Hi Pastor John,

I have been feasting on the gatherings we had this past weekend.  I did not realize how lost I was in the things of God. Being with everyone and talking about how good Brother Gary’s song was about fellowship, my whole body was consumed with how good that felt to my soul. From the first time he sang it, setting around the fire Friday morning, to the gathering that night.

When I went to work today, I could not function.  Everything seemed so foreign to me!  I felt so far away from all that was going on at work.  My mind and thoughts were so far from what was happening on this planet!  I had people looking at me, asking questions, and I could not give them any answers. The more they would ask me, the more I felt drunk.  I have never felt that way before at work.

I loved that feeling and did not care what else was going on.  I am so thankful that we can live in such heavenly places and feel the power of God that strong in us. Fellowship is what makes what we feel so wonderful!!!  Being one in the spirit!  God, help us get this out to your people!  What a wonderful day that will be, when all of God’s chosen are one in fellowship.  I am looking forward to that day.

Stuart

Pastor John,

I heard these things on a CD of a meeting from a few years ago and thought I’d like to pass them on.

From your sermon:

(1)  When a person is truly delivered from something , that person has a testimony. If there’s not a testimony ,  there has been no deliverance; that person has just quit doing something temporarily.  The sin is not gone; it’s just on vacation!  A real testimony is a real confession of Christ.  A real testimony is not in the words that are spoken; it is the experience with God.  When you give a real testimony, you are sharing something that has been done by God; that is a real testimony, and that is what overcomes the world.”

(2) Now, the scriptures say ‘Confess your faults one to another, that you might be healed.’ If you confess your faults but don’t want to be healed, you are just bragging about how bad you’ve been.”

From Lou’s testimony:

(1)  The flesh feels like it is always right, and if you are in the flesh and I’m in the flesh, then we both feel like we are right, but we are both wrong.”

(2)  “When you love the things of God, it is only because you are teachable.”

Amanda F

John,

When I read this “Pearl”, my next thought was, “Thank you for rescuing me from that abomination.”

Wendell
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Amen, Wendell!
jdc

Pastor John,

After this weekends meetings I have just felt so happy and so encouraged!  This afternoon driving home from work I was listening to a meeting cd and we were singing, “I’m on the battlefield for my Lord”.  It was so good.  The spirit fell on me in the car and I began to speak in tongues. Then I thought about what I had just sung, “I promised Him that I would serve Him until I die.”  That was a very serious statement and I thought, “Lord I really want to serve you until I die.”

Then when I got home I wanted to say hey to Sandy.  I walked in her house and hugged her and starting talking about how good the meetings were this weekend and different one’s telling me that what I saw was the Aunt Sandy they knew. Then Sandy was talking about how much was going on in the meetings and about “slander”.  We didn’t have a chance to talk long so I came back home.

When I left I felt “something”.  I started crying and really felt to check myself. I asked the Lord to look at my heart and let me know if there is anything that needs to come out. After a little while I felt like the Lord lifted something.  I told Him that whatever needs to be changed, pulled out, or moved over I want to be willing and obedient to what ever correction I need.  

I recently got the book, “Azusa   Street” and after writing for a while in my journal I started to read.  These are some things that I read that just jumped out at me:

– The Lord will visit those willing to yield to Him.

– Humble yourself

– Doubts and fears cannot abide in His presence

– Jesus is real

– God can perfect those whom He chooses

When I read these things I felt like they were jumping into my heart!  Be willing, be humble and those doubts and fears will leave.  Humble yourself so that you can be made perfect!

Then I read this: “Mercy rejected means judgment”.  Oh Jesus I never want to reject your mercy.  All of these seemed to go with the meetings this weekend.

Pastor John I want to walk worthy of these precious treasures Jesus has bestowed on us.  I never ever want to reject the mercy that He gives us each and everyday. This is a sweet life and I’m so very thankful for it.

Michelle

John,

I was thinking about the scripture today, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world,” and it hit me like a ton of bricks that real religion is mostly a matter of who we are, rather than what we do (I think I would have said, really, that it was the other way around).  Anyone can visit the fatherless and widows, but if who they are isn’t full of God’s spirit (or under conviction to receive it), and they aren’t unspotted from the world, then they haven’t done anything of real value.  This made me feel like one of my chief concerns in life should be to keep a clean heart, for if that’s lacking, there’s nothing I can do to “make up the difference”.  Seeing this also made it more obvious how backwards this world really has it – the world will encourage people to “do good” (you’ll see that on TV, in other religions, etc.), but they think they can do that regardless of who they are, with or without God’s help. 

When I was coming into one of our meetings last week, I said hello to a few people at the door.  By the time I got to Randell, it hit me, “These precious people!”  To have just one person in my life like Randell, a man who understands the truth, walks in it and loves it – what value!  I felt like scales fell off my eyes to see the enormous value of anyone/everyone whom God has touched.  And we don’t know just one Randell, we know a hundred or more!  This reminded me of what the spirit said through Sandy on Saturday night, “Daughters and sons, I’ve given you the best that I have” (or something like that).  I feel like God has put the very best people He has in our lives, and we are so very rich because of it.

Taylor

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Amen, Taylor!

 To “visit” the sick or someone in need means more than to just show up where they are.  In the Bible, whenever God. “visited” someone, things changed!   May God help us be like Him, and bring real comfort, encouragement, and healing with us when we visit those in need.

jdc

Hi John,

What a wonderful weekend! Full of the sweet feelings of the power of God. It sure was good seeing Sandy be blessed and see God use her to bless whoever would drink. Really good messages Saturday night too – Michelle’s message from the Lord about removing the worm that was wrapped around her heart and how those worms are amongst us right now – and then how that led into your message on slander – really something. God help us to recognize and reprove every seed of discord!

I wanted to tell you about a little experience I had this morning as I was waking up. I had my arm back behind my head in an awkward position on the pillow, and it was completely asleep, and numb. I rolled over a little, and my arm fell off the pillow – it felt like it wasn’t even my arm, like it was dead. I made a conscious effort to position myself to straighten my arm out, and when I did, blood started to flow again, and the feeling slowly came back. Right after this happened, I feel like the Lord showed me that this is how it is in the Spirit. When the blood is not flowing to a particular member of the body, it begins to grow numb, and the feelings and the connection with the rest of the body (most especially the head of the body that allows you to feel the feelings) begin to grow dull to the point that the feelings are completely gone. But, there is still hope for that body member at this point. Those feelings can be restored, if we do our part to stir them up again!

It was good to me to learn that when we lose our feelings and connection with Jesus, we can “stir up the gift of God” to get the blood flowing again. Life, and the feelings and function that goes along with it, truly is in the blood. And when that blood stops flowing to any particular body part, it becomes numb, and then eventually dies if the blood flow is not restored.

Vince