Pastor John,

I felt so encouraged, sheltered, & safe in the meeting last night.  I took off a little early from work to get ready and pray before I went, preparing to receive anything from the Lord.  My, did He ever deliver! Songs, seeing Darren back among us and operating his gift, Gary, Donna, and you singing happy but sober songs.  It really touched me.  I love doing my job and playing bass, but it is also nice to put it down and soak in what is being said in the songs, as with Donna and you at the piano last night. 

John, we are not going to get around the order that God has set up here.  When God brought each and everyone of us here, he sat us under the authority that God gave to Jesus to give to you for us.  That is just the way it is, and I love it.  That is where peace is, real love, fellowship — everything!  We are not going to bypass God’s order and have fellowship . . . it cannot work.  Sometimes, I shake my head and wonder, “God, how much you must truly love us to give us a gift as your servant, John.”  I pray that God is sanctified in my heart to take these things in, and I pray I am found worthy of taking them in.  This is not a game!  Eternal life or eternal death is at stake, and Jesus paid it all so that we can have life, starting now — today.  God doesn’t need a one of us, but He is going to share his Son’s life with someone, and his Son is going to be honored.

I am so very grateful that God sent you to Judy and me.  We needed someone to truly love us with the love of God, telling and teaching truth which if we receive and love, will save us. 

The meeting was so joyful and exciting, but very frightening and real at the same time.  “But God.”  I felt so encouraged in my soul, to travel on.

Thank you, Pastor John for telling & teaching us Truth and loving us all.

Billy

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Hey Pastor John,

I feel like Ashley, I’m in awe of last night.  There are no words to express how thankful I am Jesus brought me here and put me under you.  The authority I felt last night was clean, pure and humbling.  I just wanted to fall on my face and thank the Lord the best I could.  When you walked out of the room, everything in me just wanted to run to you and say, “Please don’t leave.”  It brings tears to my eyes to think of everything Jesus has done for me.  I remember years ago going to church and not understanding the feelings I was having, after hearing the preacher preach something that didn’t feel right to my heart.  I would go to an old saint that I loved very much and ask her to help me understand.  Her reply was always, “Honey, you have to learn to take the good and leave the bad.”  That crushed my heart every time I heard it.  My heart rejoices in that everything you feed us is good, holy and pure food.  I always leave, full, fat, and satisfied!

Thank you, Pastor John. I feel like Jesus gave me to you to give me a new life, a life so good, so happy, so full I never dreamed it was possible.  Now, here we are, living!  Through good times and bad times, God has never failed us!  He has given us the best!  He has given us you!  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Love you!

Michelle

John,

Your message last night was wonderful.  I can’t wait to watch it again because I know I can’t take in that much good food in one sitting.

Before each meeting, I typically take a few minutes to pray, asking Jesus to bless our gathering. Last evening was no different.  I knelt down in my office and asked Jesus to open my heart, mind, and soul to be able to hear what Jesus had to say through you, and to bless any song that I might have the opportunity to sing.  I prayed for all of us to be able to take in the testimonies or the songs that others may have.  I prayed that our minds would be free from the affairs of our day and open to whatever the Spirit has prepared for us. 

Soon afterwards, Suzi and I were ready to walk out the door, get in our car, and drive to the meeting.  That’s when we found out that we had been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID.  So after some thought, we decided that we better stay home.

At first, I felt disappointed.  I was really looking forward to going to the meeting.  But suddenly, I heard a voice inside me say, “Do you remember what you just prayed?  Has anything changed?  Do you still want your heart, mind, and soul to be open to what the Spirit has prepared for this evening?”  I thought, “Yes, I do.” 

When the meeting first started, I put my chair near the TV because it felt good sitting up close.  The songs were wonderful.  It was the next best thing to being there in person.

Then you began your message.  I tried to hang on to each word, which is literally impossible, because if my mind stops to think about something you just said, then you have moved on to something else that I will most likely miss.

I loved everything that you said last night.  They were not just words from a carefully crafted sermon.  What you said, is you!  You are God’s representative.  And we have been chosen to be under you, and to take in whatever Jesus gives you.   I hope I can take that in fully and value the gift that Jesus has given us.  

One last thing, I just finished reading a section in the Father and Son* book titled, Form vs Life.  I stood under ministers for years that did a good job of maintaining the rites and rules of the institution.  I was taught to believe that one could not get to God without proper participation in the ceremonies led by men of the institution.  The institution needs men to uphold these things.

But God!

It is no small thing that Jesus has brought us out from the institution called Christianity.  Jesus used you to lead us out.  For that, I am eternally grateful.

Thank you, John.

Tom 

* Also titled God Had a Son before Mary Did

https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=fands

Bro. John:

Oh, my!  I just finished watching tonight’s meeting again and still am not sure I grasped all the things that you passed out for us to eat tonight!  My heart is so full that I am not sure I will sleep because of all the wonderful things that were there for us to hear.  I will just share a few points that touched me because I don’t believe I have ever heard such a clear explanation concerning Judas and Satan.

• That Satan left his “perfect in beauty” body and entered into the body of Judas because his purpose was:  “You have said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the Mountain of Assembly, on the far north side. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.”

That explanation makes so much sense.  When that happened it just helped me understand why Satan now was left, as mentioned in 1Peter 5:8, “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  He had left his “perfect in beauty” body, that God had created for him, to enter into Judas.  His goal to “be like the Most High” was a failure so there was nowhere for him to go but “. . . as lightning fall from heaven.” Luke 10:18 

I hope I am seeing this correctly, but please help me if not.  It was so good when you said it tonight!  And clearer than I’ve heard it before.

• The other thing was when you spoke of your credentials and all the revelations Jesus has given you over the years for US!  It flooded my heart just thinking how much God must love you and us to give such knowledge of Himself.  It brings tears to my eyes to think that he has chosen us to be the recipients of his love and wisdom.  There were several times tonight I could hardly breathe just hearing so much of what He has done for us.

Well, sorry for the length, but tonight was glorious.  And I will be forever thankful for you, Bro. John.  That God would send to us an anointed Pastor after His own heart to feed and guide us along this way to eternity.  We need you, and we need each other.  Thank you for every time you have helped me, corrected me, loved me, and saved me from myself. 

There were more riches in tonight’s message than I can express here.  But thank you for all you gave us tonight.  I’m going to try to go to sleep now, but it’s hard to sleep when you’re still chewing on the things of God!

Love you, Bro. John. We are a blessed people.

Sandy  🙂

Pastor John,

I just have to say again how wonderful tonight was!  With every story and every new thing you said about what God has done for you and taught you, it made me love you more!  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!  I know I’ve heard all of that many times before, but I have never felt so much as I did tonight 🙂 Kind of felt like when someone treats you right or compliments you or does sweet things to take care of you…it just makes you love them more each time.

That’s how I felt with you!  I couldn’t sit there anymore, I had to give you a hug! I’ve known you since I was 16, and since then you have loved me, corrected me, encouraged me, directed me, taught me, prayed for me, financially helped me, flew me to Australia to see my future husband, cared about my children, checked on me during hard times, and worked so much behind the scenes that I’m sure I don’t know about!  You’ve helped me know how to live life. 

Jesus has done a wonderful thing to have sent me to you, and you to me!  I’m so thankful for you!!  What wonderful things that you have been taught by God, for us! Thank you for being willing to go through hard times, for us.  Thank you for searching for answers and wanting to tell the truth.  I love those truths tonight!!  Whew. 

Lord, “thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over!  Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!” 🙂

Leah

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Dear John,

I am in awe of the beautiful picture you painted for us tonight of how God created you to be a true pastor- our pastor. I feel so small, but so very loved and so very grateful that Jesus would have such  a love for us to give us you to teach us about him so that we can all meet him in peace. 

Thank you for loving Jesus and us so much,

Bess

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John, 

I have heard you teach us about your credentials before and love hearing it every time. Tonight was even better than before. I could feel the power of the spirit in your words.  Thank you for being there for me and Bess and for our boys. You are a true gift from God to us. 

Love you!!!!

Tim

 

Good morning,

I was reading the chapter about Job from “The Suffering and the Saints”* book recently.  So wonderful!  As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think about Michelle’s testimony and how closely it parallels Job’s testimony.  Granted, Michelle has not been through the kind of extreme suffering that Job went through.  She did not suffer with boils all over her body or the death of her children, loss of all her material possessions, terrible nightmares, everyone forsaking her, etc.  But she has suffered, nonetheless.  She went through loss of husband, loss of home, sickness of her daddy, sickness for herself, and her children’s troubles.  It seemed like it was one thing right after another, pushing Michelle to the point of not knowing how much more she could take.  At her lowest point, Jesus had to help her just to breathe.

Through all of the sufferings, however, Michelle knew, just like Job did, that the Lord had done it!  

Job said in 1:21, “the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the LORD!”  

Michelle testified the other morning at your house, “The thought that thrills my soul.  That makes me feel so safe and taken care of is being able to say  ‘Lord!  You have put on, and You have taken off!  And I praise you for every bit of it!  Thank you so much!’”

They both glorified God for having given them blessings and for having taken them away.  And they both understood that the road leading out of their sufferings was the way of holiness. You wrote, “A man who does not know that God loves him cannot do that.  A man who does not trust God’s wisdom cannot do that.  And a man who believes in other gods, including Satan, as having power to determine destruction for the saints cannot do that”.  Both Job and Michelle knew God too well to believe that anyone other than their Creator could take away their blessings, unless He determined it could be done.  When Job’s wife told him just to go ahead and “curse God and die,” Job told her she was foolish for saying that. He told her, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”  

Both Job and Michelle received their suffering “without cause”, but they both knew it was not without purpose.  As for Job’s sufferings, you wrote, “But that there was at least one purpose in Job’s sufferings, multiplied thousands of saints can bear witness who have been strengthened in the face of sorrow by Job’s example”.  Michelle testified to how reading Job had strengthened her.  And now Michelle’s testimony can encourage us!  

You wrote, “Job knew that God was responsible (for his sufferings), and that God loved him and would be glorified in his complete deliverance if he would patiently wait for that salvation in the way of righteousness.  That is perfected faith. That is faith that is rooted in the unshakable foundation of God’s goodness and power and wisdom”.   Similarly, Michelle testified about keeping her feet firmly planted until that last wave hits, just as she had read in your father’s gospel Tract, “Standing Still in Jordan”.   You responded to Michelle, “Unmovable.  Unshakeable.  Established.  That’s Jesus!”  I love that!

I finished reading the Job chapter and then had this thought, “What if Michelle hadn’t known that her sufferings were from the hand of her Creator?  What if she had blamed the Devil for her sufferings?” Instead of testifying of God’s goodness the other morning at your house, what if Michelle had spoken up and said, “Boy, that Devil almost got me this week!”  What kind of testimony would that have been?!  Instead of rejoicing with Michelle, we would all have been wondering what she had done to deserve such treatment by the Devil.  Instead of Michelle feeling there was “not a ripple on the water”, she would have been condemning herself for what was happening to her.  Instead of getting God’s purpose for her sufferings, she would have been asking God why He let that Devil do that to her.  Instead of feeling “safe and taken care of”, she would be fearing when that Devil might strike again!  Instead of glorifying God as the All-Knowing and Almighty Creator that he is, she would have elevated the Devil into a position of authority, as one who had somehow managed to slip past God.  Where is God’s glory in that?!  How can her faith be perfected in that?!  How could any of us be encouraged by that?  

It has been forty years now since Jesus spoke to you, “It tickles the Devil for God’s children to blame their troubles on him.” What a liberating message!  Many of us in this body were taught to blame the Devil for our troubles.  Or, we were taught that “God is good” means that God won’t cause us to suffer.  I love knowing that there is one God, and ALL of my times are in His hands.  There is so much peace and comfort in knowing that.

The conclusion of this chapter was so good!  You wrote, “The life of every one of God’s people is the sole responsibility of the Owner.  He may use it or leave it upon the shelf.  He may brand it, break it, twist it, or melt it.  But whatever happens to the Master’s instruments is determined by no one but the Master.  Faith, when it is matured, rejoices in that.  Who better than our God to be in control of our fate?  This is the faith which guided Joseph and Job to victory over suffering, and it is the faith that guided our Lord Jesus through his sufferings to eternal glory”.   

That kind of mature faith will guide every one of us to victory over our suffering!  I am thankful for Michelle’s testimony, as well as the many, many others I’ve heard through the years that glorified God as the Designer of their sufferings.  I am thankful for the “All Things” message that was given to you forty years ago.  It has saved us!   And because of that message, we have been able to rejoice with Michelle and so many other Saints for what God, and God alone, has done!  

God is good!

Lee Ann

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Pastor John,

* Going to Jesus.com – Suffering and the Saints

Pastor John,

This morning’s gathering was glorious!  I loved hearing the songs and testimonies and could envision little Ellie smiling ear to ear dancing before the Lord.  I know listening to it is not the same as being there but I thank Jesus for being alive to feel what I do when I get to listen to it.  I especially loved Gary’s new song “The Blessing”.  I feel like the song went right along with a little dream I had early this morning.

I woke up and heard Richard getting ready to leave, but I fell back to sleep and had a dream.

I was sitting down at a table in an outdoor bistro. There were maybe fifteen or so young Jewish men sitting around gathered together enjoying what they were talking about.

As I sat there watching the men, a Jewish waiter came up to take my order.  He looked concerned and asked the person sitting next to me, “What’s wrong with her?” The person answered, “She’s sad because she’s a Jew.”

I don’t know who the person was sitting next to me, but it felt as though the response they gave was to provoke a negative response from me and the Jews that were there.

I didn’t say anything but I thought, “Oh no, now they are going to ask me questions about being Jewish. How am I going to explain it to them?”

Just then, one of the Jewish men sitting a few feet from me spoke.  He had a paper in his hand and was writing down what he was saying, maybe for a speech or a sermon.  He said to his fellow Jews, “We are bound by chapters 5 and 6!”  The group of young men around him excitedly said, ”Yes, write that down!”  The feeling was they were proud to be bound by those chapters.  And then the man said, waiving the paper in his hand, “They hate the water but love the wine.”  It felt like the “they” he was speaking of were not Jews, and that was it.  When I woke up, I felt like I had been dreaming for hours, but I only remembered that very short part of the dream.

It made me curious and excited to look up the 5th & 6th chapters of the first five Old Testament books. The 5th chapter of Deuteronomy is Moses giving the Israelites the Ten Commandments!

These verses really stood out to me in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy in regards to why the Jewish man in my dream said they were bound:

2. so that you might fear Jehovah your God to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, you and your son and your son’s son, all the days of your life, and that your days might be prolonged.

      …    

      7. And you shall inculcate them into your children and speak of them when you sit in your house,           and when you walk in the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

      …

20. “When your child asks you in time to come, saying, ‘Why these testimonies, and statutes, and judgments which Jehovah our God commanded you?’,
21. then you shall say to your child, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but Jehovah brought us out from Egypt with a mighty hand.
22. And Jehovah worked signs and wonders, great and grievous, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house, before our eyes.
23. And He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in to give us the land which He swore to our fathers.
24. And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good forever, to preserve us, as it is this day.
25. And it will be our righteousness before Jehovah our God if we are careful to do all this law just as He has commanded us.’

I think I would be sad to be a Jew feeling bound by the letter of the Law.  But I love being a Jew inwardly, circumcised of the heart, by the Spirit! And after hearing and feeling this morning’s gathering I think WE are “they” that hate the water and love the wine!  Thank you, Jesus for your blessing!

Amy F.

John,

I sure loved what I felt this morning at your house, sitting around the fire with everyone.  I felt the unity of the Spirit like I haven’t felt in a while.  It was such a sweet and overwhelming feeling!  You could feel the strength and power that it brings with it.

I want to live in that place every minute of the day!  In that place, prayers are heard and people get healed!  I would to God that all His people could feel that power together in his Name!  I know we can, if we all are after the same thing.  I love unity and I love feeling it.  There is so much peace in being in one accord!

I am so thankful that we are all here together on earth at this time!  I want to value it and walk in it with all my heart.  Thank you, John, for everything you have taught us and given us from the Lord!!

Thank you,

Stuart

Good morning, John.

I wanted to take the time to write down the beautiful feelings Jesus gave me during the Bible study Wednesday night.  I love the way the Spirit floods like a river at times, as Jesus is washing and reminding us of what he has made us as to be as his new creations in Christ!  It was so touching to hear with my heart the songs being sung and the glorious preaching and teaching Jesus sent to us!

When Gary sang his song, “Over There”, all I could think about was being willing to do whatever it takes to hold onto fellowship with Jesus and you all.  Being willing to examine my heart honestly and continuing to make the changes I need to make are the things that will get me to that place with you all, Over There.  The Spirit knows how to get us Over There if we will follow it. 

Then Gary sang, “I Gotta Go Now”.  For just a few moments, Jesus took my thoughts back to being a 9-year-old in that Baptist church I grew up in, where I had sincere questions for the pastor about speaking in tongues, and if that was for us today.  He didn’t have God’s answers for me, and of course, I had never, ever heard that Christianity was not of God; I was just a young girl longing for real answers about the Jesus I had read about in Bible stories, and I thought he would have answers from Jesus for me.  The pastor didn’t know anything beyond his Baptist doctrine, such as Jesus having to go away to make his sacrifice so that the Comforter could come to bring Life to truly repentant souls.  Even though he was kind to me, the pastor was as ignorant as I was about Jesus.  We were ignorant together in Christianity.  But Jesus had a plan for me!  He wanted me!  My heart felt so safe as I heard those words of life in Gary’s song, remembering how Jesus had rescued me, filled me with his Spirit, and created a love for his truth in my heart!

John, I loved hearing you teach about slander and how you said, “Be wrong with Jesus and choose him over [human] rightness.“  Judas was right according to the law, but it was just a front to cover his wicked heart.  He influenced the rest of the disciples by his subtle talk, making it seem that he cared more about those poor people than Jesus did.  And then, when Jesus rebuked the disciples for their indignation towards him in Matthew 26:8, it revealed where each of their hearts were: Judas left and made his deal to betray Jesus, and the rest of the disciples stayed with Jesus, even though they didn’t understand him.  Jesus kept working to help them be prepared for the day when his Spirit would come and fill them. 

I loved how you told us that as the disciples didn’t know Jesus while he was among them.  It’s the same now with God’s sincere children who are entangled in Christianity.  They don’t know what they have in the holy Ghost – they don’t know him.  That was an echo of what I was feeling during Gary’s song, “I Gotta Go Now”.  God rescued me from the awful snare of Christianity, and He rescued me from being one of His ignorant sheep who doesn’t understand the New Birth.  How big God’s love is for us that He would have us to know that the holy Ghost is proof – His personal testimony – about His Son!  And to hear you say that we belonged to God from before the foundation of this world, that we were never part of this world, it brought so much comfort!  With Jesus, I have a home now, where I can live without any condemnation or regrets.  It is worth everything to keep my heart clear so that nothing hinders the fellowship Jesus has blessed me with, with you and this family. 

Thank you for feeding us the good things Jesus gives to you.  He is wanting each one of us to live!

Bess

Here is a good Pearl from Wednesday night!

“No amount of evidence can produce knowledge because evidence is not proof.  The baptism of the holy Ghost is the only proof that exists that Jesus is at the right hand of God because the holy Ghost baptism is God’s personal testimony about His Son.  The Spirit is the witness because the Spirit is truth.  This is the witness of God that He has given concerning His son. He who does not believe God, has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has given concerning His Son.”

I love this, God has a personal testimony!  And it is about His son!  And then this:

“When you received the holy Ghost, your heart was made manifest that it believed God.  You believe God told the truth when you received the holy Ghost.  That’s believing God!”

Knowing that when we received the holy Ghost, our hearts believed God is just so good to me.  This study of Jesus’ last days and what he went through has been so valuable!  I know you’ve preached before on the Wise and Foolish, the Talents, and all that you’ve covered, but it sure seems extra special and good this time.

Debbie T.

Good morning, Pastor John, 

I was reading in the Father and Son book* this morning.  I was thinking about there being cues in the Bible that it was more being said than appeared.  As an example: “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.”  When I read that in the Father and Son book, it stuck out to me.  I had never thought of it as a cue/alert to pay attention.

When you talked last night about Jesus having to show them foot washing because that’s the best he could give them in the condition they were in, it hit me how alone Jesus must have felt while here among us.

 I loved when you said that about taking in God’s personal testimony (the holy Ghost) of His Son.  I don’t know if I ever looked at it that way.  The holy Ghost is His testimony!

I have always loved seeing the Old Testament shadows of Jesus and the Spirit.  Something about seeing those things has always thrilled me.  I literally feel a little leap inside when I see them.  And yet for a moment this morning, I thought, Lord, wouldn’t it have been easier not to have had some of those symbols, like water baptism, set up?  Christians can’t get over those ceremonies, even if you do pull on their hearts; the Jews can’t get over the law and their traditions.  What was meant to foreshadow God’s testimony, they got stuck in and can’t take in the real thing, the Spirit, the only proof of who Jesus is! 

That makes it so much more astonishing to realize that he has let us take it in.  We don’t live in the shadows; we have received the proof.  To really know that Jesus can talk to us, and that we don’t need symbols of the truth!  Jesus can share the truth with us.  We can take in God’s testimony, just like we can take in each other’s testimony, because we have the same Spirit.  We were created in Christ to take in each other’s testimonies, and we started by taking in God’s!  That is just floating around inside of me.  I don’t think it has even gone in all the way.  It’s so good!

I keep thinking of how much I love hearing one of us testify.  It feels so good when one of us tells on Jesus!  It’s like a seed that’s already planted by the Spirit in our hearts; it’s what we were made to hear and believe!  It just draws out the Amen!  I loved when you said that last night, too! 

The more I read and hear, the more I feel like this is a story about the Father, the Son, and us.  I feel like an intimate part of them. 

I sat this morning praying about divisions in the body of Christ.  It hurt my heart because we are the same.  All who have the Spirit belong together!  The divide was made with this world, not each other. We are the same.  To just live in that place of love and peace, and cherish that we are the same!  The only place we do belong is together!

Beth D.

*God Had a Son before Mary Did (Also known as The Father and Son book)

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