenly Father is perfect.  

    Tom

    On a side note: I noticed that Jesus said in verse 48 to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.   He did not say be perfect as I am perfect.

    However, he also said in another place, “When you see me, you see the Father.” (John 14:9)  

    *Going to Jesus.com – God Had A Son Before Mary Did (Pg. 194 digital copy)

  • Do THIS (not that)

    Pastor John,

    I was on the mower tonight, and I was talking to Jesus.  I had the sweetest thought come.  Something I heard through the years in the Catholic Church popped into my mind.  The phrase was, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  Then the thought came: “They say that because they do not serve the living God.”  I thought about how true that is.  If Jesus is alive, you do not have to do it in remembrance of Him, because He is still alive and well.  I thought about the video I watched this morning and how perfectly this thought went with what I feel in that video.  I love when Jesus talks back when we are out there mowing. 

    Love,

    Beth

    ========

    Hi Beth.

    Thank you for writing.

    When Jesus said, “Do THIS in remembrance of me”, he was speaking about doing what HE was doing.  And we do that all the time with one another when we break bread together.  When Christians celebrate a ritual of eating and drinking, they are not doing what Jesus was doing; they are doing what the disciples were doing.  And the disciples were delivered from rituals, such as eating and drinking in a religious form, after the holy Ghost came and gave them life.

    Thank God, we have life from God, and can now worship the Father together in Spirit and truth!

    Pastor John

  • Montanus reading

    Good morning!

    I’ve been enjoying reading in the Montanus book* lately.  In the chapter, “The Spirit That Speaks by Montanus”, I love the last sentences:

    As a popular saying goes, “Join the church of your choice.”  “Yet, for us,” Paul wrote, “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him, and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we exist by him” (1Cor. 8:6). Amen. 

    Amen! It was like a breath of fresh air blew through when I read these lines!  Thank you for pouring your heart & time into writing these books for us and others to understand the history of Christianity versus our true history in Jesus!

    Amanda

    ===========

    Amen, Amanda.  If there is one God, we don’t get to choose which one we will serve.  Jesus chooses us; we do not choose him.  He said so!

    John 15:16. You haven’t chosen me, but I have chosen you, and I have ordained you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.

    I thank God that we do not have to choose which God and Jesus to serve!

    Pastor John

    * https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=montanus

     

  • Growing in Truth

    Hey John,

    Tonight I was listening to one of your sermons, and thoughts started coming to me about truth.

    Every time we take in some of the Truth of the Spirit, it is like fertilizer to our hearts.  Each time it happens, we have a little growth spurt.  The Truth is built upon the Truth!  We are the temples of Christ and when we learn a Truth, it’s like laying another layer of bricks in the wall of our Temple that Jesus is building us into. 

    In the KJV translation (King James verson), it says we learn line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little.  But line upon line of what?   Precept upon precept of what?   Here a little there a little of what?  Is it not the Truth that it is talking about?  

    Another thing that came to me tonight is how important it is that we are led and obedient to the Spirit!  We are all one body. The Body of Christ at Pastor John’s House!  Every decision I make, to follow the Spirit or not, affects every single person in that Body!  Either for the better or for the worse!  And every decision each of them makes affects me and the others, either for the better or the worse.  We are all connected.  When a member is spiritually healthy, the Body is healthier.  And when a member is weaker, the Body too is weaker.  I’m talking about the decisions we make, no matter where we are.  And especially the ones that we make when we are alone.  There is no where we can go, and nothing we can do to hide from that responsibility, or sever ourselves from it.  Only Jesus can do that!  And no one in their right mind wants that to happen!

    Billy H.

    ========

    That is true, Billy.  All truth is connected, and if we can take in just one truth from God, we have a foundation upon which more truth can be laid.

    Pastor John

     

  • From the Montanus book

    Pastor John,

    I love this sentence in the Montanus book!* It just jumped off the page at me:

    “The gospel of Christ endures, forever unsullied by anything of earth, and it waits patiently, unmoved, available for discovery by any sincere heart in any age who longs to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”

    Amanda F.

    Going to Jesus.com – Montanus: Prophet to an Apostate Body of Christ

     

  • Overwhelmed

    Hey Pastor John,

    I’m sad because I’m coming to the end of the Father and Son book.*  (But excited to read it again!)  It’s been wonderful reading it and just letting the love between the Father and Son, and the love they have for us, sink in.

    This is one of those paragraphs that fill my heart with love, gratitude and thankfulness for what Jesus has done:

    “When ‘the love of God is poured out within our heart, by the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 5:5b), it draws us out of our hiding places to live again in childlike sincerity.  The spirit of God re-creates us as children of a Father who will not fail us, as siblings of a big brother who will always be with us and watch over us, and as members of a family whose influence is the opposite of that of the world.  For when we as the family of God walk together in our Father’s love, we encourage one another to live without fear of ridicule, or betrayal.”

    Whew…what a sweet, wonderful life the Father and Son has given to us!

    Love,

    Michelle 

    * Going to Jesus.com – God Had A Son Before Mary Did

     

  • Catholic priest’s experience during Eucharist ceremony

    I

    Pastor John,

    I saw this video last night.  When I first read about what had happened to this priest, I assumed it had to be something demonic, but when I watched the video I had the feeling that this man was really touched by God in a very real way (the interesting part starts at 29:00).

    Now, I am already seeing Catholics on social media saying this is proof that God is truly present in their “holy masses”, which we know is false. 

    Here is the video:

    https://www.youtube.com/live/Nr_YnX3MM8s?is=T0VYNzI9zMPbPaWM

    The next day another priest from the same church tried to explain to the congregation what had happened to the priest the day before.  I think his body language and what he says (and the way he says it) shows that he is not happy about what had happened, but couldn’t deny that it was something real, so he had to try to somehow make it make sense from the church’s perspective.

    (He starts speaking about it at 11:12)

    https://www.youtube.com/live/9XdBEvEdmro?feature=shared

    Zoli

    =========

    Hi Zoli.

    It seems to me that Jesus was interrupting that ceremony with a moment of life, and as you say, the second priest was trying to cover it up with vain words.  This just shows us that God can touch someone who is involved heavily in ceremonial form, even of those He touches do not understand what He is doing.  I hope that first priest escaped the prison.

    jdc

     

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