{"id":10311,"date":"2018-07-19T00:47:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T00:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10311"},"modified":"2018-07-19T00:47:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T00:47:40","slug":"leaking-vessels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10311\/leaking-vessels\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaking Vessels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I started listening to the &#8220;Leaking Vessels&#8221; cd this morning. I haven&#8217;t <\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;\">gotten that far, but have already gotten so much out of it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Yesterday when I texted you, I was feeling so overwhelmed in my job! But I knew I needed peace and patience. I was given an important task; however, I could not do my part until someone else had done theirs, and they were not in any hurry. Everything in my flesh wanted to control the situation to get it moving. I started feeling very overwhelmed, helpless, and very anxious! I sent you that text and then took a walk to the restroom. I just wanted to get alone with Jesus, if only for a minute.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">When I came back to my office, I knew there was nothing I could do; it was out of my hands. I kept hearing, \u201cRelax. Do what you can do, and when the time comes, you <\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;\">can do your part.\u201d So, with Jesus help, I began to slowly relax, work on other things and eventually, after others had done what they needed to do, it was time for me to work on what needed to be done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">This morning as I was listening to the cd, it stood out to me, that you said, &#8220;We&#8217;re<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color:#000000;\">supposed to know things that people don&#8217;t know and to conduct ourselves in a way that people can&#8217;t conduct themselves without the knowledge of the truth. When the word of God abides in us, we behave the way people cannot behave who don&#8217;t know the truth. It means something to have faith in God, to trust God with what you hear and what you see. I believe God puts in front of you what you need to see. I believe everything that is spoken to you, you need to hear. <\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;\">He tries your heart every moment.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">That was so good to me! What happened yesterday in my office was from God. Not only is He watching, but others around me are watching, too. I&#8217;m so thankful He helped me through it! I hope that next time it comes around, I&#8217;m quicker to let go of the control and the anxious feelings, and hold tighter to the peace that He has given to me. I&#8217;m thankful for the situations he puts me in! Sometimes, it doesn&#8217;t feel so hot at the moment, but I\u2019m thankful for it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I can&#8217;t wait to hear the rest of the CD and to see what else Jesus has waiting for me!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Michelle\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">============<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Hi, John.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I listened to the leaking vessel CD yesterday, while I was viewing the list of folks who are not here with us anymore.\u00a0 There are some who have lived faithfully and gone on with the Lord.\u00a0 There are\u00a0just a few cases where they had to put out from the body in order for the body to not be damaged (further).\u00a0 But as I was listening to the CD, you were preaching how that a branch must bear fruit.\u00a0 If a branch does not bear fruit then it is cut off from the tree and burned in the fire. And if we do bear fruit, then those branches will be pruned so that the tree and branches will bear more fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">As I was listening further, I read all of the names on the list that had quit.\u00a0 It was sad because we know and love these people, and at one time we have had fellowship with most of them.\u00a0 As I was reading the names, the Spirit was saying in my heart, \u201cThis is what happens when there is no longer any fruit developing.\u201d \u00a0It made me feel sad and fearful of the Lord because I know that God is not a respecter of persons, nor does it matter how long you have been around.\u00a0 On the list were young people, adults, and a few older ones.\u00a0 It may say \u201cquit\u201d besides their names, but actually they have been pruned from us so that we can bear more peaceable fruits of righteousness. It wasn\u2019t their choice to leave the tree.\u00a0 They may have said, \u201cI quit\u201d in their hearts, but the Spirit may have said, \u201cCut that branch away!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">I remember helping to prune Bob\u2019s grapes.\u00a0 I thought I was pruning them back enough, but Bob came behind some of us and pruned the branches even more.\u00a0 I said to myself, \u201cHow in the world can they live?\u201d \u00a0But they did, and they will produce grapes this year.\u00a0 Bob does this every year.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t take a year off, or he will not get the yield that pruning produces.\u00a0 I pray that I bear good fruit, but I pray the more that I endure God\u2019s pruning.\u00a0 There is a season for pruning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">This CD is a treasure!\u00a0 No wonder Sheila didn\u2019t want to let it go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Love always,<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Billy<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor John, I started listening to the &#8220;Leaking Vessels&#8221; cd this morning. I haven&#8217;t gotten that far, but have already gotten so much out of it! Yesterday when I texted you, I was feeling so overwhelmed in my job! But I knew I needed peace and patience. I was given an important task; however, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}