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  • Praying for Bad Leaders

    Pastor John,

    The other morning, I got up and a feeling of prayer overwhelmed me for president Biden and everyone in his administration.  I felt my heart just collapse, and I began pleading for Jesus to help and to have mercy on them.  I felt such compassion and concern for them.  I have never felt such love and care for people who are doing so much damage to others.

    Immediately, I said in my heart, “Lord, this is how it is supposed to be.  This is how we are to pray for our enemies instead of offering ‘lip service’ because you told us to pray for them.”

    And as if answering a question I had not yet asked, the spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Believe God.  That is how you pray for your enemies. When you believe God will do to them all He has said, it will make you plead for them.”

    I felt a resounding “Yes!” go up from my heart.  I knew God had helped me to do it His way.  The answer was just to believe God and not look at things any other way.

    Jerry

  • Jesus’ Name

    Hi & Yahweh’s Shalom & Blessings!!!

    I personally received the In-Filling & Baptism of The Holy Spirit on June 6th, 1958!!  As you can see that was a few years ago!!!  Hahhelu-YAH!!!  Praise His Name, i.e., Yahweh-!  By & thru His son, “Yahshua Ha Mashiach” ; i.e., known by most as Jesus Christ!!!

    Thank you & Blessings,

    Messianic-Rabbi Harry Shmuel Dombek

    PS:  Our 15 year old WebSite ( WWW.YahwehsFeastDaySite.Com)* speaks about “The Baptism of the Holy” – in the same way you do also-!!!

    PSS: Now, have you – “By His HOLY-SPIRIT” – come into the Truth & Knowledge of His True Hebrew Name, and His Son Yahshua Ha Mashiach – as of yet-???  Here is a brief verse to think  & Pray about: John 5:43� –  “I am come in my Father’s Name, – (- i.e., Yahweh -)-  and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.� Remember, there was never any letter – “J” – in the Ancient Hebrew writings, nor in any of the modern Hebrew writings-!!!

    Etc., etc. …..

    ============

    Hi Brother Harry.

    This is Pastor John.  Brother Gary Savelli passed along your email to me, and I asked him if I could respond.

    I tried to go to the website you attached, but the link would not work for me.  Neither did it work when I manually typed in the website name.  I wanted to see what your website says about the baptism of the Spirit, since you wrote that you speak of the baptism of the Spirit as we do here.  I am always excited when I hear that the Lord has opened someone’s eyes to the truth that he has also shown to us.

    You know that God, through Isaiah, condemned those religious teachers who condemned others over the right use of a word: “who make a man a sinner because of a word, and lay a trap for the judge in the gate, and by false pretense defraud the righteous man” (Isa. 29:21, my translation).  This is what I see with most people who insist that only Jesus’ Hebrew name is to be used.  I do not believe that God refuses the prayers of righteous souls who speak to Him in their own language.

    You mentioned that Hebrew has no “J” sound.  That it correct.  Latin has no “J” sound, either, nor does it have a “V” sound.  And the Romans always pronounced the “e” at the end of their words.  So the correct pronunciation of the chief of Rome’s gods, Jove, is pronounced very close to, if not exactly this: Yahweh.

    In case you are interested, here is an article I wrote about that, some years ago now.

    https://www.isaiah58.com/clark/clark03_13_97.html

    I wish you well, and I hope at some point to be able to visit your website, and I would love to hear your testimony someday of the grace of God that came to you in 1958.

    Your servant for Christ,

    Pastor John

    *Web address inoperable at time of this post.

     

  • This is a Good Scripture

    This is a good scripture (Phip. 1:12):  “Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.”

    It is encouraging to know that all things are working for good when you are suffering. But to know your suffering is furthering Jesus’s gospel (the covenant of life in the spirit), that makes you feel like you can run the extra mile.

    I know that was Paul’s testimony about his imprisonment for Christ’s sake and what it did for others, but I think a lot of people’s suffering has furthered the gospel.  Every time someone is encouraged in the Lord by another’s steadfastness during a trial, it furthers the gospel.  It makes me think of the tract, “Trials are Opportunities”.  Trials are opportunities to further Jesus’s Gospel.

    Jerry

  • Walk with Jesus This Morning

    I wanted to tell about a sweet experience I had this morning.

    This morning when I woke, the kids hadn’t gotten up yet and I wanted to start my morning with a walk.  The sky was already a beautiful blue with some dotted white clouds and it felt so peaceful. By the time I got down to the bridge in front of Stuart’s house, I said, “Good morning, Lord!” Then it hit me that BeBe sings that song 🙂  As that thought came, Jesus said, “Open up Songs of Rest.” I usually do listen to that while I walk but just hadn’t had the feeling to turn it on yet.  I thought…no…really?  Is that just me thinking it would be the neatest coincidence that the song would be playing?  I opened it up and the song “A Simple Life” was playing (it’s simple just to listen the spirit), and what did I see as the song that followed?…”Good Morning, Lord”!  🙂  It just tickled me so!  Jesus was listening to me.  That song did not just happen to be about to play.  I did not just have the thought to open up Songs of Rest.  Jesus met me in that conversation! 

    So, I listened to that song twice and was just past the Nelson’s at this point, and I thought I’d play it again, but Gary started singing a song about raising your hands to praise Jesus because he’s worth it.  I wish I could remember what it was, but it was perfect, so I walked a while with my hands up!  Then, as I was coming back up to that intersection after going down the road, BeBe came on again and sang, “He’s an On-Time God, he’s always right on time, He knows exactly what I need and He knows it every time!”  I just about couldn’t take the sweetness.  I feel like if I wasn’t crying from happiness, I was speaking in tongues my whole walk. 

    After the song ended, that was it.  Nothing else played, just 3 songs and it stopped.  So I took that as just quite time now and to thank Jesus for taking time with me and let it soak in.  I got almost to Carrie’s, and I looked up and the sky was so beautiful and there was just the ghost of a moon in the sky above the trees (Jesus knows I love the moon 🙂 ) and it was the prettiest picture, that it had to be captured.  So I stood there for a minute looking at it after I took the picture, thinking how good God is and how special this time was.  Then, my music randomly started up again, and in my pocket I heard, “God is good, good, good….so I just have to praise Him…”  I felt that to my core, and was the most perfect timing.  I walked down my driveway singing it with my hands up, then the spirit of laughter hit me.  I haven’t laughed in the spirit in a long while and it felt so good! 

    No one can tell me Jesus doesn’t plan things for you and doesn’t know what you need.  As I was walking down the driveway, I opened up the phone to take a screenshot of the song list so I could remember but it wasn’t what played for me.  Maybe it was set to “random” play? I don’t know but those songs weren’t what was on the list after “Good Morning, Lord” that it started up with 🙂 Jesus had those songs picked out for me in order.  I never would have known if I didn’t open up the link for the music.  But then again, he’s the one who gave me the thought in the first place to tell him “Good morning” 🙂 He’s so good 🙂 

    Leah

    Songs of Rest

     

  • Our Sabbath

    Hi Pastor John, 

    Reading in Exodus and have a question.

    Exodus 24:9-11

    Wow! How amazing that must have been.  Seventy-four of them experienced that together! Makes me daydream!

    When it says they beheld God, was it different from when Moses saw God as He passed before him? 

    1. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders went up.
    2. And they saw the God of Israel, and under His feet was something like a paved work of sapphire as pure as the sky itself.
    3. Yet, He did not stretch out His hand against the chief men of the sons of Israel, but they beheld God, and ate and drank.

    =========== 

    Yes, it was different, but exactly how it was different, we cannot say.

    jdc

    =========== 

    I was reading more about the Sabbath, and (knowing that the holy ghost is our Sabbath in this covenant) God was serious about us living in the Spirit.  I had the thought, if we seek out the things of this world and choose not to rest, we do die spiritually.  It does cut us off from our people.  We don’t have to get pulled into politics, family, or strife!  We have been given rest.  It does something to me to learn that God tells us keeping the Sabbath is our covenant with Him.  I pray to honor our rest. 

    The Sabbath

          12. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

    1. “You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘You shall certainly keep my Sabbaths, for it will be a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies you.
    2. You shall certainly keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Those who defile it shall surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
    3. Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to Jehovah. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.’
    4. And the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever

    Just to read and see that God was talking to us, giving us instruction and help from the beginning, amazes me.  I keep reading and realizing what has gone in and what I remember from everything you have taught.  I love that part!  Thank you for teaching me. I could go on and on, but I will save it for next time! 

    Beth D.

  • Unto You it Has Been Given!

    Hi, Pastor John,

    I read in Exodus this morning about God telling the Israelites how to handle certain situations: one’s ox goring someone, damaging another’s property, or injuring one another.  I spent the morning thinking about the order that brought to the Israelites, but more so, that it taught them how to treat each other and how their hearts should feel towards each other.

    How wonderful it is, that when Jesus creates a new heart in us, we know how to treat each other; it is in our hearts!  If we are where we should be, we treat each other perfectly!

    One day, we will all stand before Jesus, and he will know how we treated the hearts he gave to us, the gifts he placed in our lives.  I want Jesus to say,  “You were good to the pastor I gave to you.”  Or, “You were a good wife and help to the husband I sent you.”  Or “You were a good sister.  You took good care of what I gave you.”

    I heard brother Gary sing “Unto you, it’s been given” on my ride home; it touched me.

    When Jesus gave us the Spirit, he made sure we have everything we need for each other! heart

    Beth D.

  • Numbers 20: Believing and Sanctifying God

    Good morning, 

    I am really enjoying Moses.  I stopped at Uzziel in The Jerusalem Council because I just want to go back to the beginning with Moses and when God was giving him the law, then join Paul! 

    Two thoughts so far are that they accused Moses of the same thing they accused Paul of (Numbers 16:3).  And then I thought of the things some have accused you of.  It’s the same thing, all the way back to Moses! 

    When I see that it makes me say, “Rejoice” on the inside! 

    And Numbers 20:11, 2 when God was upset with Moses for striking the rock after He told him to speak to the rock.  I was thinking about what speaking to the rock vs hitting it would have given to the Israelites, if anything.  I think I remember that God was upset with Moses for disobeying Him and acting in anger, but God said that Moses and Aaron did not believe in Him to sanctify Him in the eyes of the Israelites.  Did they not believe God would send water just by speaking to the rock?  Or punish disobedience?  What am I not seeing?  This kept Moses and Aaron out of the promised land. 

    I know I have heard about this but I cannot remember. 

    Beth Durham

    ===========

    Hi Beth.

    In saying that Moses did not believe and sanctify Him before the people, God meant that Moses had not been a good example for the Israelites of obedience to God’s command.  Apparently, Moses was not the only one who knew he was supposed to speak to the rock, and so, when he hit it instead, he was not being a good example.  Moses had let the people’s rebellious attitude provoke him too much, and in anger against them, he disobeyed God and struck the rock.  Moses really wanted to strike the people; that is how frustrated he was.

    In our time, the spirits of anger, hatred, and strife are hard at work in the world, and people who are caught up in all that are trying to pass it on to others, including God’s children, and provoke them to act under those ungodly spirits.  If we pay much attention to those foolish people, they may persuade us to act under the influence of their evil spirits, and if we do that, we will certainly provoke God’s wrath, as it was provoked against Moses, for our unbelief and our failure to sanctify (honor) Him before people.

    Let’s believe God and honor Him before all men by confessing that He is still in command of this universe and by refusing to be provoked by the foolish to pick sides in this world’s conflicts.

    Pastor John

     

  • Balaam in Numbers 22-24

    I’m digging in Numbers to learn about the sin of Balaam.  Revelation 2:14 talked about him casting a stumbling block before Israel.  Where can I find more about him doing that? 

    Beth D.

    =========

    Hi Beth!

    It is so good to see someone digging into the scriptures in search of the knowledge of God.  Dig for it in prayer, as for hidden treasure because Jesus promised, “Seek and you shall find.”

    In Numbers 31 (see verse 16), we find Balaam still in the area of Moab, and Moses killed him along with other enemies of Israel.  So, Balaam did not return to his homeland at the end of Numbers 24, the way it sounds.  He only went back to his tent, which was in that area, and he decided not to go home but to remain in that area so that he could get the large sum of money that Moab’s King Balak promised him if he would help him overcome Israel.  It was Balaam’s crafty advice that Israel was following when they blended with Moab and their gods in Numbers 25, and the influence of that horrible advice continued in Israel for a long time (see Josh. 22:17).

    The equivalent of Balaam’s doctrine in the New Testament is when a minister is hired to teach a doctrine that says to someone with the holy Ghost that it is OK with God for them to be joined together in marriage with a person who does not have the holy Ghost, or when a person with the holy Ghost is talked into joining one of the churches of Christianity – none of which are the body of Christ.

    “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” covers a lot of territory, and that simple statement is God’s cure for Balaam’s cunning, “love everybody” doctrine.  Let’s stay away from that lie.

    Thanks again for writing!

    Pastor John

  • Notes from 4/18/21 Sermon

    Good morning, John,

    Yesterday’s message was beyond this world! I tried to take notes, but while I was trying to write one thing, you would say some other wonderful thing that was spoken straight from heaven! Then there were many times that I had to stop writing and raise my hands to praise God for what I was hearing! I came straight home and listened again. Sometimes, I would rewind and have to listen again because it was so good. Amy B mentioned in the comments yesterday that there were so many pearls and she was right. I came home with a pocket full of pearls!

    I felt like Jesus was holding up that Holy Ghost mirror (as I’ve heard Barbara say), and I don’t want to forget what I saw in that mirror! There were many sobering things said about guarding our heart and keeping it pure because we have no choice but to go with the condition of our heart! That was another reason for me writing these things down and asking Jesus to write them on my heart!

    At one point yesterday, you asked where God’s children could go to be fed and grow in the knowledge of God, and be made so full that it’s joy unspeakable. That’s where I was yesterday. So full that it was joy unspeakable! Oh Jesus! Don’t let us take what you’ve given us for granted! Let us appreciate all of this wonderful food you give us so freely!!

    Thank you! Thank you!

    Lee Ann

    Here are my notes:

    Jesus put you here! You are something God did!

    A pure heart will feel what is right. We are judged by what we feel.

    Everybody is judged based on what they feel and their attitude towards those who were saying these things.

    Your attitude towards God’s servants is a result of the condition of your heart that has been cultivated for a long time.

    You will have no choice but to go with the condition of your heart. It’s beyond understanding. You can make up your mind that you’re gonna go a certain way, but if your heart’s leaning the other way, that’s where you’re going to end up.

    To an unclean heart, wrong can seem right, and right can seem wrong.

    A lie can make sense to an unclean heart, but it doesn’t quite get through to a clean heart.

    Truth to an unclean heart often seems like a personal attack on your integrity.

    A clean heart feels its way out of hard places.

    If God doesn’t let you see it and change, you’ve been judged by your heart.

    Jesus sent the disciples out with two things: 1) A message (the kingdom of heaven is at hand) and 2) power. (Heal the sick; cleanse the lepers; cast out demons.

    Everyone’s reaction to the men God sends out is going to determine where they are today.

    Jesus came to bring everybody to a crossroads.

    Be prepared for your next crossroads! You’re sent to the crossroads to expose what’s in your heart. You don’t get to choose your response! The crossroads exposes hearts!

    If we are like Jesus we are going to suffer, but if we suffer with Christ, we will reign with Him!

    You can turn the other cheek because God will determine everything that is going to happen to you.

    Don’t compromise the truth. Shout it from the rooftop!

    It’s God’s choice who believes.

    We commit our souls to God by the way we respond to suffering. The way we respond to people not doing what we want them to do. Our attitude when we’ve been hurt.

    There will be a hot place in hell for anyone who goes there from here.

    When you got the Holy Ghost, you got anointed to hear directly from Jesus! He’s got a secret channel into your heart. Keep it open! Keep your well unclogged!!

    The power of God is a threat to men who are ordained by men and they feel it, so they come up with slander that ordinary people wouldn’t come up with. They accused Jesus of being demon possessed.

    The only way you or I or anyone can escape slander is to feel something. That keeps you from going with the experts.

    It’s always been a matter of the heart and God knows how to put you in that place. Something beyond your understanding, just so you can find out what your heart’s made out of.

    It doesn’t matter how much you know, God knows how to put you in a spot where you don’t know what to do.

    Don’t get puffed up because you know so much! God knows more and He is going to try your heart!

    You hear things from God’s servants that puts you at a crossroads. You are going to respond based on the condition of your heart.

    You’re gonna choose whether God is out to get you or whether God has your heart.

    David told Solomon, “Above all else, guard your heart”. You will have no choice but to go with the condition of your heart. It’s beyond understanding.

    Where can God’s people go to grow in the knowledge of God? To be fed and made so full that it’s Joy Unspeakable?!

    Don’t be afraid to speak to the world what God speaks to you.

    Love God more than you love anyone close to you. That’s how you love people. You can overcome the world, if you can overcome the ones who know your shoe size!

    The more you know God, the more you will hurt, but a just person would rather hurt and know the truth and not pretend it’s some other way.

    Don’t be afraid of the ones who don’t like you. Say the words I’ve given you to say. Be faithful.

    ==========

      

    Wow, what a wonderful email.  I loved Lee Ann’s feelings, and I love it when someone  takes great notes!    It never gets old, and it’s good to be reminded of the wonderful things said.  

    Yesterday’s message was pearl after pearl.  Praise the Lord!

    Gary

    ==========

    Lee Ann expresses herself very well.  I enjoy her writings a lot.

    jdc

    “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice!”

  • Hi Pastor John

    Pastor John, 

    I’m very happy and thankful for what Jesus has done in my life. As I ponder about everything God is doing in my life, I feel so grateful. The time He baptized me with the Holy Ghost and lead me out of Christianity. I’ve felt life and this is where I belong to live in His Spirit. And this is who I am. I’m happy, Pastor John!

    Thank you,

    Leika

    ===========

    Hi, dear Leika,

    It has been a pleasure getting to know you, and we are looking forward to what Jesus has yet for you, and for us, and for all God’s children everywhere!

    Thank you so much for writing.

    Pastor John 

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