https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=tfe12-15

I love this Thought for the Day! 

Thinking about you and praying you are resting and healing.

Beth D.

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Thanks for sending this, Beth.  It brought tears to my eyes, remembering the night when Uncle Joe was dying and Jesus gave me that dream.

Pastor John

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I have always loved this Thought for Today on the Winners are the Losers.  For one, I was there when you, Pastor John told Uncle Joe about it, but also, when you wrote it, I proofread it with you.  It touched me so deeply. I went in my room and cried and cried. What you had written applied to my life as well -the places I had been in my early life weren’t the best. I asked Jesus after reading this, “Why was it so bad?”  His simple reply: “Because I wanted you.” shew.  I never had to ask again why I went through the things I did in my teenage years and shortly after.  Jesus wanted me.  So thankful.  Whatever it took to get me here to this precious life I have now with a sweet family and husband and with Jesus, my sweet friend.

Amy B.

Pastor John,

I was looking at the emails where preacher Clark explained that praying “in Jesus’ name” doesn’t mean saying a prayer and ending (or beginning) it with the words, “in Jesus’ name.”

Preacher Clark was telling us that praying in Jesus’ name or doing anything “in Jesus’ name” simply means “by his authority.”

We can’t pray in Jesus’ name on our own. We can’t pray by his authority unless it is given to us.

When we pray “in the name of Jesus,” or “come in the name of Jesus,” or “go in the name of Jesus,” we are moving under his authority, and we represent him and his will. We don’t have to wonder the outcome in that case; he has sent us to do it.

So good!

Knowing that God can do such things for human beings makes it easier to understand such mysterious scriptures.

Jerry

Good morning, 

This Daily Thought is good!  It is good for us:

https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt12-07

As I read it, I remembered a few times I have taken things to Jesus that I needed him to answer and put in my heart, and Jesus did answer!

I remembered hearing a man on the radio tell of God’s love and mercy.  He was teaching the “get saved” doctrine that many Christians believe, explaining how we are all sinners and will always be sinners.  The man was convincing, and I felt unsettled after hearing him.  I believe I had just received the holy Ghost. 

I went to Jesus about this, and Jesus said to me, “If I was ok with sin, I would have left you in it!”

That settled everything in my heart! 

Another time, early on, I became fearful, wondering if the truth I was hearing from you was really the truth!  I had spent my whole life believing that there were many ways to God, and not just one.  That the truth was THE truth was pretty hard for me to take in.  When I did search that out in the Bible, and believed it, I was terrified.  I went to Jesus and told him how scared I was.  I was scared of being deceived.  Terrified of meeting Jesus and him saying he did not know me, that I hadn’t found the right way.  My soul depended on knowing the truth.

Jesus said, “Look at the fruits.”

The truth proves itself.  Jesus does not leave you guessing!  The truth lined up with everything I was reading and feeling in the Bible, as I sought for Jesus.  It lined up with everything Jesus was doing in me. 

And one of the dearest things Jesus put in my heart, was you, my help, my pastor. And because Jesus did it, it has saved me from wrong thoughts over and over again. I have told you about it before, but it’s beautiful to me, so I will tell you again. 

Many times, if I had wrong thoughts or got a little off in my spirit, a dividing spirit flooded in.  It took me a while to realize it, but it never failed.  That was the first thing that it went for, was to divide me from you, my pastor, and the body.  Just self-pity thoughts and “nobody loves you” thoughts, I hate that thing. 

One day I wrote you an email.  Your response left me saying to myself, “He did not understand what I was saying; he got that wrong.”  Over the course of a few days, Jesus walked me through that email. I cannot now remember what that email was even about, but I can still feel the awe I felt as Jesus put you in my heart.  Not only were you right about that situation, but you were also miles ahead of where I was.  Miles from me even forming a thought that resembled where you were.  I remember telling Jerry, and telling Jesus, how amazing that was to me.  I really was in awe.  Then Jesus showed me you and him standing on a high-up plain.  You were on his right side.  I understood it all in that moment.  You were working for Jesus.  Jesus had you with him, over us.  The order, the authority, and the love were understood in that moment of Jesus, showing you standing there with him. 

Nothing can ever take that out because Jesus etched it into me.  I rest in that.  It is an anchor.  I needed Jesus to do that for me.  My soul needed Jesus to do that.

Beth

Pastor John,

I love this!

https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt12-01

“The good life is the life that is led by a good spirit. It is the life that is being guided through this world by the Spirit of God. Happiness is being controlled by Jesus; it is being under the authority of a man under his authority, being told what to do by someone who knows God and loves you as He loves you. It is pure joy and peace to have over us someone controlled by God. I was blessed to have such a man in my young life in God, and in such a life, there is great peace; that is, if we have the faith to rest in it.

Men anointed by God can provide for God’s children a resting place in this spiritual desert called earth. God is “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat” (Isa. 25:4), and so is the man who is like him. Have you given anyone some relief from the burdens of this world lately?”

Amen!

Beth D.

Bro. John:

I just listened to “You Can Find Me in Your Past” that you sent out this a.m. with the message, “it’s not hard-seeking, but heart-seeking”.  As I listened to the words over and over, I wept.  I realized something for the first time from remembering my experience with Jesus in 2006.  That “past” is not the old past, but the NEW past where you find him!  When Jesus took me down that path (past) in Solomon, the feelings of Jesus and me were in the NEW past he had created in me – – that’s where we fell in love again as he awakened his feelings of love in me!  The memories are in the NEW past!  I had always connected the “past” in that song with the old past, but realized as I listened this a.m. it was the beautiful path of the memories in the NEW past where my feelings in Jesus were awakened!  Praise Jesus!  That song means so much more to me now.  Strolling with Jesus hand-in-hand – – no better life exists than that!

What a sweet morning remembering again Jesus created for us a NEW past in the holy Ghost.  That’s where he lives and together that’s where we LIVE!  I am full this morning . . . .

So very thankful for his love,

Sandy ~ ~

Good morning,

I am sitting here thinking about yesterday’s meeting, and the lesson we learned that anything we know about the Father must be revealed to us through the Spirit.  You told us, “Nothing about God or His Son is true, except what is revealed!  God and His Son are completely unknown without a revelation”.  Wow!  That statement is a revelation!

As we were talking about these good things around the fire this morning, I was thinking about the men in Christianity who call themselves a pastor, and how most of them stood in their pulpits yesterday preaching about something that had not been revealed to them.  The fact is, they were preaching about another god. 

Then, I thought about our experience yesterday.  You said, “We don’t feast on human thoughts.  We feast on revelation!”  These valuable lessons we have been learning from Matthew are a revelation from God, and each time we have gotten together has felt like sitting down to a big feast!  You have said that you never know which way Jesus is going to take you with this Matthew study.  I love that because it means the Spirit is leading the way, and it’s been wonderful!

Jesus has been so good to condescend to teach us and help us.  We should be the happiest, most united body on the planet!  Unite us, Lord, and help us to take in and love what you are revealing to us!

Lee Ann

Pastor John,

I was thinking this morning about how we can know that someone is wrong about Jesus (because of what He has revealed to us—only), but we love them, really love them, and not a bit less for their thoughts—and maybe have more compassion for them than we would, because they need the same help we received.

Yet people can believe we are wrong, and they despise us for it.  Even if they once loved us and know how we conduct ourselves.

What a difference there is in the Spirit that Jesus gives versus other spirits that people take in and call God.

One of the things that gave me such confidence in the truth, in the beginning, is that it makes the people who are in it the most willing of people to be wrong and to change.

The truth makes you go lower as you go ahead; it doesn’t puff you up.  And you soon stop trying to defend it, and begin walking in the knowledge that in God’s mercy, it is defending you from a world full of people that might otherwise do you harm.

I think it is a good sign when your heart is looking for the next thing that can be fixed or changed inside—looking for the next thought to abandon to trade for Jesus’s thoughts.  I don’t think you can get too far off track if you feel that way.

It sure has been sweet the last two times we got together to read.

Jerry D.