HI PASTOR JOHN   I HAVE A QUESTION.I AM ALITTLE CONFUSED, I HAVE HEARD SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT PREACHERS IN CHRISTIANITY ARE THE DEVILS CHILDREN. BUT THEN SAY THEY ALSO ARE GODS CHILDREN. I KNOW WE NEED TO LOVE THEM AND PRAY FOR THEM,BUT IF THEY ARE THE DEVILS CHILDREN ARENT WE TO NOT HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH THEM.HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND BECUASE IM CONFUSED.   THANK YOU GOD BLESS YOU ALL   THOMAS C——-

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Yes, Tom, you certainly are confused.  Let me try to help clear these things up for you.

The Greek word often translated “minister” in the Bible means “server”, or “table waiter”, just like the waiters who work in restaurants everywhere.  When you go to a restaurant, and the waiter serves you food from the restaurant’s kitchen, he is “ministering” the food to you, or “serving” you.  This is, in a spiritual sense, what “minister” means in the Bible. A “minister of Christ” is someone who brings you food that has been cooked in God’s kitchen (so to speak) by Jesus.  We “minister” Christ to people when we serve spiritual food to them that truly is from Christ.  You may recall that in the Bible, God often speaks of His servants (ministers) “feeding” His people.

But, Tom, when we feed people spiritual food that does not come from God’s kitchen, we are not ministering Christ to them.  Instead, we are serving them spiritual food that someone else has cooked, either a man or an unclean spirit.  The scriptures speak of both “doctrines of men” and “doctrines of demons”.  God considers it a very grave offense for a man to serve His children spiritual food prepared by anyone other than Him.  If we are teaching God’s children things that come from the devil’s kitchen, we are become ministers of Satan instead of ministers of Christ.

To answer another point you brought up, there can be an enormous difference between being a “minister of Satan” and a “child of the devil”.  If anyone has ever said that all Christian ministers are “children of the devil”, he was wrong to say so.  I know some Christian ministers, and they seem to me to be wonderful children of God.  A minister of Satan is someone who is serving spiritual food that the devil has cooked.  But he may be doing it ignorantly, Tom.  This is the case with many Christian ministers.  In time, because those ministers truly love the Lord, they will discover their error and will start feeding people healthy spiritual food instead of feeding them the traditions and doctrines of Christianity.

Along the way, as I have grown in Christ, there have been times when I discovered that some of the spiritual food I was serving God’s people was of the devil, not of Christ.  And as soon as I learned of it, I repented and stopped serving that poison to God’s people.  I didn’t want to be a minister of Satan, and it hurt to realize I had been such a minister — to the extent that I was serving Satan’s food to the people I loved.  I confessed my error to them so that they could be healed, and I never fed them that food again.  Until a man possesses the knowledge of God, Tom, he may qualify as “a minister of Satan” simply because he believes something is right when it is not.  But God is patient with us, and very merciful.  And when that man learns the truth, he can repent, and from that time, be a minister of Christ instead.  Our goal is to be nothing but a minister of Christ.

On the other hand, to be what Jesus called a “child of the devil”, a person must actually be like Satan in his heart.  Jesus said that the devil “did not stay in the truth”, and there are some of God’s people who, like Satan, have not stayed in the truth that Jesus gave them.  So you see, Tom, for a person to qualify to be a child of the devil, a person must first be given the truth and then do what the devil did; that is, depart from it.  In other words, as strange as it may at first sound, to qualify to be a child of the devil, a person must first be a child of God.  This is true because it is impossible to forsake the right way, as the devil did, if we have never been in it.

I should warn you about making hasty judgments.  Please do not think of all of God’s wayward children as “children of the devil”.  That title only applies to those who have been in the truth and have turned so far from it that they have become like the devil in their hearts.  And who among us can judge such things but God?  In the main, it is best for us to simply to pray for all who have gone astray, and leave the final judgment to God.

Thank you for your questions.

Pastor John

http://www.goingtojesus.com/tongues-at-spirit-baptism.html

 

Pastor John:

I have talked in tongues one time i was at a conference with my church.  i haved tried multiple times after that in my personal prayers at home.  why can i not pray in tongues like i did tht one time?  Have i done something wrong?

Ben

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Hi Brother Ben!

You would probably be surprised at how many people over the years have expressed the same kind of questions you have about this. Jesus wants you to be free in the Spirit.  And he will lead you to his liberty.

The problem is a difficult one to deal with because the thing that causes the problem — church religion — is the very thing that God’s people trust the most.  If you could find a body of believers who are full of the Spirit and that have rejected the religious system known as Christianity (there are many such saints, I have found), your spirit might be liberated from the shackles that are holding your spirit down.  It is most often the weight of religious form and tradition that prevents God’s children from experiencing life in the Spirit as they want to — the way it should be experienced.

Other than that, I can only exhort you to keep your conscience clear so that you know the problem is not one of a guilty conscience. Keeping God’s moral commandments is very important!

We will be pulling for you as you pursue the knowledge of your heavenly Father.  The materials on our other web site, www.GoingtoJesus.com, will help you.  And if you want edifying music, whenever you are on a computer, go to www.SongsofRest.com.

God bless, and stay in touch.

Pastor John

 

Name: Sean K

comments: Hi Pastor John:

I had read some of your teachings on your website about the Holy Spirit and about Jesus, and had a few questions:

1) If I understand your teachings correctly, you do not believe that the Holy Spirit has a personality as the Father and Jesus do, but that it is a force or power.  How do you view Matthew 28:19, 2Corinthians 13:14 and Rev. 1:4-5, where the Spirit is placed prominently alongside the Father and Jesus (in fact, in Rev. 1:4-5, the Spirit, described as the “seven spirits” or the “sevenfold spirit,” is place BETWEEN the Father and Jesus)? It seems the Spirit is treated as equal with the Father and Son in these verses.

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In my study, “The Influence of Trinitarian Doctrine on Translations of the Bible”, I point out that “power” could be taught as a fourth Person of the Godhead, using the same logic that is used to teach that the Spirit is a third person of the Godhead.  If God has a spirit, we would expect it to be referred to as having personality — God’s!  The same can be said about His power.  Below is an excerpt from that study:

 The Power of God:  A Secret Fourth Person?

Trinitarians see as evidence of personhood the Scriptures in which God’s Spirit is said to have spoken, or to have felt something, or to have done a deed.  But Trinitarians see this in the Scriptures not simply because of what those verses state but because they have been taught to see it there.  Consider the power of God, by way of illustration.  There have been no voices raised to promote a doctrine which states that the power of God is a person; yet, “spirit and power” are frequently used in identical ways.  Jesus is said to be sitting beside power in heaven (or should it be “Power”? Mk. 14:62), and we are told that power (Power) will come back with him when he returns (Lk. 21:27).  It was God’s power, along with God’s Spirit, that overshadowed the virgin Mary (Lk. 1:35).  That being true, is Jesus then the Son of God’s Power or the Son of God’s Spirit?  According to Peter, Jesus was anointed by God with both “holy spirit and power” (Acts 10:38).  It was power that raised up Jesus from the dead (Rom. 1:4), and power will also raise us from the grave (1Cor. 6:14).  In short, the power of God is said to have done many of the same things the Spirit of God is said to have done.  Does that mean that God’s power is a person?  Of course not.  Still, were we to capitalize Power and (since power is a feminine Greek word) refer to it as She, and then teach naive souls that She is a fourth Person of a quadripartite God, some people would no doubt point to the verses in which activity associated with personality is attributed to God’s Power and “see” the evidence of personhood for themselves.  Doubtless, some would become indignant and angrily condemn as heretical (dunamamachianism?) all who would not believe that God’s Power is a fourth Person of the Godhead, equal in all respects to and “consubstantial with” the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.  And would there then be another group of persecuted martyrs, burned at the stake for denying the Holy Quadrinity by denying the personhood of the Power of God?  The blood of many saints who refused to submit to the Trinitarian faith over the centuries bears witness that this question is not as far-fetched as would first appear.

There is no “seven-fold Spirit” mentioned in the Scriptures.  The seven spirits of God mentioned in Revelation are seven heavenly beings, perhaps angels, that stand before the Father’s throne.

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2) You also teach that the Father created Jesus as an equal God, since the Father has the power to do this. What about Isaiah 43:10: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (RV). Thank you once again for taking time to answer my questions.

In Jesus,

Sean K

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I think you must have misunderstood something I have written.  If you would show me what I wrote that led you to believe that I teach the Son is equal to the Father, I might need to change that!  The Son himself said that the Father is greater than he, and I believe what he said.  So, if I wrote anything that led you to think differently, I will change it.

If you have done the amount of Bible study I think you have done, you know that the word “god” has many applications.  The rulers of Israel were called “gods” by God Himself at Mt Sinai and other places; demons were sometimes called “gods”; and Jesus quoted the verse in Psalms where God referred to people to whom He sent His word “gods”.  Surely, then, if the Son was God’s agent in creation, the title “God” applies to him (Heb. 3:4)!  

The word “God” in Isaiah 43:10, the verse you quoted, was being used by God to try to persuade His people Israel to stop trusting in and worshiping foreign deities.  He was not denying that the Son existed as God, or that there were no “gods” among the people Israel, to whom God’s word had come.

If that does not answer your question, feel free to write again.  God bless you and those with you.

Pastor John

 

Pastor John,

I have another task before me and maybe you can give me some insight on this subject.

“Women place in ministry”  do you believe women to be in position as pastor, bishop, apostle etc.. I can not really find supporting scriptures. but there some commentaries that speak otherwise. Please give me your view of this subject.

Thanks

“Lets do it Again in 2010”

Acts 4:31: “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”

Bishop Elect G. E. M., Sr.

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Dear Sir:

Greetings in the precious name of Jesus.

We know that the apostle Philip had four daughters who prophesied, and we know that both Priscilla and her husband Aquila ministered to the great teacher Apollos, to bring him into the true faith, and that they held meetings of the saints in their home.  In the Old Testament, too, there were women who functioned as judges (e.g. Deborah), as wise counselors who gave saving counsel to men of God (e.g., Abigail when she met David on his way to do an evil deed), and as prophetesses (e.g., Huldah, who spoke for God to the righteous young king, Josiah, and Anna, who met Mary and her holy infant in the temple).

It should settle the issue for us all just to know that the Spirit can and has used women throughout history, to minister, to judge, and to give godly counsel to God’s people.

Confusion concerning women in the ministry comes when men start trying to decide whether THEY will use women in THEIR religions.  God made His decision a long, long time ago.

Pastor John

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Pastor John,

I have always for along time thought it was not proper to have a woman as the head of anything, but by this e-mail it sounds like (to me) that it is ok ????

Steve
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Hi Steven.

I don’t see how anyone could think that a woman being moved by the Spirit is functioning as the head of something she’s not supposed to be the head of.  There is no Scripture anywhere which tells us that a woman cannot be the head of anything.  We are only told that she is not to be the head of her husband, just as the man is not to be head of Christ, nor Christ to be the head of God.

Women are well suited to be head of many things in this life.  They certainly can be wonderful teachers of children and administrators of households, just to name two.  The description of a godly woman (Prov. 31) given by king Lemuel, Solomon’s wise friend, is not one of a belittled, battered female curled up some dark corner of the house, afraid to speak unless spoken to.  She is diligent at much and varied kinds of work; she is gifted with both insight and foresight; she is caring; she is responsible and shrewd in business; she makes wise purchases; she is a major reason that her husband enjoys a good reputation in the community; she is honored by her husband, her children, and those who work for her.  None of those wonderful qualities means that she is her husband’s head, but she unquestionably knows how to run the home and how to handle people and possessions wisely.

It always, eventually, proves to be disastrous when women and children occupy places of authority that God reserves for men.  The phrase from Isaiah 11:6, “and a little child shall lead them” is often used, kind of romantically, to point out that little children can guide adults.  And, truthfully, God will use little children sometimes to speak to adults.  He has spoken through little children to me.  But that Scripture from Isaiah is talking about little children leading animals, not their parents or society.  God’s order, the only order that brings peace, does not allow for children to be their parents’  head.  Homes where children are in charge of the agenda, or in charge of the general tone of the house, have very little peace.

For women and children in Israel to be leaders of the nation was a sign that God had cursed the nation (Isa. 3:1-12).  I believe that is the case in any nation, not because women are incompetent to manage or too stupid to make good decisions but because God will not bless man’s re-arranging of His order.  Please note that although God’s displeasure at a nation can be shown by His placing of women and children in positions of authority where men ought to be is not to say that women are never to be head of anything!  There are many places in this life where women function extremely well as the head, and many other places, such as marriage, where their counsel and deeds can lead to much peace, financial stability, and happiness — if the husband isn’t so hard-headed that he refuses to follow his wife’s advice.  And you and I both know by experience that such is the case.

I hope this clears that issue up for you.
Pastor John

 

Hi John.

In a recent teaching , you happened to mention that Satan, the devil, does not bother most people, even though they say, “Ohhhh, I’ve been wrestling with the devil lately!” or similar complaint.  I have observed that many Xns are accustomed to referring to the devil as “the enemy” and claim that he torments them on a daily basis by tempting them into sinful ways, or by challenging their faith with lies.  As I understand it, you claim that is nonsense and that it is demons who challenge the faith of believers by tempting them with sin and disobedience.  Only people who are close to God are capable of wrestling with the devil himself (such as Paul, David and Jesus Himself).

Hearing you say that provoked this thought:
Please explain to me, then, Matthew 13, in the parable of the sower, in verse 19, the Bible says “the wicked one” (the devil himself) catches the seed that is sown in the heart of a person, and steals the seed of belief from that person, so that they fail in their faith immediately after hearing the good word about the kingdom.  Am I right so far?

Then, in Matthew 13: verse 25, “the enemy came” and sowed tares among the wheat after the the farmers who had sown the good seed were sleeping.  Isn’t that Satan. . . working after hours. . . in the dark?

Doesn’t that indicate that the devil himself influences the lives of weak people, deceiving them and preventing them from being all that they can be in God?  Matthew 13 doesn’t speak of demons, but of the enemy himself being very active.  Am I not perceiving this properly?  Can you clarify this issue more, please?

Thanks in advance for you explanation.

brad

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Hi Brad:

The answer to your question is a simple one.  Let me give you an example.

In the OT, we are told that Nebuchadnezzar came against Israel.  But in reality, Nebuchadnezzar was a hundred miles away.  None of those slain in Judah, and virtually none of those Jews who were taken captives ever laid eyes on the Babylonian king.  Still, he got the credit because what was being done wsas being done by his will and command.

Or, for another example, we are told that when Solomon became king, he sacrificed thousands of animals to God.  Actually, Solomon did not sacrifice a single animal.  It would have been sin for Solomon himself to do such a thing.  The priests offered them all, according to the law of God.  I doubt that Solomon even bloodied his royal hands by even touching the animals, much less slaughtering them and cutting them up into pieces.

Yes, it is true that God pits no one in spiritual battle against Satan himself except His children who are very strong in faith.  His children who are misled by false teachers wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the cunning prince of darkness.  That is why the family of God on earth is in such a confused, divided condition.

Hope that helps.

jdc

Hello brother John,
 
Zachary my grandson and I were sitting here talking and he had a few questions that has stirred in his heart about God.   We started watching some utube gospel videos, as we did when he received the holy ghost about a year ago, and I thought about taking him to your web page to hear some music.  We found the youth page, and he wanted to ask you a couple of questions.  Here they are.  He is 9 years old.
 
#1 Why does God not talk to me?  I have been asking him to and have not heard from him yet.
 
#2 Is God really coming soon like some people say and are the earthquakes a sign of him coming.
 
K. E.
SMILE!!!

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Hello Zachary.

As for your first question, God speaks in many ways.  David said he heard God speak through the stars at night (Ps. 19).  And in the book called Proverbs, we are taught that we can receive wisdom from God by watching the way little ants work (Prov. 6:6-8).  Jesus told us to take time to consider nature (Mt. 6:26-30), and he said this because God talks to us through the things that he has made.  The clouds teach us about His glory, and the rain and sunshine teach us about His goodness.

God also talks to us through the feelings that He gives to us.  This is especially true if you have His Spirit on the inside of you.  Jesus said that the Spirit will guide us into all truth, and many, many times, this the Spirit does this by our feelings.  When we do a good thing, the Spirit will make us feel good.  And if we do something that is not good, the Spirit will make us feel bad.  Those feelings are God talking to us on the inside, letting us know what is right and what is wrong.

You probably are wanting God to talk to you the way you speak to other people, in the plain English language, and God does do that.  Many times, His voice is very still and gentle, and we have to be very still in our souls to hear Him.  But sometimes, God speaks a little more forcefully to people.  And then there are times when chooses to speak to certain people very clearly.  Those people are special to God.  Never do anything to harm them.

One time, long ago, Moses’ brother and sister said some bad things about him.  God was very upset about that, and He scolded Moses’ brother and sister.  One thing God said to them, was something like this:  “If somebody is a prophet, I will speak to him through dreams and symbols, but Moses is more than a prophet.  I talk to him face to face!”  In other words, God was telling those two people that Moses was special to Him and that Moses should be special to them, too.

Maybe one day God will choose to speak to you, Zachary.  He spoke like that to a little boy named Samuel (1Sam. 3), and to another little boy named Jeremiah (Jer. 1).  If he does ever speak to you like that, do exactly as he says.  Leave nothing out, and add nothing to His words.  They are perfect.  In the meantime, listen for God’s voice in your feelings, in nature, and in the testimonies of God’s people.  His is talking to us all the time by some means.

As for your second question, Jesus is not coming again any time soon.  You will be a grown man before he comes back, and you may even be an old man.  In fact, you may go to your grave before the Lord Jesus returns.  So, don’t be alarmed by those who say Jesus may return at any moment.  They are mistaken.  So, you have time to grow and learn what the will of God for you in this life is.  Isn’t that good news?

As for earthquakes, they will continue to increase and grow worse as time passes.  But they things are just “the beginning of sorrows” for this evil world, according to Jesus (Mt. 24:7-8), and Jesus knows about these things.

Thank you, Zachary, for your questions.  Be a good boy, and don;t follow others in school who do bad things.

your friend,

Pastor John

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Dear John,

I love that little Zachary has questions about God talking to him!  It reminded me so much of Jonathan a couple of years ago asking why God didn’t talk to him.  He was really wanting to hear from God.  Those questions led Jonathan to the place of wanting to make things right in his heart with God and doing the things that made Him happy, and it led Jonathan to repentance and God baptising him with the holy Ghost. Those innocent little hearts long to learn about Him and hear from Him.  No wonder He and Jesus love the little children.  I love your simple and tenderhearted answer to Zachary.  That was right from the Father’s heart to him.

Love,
Bess

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Hi Bess,

In the Bible, during those times when an older generation had disobeyed God and ruined things in Israel, God would by-pass the elders and speak to little children.  He would raise up children as prophets, such as Samuel and Jeremiah, and would raise up children to be kings, such as Josiah.  Then he would use those children to turn the nation around.

We need God to speak, to heal, to cleanse.  If the elders among His people refuse to hear Him, then let’s pray that He will again speak to some young people and set them on fire for Him!
 
jdc