Our December 12 Prayer Letter

Dear friends,
Merry Christmas in the name of Jesus!

Let it be done to me according to Your Word...
Eph. 4:22-24 says:
1. Lay aside the old self.
2. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
3. Put on the new self.
In these verses are the three things that will change your Christian life.  The first one is that we lay aside the old self, or the old man, or the old nature. That's your sinful nature. Here it says to lay him or her aside. Don't fight with him or her. Don't fight with your flesh. Lay it aside - because this is the fight that has already been won!

This is why you need to know what Jesus has accomplished, and how to make it yours. This knowledge of what Jesus finished on the cross shows that we don’t fight with our old nature, we lay it aside.  Romans 6:6 declares that your old self was crucified with Christ.  When you were baptized into Christ, you were baptized into His death, and your old sinful self was crucified with Him. When He died, your old self died. The only thing that you can do is receive it. As I say often, that means just agree with God. “Yes Sir, Lord! You said it, I believe it. I agree.”  When you agree with God, you are in faith.

You don't need a huge amount of faith. Jesus said that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, which is a tiny little seed, you can tell a mountain to move and it will move. You will never face a bigger mountain than your old sinful flesh.

Again: you don't need huge faith; actually the first thing you need is humility. If you don't have faith, you start with humility. You humble yourself, which means that you say to yourself, “Okay, I know I'm not God. I'm not the creator. I'm the one He created. He is God. And I am His creature.”

That is the basic healthy view of life. It doesn't take a lot of faith; it takes some humility. It is acknowledging that God is God, and you are not Him. You acknowledge that He knows more than you! You believe that He has a brain and created your brain.

Thank God for His Word, thank God for the Book which is the Word of God, written so that you can know how God thinks; because He wrote it for you. You don't have to be confused about God. He not only wrote about His ideas, but He also sent Jesus Christ so that you would see the Living Word, Who is the Father come in the flesh. Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." John 14:9

You understand God the Father by looking at Christ.

This takes only small faith to begin. It takes just enough faith to open the Bible. It takes just a little faith to listen to and read the Word. It takes just enough faith to say, “Okay God, I need everything, I want everything You can give me. I want to learn.” It doesn't take a lot of faith for that.  It just takes humility.

When I was first filled with the Holy Spirit, at age 29, it was after many years of being frustrated as a Christian. I knew for many years that I was born again, but I struggled and struggled. I did not understand what I was missing. Before being baptized in the Spirit, Jackie and I had not even attended church for more than five years! We knew we were children of God, but that was about it.  Our youthful dreams of serving God had all turned to ashes.

The great day came when we were both filled with the Holy Spirit.  It happened in a little church that had exploded with God’s presence when the Holy Spirit moved in our city.  The rickety old building they were renting was packed out every week.

I had a friend at my job who invited me to visit this church, someone whom I had seen change before my eyes on the job.   For several weeks, I saw him come in every day full of the joy of the Lord. He wasn't like that before. He had been a very unhappy person.  I watched him change at our place of work. He invited me over to that church, and I finally went to a meeting there.  I sat down in the back row near the door, in case it got weird and I could sneak out.  For one of the first times in my life, I heard a quiet voice inside of me that I knew wasn't me.  It was the Lord, and He said, “John, you just come and sit here, and I'll do all the rest.”
At that point I really needed that. I didn't know what to do. I had tried everything.  I tried to dedicate myself and promised God over and over that I will be a wonderful Christian, but it didn't work. Well, of course God never intended to work by my promises, but by HIS promises!

God wants you to live a holy life, but how can you do that without the Holy Spirit? He's the Only Strength Aways Available to live in a holy life.

What you really need is what Jesus has already done. You can't make a new life happen yourself.  You receive what Christ has done.  You learn to react like Mary the mother of Jesus, when the angel came and said to her that the Son of God would be conceived in her.  She responded, “Let it be done to me according to Your word.”  Luke 2:38

"Let it be done to me..."  That's where we all begin, not by saying, "Lord, I'm going to try hard to make this work." No, you sit down in the presence of God and you let His Word do its work. It's the Word of God that changes you. "Let it be done in me according to Your Word."

The Word of God (Romans 6) says that your old sinful self was crucified with Christ, so that you are no longer a slave to sin. How do you respond to that?  You may have trouble believing it; so humble yourself, listen to it and read it, remembering that the Word of God itself has power. Pray, “Lord, let that be done in me, according to Your Word.” Meditate on the Word, think about it, read it again, and speak it out loud to yourself.  The Word does its work in you. Meanwhile, you rest in the Lord, trusting Him. You wait on Him. He's the One that changes you. The chief way He changes you is with His Word, especially all the words about Christ. Absorb in the Bible what has happened to you through Christ.

The New Testament uses certain simple words over and over: through Christ, in Christ, by Christ, for Christ, with Christ.  Those simple words represent the underlying process of God's thinking about you, what He has planned for you, and how he is going to work it out. It is all because of your connection to Christ. Hallelujah!  Just agree with Him.

For a Christian to become filled with Christian thoughts, the center of your thinking must change.  It changes from “me” to “Christ”.  “Not I, but Christ.”   This becomes the root of your brain! You learn to think about yourself as part of Christ. When you do that, you will find that you have faith.

The most important thing about you is that you are part of Jesus Christ - that He is in you and you are in Him.
I like to use a certain illustration for this simple and powerful new thinking. Find a coin, and put it in your hand.  Now notice, that coin has two sides to it, as all coins do. That coin is a simple way to describe the gospel for you. Now look at it and imagine this: on one side the coin says, “You are in Christ”, and on the other side, it says, “Christ is in you”. These are the two most important things about you. This is how God thinks about you. Now, just agree with God. Say it and shout it:  “Christ is in me!” and “I am in Christ!” Say it out loud and say it often!

Sometimes I need to look in a mirror and speak the truth to myself. I point my finger in my face in the mirror and say, “John Matthews, Christ is in you”. If you will say that to yourself, it is more powerful than if any powerful preacher said it to you! You yourself are the strongest preacher in your life; you have the most power to speak into your life and change your life!

The Lord has called all of us to go out in the world and preach the gospel. Who's the first person that you need to preach it to? Yourself!

You can find yourself trying to get a victory that's already won for you. What you really need to do is receive that victory, acknowledge and agree with that victory – the one that Jesus accomplished for you in His death and resurrection.

Thank you again...
What would we do without you? Trust God, of course.  But we have learned that He uses you in our lives to provide the spiritual and material foundation that keeps us moving ahead in getting the gospel to God's harvest in the nations. We are grateful to each of you who does what the Holy Spirit inspires you to do to support this ministry.

We totally depend on your contributions of prayer and finances, and we say thank you with deep appreciation and affection and love.

Have a Wonderful Christmas, celebrating all that Jesus accomplished when He came to this earth!

With love,
John and Jackie

p.s. Keep praying and agreeing in faith with us for God's wisdom for our 2012 mission travel.