I am usually out riding my bike for my morning warm-up by 7a.m., nearly everyday of the week. Sometimes, I hike in the hills or jog on the all-weather baseball field. When I’m climbing in the hills, that’s where the solitude is, and I oftentimes spend more time thinking about Jesus on those hiking days, lingering in a private spot atop the ridge to pray through.

On Thursday morning, I felt that God wanted to “do something with me;” we needed some time together—and that meant a hike in the hills! So, off I ran, up through the little valley behind the park, past the cows and scurrying ground squirrels, and arrived at my new prayer spot. . . a fallen tree on the eastern crest of the hilltop, awash in early morning sun. The Spirit fell on me heavily, and I was speaking in tongues with a dramatic urgency. As Paul said, sometimes the Spirit speaks through us, making intercession with groanings. On this morning I was a real groaner! God was turning up the volume. Something in me wanted to cry, to sob, to moan and groan deeply. For a moment or so I even felt convulsive. (He can make you move!) I was on my knees but I fell over a couple times, jolted by the power of God. The words that began to come from inside of me, in English, were prayers of such lowliness of spirit, more humbling than I have ever felt; followed by pleas for God’s mercy and blessing.

These are some of the things I felt and said:
“Oh God, I am NOTHING! Nothing without you! I am not worthy of your love, and yet you love me still! I am so insignificant in this universe, yet so significant to you. Thank you for your Spirit! Thank you for your mercy, and your forgiveness. . . I do not deserve it. I am as worthless as this dirt! In my flesh I am more detestable than the cow manure on this ground!”

I was physically lower than I have ever been, in prayer. I couldn’t scrunch my body down low enough. I felt like I wanted to crawl under that dead tree, as if I wanted to get so low as to burrow underground. God made me feel like I had to come so LOW, as to be flattened in the grass. My face was literally on the ground —and that wasn’t low enough! I had never felt like this before, but I recalled brother Gary’s experience crawling around on the carpet at a meeting and I felt fortunate to be feeling something similar to what he had felt. Oddly enough, there was a comfort in it. It wasn’t as if I felt demeaned or berated by God. It was just so painfully, yet comfortably humble!

I continued. . . “God, I am more worthless than this dirt, but even this dirt brings forth grass! Things grow out of this dirt! This earth under me brings forth “fruit” . . . it produces trees and shrubs and flowers—-in abundance! Please subdue me so thoroughly in my flesh that I might be worthy to be used by you, to produce fruit—of the Spirit!” Ohhhh, I went on and on. . . and then there was a peace that washed over me when it was finished. I laid on my back, staring at the blue sky, and feeling thankful for this powerful, liberating experience.

I think that only a child of God can appreciate something like this—in fact—we welcome it, don’t we?! It brings a refreshing to the soul, a realization that God has done something with us, and hopefully taught us a new thing, helped us to see our place, recognize our weakness, our fragility, . . . our need for Him. .. our dependence on Him, . . . and how helpless we are, apart from Him.

Oh, Praise God!!!!

Brother Brad

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Brother Brad,

Thank you for this! Your testimony about this experience is precious! May God grant every person associated with me the grace to experience such conviction for righteousness.

Pastor John

Pastor John,

Jesus did something else for me this week that I wanted to tell you about because it has really encouraged me.

During the night on Sunday, a dog woke me. It sounded like a hound, howling right outside our bedroom window. I didn’t see a dog on Monday, but I did see evidence that one had been here. That night, I woke up again, twice, to a howling dog. Some sort of emergency vehicle with a siren was going along the highway just before 6am on Tuesday morning and that dog went to howling again. It woke Haskell and me. When Haskell went off to work that morning, we found the dog on our back porch, on the mat up against the door. It was a huge red and white husky with light blue eyes. Haskell had to push the door open to get out, and the dog seemed to cower. It did not seem like an aggressive dog. Later that morning, when I opened the front door to let in the sunshine, I saw a spot of blood on the porch. The dog was still around at the back deck and did not seem to be hurt. I didn’t know if it had killed something or why that blood was there. The dog smelled really bad and was shedding hair. It had left a big fur ball on the mat at the back door. I didn’t want to sweep it up yet, because I knew it would just leave more hair. The dog did not seem to want to leave here either. When the kids woke up and saw it, they liked it. I didn’t want to teach them to hate or fear dogs, so I told them that we didn’t know that dog and it needed to go to his home. It stayed on the deck when the kids left with Haskell’s parents for the day and I was glad that it didn’t try to get friendly with them. It was a HUGE dog, and it really did smell bad. I called the animal shelter to see if they would pick it up and they referred me to the sherriff’s office. The sherriff’s office said that they didn’t have anyone doing animal control that day and to call back tomorrow……… 🙂 I went upstairs and did my work hoping it would leave. I heard it howl a couple of times and knew it was still outside. When I came down for lunch, it was still hanging around. And that big fur ball was still on the mat. I heated up some food in the microwave and walked over to the back door. I would normally go outside and walk around to get some fresh air and maybe eat on the steps. But that dog was there! It had come up to the door when it smelled my food I had heated. Then, I felt like the Lord invited me to tell him what I wanted. So, while I was chewing and looking at that dog, I said, “Lord, I want it to leave.” The dog went to the steps, hesitated for just a second, then slowly walked down the steps. It was walking away slowly and looking around like it didn’t know what it wanted to do. Then I said, “I don’t want it to come back.” It began walking faster, like it knew what it wanted to do, and went out of my sight. I felt hopeful and excited inside. Then I saw that hair on the mat again. Now I felt like sweeping it. I went to get the broom from the closet and heard these words, “full assurance.” I felt like the Lord was saying, “Sweep with ‘full assurance’ that the dog will not be back.” While I was sweeping, I remembered Uncle Joe’s testimony about forbidding Aunt Myrtle to hang out the laundry because he was praying for rain because he didn’t want anything to hinder his faith that God would answer his prayers.

We haven’t seen or heard that dog since. 🙂 And I am very thankful for that experience.
Love you,
Cris

Pastor John,

Hey, just wanted to say hello and say thanks to everybody for the work put forth on the live listenings on the skype. It’s great! I have thought on one particular part all day. That is when you spoke on being the happiest in the Lord, was it the day you received the New Birth, or Today? If it was the first, then something is off. I seemed to have enjoyed my day so much better today with those things on my mind.

Be good to see you this weekend….
Thanks alot!
Paul

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Hi Paul.

John David got the skype thing going for people. It has blessed a bunch of folk so far, it seems. I am glad for that. John David is doing what I exhort all these young people to do: make your life valuable to others.

It’s good to be happier today than when you were born again. If it is true that “of the INCREASE of his government (the Son’s government) there shall be no end”, then we ought to have more joy, more knowledge, and more love, than we did when we first submitted to his government, shouldn’t we?

Thanks for writing, Paul. Greetings to Jammie and the boys, until we see you again.

Pastor John

Pastor John,

This morning’s meeting was so good for me. It’s no small thing to be apart of such righteous work. I want to do my part. Your message today was especially good for me as I have so many family and friends who rest confidence in “church”, believing it was ordained through Peter and therefore of God. So, I have summarized your lesson today so that I can forward it to family and friends. Please read it and make corrections where need be. This truth is too precious not be said correctly and, of course, told by someone who is not right with God.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you next weekend God willing.

MD

Dear ,

Prior to reading this please read Matthew 16:18 and Acts Chapter 10 through 11:18.

I learned from Pastor John today why Jesus said Peter was to be the rock, the rock upon which God will build up His people (Jesus never used the word church, but ecclesia, “called out people, or assembly”). Firstly, know that the Greek word “rock” sounds similar to the word “Peter” and that literally speaking, we should not look much into his title “the rock”. What is important to draw from this is the steadfast determination not to budge that is attributed to a person when called a rock. Peter in that regard lived up to that name during his ministry especially as he stood in front of the apostles in Jerusalem the day he defended God’s pouring out of His Spirit at Cornelius’ house, an event until then no Jew would believe true.

When the Lord spoke to Peter in a vision while in Joppa, Peter thought he was being put to the test. Peter, determined to pass this test, defiantly said “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”. Three times Peter declined to eat of the animals that descended from heaven until God declared “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” When Peter awoke, he rightly followed the will of God, despite the traditions and customs that separated the uncircumcised and the circumcised nations.

It was no small thing when Peter spoke “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him”. For until then, any Jew could not be faulted for believing to enter the kingdom of God was first to be a circumcised Jew. After all, Jesus himself instructed his apostles to only go to the houses of Israel to heal and preach “the Kingdom of heaven was at hand” (Matthew 10;5). However, what occurred in Caesarea was remarkable and certainly unimaginable in the minds of early saints. For Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit without circumcision, much less prior to John’s water baptism, was simply without precedent or doctrine. Paul’s revelation, or doctrine, which specifically defined God’s kingdom to include Jew and Gentile had not yet be revealed. Therefore, Peter was working without understanding, he was in uncharted waters and without Paul’s doctrine, who could blame him for trying to impress only what he knew at the time to do, grant them John’s water baptism.

When Peter returned to Jerusalem and news of this trip was made known, Peter was not met with praise and joy from his brethren but rather “contention”. “You went into uncircumcised men and ate with them!” was their reaction. However, thankfully, Peter boldly recounted how the love of Jesus poured out his Spirit on those Gentiles just as it happen to them on Pentecost. For Peter, it didn’t matter that they had not been water baptized or circumcised for he remembered the word’s of Jesus, “John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; 11:16). Peter’s defense for what he saw both in his vision and in Caesarea depicted the last of the three keys God gave him to open up His kingdom. The first two being the Jews the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 14) and to the Samaritans after they had believed (Acts 8:15). Peter’s instrumental role in ushering in the Holy Spirit to all those who repent and believe, despite the contention and religious traditions that made it hard for others to see, make him the rock that Jesus will build up his Kingdom.

But the early saints would continue to find it hard to believe what God revealed through Peter to be true. Judaizers as they are called would impress upon uncircumcised but Spirit filled saints that they had to be circumcised and follow the laws and traditions of their Jewish counterparts. Therefore, Jesus needed another man, but not just any man, but arguably Judaism’s most popular zealot, Saul. For only Paul with his personal testimony and revelation straight from Jesus could declare “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness EVERYONE who believes.”

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Dear MD:

Your summary of the message could not have been explained any better. Well done! The actual video of the sermon is now on line and can be seen at http://www.pastorjohnshouse.com/video/whoweare.html

Pastor John

Bro. John:

The Lord woke me this morning with such a wonderful and sweet thought:

“Out of one Name, many”.

There is no end to the Father and the Son.  Out of one Name many are still being born.   As Peter said in Acts 4:

[10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
[11] This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
[12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

How many of us today could say as Peter did: “. . . .  by him [Jesus] doth this man stand here before you whole.” Earthly fathers can have many children, but only “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” is one born of the everlasting seed.

I love waking up to the Lord!  He gives food that is so satisfying!  His words soothe way down deep in the soul, and the more you ponder them, the sweeter they taste!

Sandy  🙂

“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Isaiah 66:8