Morning Pastor John,

I have been watching the meeting over again today, and it touched me so much.

As I watched Johnny become overcome with feeling Jesus and being more than himself, I could feel the pull from heaven. I felt the verse:

“Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterspouts; all Your waves and billows have swept over me.” – Ps. 42:7

I listened to Jammie tell of Jesus laying stillness across her, and how when Jesus is there, you remember all he has done for you.  I listened to you tell of how, when Jesus gives you something and you digest it, it becomes you.  Truth upon truth, we are made more and more like Jesus.  Line upon line, truth upon truth.  That sings to my heart.

Recently, in a quiet moment with Jesus, I was pleading for Him to fix some things.  I was telling Jesus, “If only you would fix this, it would be better. I could be happy.”  As I listed the things I wanted Him to fix, the Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Then what?”  

The interruption and the response startled me, but in a moment I understood what Jesus was saying to me: If I fix all those things, what will be the next thing that keeps you from being happy?  I want you to be happy in any condition.”

That word happy didn’t mean what I had always known happy to mean.  It meant steady.  It meant peace.  It meant satisfied.  It meant looking up.

I wish I had words to express what I felt inside. Jesus is not trying to fix the condition of the world around me — Jesus is fixing me.  Jesus is making me something other than myself. That stills my soul.

Beth D.

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That’s so good, Beth!  Walking in the Spirit of Christ, the conditions around us do not determine the conditions within us.  Learning that wonderful lesson is what it means to grow in Christ and become established.

Jesus did not suffer to fix the world; it will always be evil.  He suffered to fix us, and he will if we are willing.

Thank you for that wonderful testimony.

Pastor John

Hey Pastor John,

Today I was cleaning out and organizing my desk and ran across some notes I had taken when we we’re doing the Matthew study.  I know it’s long but it is so good.  It encouraged and blessed me today so I wanted to pass it on.

I feel very loved and overwhelmed with thankfulness!  He has been so, so good to us!

Michelle

Notes from Matthew study

• Nobody knew God.  Nobody knows God.  He chose you!  It’s by the spirit He is revealed.
• Jesus died for us!  What love!
• You are blessed!  You are happy!  To you it has been given! What is that worth to you?
• Stop carrying your gift around!  Open it up and play with it.  God wants you to know yourself in Christ.
• You have the key to open the doors of the rich chambers of God!
• The knowledge of God is in your gut; it’s not in your head.  It’s something that rises up out of your belly like a river flowing.  That’s the kingdom of God – that’s the knowledge of God.
• The knowledge of God is to feel the truth!  It senses what God wants and what He’s thinking!  You know the truth only when you feel it!
• If you feel it and it’s a part of your bones, who’s going to talk you out of being you?
• If we are in Christ, we have been made new creatures!  Old things are gone!
• Your past is harder for you to get over than it is for God to get over.  Get over your old self, that thing is dead!  You can be happy if you’re really you in Christ!
• You are not a product of that union anymore!
• God doesn’t want you to just have the Holy Ghost, he wants you to have it abundantly!  That is when he is saving you!
• Let’s humble ourselves and be blessed!  Give in and be happy!
• What we are reading is true!  God did something!  Know what God has done for you!
• God is alive!  He is doing things!
• The most precious thing in life is fellowship in the light!  It’s more precious than gold!
• God has thought about you!  He wrote your name in the Book of Life before the world began!  Then He made the world for you!
• We messed it up.  Then He sent His Son to fix us up, and one of these days, he’s going  to catch us up and get us all out of here together!
• That’s what we celebrate; that’s what we’re here for!
• If you’ve got the holy Ghost, you’ve got something to shout about!
• No matter what happens, compared to the holy Ghost and the promises of God, everything is “so what”!
• That promise gives you joy that’s beyond everything this world has to offer because it gives you a hope beyond what this world can offer, that hope is sure!

PJ prays- “Save us from everything this world has to offer”

• Mercy rejoices against judgment
• Goodness is having a heart like God.
• The whole world is deceived by esteeming rightness above holiness.
• Everybody needs the holy Ghost and to be full of it.  That’s the only relief from rightness and wrongness.
• Jesus said to me, “Go ahead and try to make a mess I can’t fix!”
• Many of God’s children have been talked out of righteousness through logic and human reasoning.
• There is no amount of logic that is going to get you full of the holy Ghost.  You’re going to do the will of God; you’re going to repent and walk uprightly.
• And then God, against all human logic, is going to fill you up!
• Jesus only did what His Father said.  We want to do what our Father wants.  By the grace of God, just do what our Father wants us to do without regard of the judgments or the misunderstandings and the sympathy of our relatives – and the slander of our brothers and sisters.  Let’s just do what God wants done.
• The wisdom of God is foolishness to men.  The wisdom of men is foolishness to God.  Now whose wisdom do you want?
• Learning to walk after the spirit makes you a real child of God.
• It’s not having the holy Ghost that’s going to save any of us if we don’t follow it!  Following it is what gets us home!
• The cloud will take you home if you follow it!  God is our home!
• We have much to be thankful for!  Jesus has found us and claimed us!  Let’s stay in his fold!
• If you want to serve the Lord, you will pay a price.  There is a cost.
• “All who are willing to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
• Everybody who walks uprightly before God is going to suffer.

*It matters to God how you feel*

• Knowing that “the trying of your faith produces patience” teaches you to wait on God because He’s got a good idea.  He’s got a plan for your life.  “But let patience have its perfect work that you might be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
• Jesus is not the light of the world, we are!
• Love is the fulfillment of the law.
• Your can force people to be a Christian; you can be talked into it, bribed into it, manipulated into it and persuaded into it, but this is you and God!
• I can tell you about it, but I can’t touch your heart.  If Jesus touches your heart, THANK HIM!  If the Father chooses you to be forgiven, THANK HIM!
• Your will is not worth damnation.
• The fear of God is good, is clean, is precious!
• The holy Ghost is your ticket home.  Hold on to it!  Live by that ticket.  Have it in your hand when the train comes.  “I’ll be standing at the station with my ticket in my hand.”  The train is coming!  The ticket is real!  Don’t miss that train!
• God’s righteousness is internal and eternal; it’s communication, it’s fellowship, it’s a kinship with God’s feelings and thoughts.  It’s what the Spirit brings in.
• When you entered into a covenant with God you made a deal:
  What God agrees to do:

1. Forgive and blot out all of your sin so that it is though they never existed
2. He gives you a new past
3. The holy men in the scriptures are your family tree.
4. He engrafts you into His family.
5. He recreates you as wise and holy sons and daughters of God!  Brothers and sisters of Jesus!
6. He cares for you throughout this life and then forever.
7. He gives you a new past, a new future, and a new present.
8. He’s prepared a new earth for you so that you might live forever in perfect health and peace.

You agree to your part:

1. Be your new, clean, happy self!

• He gives you a whole new being and all you have to do is be!
• If you keep your part of the bargain and be your new, clean, happy self, you’ll live forever.
• If you know who you are, then you live without fear and condemnation by those who think you ought to be something else.
• We honor Jesus by NOT following in man’s footsteps.
• The Spirit is sincere; it came so we don’t have to act anymore.
• In this covenant ceremonies are not accepted; acting is not accepted.  He sent His Son down here to suffer and die to stop the act and give us the reality of it, and that is precious to Him.
• Get out of the act; get out of the symbol and get into life!  The Spirit is life!
• No ceremony is going to raise you from the dead!  It has no power!
• If you have the holy Ghost, you’ve got life with Christ and God.  That’s the big deal!  That’s the important thing.  It’s up to God if you have life or not, and if you’ve got life you’ve got something to be thankful for!
• We are a mystery to every person in the world who doesn’t have the mind of Christ.  But we’re not supposed to be mysteries to ourselves.
• We’re living under a new covenant!  We are supposed to understand what God has done for us!  We are supposed to know ourselves.
• The Son has been revealed to us; we’re supposed to know Him.  To know what He’s done for us!
• Growing up in Christ means growing in the knowledge of God, and that includes coming to understand yourself, your new self!
• Your soul is on the line!
• If anyone worships the Father only in spirit and truth, as Jesus said, he is condemned as a false worshipper.
• If anyone teaches Paul’s gospel, he is condemned as a heretic.
• If anyone is moved by the holy Ghost, he is scorned as being “under a spell”.
• If anyone does the will of God from the heart, he is condemned as an evildoer.
• If anyone truly confesses Christ, he is cast out and ostracized by Christians as unworthy of their company.
• We may have to suffer a little for Christ in this world, but we know what to do – just keep doing good!
• If you follow Jesus, somewhere along the way, he’s going to amaze and frighten you!  You just keep following him and somewhere down the road, you will start to see what he’s seeing and feel what he’s feeling, and then you will amaze and frighten somebody else!
• Jesus was happy!
• We can be filled with joy!  Persecution comes with the package.  “My father said, persecution is like a tail on a kite, it keeps you steady so you can go higher.”  We all need the tail on our kites.
• All that persecution can do is help us go higher in Jesus.
• Suffering comes with the package.  Don’t take the gift then hide it.  Confess it!
• Let’s go to Him!
• Suffering here is nothing compared to the glory that awaits us!

Merry Christmas John,

I wanted to thank the Lord for our Christmas Eve celebration of “God’s Mystery” – His Son, that we enjoyed last night.  The reading was wonderful and the music and feelings too.  We are so blessed to understand what we do understand, and to have these feelings that go with it.  And I wanted to share about Song and I getting to take home Brother Coy and Theresa last night.

A week or so ago, Brother Thomas called me on the phone.  He was feeling “alive” in the Spirit, and our simple conversation picked me up that afternoon.  When I hung up the phone that day, the feeling of my heart was, “Jesus, let me bless that man somehow: he really made my day sweet.”   That’s what we can do for one another when the Spirit is in it.  

Anyway, several days pass, and I’m on the airplane coming home, and I saw his signal text asking for help in taking Brother Coy home from last night’s meeting.  When I called him the next day to ask if anyone responded, he said that nobody had yet, so there was my opportunity to give Brother Thomas a rest.   I told him we’d take Brother Coy home for him, which we did. 

Needless to say, the trip with Coy was a blessing to US!  He told us a lot of history and information that we did not know about Brother Frank, and Preacher Clark, and Sister Leatha’s family, and of course, about the holy Ghost. They showed us where saints lived, and were buried…. a real history lesson of our family.  We got home at midnight but it was worth EVERY moment to my heart.  I went to help a brother, but a brother blessed ME.  When we dropped them off and it was quiet in the car, Song turned to me and said something like, “What a wonderful people they are – so simple and real”…. then she paused and said, “It would be a wonderful opportunity for young people to do this, and go with Coy to or from the meetings once in a while…. they would be blessed.”    I had to agree with her, that it would be a blessing, on occasion, for young OR old to spend time with Coy like we got to last night.  He will certainly leave you with Christmas “cheer”!! 

Beyond all that, we really got a taste of what Brother Thomas does for our family here, by offering to take Coy to and from the meetings – He drives at least three hours each time (getting him to the meeting, 3 hours, and then coming home, 3 hours – per meeting.)  We get a wonderful blessing by knowing brother Coy – I’m so thankful that Coy feels the same about us, like he said.  

Jesus answered my prayer last night.  I knew it was Him.  And he did lots of other things through brothers and sisters last night to bless me – too much to talk about in an email, things that left me  both crying and thankful.  I love us, because He first loved us.  We are truly hidden.  Who could possibly understand the amount of love we get to share?  What a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas,

Gary

Merry Christmas, John!

The reading was so wonderful, last night!  After the reading, I had a Christmas song in my heart.  If I got the chance, I was going to request it.  I took the Christmas song book, turned it to the song, and placed the book face-down in the chair next to me.  Well, the reading, Bro Coy, Amy and Vince’s testimony, and Bro Tom’s . . .whew, really blessed us.  God is so good to all of us!  Well, the song that you sang, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, was the very song I had in my heart. I took the songbook just before you sang it and showed Judy the song where I had previously picked out.  I love it when even the small things add up and show us we are in tune to the Spirit.  Nothing too small or too big to Jesus!

“Oh Come Let Us Adore Him”,

Billy

Pastor John,

Sunday morning, while you were preaching, the words from Paul came to my mind, where he said something like, we have been seated in heavenly places. That’s what it felt like sitting there with everyone listening to you, that something otherwordly was happening, something not human. It was a very special meeting. Very thankful that I could be there and for the whole week.

Zoli

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Hi Zoli.

The feeling I had during my sermon on Sunday reminded me of the feeling I had during a sermon on August 23rd, 1981. I had not felt that exact feeling since then, over 44 years ago. It was a feeling to our vision being readjusted to see what is really true, clearing the air of the pretty but deadly fog of this wicked world.  It was a holy correction from the heart of God and the mind of Christ, and I am thankful for it.

Pastor John

Pastor John,

Last night’s meeting was so good!  It took me back to this past year around our house. Big but it was good lessons along the way.

I always had such misconceptions of what the right relationship between a husband and a wife was.  I spent most of my life as what I would call the “leader” and as Alex would tell you, I came into our marriage with A LOT of trust issues in the beginning.

I remember the day I asked Alex very seriously, “Are you able to lead?”  At the time I was viewing it from a fleshly perspective and what I thought I knew about marriage.  But I was tired.  I knew I had spent a lifetime carrying a load that was not mine and longed for my place.  Over a short period, and Jesus fast-tracking us, I learned that leadership is not physical.  It is not someone barking orders or making demands.  It starts and ends in the Spirit.  It is not meant to keep you bound in a little box with no testimony, but to help you grow with Jesus.  The Spirit does not care if you are 25 or 45.  If you have life experience or not.  Jesus can teach you your space, and it doesn’t need to take decades to figure out, when truly walking with Jesus.

Times that Alex has had to set me back in my space, it has rarely been in human words.  It comes with a look and feeling of authority.  I can’t really explain it.  But it settles something in me.  It does not belittle or bully.  It just firmly sets everything in order so that we can both keep on keeping on.  Even in the times he has had to voice something, it still feels the same.  I love that.  There is a relief and rest in how Jesus has ordered things.  And it is not my job to tell him I “think” he is wrong.  

I remember one day I did feel a little misjudged/unheard.  Jesus thought otherwise because he told me it was not my job to manage Alex.  I remember the Spirit saying, “If I have an issue with him, I will tell him.”

I know I have so much more to learn along the way.  But what a year of learning it has been!  I want to learn the lessons now.  To be an example to other couples one day.

This week, I have been thinking about occupying my place in the body. Asking Jesus to show me why he has allowed me to be set apart.  I really want to step up and into what Jesus has for me.  The work here is so special, and I want to do my part to function.  After the meeting last night, I got to thinking that it is impossible to have a right relationship with anyone if the husband-and-wife dynamic is not what it should be.  How can I occupy my place in the body if things are not in order at home?  I can’t; it is impossible.  I can’t love my sisters with the love of God if I am sassy/snarky with my husband at home.  I cannot respect you or my brothers if I cannot respect the authority at home.  How can I humbly take correction or recognize the authority that you as our pastor have over the body?  Can’t do it.  Jesus perfectly designed marriage to reflect the order of the body, and I don’t think I really saw that until last night.  The truth is so simple, yet BIG. 

Talk to you soon!

Margo

Hi, Pastor John;

Your message in Eph. 5 last night reminded me of what the Spirit showed me about God’s order when I was in my early thirties.  I was going to work at 5:30 in the morning, and out of the blue, the Spirit asked me, “Who was created first, Adam or Eve?”  I replied, “Adam, Lord.”  Then another question, “Whose name did Judy take?” Again I responded, “Mine.  She became a Mellick and left her maiden name behind.”  Then he opened the order of things for my home, and I know it is for others, too. 

1- God

2-Jesus

3-A godly Pastor

4-Husband

5-Wife

6-Children

The first two in this relationship, and surely the third one listed, will not change unless Jesus takes the godly Pastor home to be with him. Jesus and his Father are doing just fine for eternity.  This is the chain of command.  If every home is in order, then fellowship will be experienced between each member of the family.  If any part of this order is not right, there will be trouble and strife. 

I pondered on this the whole day at work and knew I hadn’t occupied my space as head of household.  When I got home, I rehearsed this scene with Judy.  I hadn’t been the father to our children as I should have been, and let her take on my responsibilities.  Essentially, she was doing my job, and hers with the children.  I just went to work and came home and worked, ate, and went to bed.  This formula works!  Everyone should be looking up this chain of command for help.  All direction and instruction flows downward.  If one does not have children or a spouse, the only thing needed is to ask themselves, “Who is above me in my chain of command?”  If mommy or daddy are gone, “Who is above me?”  If my children backslide, “Who is above me?”  God will always have someone above you for our help.  Loners, as you have instructed us many times, will fail and fall (eventually). 

Love always,

Billy

John,

As I sat at the fire this morning, I was overwhelmed by a couple thoughts:

(1) in my 30s when I got a call from God to go to Him to be healed of a broken heart, the only place I knew to go to was a cult —Catholicism. I went there to learn what to do, say, sing, when to stand, sit, hold hands. I went there because I thought God was in the rituals. I thought to reach Him I needed to become a member of that cult. I had no idea of the freedom that the holy Ghost and Truth gives you to love the Father and His son the way they want to be loved not the way man wants us to be controlled. If there is a cult, it’s Christianity! 

(2) humility is so important. After I went to the Catholic church and became a member of that cult, I soon realized that it was a personality cult. The substance of Catholicism meant nothing, and all I had, and all I followed, were priests from diocese to diocese. But Jesus gave me the humility to see my error. I didn’t have the wisdom or knowledge to know where to go, but I stopped going to that cult. Humility is a requirement to real wisdom.

If Jesus hadn’t made me a humble person with a humble heart, I would’ve never let go of all of the things that I have been taught for 55 years about who I was, what I knew, and what was true. To let the scales fall off your eyes, be willing to see and act on what you see, and let go of all that you knew can only be Jesus and the holy Ghost! Oh thank you Jesus!!

I know that’s what it takes, a humble heart, to come to him and to stay with him. I pray for everyone who has wandered off the right path, that Jesus will humble their heart, to see the error of their thinking, and to feel the freedom that comes in living in the spirit.

Allison