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  • Jesus!

    Hey Pastor John,

    I love the feelings I’ve had since our reading of Job.  It has done something in my heart.  When I read the Bible, I see more of Jesus; when I look out my window and see the trees and the birds and the sun shining, I see more of Jesus.  More than ever before, he is becoming everything to me; he is the answer for everything.

    Jimmy T. has provoked me, and I’ve started reading the Jerusalem Council book* again.  Even in this, I see more Jesus and his greatness.  This is a quote from Paul that just sums up what’s been magnified in my heart since Job: “He is the one whom the prophet, said God would make ‘most blessed, forever’, for God has exalted Jesus above all things, and placed all power in his hand.  Nothing can be added to him, and nothing can be taken away.  Jesus has all power to save forever those who come to God by him, and nothing but Jesus can save at all.  He needs nothing, and all that we need is in him.  He is uniquely our Savior, and from that truth springs all else that I know and teach.”

    Whew…amen!

    Michelle

    *https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=the-jerusalem-council

  • Who Has the Spirit?

    Hi pastor John,

    I have a question.   How would you know if a person who has Holy Ghost and the person who doesn’t have? 

    Thank you.

    Leika

    ==========

    Hi Leika.

    That is THE question of the ages.  Every wise follower of Jesus asks it.

    Jesus told Nicodemus that when a person is born of the Spirit, the Spirit always produces a sound:

    John 3:8.  “The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

    When the Spirit was first given, the people who received it spoke in tongues; that was there sound the Spirit produced:

    Acts 2:2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting

    1. And there appeared to them divided tongues like fire, and it sat upon each one of them,
    2. and they were all filled with holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit moved them to speak.

    Afterward in Acts, whenever people received the Spirit and the sound of the Spirit is mentioned, the sound was speaking in tongues (Acts 10; 19). But when men began to teach that there was no sound, that one could receive the Spirit without the sound that Jesus said would always be there, the apostles had to defend the truth, the “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).  To make sure that God’s children were not taken in by the new doctrine of false teachers who taught men that they could receive the Spirit of God without the sound being there, John wrote this:

    1John 4:

    1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
    2. By this, the Spirit of God is known: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ when he has come into a person is of God,
    3. and every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ when he has come into a person is not of God.  And this is that of the anti-Christ which you have heard is coming, and now, already, it is in the world.

    In spite of what Jesus said and the apostles taught, the doctrine that people could be born of God without the sound of the Spirit was so attractive to sinners that it won the day, and thus, the seed of Christianity was sown.

    Unfortunately, many who truly do receive the Spirit do not follow it, and their behavior demeans the wonderful work that God once wrought in their heart.  They will have blood on their hands in the Final Judgment.  These are the “foolish virgins” of which Jesus spoke.  Those children of God look like and act like the world.  On the other hand, some people without the Spirit behave themselves so well that they may look like and act like believers.  But in an Assembly of saints, they cannot worship in the Spirit with God’s children; nor can they sense in their everyday life what God is feeling and thinking.

    In such cases, the Spirit inside of you, the Spirit that made a sound when it came in, has to let you know who has the Spirit and who does not, and it always will.  Many times, we feel a connection with someone we meet, although nothing has been said.  Then we find out they received the Spirit in the past.  That holy connection is sweet.

    If you read my recent booklet, The Sound of the Spirit,* you will see that the sound made by the Spirit may not always be in a clear language, but it will always be there.

    I hope that answers your very good question.

    The saints here greet you in the love of Christ.

    Pastor John

    *  Going to Jesus.com – The Sound of the Spirit at Spirit Baptism

  • Comment on “Only God Can Save” YouTube Reel

    I’ve watched a couple of his videos now and I’m very confused. Is he saying if you don’t have Jesus in your heart then a baptism is worthless? Or there’s no point in communion if you don’t have Jesus? Because God tells us to do these things in the Bible Acts 2:38: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” Acts 2:41: “Those who received his word were baptized” Titus 3:5: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God”.

    YouTube Subscriber

    ==========

    Hello,

    The issue is in what baptism is and what communion is. The baptism of the holy Ghost, which Jesus gives to those who repent and believe on his name, is the means by which we are “born again” into the kingdom of God. Water baptism was given only to the Jews, to introduce Israel to the Messiah, who, when he accomplished his mission on earth, would make the baptism of the holy Ghost available. That is why Paul would say that there is now only “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5), which is the baptism of the Spirit.

    Communion with God is just that, communion, or communication, with God. And it is done through the holy Ghost that a person has after they have been baptized with it (as mentioned above). Communion was never intended to be symbolized through a ritual of eating bread and wine. Jesus made it possible to have the real thing! There is no need to symbolize something that we can have for real.

    Hope this helps. For more information, please visit us at http://www.goingtojesus.com. God bless. 

     

  • “How has Satan deceived the whole world?”

    I’m not following? What is a lie?

    YouTube Subscriber
    ==========

    The lie is that Christianity represents Jesus. It does not. Christianity began with the emperor Constantine, not with Christ. We are born into the body of Christ by the baptism of the holy Ghost. Christianity and all of its thousands of divisive sects, may be joined. The body of Christ cannot be joined.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnIGFsQNpFE&lc=UgxrMvzSiSdpyoQKU414AaABAg

  • Sunday’s Meeting. John 14:12

    Pastor John,

    You said something Sunday I have never before heard (taken in). I’m paraphrasing a bit:

    “Paul was preaching to people who had the holy Ghost (the mind of Christ). They could understand what Paul was saying.” 

    You also pointed out that Jesus told the disciples, “I have things to tell you that you cannot yet bear.” 

    Jesus said that because the disciples did not have the mind of Christ to understand Him.

    Jesus had absolutely no one on earth who had the mind of Christ to understand him or who could really receive him and what he was doing.

    It made me think of John 14:12 (KJV pasted at the bottom)

    No wonder Jesus said he would go away but his disciples would do even greater things than him. 

    Jesus was constrained (no doubt in his love for Israel) by everyone’s inability to understand him or even bear what He had to say/do without being derailed. 

    He had to hold back.

    I never considered that verse from John to possibly be pointing to that fact. 

    Wow!

    ________

    John 14:12:

    (King James Version)

    12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

    ________

    We might could continue that last sentence from v14 with “…because I go unto my Father so that He can pour out our glorious kind of life onto you human beings so they can receive what you are about to do!”

    Jesus knew he could never do all the good on earth that his faithful followers would do once the sacrifice was completed in heaven and the Spirit of God was poured out on men. 

    What an interesting thought.

    Jerry

  • The Ditch

    Hi Pastor John,

    I had a sweet experience with Jesus yesterday, and I wanted to share it. 

    I had been mowing some of the leaves that have fallen and saw some garbage in the ditch.  I stopped the mower and got off to pick up the garbage.  There were two glass whiskey bottles and two beer cans lying near each other, and as I bent down to pick them up, I felt frustrated. 

    I began to tell Jesus how much it bothered me that some people just threw their alcohol bottles in the ditch as they drove or walked by.  Actually, I told him that those people get on my nerves, and I didn’t want to have to pick up after their bad habits.  When I said that, Jesus started talking to me.  Jesus asked me which condition would I rather be in, the condition of the poor soul carrying around that bottle or the condition of being clean and sober, and cleaning up the ditch? I know what condition I was in before Jesus came into the ditch and carried me out.  It changed me as soon as he said that.  I am just overwhelmed with thankfulness for what condition I am in.

    I have been picking up garbage out of that ditch for five years now, and I don’t think I will ever feel the same about it.  I thought about it all day, and the same overwhelming thankfulness hits me.  Jesus cleans up ditches all the time! 

    When Jesus talks to you it changes things.  I love how true that is! 

    Beth D.

    pearl12_3

  • Job Wanted a Recreated Heart

    Wow! I started this email early this morning. These were my thoughts when I woke up and this is what y’all are saying right now in the meeting! I love it! red heart

    I went back and read this email I wrote to you when we were further back in Job:

    “Ever have a thought, and then been scared you had it?  I read that and thought, Job would have said he wanted a heart like mine, recreated by Jesus. A new heart!”

    I know how much God loved Job, so it’s scary to even have that thought.  But Job couldn’t have had a recreated heart because Jesus had to die for us to have a heart like God’s.

    Beth D.

  • Reflections on Job

    Hi Pastor John,

    I want to write about our Job readings.  This reading of Job has been so good; really transformative.  Once, the story of Job seemed unreal, but I feel like we’ve dug deeper than ever and made the story of Job so deeply real.  Reading back on the Job notes, and reading what was said, I was struck by how very real Job felt.  Reading his words, I found myself imagining how he must have felt going through his ordeal.

    Also, I love so very much when God began to speak to Job.  How terrifying it would have been, but also, I could see nothing but love and correction in what God said to Job.  Then to see Job’s humble response – “I have no understanding of things too wondrous for me.”  This has been one of my all-time favorite verses, but now I love it more because it’s more real.

    Then I also think of Elihu.  I was cheering for him all along and was so happy to find he was a good guy!  I loved when he says, “I will fetch knowledge from afar and to my Maker will I ascribe righteousness.”  Oh, my soul loves this!  I love Elihu. I love that he looked to God’s righteousness and withheld any judgment when God had not spoken.

    Finally, I think of Job’s three friends.  I’m reminded how when we started Job, you really made sure we knew they were not the bad guys.  And they’re not.  But I think I forgot that along the way, and I will have to work on that a bit in my heart. Job’s three friends really were doing the best of what they knew in that time period about righteousness – God was showing something new, but they were just not aware yet.

    But then, when God finally spoke and told Job’s three friends to go to Job and Job would pray for them, and they made offerings and God accepted the offerings and prayers of Job for his friends – I loved that, too.  What love of God all around! And the love of Job for his friends, and they for him!  What a good story!  It makes me look at righteousness differently – it’s all the righteousness of GOD.

    My only wish is that at the conclusion, God would have said something about Elihu.  I wish I knew what God’s words for Elihu would have been.

    Thank you for the wonderful journey through Job!

    Love,

    Jenny

  • Guarding Hearts

    Pastor John,

    I talked to Jacob this weekend about his progress at his new electrical school. During the conversation he ended up telling me about his very first year in the electrical training program, and the experience he had watching an apparently normal young man leave his wife/fiance, grow his hair out long, and start wearing dresses to class.

    He said everyone there had to just act like it wasn’t happening. I was shocked as he told me this, and I felt mortified for him.

    But I feel like the Lord taught me something important tonight, as I recalled the conversation:

    When this world tries to force a young person to accept and normalize that awful behavior as it sits down beside them, they are not just demanding that the kids hold still and be quiet PHYSICALLY as it gets close to them. They are training the kids spiritually to hold still and not to resist when those spirits come knocking on their heart’s door. The kids are being conditioned not to resist an attack on their hearts. They are being taught to not push those spirits away and speak out.

    That is so much more wicked than I had ever imagined.

    You told us years ago we better teach our kids who they are, because if we don’t, the spirits of this age are going to. That poor young man in Jacob’s class lost his mind, and Jacob witnessed it. That was a good lesson from Jesus, for Jacob, to guard the hearts of all those God may put in his charge.

    Jerry

  • Ephesians 3:19

    John,

    When reading thru your Job notes, I just wondered if I am getting the point on the phrase “love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge” in the sentence below.  Can you expound on the phrase,” love surpasses knowledge”?  Here it is.  Paul said, “and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, so that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

    Wendell

    =========

    Hi Wendell.

    It’s simple, really.  Paul is just saying that the love of God is better than knowledge about God.  I would say that the whole point of learning about God is to be able to walk in His love.  It might even be said that to walk in God’s love is to truly know Him.

    Uncle Joe once testified in a meeting that he didn’t want to know more than he could love.  That is a good prayer.  Whatever we know, it is what people feel from us that means the most.  Jesus said that all men would know that we were his disciples by the love we have, one to another, not by the amount of information we have about God.

    God help us be known by that love!

    Pastor John

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