John and Jackie Matthews

January 23, 2012 Prayer Letter

2012-01-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Greetings again in the wonderful name of Jesus!

John's travel to Ukraine:
Feb 8 - March 1
Preaching, teaching, evangelizing, praying, counseling, spending time with pastors and leaders, visiting various Churches of Praise, working side by side with Pastor Gregory, having a great time with our dear Churches of Praise, friends for 19 years since we helped them to begin. This is John's trip #55 to Krivoy Rog, Ukraine.
3/4 of the funds are still needed.

Let it be done to me according to Your Word!
(Continued from last month's letter)
I wrote in our December 12 letter about seeing the two most important truths of the gospel as a two sided coin. On one side of the coin, it would say, "Christ is in me." On the other side, it would say, "I am in Christ." Nothing is more important to you as a child of God than to believe this truth. This is the foundation of the mind of Christ, the mind of the Father, and the mind of the Holy Spirit. Your main task as a believer is to think like God: to agree with Him, to say, "Yes Sir. You said it, I believe it." This is first of all an action of humility, and then faith will come.

As I also wrote, (now use your imagination!) I wish there was a little slot in your head where I could insert this two sided gospel coin until it drops down with a "click, click" inside your head. In other words, that the truth would be implanted inside your brain, and your mind would go "Click, click: Oh now I see it!" -- so that all you would believe is: “I am in Christ, and Christ is in me”. “I am in Christ, and Christ is in me!” “I AM IN CHRIST AND CHRIST IS IN ME!” Compulsive thinking in the right direction, I would call it!

Oh, what a change there would be in each one of us, if that voice of Truth drowned out every lying voice, and it was always in charge of your mind!

That's the job of the Holy Spirit to make that happen. (John 16:14) Your job is to keep letting him do it through His Word. Let it happen until you know that you know that you know the truth of Christ in you is more true than anything!

...because it is.

This is the rock bottom reality for every Christian. That's who you are. You are joined to Christ, and He is joined to you. That's where you draw your strength, that's where faith comes from. Faith comes from Truth. You can't have faith without believing the Truth. Faith is not a feeling, faith is an agreement with the truth as God sees it. And you can do this! Just say this, “I'm a believer! And I agree with God! And in any way that I disagree, that's going to change!”

When I got filled with the Holy Spirit, I realized I had a problem with my thoughts. I could not trust my thoughts very well. Actually, I was a young pastor. I remember when the Lord showed me where the root of my thinking was to be. I had always thought my mind was anchored in my head. But I found that my mind is to be anchored in the written Word of God, the Bible. My head needs to be filled up with what is in the Bible. (This was after eight years of Bible College and university.)

As a young pastor, I made a discipline for myself. When people come to a pastor, they hope he knows everything. When pastoring, people would ask me, “What do you think about this or that?” I learned to say, “Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know. I have to find out what I think about that. I'll go look it up in God’s Word. I'll find out in His Word what I think. In fact I encourage you to do the same thing, since you don't really need to know what I think. What you really need to know is what God thinks!”

That's what people really are asking for. If you're going to lead people, you need to have a discipline on your speech, so you do not parrot back your own opinions about people's problems. Remember, they are not saved by your opinions, but by God and His Word!

Frequently I would do something that looked silly, especially in my prayer time. I would open the Bible and put it on my head, and walk around my office saying, “This is my mind!”.

Of course, God has a stronger idea than putting the Book on my head. He wants the words of the Book to be IN my head, not on my head!

The Word of God is alive. It does not just exist as the letters on the page. If somebody burned all the Bibles, the Word of God would still exist! The Truth would still be the truth!

But thank God, it's written! Every day it says the same thing! Thank God for that.

The "Big Three" for you in Ephesians 4:22-24
Big Number One: Ephesians 4:22 ALWAYS says “Lay aside the old self”. From God's side, the old self is a dead man. From God's side, He already put him to death. He's just a corpse lying there. All we can do is bury the thing! It was the power of God that killed that old nature, not YOUR power. Jesus fought that flesh and Jesus won the battle. Just LAY aside the old flesh. Give him a decent burial. Water baptism signifies the burial of your old flesh, and your resurrection into the new life of Christ.

This old nature is not your life anymore. You have a new life. So be renewed in your thinking.

Big Number Two: Ephesians 4:23 ALWAYS says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

What spirit is in your mind? What spirit is inspiring your thoughts? As an example, your mind can be inspired with the spirit of fear and worry.

Have you ever been driven in your thinking by anxiety? I have. My mind can be very imaginative. I can create an entire movie in my head in a few seconds, a great drama about everything terrible that's going to happen. Just BOOM, and there it is in my head!

But God did not intend your imagination to be used to dream up disaster! He created your imagination to imagine the Truth; to imagine the power of God working, to imagine the world from God's perspective. Therefore, you need to check out what spirit is inspiring your mind. If it's the wrong one, you have authority over it. You are not your mind. You are spirit. Your mind is a tool and a servant and you have the power to put your thoughts under obedience to your spirit, to the truth of God.

Many of us have these problems and don't realize that we have a very proud mind. No, we don't act proud or feel proud. A proud mind is like this: “If I think it, it has to be true! How can it not be true? How can it be in my mind and not be true?"

A proud mind can be such an extreme problem that people can end up in a mental hospital, because they put so much confidence in their imaginations! Proud thoughts can be full of fear, shame or hopelessness; some proud thinking, instead of making you feel proud, can make you feel miserable!

The answer is to humble your mind; insist on your mind bowing to the truth of God – that He loves you, that He will take care of you, that He never puts you to shame. These are His covenant promises. (See Romans 8:31-39)

You don’t need great faith to take hold of those great promises; you need to humble your mind. You are not God, you are not the Creator. He is. If He promised to love you and take care of you, your response as His creature is to say, “Yes Sir. You are the Creator, I am not. You are God, I am not. I humble myself under Your Truth, under your ideas and your promises. If you said it, that is good enough for me.” That is not great faith; that is humility of mind.

Your mind is like a computer; it may have good things in it or it might not! It depends on what has been put into it. Sometimes I think of my mind as a battlefield, and there are armies of thoughts marching through, and I have to decide which army I'm going to join! I must choose to take sides with my army of choice (God’s army of ideas in His Word), and I'm going to drive out that other army of lies -- EVERY thought that is contrary to the Word of God. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Like a computer, sometimes you have to reinstall the operating system and reload the software. God’s covenant Word is the operating system of your mind. How you think about everything in life depends on laying everything on that foundation.

There is nothing more powerful than the blood of Jesus to cleanse your mind and conscience from old dead ideas that bind you to darkness and defeat. There is nothing more powerful than the covenant promises of God to light up your heart and mind and give you hope and faith and peace and wisdom and courage to look ahead, with expectation of grace and mercy and goodness following you all the days of your life!!

You CAN be renewed in the spirit of your mind through the washing power of the Word. Though you don't know how to do that by yourself, God knows how to renew your mind! Ask Him to renew the spirit of your mind. Then 1) keep your mind in His Word, 2) keep honoring His blood over your mind, and 3) keep inviting the Holy Spirit to help.

You just need to stay with Him; don't run away from Him. Stay in this presence, don't let anything keep you from the presence of God. God does the work. He's the Savior -- not only of your spirit; He is also the Savior of your mind, and your body.

Big Number Three: Ephesians 4:24 ALWAYS declares the third thing we need to do, which is “Put on the new self”. Put off the old man, laying him aside just like taking off your old coat. From God's side He's done all the work, that old man died with Christ. Just take him (or her) off like a dirty old garment cast it aside. You do this by faith in the truth.

With the Big Number Two done, a renewed spirit in your mind, how do you think? You’ve got that gospel coin planted in your mind, and it renewed your thinking. Now your thinking is constantly, “Christ is in me and I'm in Christ”. “Christ is in me and I'm in Christ”. “Christ is in me and I'm in Christ”. (Colossians 1:27-29)

You are now agreeing with God! You now believe “What the Word says is what is true about me; and since Christ is in me, I'm a new creature". From the point of receiving a renewed spirit in your mind, doing the Big Number Three, putting on the new self, is like putting on the new clothing that matches who you know you are! You know who you are, and you know that this new life of God belongs to you! You're putting on the truth that you believe! You know that God provided it all, and so you put it on.

Romans 13:14: " But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh." You take the truth and put it on -- in your thoughts, your meditations, your convictions, your words, and your actions -- just like you put on your new coat!

I realize that talking about these things in this way may seem too easy. When you are in the middle of a temptation or a crisis, it seems as if that old self is screaming at you! How come this dead guy is screaming at me? Well the fact to remember is this: you still live in a body which is a natural body and still only has the natural life in it. There still remains the old nature in the members of your body. That's what Romans 7 and 8 teach us.

The new nature is in your spirit. Romans 8:10 says your spirit is alive but your body is dead. God means your body is spiritually dead. But your spirit is alive and well and in charge! For this reason, through the members of your body (your brain is a member of your body) you can get screamed at from the dead and dark flesh. But in the name and blood of Jesus you can silence these false voices of the flesh. "Old dead flesh, shut up!"

This morning that old flesh was saying to me, “Just don't even get out of bed! Just lay here. Feed me. Be good to me.” That was the voice of that old self-centered flesh that comes from the body.

Who are you? You are not your body! Again, you are not your body! "Body, get up and serve God!"

You live in your body. You need your body. It's like a spacesuit that you need if you're going to be in outer space. If you don't have your spacesuit on, you'll just blow up and die!

But if you are going to live on the earth, you need your Earth suit! That is your body, your Earth suit. You, however, are a human spirit. If you went outside and WHAM!, a car hit you and your body died, you would still exist. Your spirit would be there. Maybe not long; the Lord would probably take you quickly to heaven, but you would still be you.

That's who you are. You are a spiritual person. Do you see yourself that way? That's part of the change that renews the spirit of your mind. Your body serves you and your mind serves you; but who are you? You are the one joined to Christ!

And for this reason, you can "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh". The only provision needed for the flesh is burial. And that is what happened to your flesh when Jesus was buried. The old you was buried with Him. And when He was raised from the dead, you were raised up with Him to a new life in God. That is what is true about you the moment you come into Christ and Christ comes into you through the new birth.

"I'm a new creation, I'm a brand new man;
Old things are passed away, I've been born again;
More than a conqueror, that's who I am;
I'm a new creation, I'm a brand new man."
by David Ingles

January 6, 2012: Passing to heaven of a Ukrainian pastor, evangelist and friend, Pasha Sobol.
Pasha served in the Afghan war in the early eighties, was run over by a truck, and another time the straps of his backpack were shot off by passing bullets. He survived all that and sixteen years ago, radically turned his life to Jesus Christ. A long-time Churches of Praise evangelist and church planter, Pasha had opened a new church in Krivoy Rog 18 months ago.

He preached in his young church until the Sunday before he unexpectedly went to heaven from cancer discovered only a few weeks ago. He went to glory with "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus....." on his lips. He brought hundreds of people to the Lord, and many were healed. Nina, Pasha's wife, will lead the church in his place.

A continual thanks to you...
40 years of ministry, 25 years of missions, and the fact remains that we would be able to do little or nothing without friends like you who pray for us and support us financially. Every month needs miracles and offerings that surprise us. We appreciate you and are privileged to have you as a friend of this ministry.

With love,
John and Jackie

Our December 12 Prayer Letter

2011-12-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

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.

Our November 28, 2011 Prayer Letter

2011-11-29T18:17:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,
We greet you once again in the Wonderful Name of Jesus!

Living in agreement with God...
Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Word of God simply says that is the fact. Having been justified by faith, the fact is that you have peace with God. So, if you are trying to get peace with God, you have a problem. Why are you trying to get something that you already have? An old preacher friend of mine said, “John, most Christians have a problem. They are trying to get into a room that they're already in.”

You are justified by faith in Christ NOW. That means you're made right with God. Therefore you have peace with God NOW. If you don't feel that peace, does that mean you don't have it? This is the basic lesson of a Christian, to know how to believe the truth - to separate the truth from the lie. This lesson is learning to base your life not on what you feel, but on what the Word of God says. If you are feeling a lack of peace with God, and you start thinking of all the reasons why, you will immediately get help from the devil, who will give you lots of reasons why you don't have peace with God! He will help you remember all your failure and your sins, and you will feel less and less peace. But you would be listening to the liar.

Instead, as a Christian you are to find a different way to live. You open the Book, and remind yourself of the truth. You speak the truth to yourself: “Here it says it: Having been justified by faith, yes...I believe that...we have, which means I have, peace with God through my Lord Jesus Christ. Devil, shut up! Condemnation, be quiet! Mind, be quiet. I honor the blood over my mind in Jesus' name!”

Frequently your mind doesn't help you very much. The best thing to do is just tell it to be quiet, because your victory does not come from trying to think your way out of a problem.

You have spiritual weapons and they all are rooted in the Word of God. Romans 5:1 is a spiritual weapon. Pull it up out of your Bible, and put your attention on it. You will be using your mind, but you will use the Word in your mind to take authority over your thoughts that are pulling you down.

You also declare the Word with your mouth. This unleashes the power of the Word. You speak it out loud, you sing it, and you shout it. Do it so that you hear that Word more loudly in your head than the voice of the enemy that's trying to discourage you.

Every day, when you open up and look at Romans 5:1, it says the same thing! God never changes His mind about His covenant words. He never will change his mind on this point. You are made right by your faith in Jesus Christ, therefore you have peace with your heavenly Father, not because of your works but because of the work of Christ!

It says your peace is through your Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ! This is the beginning of the renewal of the mind of a Christian, when you start thinking “through Christ, in Christ, by Christ, with Christ, and for Christ." This Christ-connected thinking loads the power of the New Testament. This is how God thinks about you: you simply agree with how God thinks.

What is faith? It is thinking the same way as God thinks. Sometimes we try to pump up our faith. But faith is simply agreeing with the Word of God. Your mind lines up with His mind. Your words line up with His words. Your actions will follow your mind and your words.

You can have quiet faith and you can have noisy faith. The power is that you and God agree.

The Lord wants to change us on the inside so that we know what He knows. He wants us to see as He sees, so that whether it's about your life or someone else's life, you are not overwhelmed by the circumstance. Instead, you are overwhelmed by the power of God that is available, by the love of God that is available for that person or that circumstance.

That's why we’re not in heaven yet, because God didn't want to just forgive us and then send us to heaven. I’ve sometimes seen people repent and then go back into the world. I thought for a moment when I was baptizing a new believer, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just baptize people and leave them down there in the water? Just send them straight to heaven! There would be no backsliding!

Well, it's against the law to drown people, of course, but God has a better idea. He didn't save us just to kill us. He saved us to bring us into an new abundant life. Jesus said it's the thief that comes to rob and kill and steal and destroy but He has come to do what? To give you life. And what kind of life? Abundant life! Much more life than you need! (John 10:10)

God is so amazing. His Word is so amazing. His Word is so powerful that if you got understanding and revelation about one verse like Romans 5:1 -- if that's all you had -- He would do a miracle in your life. You would have the power of God working if it was the only verse you knew. Just one word from God can defeat the enemy.

I heard a report about a lady born and raised in India. When she was a small girl living on the street, a missionary spoke to her and said something about Jesus and taught her one Christian song well enough so that she could sing it. From that day on she never heard anything more about Jesus. She lived her whole life on the street with only that one song. She didn't have a Bible. You would have found her every day on the street corners singing that one song to Jesus, and that one song kept her faith going all her life. Someone found her out there on the street when she was 60 or 70 years old. They found out that song was all she ever learned about Christ, and she just lived on that one bit of truth that was given to her as a little child.

What if we each would grab a hold of just one truth with all of our heart? There would be great power in our lives.

We sometimes say easily that we believe the whole Bible. But it's not enough to just believe the whole thing. You got to open it up and you got to believe specific things. You need to take one truth at a time and make it yours until you say and know, “This is my truth. This is my life!”

I did that with Romans 5:1: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we (I) have peace with God through our (my) Lord Jesus Christ." It was the first Scripture I took inside as belonging to me after I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, even though I had known the verse since childhood. Somehow the Holy Spirit turned the light on Romans 5:1 for me at that time. I looked at it and I grabbed it and shouted, “Yeah, that's mine!” You can make it yours too.

Recently I was listening to someone preaching, and as they started preaching I thought they were preaching my verses! I thought, “Hey, that's my Scripture!” It was the funniest reaction in me, thinking, “But that's my verse!”

You need to take one Scripture at a time and make it very personal. It must become your inside Bible, the Bible in your heart, so that even if you don't have the Book near you, you will be the walking Word of God. Even if you don't have the whole Word of God in you, but you have some of the truth settled inside, it will be your spiritual backbone. It becomes the anchor of your soul, the anchor of your mind.

Still considering Romans 5:1, when you take that verse inside, you then know you are anchored in the peace of God, not by what you do or how you feel, but because of what Jesus did for you and what the Bible says about it. You simply agree with God.

“Holy Spirit, come and do a supernatural work in any who read this, whose mind is unsettled, or whose heart has no resting place. We ask for this in Jesus’ name."

Jackie and I honor the blood of Jesus over your mind, casting down imaginations that come from the darkness. We rebuke the lies and the liar in the name of Jesus. Satan, you won't have our minds. We belong to God, and we have the mind of Christ! We agree with You, Father, we agree with Your Wonderful Word!

Our vision remains the same: to serve God's harvest in the nations, laying the blood covenant foundations of Christ in the lives of new believers , leaders and churches.

We remain totally dependent on your prayer and financial contributions for our personal support and for our missionary work. We need a miracle!!

Thank you for praying for us and for giving as the Lord enables you.

I have written about 2/3 of the first draft of the book on blood covenant foundations.

Please keep praying for our establishing and expanding of the writing and publishing ministry: for distribution at home and abroad.

Pray also for the establishing of plans for mission travel during 2012.

With love,
John and Jackie

Our October 13 Prayer Letter

2011-10-13T23:09:00.001-07:00

http://www.scarletthreadministries.org/WhoWeAre/PrayerLetterPDFArchive/2011/October132011.pdf

Our September 7 prayer letter

2011-09-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

If you would like to see this letter in original form with photos, go to this link: http://www.scarletthreadministries.org/WhoWeAre/PrayerLetterPDFArchive/2011/September72011.pdf

September 7, 2011

Dear friends,
We greet you once again in the Wonderful Name of Jesus!

Having arrived back in Minnesota a few days ago, I (John) want to report that I, along with pastor Roger Sutch and Ken Beaudry, had a great time in Ukraine. We were in events surrounding the annual Congress of Churches of Praise during the first days after our arrival. It was a great time of refreshing for everyone!

Roger and I then headed north to the Poltava region of the Churches of Praise, where we had the privilege of being in new church plants in various villages and towns.

It was an honor to be in these places, knowing well the challenging ministry of the church planters, who each work with a network of five or six villages evangelizing, loving, caring, and praying for the people.

A memorable place on the trip was a tiny village of approximately 25 people. A faithful lady named Anna is starting the ministry there with her five small children, using a house purchased for just $240 dollars. We held a Saturday afternoon meeting in the yard. Since the house is not directly on any road, we had to drive through the backyards of several houses from the main road to get to the house, and drive into its small yard.

Vanya and his wife, Church of Praise evangelists, came with us. They, with Anna and the children, walked around the village inviting people. 16 of the 25 people came to the meeting. There were simple narrow benches set up in the yard. The people all knew each other, of course, and bantered back and forth in conversation before the meeting began. My translator was Yanna, who is also and excellent worship leader, keyboard player, singer and music composer - from the main church in Krivoy Rog. A keyboard and loudspeaker were set up in the yard, and Yanna's singing, playing and worship was like music from heaven in that little village yard. Of course, the people loved her.

After her testimony, I taught the gospel -- what Jesus accomplished on the cross. As I often do, I had them use their fingers to remember the five great things that Jesus completed for them in the shedding of his blood. I had the whole group of sixteen pray the sinners prayer, with most of them saying they had never prayed that prayer before. They prayed loudly and with great enthusiasm! All of them then wanted prayer for various things: sickness, family problems, etc. It was great honor to pray for and bless them. This village group is pictured on the back of this letter. As on other days, Roger was at that time ministering in another village.

The church planters are all heroes to us. In the Poltava region, 52 churches have been opened and six more are scheduled to begin soon. None of the planters have cars. Each are responsible for several villages which may be 5 to 15 miles apart. Two such female church planters had been using old bicycles which collapsed some weeks ago, and now they walk to their villages.

I asked the senior pastor Vadim, who oversees these 52 churches plus his own church, how many bicycles were needed right now. He said seven. They want to buy the medium quality bicycle for $110; the cheaper model falls apart in a few months from the heavy use.

In one of the towns a house has been given to the church that has started there, a very good house from the point of view of the young congregation. For them, it was a miracle. But it needs repairs in order to be used as a meeting place for the church. Those repairs will cost $2500. It will be a building worth more than $10,000 when repaired.

We could tell many stories from the fifteen towns in which we ministered. People came to Christ in every meeting. We also laid hands and prayed with individuals for their needs in every meeting, sometimes everyone present. It was a pleasure!

Thank you for praying for us, and thank you for continuing to support us and the ministry financially. The Lord's richest blessing on you and your family!

With love,
John and Jackie

Our July 20 prayer letter

2011-07-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
We greet you again in the Wonderful Name of Jesus!

It's hard to believe that my (John's) next trip to Krivoy Rog, Ukraine will finish 18 years of working with our beloved Churches of Praise. It was October of 1993 when Jackie and I, along with Ed Sorteberg and Brian Rupe, landed in Kiev and took the overnight train to Krivoy Rog. We had the honor of preaching to a theater full of people who had come to hear about Jesus. When I gave the invitation to give their lives to Jesus for the first time, the entire crowd stood! Not sure they understood, I had them all sit down and explained more and repeated the invitation. Again they all stood to their feet. Can you believe I did it a third time? With the same results? The first Church of Praise was announced at that meeting, and the first gathering took place the following Sunday.

Within weeks, pastor Gregory and Galena opened the second Church of Praise - which became the "mother church". A daughter church had been born before the mother church was born! Try to figure that one out.

We knew from the moment we met Gregory that he had an apostolic anointing and in our hearts we saw him opening many churches. He did not see himself that way at the time, but now he leads this fellowship of more than 200 churches, with several dozen new ones being opened this year.

Roger, Ken and I are privileged to again be at the annual "family reunion" of these churches, called the Congress of the Churches of Praise. Every leader wants to be there! It is a great reunion, with hundreds of church planters and ministers together, with the love of Jesus flowing among them freely. They really act like a big family of God!

It is hugely important for church leaders from far flung villages and towns to be with their spiritual brothers and sisters, and to be in the explosive atmosphere of praise and worship. They drink in every word taught and preached, and are hungry and thirsty for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Ken and Roger are great imparters of the Holy Spirit, and we are sure the meetings will be marked by the unusual. We call that normal!

Our desire is that all the workers get fresh fire from God and filled to a new overflow of the Spirit. By being continually filled with God's love and fire, these ministers keep moving on ahead!

Roger and I will have two weeks longer than Ken to be in Ukraine, and plan to use it all in evangelism and church planting in towns and villages that are being targeted for new churches to be opened. We will be supported by the Ukrainian team who work faithfully in such outreaches.

Please agree in prayer for the power of God to be present for healing and miracles, and for the village gatherings to be marked with many coming to salvation and receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

We are planning to have outreaches in at least twelve villages. You can be a partner with us by prayer and by giving to the small budget needed for each village outreach. $150 will suffice for each village near Krivoy Rog. For reaching more distant villages, $250 per village is needed for the extra transportation expense of the workers.

We have received $300 for two village outreaches, and believe that the rest for all twelve will come in. Funds are also needed for the rest of my own travel expenses, about $1000.

Roger and Ken and I are VERY excited about this trip, and believe God will do wonderful things. All reports indicate there is a fresh moving of God in the towns and villages of Ukraine, with the people very hungry for God!

Thank you for your partnership in prayer, in love, and in giving to this Ukrainian movement which has never stopped in the last 18 years! Actually, we believe the best is yet to come!!

With love, John and Jackie

p.s. Jackie will be at home; agree with us that all the needs will be met at the home base!

John's Travel to Ukraine:
August 10 - 31
(with Roger Sutch and Ken Beaudry)
Schedule:
1. Annual Congress of Churches of Praise Aug 16 - 20
2. Evangelism and church planting in 12 villages Aug 12 - 16, Aug 20 - 29
You can cover the cost of one village event for $150 - $250

Write checks to: Scarlet Thread Ministries, P.O Box 48341, Coon Rapids, MN 55448-0341
For online giving: go to our website page: http://www.scarletthreadministries.org/ContactUs.htm

June 28, 2011 Prayer Letter

2011-06-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
We say hello again in the wonderful name of Jesus! It is a great honor to us that you would take time to read our letter, and to pray as the Lord leads you! Thank you.

We have included with this letter (only the snail mail version) a new tract "Five Done Deals", which we wrote to help young Christians remember what is in the blood of Jesus. The five things in that tract constitute what Jesus meant when He cried out at the moment of His death in a loud voice, "It is Finished!" Email your mailing address to us, and we will gladly send one of these tracts to you.

Because of this great finished work of Jesus on the cross, someone wrote this song;
"It's done, yes it's done!
It's done, yes it's done!
Through the precious blood of Jesus, the battle is won!"
Jackie and I sing this song -- not just when it looks like the battle is won -- but when the battle looks lost! We sing it because we know Jesus won a victory that is complete, regardless of how things look!

You don't need to try to GET the blessings in your salvation. They are already yours. Jesus won them for you with His blood. Taking what is already yours is all that is needed. Keep the truth of Jesus Christ and His great sacrifice in front of your eyes. Just keep looking at the truth!

In Numbers 21:4-9, is the account of God's people being healed by just looking at a bronze snake on a pole. (a type or symbol of Jesus on the cross. John 3:14). In like manner, you can receive the Lord's victory in your life by continually looking to Jesus and to the great facts of His death and resurrection.

Your healing is more than a promise: it is an accomplished fact. It is a "done deal". This is also true concerning your freedom from sin, from Satan's power, and from the curse. It also is a "done deal" that you have peace with God and full access to His presence through the blood.

An old preacher said to me, "John, the problem with most Christians is that they are trying to get into a room they are already in." Because of the blood of Jesus, you already have been brought near to God (Ephesians 2:13) and you already have access to His presence! (Romans 5:1) Your are already in the room where God is!

What pleases the Lord, and what ushers in the help of God, is when you trust Him even when you see nothing with your natural eyes that indicates God is at work. As Jackie and I deliberately say to each other at those times: "God is working secretly on our behalf."

Today, God certainly is working secretly on your behalf. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, HOW WILL HE NOT ALSO WITH HIM FREELY GIVE YOU ALL THINGS?" Romans 8:32

If your faith and hope seem dim, wait on the Lord. There is resurrection power in your spirit. If you have gone through loss, just wait on the Lord. Your heart will rise again! New hope and faith will come. It will be as if God raised you from the dead.

Only three things are needed when you are walking through an extended dark valley. First, stay thankful for the goodness and faithfulness of God; second, keep your heart free from bitterness and unforgiveness. Third, stay in His Word.

God will do the rest. Remember, "Faith comes". (Romans 10:17) If you seem to have run out of faith, wait on the Lord and wait in His Word. Faith will come.

Thank you...
Some of you have stood with us for such a long a time! Our partnership with friends like you goes back twenty-five years to when we stepped away from pastoring a church to serve the body of Christ in prayer and missions. A few of you were even with us during the fifteen years before that when we pastored churches. This fall will complete forty years in the full-time ministry.

Our goals remain the same, to build up the church where He sends us, laying foundations in young leaders and young churches, encouraging those who serve on the frontlines of evangelism and church planting.
We are trusting the Lord to help us write and publish what He has given us to teach. Please agree with us for this important work.

Our eyes are on the Lord, but we cannot do anthing alone. We rely on your prayer and your financial giving in order to do the work of the Lord. To be honest, we need a major financial miracle. Thank you...

With love,
John and Jackie
email: ScarletThread@cfaith.com

John's upcoming travel to Ukraine:
August 10 - 31
(with pastor Roger Sutch and Ken Beaudry)
Plans:
1. Annual Congress of Churches of Praise: Aug 16 - 20
2. Evangelism and church planting in 12 villages: Aug 12 - 16, Aug 20 - 29 You can cover the cost of one of these village events for $150.00

2011-05-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
Hello again in the wonderful name of Jesus! Thank you for taking time to read our letters. We deeply appreciate your friendship!

Writing and publishing...
In the past, we have asked for prayer several times for the ministry of writing and publishing, especially concerning the foundations we teach under the heading of Blood Covenant. I (John) stopped asking for prayer for this, feeling I was too slow and not getting anything done. Well, maybe it is MORE PRAYER that will make the difference!

The writing and publishing vision has grown to include various small and medium size publications, especially to be translated in languages of people in parts of the world where there is much less access to the gospel. We are not wanting to just add more words where there is plenty of written word available, but to teach and send the Word where little exists.

When you see a believer in a far away place take a booklet concerning Jesus in his or her hands for the first time, a person who has never had anything about God to read, and watch them hold it like it is solid gold, tears come to their eyes and yours.

Of course, many in the world have not yet even seen or read a Bible! How many Bibles are on your shelf? How many Christian books do you have at your fingertips?

We want to do our part to help those who come to Christ to know the SUBSTANCE of their powerful salvation in the blood of Jesus!

We need your help to see this part of our ministry fulfilled. It may be the more important work of our lives. It requires time in the secret place -- with the Lord, with the keyboard, and with each other. I write, Jackie edits. It is teamwork. If I write with strong anointing, she has less editing to do. So now you know what to pray for!

We are looking at this year as the time to breakthrough and establish the writing and publishing ministry. Perhaps travel will be restricted to get this done.

Will you continue to support us with your prayer and giving, or help in a new way? We need huge breakthroughs on both levels. Our financial support tends to be better when we travel more. We believe God will provide even if we stay home more at times to do this writing and publishing. Thank you for your partnership with us!

We count it a privilege to pray for your prayer requests. Please email us your prayer needs!

Remember: one word from God is more powerful than any problem you have. Read about Him, meditate on Him, talk to Him, listen to Him and wait on Him. Then do what He says.

With love,
John and Jackie

p.s. We do have travel plans: Ukraine in August, Indonesia a few weeks after that...

20 page booklet, "Waiting on God": 1st copy is free to anyone anywhere, including shipping. Just send us a request for this booklet, including the name and address to which you want it mailed.

Write checks to: Scarlet Thread Ministries, P.O Box 48341, Coon Rapids, MN 55448-0341
For immediate and secure online contributions by credit/debit card, go to our website address:
http://www.scarletthreadministries.org/ContactUs.htm
Email:ScarletThread@cfaith.com
Tel: 763-755-6612
All contributions are fully tax deductible

His voice is the “still, small” one…

2011-04-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

In 1 Kings 19, we find Elijah hiding in a cave on Mt. Horeb, discouraged and troubled after confronting Ahab and being threatened by Jezebel.

The Lord told Elijah to “go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD... And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”

God seemed to be giving Elijah an “object lesson” on how to recognize His voice. This great man of God had become weary and disoriented. He needed a tangible reminder of God’s character and nature. So God set up a demonstration of wind, earthquake and fire. Though the Lord probably made these things happen, they did not contain His presence: “...the Lord was not IN the wind...etc.”

After all this tumult came the sound of a “still, small voice”. When Elijah heard it, he came out of the cave. The wind and the earthquake and the fire had not drawn him out. Perhaps they had made him retreat even farther into the cave — after all, the wind was strong enough to break rocks! Regardless, what is important was that the Lord was not in these strong and compelling forces. Instead, He came in the still small voice. Other Bible translations say “the sound of a gentle blowing” or “the sound of sheer silence” or “a gentle whisper”. My own translation would be “a calm, small sound”. This is how God speaks to us.

The “still, small voice” is God’s chosen way of communication. His presence produces an atmosphere of inward tranquility, and He comes as a “whisper within”. His voice is calming, stabilizing, and quiet. The One who created the wind and the fire, and who can shake the heavens and the earth, chooses to speak to His children with a calm, small sound.

Life around us can be compelling and noisy. The good as well as the bad that may happen around us can have a strong pull. We can be tossed and turned in the turbulence of circumstances, our attention drawn away by the loudest voices around us – or the compulsive thoughts within.

Are you being dragged along by external forces rather than being led by the Lord Himself? Do you let the loudest voices guide your life and determine your existence? Or are you being ruled over by the gentle, almost noiseless voice of the Father? Col. 3:15 says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...” Peace is inward calm and tranquility. It is freedom from oppression and anxiety, freedom bought by the blood of Jesus. Do you have a calm in the center of you, in which you can frequently find refuge from the pressures of life? Is there an inward tranquility where you find communion with the Lord?

Life with God cannot be lived by simply responding to outward stimuli. Life in Christ is lived in the secret place, the abiding place. This is in our spirit rather than our mind and emotions. Our spirit is the place in us where His Spirit dwells, and where we cohabit and coexist with Him. From our spirit we can live in peace, for Jesus who is in us said, “in Me you have peace”. Jn. 16:33

When Elijah heard the still small voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out to the entrance of the cave. (When you finally hear that quiet calm voice of God, your will come out of your cave too!) The Lord said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah rehearsed with God his discouragement. The Lord encouraged him, gave Him new marching orders, and assured him that he was not alone. Through a fresh word, Elijah was renewed and prepared for what was to come.

The true voice of the Lord brings refreshing, renewing, reviving, re-firing, and re-commissioning for the next chapter in your life. Only He knows what is coming. He wants to give you new marching orders for the days ahead. Let Him finish his inward work in you, and let Him help you to be firmly anchored in His Word and His Presence—His still small voice. Determine to let the peace of Christ rule in your heart—and nothing else. No longer be swayed by influences around you, be they good or bad, be they friend or foe.

Perhaps you are like Elijah in that cave. Life’s experiences may have left you feeling weary or discouraged. The increasing turmoil of the world may seem overwhelming.

Get alone with Him. Worship Him. Wait for Him to show Himself to you. Don’t let the external pressures guide your life — especially the loud and compelling ones. Listen for the voice of your Shepherd. You are His sheep. You belong to Him, and He is the One who laid His life down for you. Listen to Him. Jesus said of Himself, “He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out… The sheep follow Him because they know His voice, and a stranger they simply will not follow...” John 10:3-5 Wait for the sound of the still, calm, familiar voice of your Shepherd.

Be still…
There was a period of two years when Jackie and I seemed to live on just two verses from the Bible. God gave them to us in a season of persistent trial, a time of clouded vision and unanswered questions. We simply had to trust in the goodness of God. One of these verses was Psalms 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” We learned to be still. The original Hebrew word for ‘still’ in this verse can be translated, “Let go, relax, go limp, stop striving…” It was a time to go limp in the strong and secure arms of our loving Father.
During this same season we had to learn another kind of stillness, the kind spoken of in Exodus 14:13. The Israelites were at the Red Sea with the Egyptian armies racing towards them. God’s word to them was “Stand still and see the salvation of God…!” The Hebrew word for still in this verse is to “take your stand, stand by”. It speaks of a military alertness, as a soldier at attention waiting for marching orders, alert and on guard, yet doing nothing without a command. It spoke to us of our need to be at attention in our minds, not giving in to the enemy’s desire to defeat us. We learned to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5) and not fall into worry, despair or unbelief.

We learned two kinds of stillness. One is to go limp in the arms of God, totally relaxing in His faithfulness. The other is to stand on guard against Satan and do nothing without God’s orders. Our flesh causes us to respond opposite to this. Our natural soul tends to go limp in the face of the enemy, and be on guard against God! (due to spiritual passivity and unbelief). God changes us, sometimes during the worst seasons of life, so that we will trust Him completely. He gives us inner stillness in His loving presence. We learn to stop giving in to the lies of the devil, to put a guard on our thinking, and wait for His direction.

When trouble increases or the pace of life quickens, our tendency is to speed up on the inside – usually out of fear and urgency. The actual need is to slow down internally, to stop. That doesn’t mean that we “check out” and become irresponsible, or stop making good decisions when necessary. It means that we stop to listen for the still voice of God. The wisdom of the Lord comes from the Holy Spirit in us, and we need to connect with the quietness of His presence. As the Lord showed Elijah in the cave, His presence is not in the fire or the wind or the earthquake (sometimes apt descriptions of our circumstance) but in the “quiet, calm sound.”

We need inward stillness even in the busyness of life, and especially when crisis comes. If we respond to the loudest “voices” in and around us, we may miss the Lord’s wisdom. Even taking a moment to connect with the stillness of God within can be enough to recognize His leading. By nurturing a stillness of heart and mind, the fresh flow of the “peace that passes all understanding” will come. In that place we can receive from Him all that we need.

A simple song says it: “He is all I need, all I need; Jesus is all I need.” “I take Him now, I take Him now, for all that I need.”

Quietness, waiting and patience are habits of power and strength, not weakness. It is the calm person in the crisis that others lean on, and the one who can make good decisions. The effect of the Holy Spirit in us is to increase this ability to stay calm. God is not anxious and worried about our problems. In His quietness and confidence we find our strength.

Perhaps you need this message right now. Or perhaps someone close to you needs it. All of us need it sometime! We have learned that the greatest gift anyone can give is to lead someone into the presence of the Lord. In his presence mountains of problems melt like wax. Ps. 97:5. In His presence there is fullness of joy. Ps. 16:11.

May your mountains melt like wax as you hide yourself in His presence. Take freely of His gift of righteousness, peace and joy by drinking deeply of the of the Holy Spirit all through your day. Rom. 14:17

Thank you...
We thank you from the depths of our heart for your continued prayer for us and for the ministry God has given us. We desperately need your prayer!

We thank you as well for holding up our financial needs to the Lord, and for responding to His leading in giving. We face increasing financial challenges! By giving financially, you are sharing in the work of serving the Lord's great harvest!

With love,
John and Jackie

p.s. Please write checks to:
Scarlet Thread Ministries, P.O. Box 48341, Coon Rapids, MN 55448-0341

March 26, 2011 Prayer Letter

2011-03-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
Greetings again in the wonderful name of Jesus!

"No longer I, but Christ lives in me..."
The past four decades of ministry have shown us the deep need to be rooted and grounded in Christ Himself – in everything. We’ve seen too much human effort, especially in our own lives. Serving the Lord may be work, but it is His work. It is the life of Christ in us, empowered by the Spirit.

We find it peculiar that even the best of preachers and the best of books for believers frequently assume the foundation of life in Christ but don’t actually lay that foundation. It would be great if all believers were solidly rooted in Christ, His person, His redemption, and participating in His present ministry. But we have seen that this is not true. It appears to us that the complete gospel of Jesus Christ is not preached in many pulpits.

When life gets tough, too many Christians flounder or fall. It does not have to be so. Believers can be well grounded in the great reality of their redemption in Christ, the grand and glorious gospel that goes from Genesis to Revelation. The name and blood of Jesus can be more than familiar concepts. They can be more real and powerful to us than anything else that exists!

The foundation for faith is in your hidden life WITH Christ, and IN Christ. It is being rooted in Him, and He rooted in you. God never intended for you to produce anything from yourself. You don’t have a life of your own. Your life is the life of Christ Himself inside of you.

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave Himself for me." Gal: 2:20

The life of Christ in heaven is prayer life.
Prayer is the priority of Jesus in heaven, and it the first priority of His life inside of us. To know Christ is to be a praying Christian. Everything else - all profitable ministry and activity - comes from that prayer fountain.
After Christ's ascension back to heaven, everything that He accomplished in His earthly life moved up into His heavenly life. There He lives forever "to make intercession”. Heb. 7:25.

For the Body of Christ there can be no more important activity than prayer. How could there be if Jesus Himself, the Head of the Body, is now “living forever to make intercession”?

The life of Christ in you is prayer life.
His intercession is not only in heaven, for Christ is within you, through the Holy Spirit. His prayer life flows through you by the Holy Spirit and back to the Father. This Holy Spirit led prayer life is the life of your salvation. It is the life “hidden with Christ in God”. Col. 3:3.

When the Church is fully involved with Christ in His intercession, the world is a different place. There are more miracles, and there is more of His will being "done on earth as it is in heaven”. Matt. 6:10.

Because of this, there are three essential things that are to characterize the life of Christians:
1) Be baptized in the Holy Spirit and constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 3:16, Eph. 5:18.
2) Know with certainty and continuously increasing understanding the finished work of Christ in His great redemption. Eph. 1:17-20 "It is finished!" John 19:30
3) Participate in His unfinished work -- His unceasing intercessory prayer life, empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is Christ's intercession, as mediator of the New Covenant, that brings into human experience the heavenly benefits and victories won by His redemption. Eph. 6:18, Col. 4:2.

The world has yet to see the Church standing fully in her appointed place of prayer. She is the body of the One who always lives to make intercession. When we “grow up into Him who is the Head” (Eph. 4:15), will we not be with Him in the place of prayer?

Thank you again...
We love and greatly appreciate you; we thank you for your friendship, your prayer, and your financial support. As you probably remember, we are not salaried by our home church or by any other organization. Our financial support depends on contributions to our ministry by friends such as you.

"May the blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the name of the Lord." Ps. 129:8

With love,
John and Jackie
p.s. Pray with us as we consider travel this year to Ukraine, China, Indonesia, and more...

Write checks to: Scarlet Thread Ministries, P.O. Box 48341, Coon Rapids, MN 55448-0341
For immediate and secure online contributions by credit/debit card, go to our website address:
http://www.scarletthreadministries.org/ContactUs.htm
Email:JohnandJackieMatthews@gmail.com
Tel: 763-755-6612
All contributions are fully tax deductible

February 28, 2011 prayer letter

2011-03-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,
Greetings again in the name of Jesus!

Your faith equals your righteousness..
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal 3:26-29

There may be no one more important outside of Jesus Christ than Abraham, in gaining a good understanding the gospel. Abraham’s name is mentioned more than three hundred times in the Bible. No other person takes up entire chapters of the New Testament, except Jesus Himself.

There is good reason for this. God had a plan for sending His Son, a plan made a very long time before Jesus came to the earth.

That plan was first announced to Abraham.

It is that plan which underlies everything God has done and is doing in the world. That plan, though announced two thousand years before Christ in the Old Testament, is the plan still in motion.

“In your seed, Abraham, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3

God said this from the first day he spoke to Abraham. He said it again and again. It is called “the promise”, “the inheritance”, and “the blessing” in Galatians 3. In Romans 4 it is the promise that Abraham would be “the father of many nations” and “heir of the world”. There Abraham is also called “the father of us all”, and “the father of all who believe”.

In Hebrews 6, the promise to Abraham in which God swore that he would bless and multiply him, is referred to as the hope we have “as an anchor of the soul”.

It is in the life of Abraham that God first shows clearly how He will relate to man. It is that example that is used in the New Testament to show us that God has not changed His ways. There was always only one way to get along with God. There was and is only one way to be His friend.

This way was first shown in the life of Abraham.

“After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazer of Damascus?"

Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir."

Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Genesis 15:1-6

How will a man or a woman be righteous in the eyes of God? How will a person please God?

God took Abraham out in the clear night, and had him look at the sky. Being a clear mid-Eastern sky without pollution, it was no doubt gorgeous, loaded with stars, and bright to the eyes. The Lord said “Look”. The Lord said, “Count them, if you can.” The Lord said, “So shall be your descendants.”

He said this to an old man with no children.

That old man did something which pleased the Lord. That old man did something which God counted as righteous.

That old man believed God. He believed what God showed him, and he believed what God told him, and He believed IN God; that is, he believed in the faithfulness and character and person of God. Since God said it, Abraham decided it was true.

That was faith. That faith of Abraham is what God called righteousness.

In God’s mind, Abraham’s faith equaled Abraham’s righteousness.

Abraham pleased God by his faith. His relationship with God was established by his faith in God.

It has always been in this way of faith, and only in this way of faith that men have pleased God.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” By it (FAITH), men of old gained approval.” Hebrews 11:1,2

The remainder of Hebrews 11 is a record of the faith of men and women in the Old Testament. They were approved by God for their faith. Abraham, of course, is on the list. So is Abel, Noah, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Moses parents, Rahab, David, Samuel, and an unnamed host of others. They all gained God’s approval by their faith.

Some think that in the Old Testament people were approved by God for keeping “the Law” – which is the Law given to Moses; in brief, the ten commandments.

But the Bible is clear: "By the works of the Law no flesh (no human being) will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20

Abraham certainly did not get along with God through the law of Moses. The law of Moses came into being hundreds of years after Abraham died. God’s covenant with Abraham was not “the law”. It was an earlier covenant based on God’s promise – a promise of blessing and blessing and blessing – a promise to bless the whole world through the seed of Abraham.

Abraham believed what God said, and he received righteousness. There has never been another way to be righteous before God.
(from John's larger teaching on Abraham)

Back from Ukraine...
I have just returned from Krivoy Rog. Jackie and I want to thank you for praying for us and for this time of ministry in Krivoy Rog.

What I did while there was not new. In addition to ministering in churches and meeting with leaders, I again taught the Blood Covenant foundations -- this time to both colleges, translated into Russian, of course. However, I've not been able to do this so completely for a couple of years. This time, I was able to teach for fourteen hours over seven days.

What was accomplished with this was new: I was able to put it all on digital high definition video, making it possible for the first time for others to see and hear the teaching without us being there!

It is difficult to evaluate the fruit of the Blood Covenant teaching, since it consists of sowing seeds of the truth into the hearts and minds of believers. Because of open and hungry hearts, the teaching flowed like a river, and the time passed too quickly. It is my highest privilege to do this ministry.

Of course, many came to me to express their strong appreciation for the teaching. However, the true test of the teaching is in their lives - being able to stand on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ; to be bold in faith, in prayer, and in obedience because they know the blood sealed covenant they have with their heavenly Father!

Teaching Blood Covenant Mar. 15 - Ap. 19
We will be teaching the Blood Covenant here in Minnesota, starting in two weeks from this writing. All are welcome.

Please pray for the people who will attend this study. Romans 1:16 says, the GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD unto salvation. In other words, God does miracles through the words of the good news concerning Jesus Christ and what He accomplished in His death and resurrection.

That is what we keep preaching and teaching over and over and over. We want to make sure people (believers) actually HEAR the full good news! It can become the gospel that no one is teaching, assuming that believers know it or have heard it -- which is not necessarily true. Even in the best of churches, preachers can go on to "more important" sermons, with their people weak in the foundations.

Psalms 11:3 says "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

We will continue to lay these foundations as long as we have breath, and as long as the Lord provides for us to go and teach this glorious gospel.

Thank you for continuing to support us in prayer and finances. Romans 10:15 asks the question, "How will they preach unless they are sent?" You, through your prayer and giving, are our senders.

We greatly appreciate your friendship and partnership with us. May the Lord richly bless you and your family as you keep your eyes on Him.

With love,
John and Jackie

Trip #53 to Krivoy Rog, Ukraine, leaving Feb 10...

2011-02-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody!

I am scheduled to leave for Krivoy Rog, Ukraine next Thursday, Feb. 10. Minneapolis – Amsterdam – Kiev - Dnepropretrovsk – Krivoy Rog. It consists of three airplane flights and one automobile ride, 24 hours of travel, each way.

I will minister to leaders, churches and the colleges. Please pray that I will experience continuous grace and anointing, in order to be a blessing in every situation. Jackie will remain home. Remember to pray for her as well.

Though it is trip #53 to our beloved Churches of Praise, it is never “routine”. This trip is a faith adventure as much as the first time we traveled in missions. We are dependent on the Lord and on friends like you to be our “senders”. As always, we have set the plan in motion by faith, and we trust the Lord to supply all that is needed.

This time additional funds are needed for new video equipment. I plan to produce videos of the school of the Blood Covenant while I am teaching it in Ukraine. We can’t personally teach all of the 200+ Churches of Praise. These videos, produced in a live setting, can go to many more places that we can ever go. State of the art equipment is now available at much lower cost and extremely compact for travel. We need equipment that will produce excellent videos in even primitive settings.

These videos which teach the foundations of life in Christ will be widely useable, now that electronics are almost everywhere. We will put them on the internet, on flash drives and DVD’s and anything else that becomes available. We are also planning to teach and video the Blood Covenant in several other countries and languages. It is for this purpose that new video equipment is needed now.

If you would like to contribute to this trip and this project, see the giving information below.

Thank you for praying for us. Prayer removes obstacles, increases the anointing, and brings about lasting fruit. No words can describe the high level of importance we place on your prayer. We have learned through experience that even the simplest, shortest prayer can dramatically affect us on the other side of the world!

With love and appreciation,
John and Jackie

1) Write checks to: World Harvest Network, 9201 75th Ave. N., Brooklyn Park, MN 55428
2) For immediate and secure online contributions by credit/debit card, go to our website address:
http://www.scarletthreadministries.org/ContactUs.htm
All contributions are fully tax deductible
Email: JohnandJackieMatthews@gmail.com

School of the Blood Covenant

2011-01-25T11:39:00.001-08:00

March 15 - April 19, 2011

Six Tuesdays, 7- 8:30 pm

Living Word Christian Center

9201 75th Ave N

Brooklyn Park, MN 55428

Room SG2: (Go in the Youth entrance and turn right.)

Taught by missionary pastors John and Jackie Matthews

John and Jackie's website: www.ScarletThreadMinistries.org

Call 763-755-6612 for more information.

Free. No registration needed. Every class is open to everyone.

Jesus shouted out, "IT IS FINISHED!", and then He died.

Come and learn what He was shouting about!

Take a walk with us through the Word

at the communion table, and discover ALL that

God has provided for you through the blood of Jesus

January 24, 2011 Prayer Letter

2011-01-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

Cintia Joy

Dear friends,

Greetings again in the name of Jesus!

We have included with this letter the story of Cintia Joy, a young woman on R & R's team whom we met in Indonesia last October.

After we heard her story, we realized we had encountered the direct fruit of the ministry of Jackie's parents, Einar and Alice Mickelson, who had spent their lives as missionaries in Indonesia and the Philippines. We have felt over the years that we somehow were brought into their anointing. Of course, it would be logical that Jackie would carry their spiritual heritage, but somehow I (John) got pulled in as well.

Many years ago we listened to the testimony of a couple who were responsible for a large mission work in Asia. It was the same region in which the wife's parents gave their lives as missionaries. Now, after many years of service, they were assigned to leadership in that area for reasons unrelated to her heritage. Later, they both realized they had stepped into the spiritual heritage and anointing of her parents.

We do not claim to have the same anointing of Jackie's parents, nor are we called to specifically the same places they worked. We would never think of comparing ourselves to them; yet, their lives have rubbed off on us.

Jackie's parents had a stubborn heart for reaching unreached and neglected peoples of the world, spending their lives in the interior of New Guinea (now Irian Jaya) and on the southern tip of the Philippines. Her father Einar would tell the younger missionaries, "Don't get too comfortable where you are. See those mountains? Just over them are people who have never yet heard of Jesus."

Cintia Joy is the direct fruit of Einar and Alice's ministry. Her parents, saved under Einar's preaching, imparted Einar's vision to Cintia Joy.

We would like to see that same vision imparted to this new generation: Einar's grandchildren, his great grandchildren, and Einar's great spiritual family - the Church.

We are not able to tramp through rocky mountains as he did all his life, wearing out strong boots in a few weeks, returning home with bleeding feet. ("How lovely are the feet of him who brings good news..." Is 52)

We can, however, get to many places in the world, thanks to modern transport and the help of friends.

We want to see our children and our grandchildren - and your children and grandchildren - touched by the same restless anointing that was on Einar and Alice Mickelson to take the gospel to those who have never experienced the love of Jesus.

Some of those who are far from the gospel are in your own community. But millions live in nations closed off by ancient walls of religion and culture from any knowledge of Jesus. The 21st century calls for a whole new generation of mission pioneers. Large numbers of them, like Cintia Joy and her brother, are the fruit of former pioneers like Einar and Alice. Every year, many unsung heroes, unkown to most of the world, are even martyrs for Christ's sake and the gospel.

We continue to be drawn to help those on the front lines of spreading the Gospel. It has brought us to various countries in the last 30 years, pulled us into Ukrainian church planting, and is pulling us to go to other places as well (not leaving our Ukrainians, however!)

Please pray with us concerning present opportunities in India, Indonesia, China, and Congo, as well as new expansion in Ukraine.

Our purpose is to do what we do: teach the foundations in Christ to young churches, church planters and leaders; to encourage them, and help them stand on the Rock that will never fail them no matter what life brings!

I (John) will be in Ukraine Feb. 10-24, teaching Blood Covenant, producing videos with Russian translation that can be duplicated in various forms. Funds are still needed for this trip.

Thank you for your friendship, your prayer, and your giving. You are our senders. You share in the eternal rewards. It is only with friends like you that we are able to move ahead in God's call!

With love,

John and Jackie

Here is the added story....

A Divine encounter... John and Jackie Matthews

During October, 2010, we spent some days on the island of Sumatra, where we have gone numerous times over the years to encourage those who serve there and bring teams of prayer warriors.

John and I (Jackie Mickelson Matthews) went alone this time, our first visit since the great tsunami that took the lives of many thousands of these people. Our time was spent viewing the continued aftermath of the tsunami, reconstruction efforts, mass graves of the victims, and visiting Indonesian friends in several types of businesses that have been established to improve the lives of the people.

We had time to gather in each place of business, sharing their burdens, and talking to our Father about their vision and needs. On our last night, our host R. asked nearly all of them to gather, and we shared words meant to encourage and strengthen.

Often in similar settings, I (Jackie) share first and then John teaches from the Word. In preparation for this meeting I felt strongly to talk about my parents, Einar and Alice Mickelson, who spent their lives in Indonesia. I had never before talked about them in such detail as I did that night.

In their later years, my parents worked on the southern tip of the Philippines on the island of Mindinao. They had a boat ministry, going to small Indonesian islands within reach of their base on Mindinao. They named their boat the “Cynthia Joyce” after my younger sister.

Here is a testimony and a remarkable encounter that night in Sumatra with a young lady who is the fruit of my parents’ ministry of so many years ago. Our encounter with her was thousands of miles away from eastern Indonesia where she was raised, and where my parents touched her family and her life.

“My name is Cintia Joy Morahing...”

“On August 11th, 2009, I traveled from my hometown in the Indonesian Islands of Sangihe (north of Sulawesi) to Salatiga (Central Java). My sole purpose for this trip was to attend a one year Discipleship Training School (DTS). My younger brother had completed this course the year before and was very excited to see me go, as he was very blessed and challenged to grow in God the year before. I saw many changes in him and desired this for myself.

“It is a very long trip, which requires much money. First, I took a boat from my island to Manado (18 hours), and then from there I traveled by plane to Jakarta (another 4 hours). I wondered if the tremendous sacrifice of time and money would be worthwhile. But now, looking back, I am very thankful to God that He answered my prayers and I could study at the DTS.

“On August 14th 2009, I arrived in Salatiga, Central Java, by bus from Jakarta (12 hours bus ride) and I met Mr. R and Mrs. R. Upon arriving in Salatiga, they greeted me at the bus station and they brought me to the DTS location. During the ensuing three months, God spoke to me and I learned so much! The DTS changed and challenged me in many ways. I had struggled with some issues that always made me feel like I could not grow in the Lord. Now I am free and am daily growing in God!

“When the lecture phase of the DTS was almost finished, Mrs. R who was leading the DTS, challenged us to find out and to write about the meaning of our name. Our parents named us the name they chose for a reason (good or bad), and we were assigned to find out why. In the class Mrs. R pointed to me and said, “You have a very special name – there must be a significant meaning to your name as “Cinthia Joy” is not an Indonesian name.” This assignment involved seeking God as well as asking our parents why we were given our name. So I prayed and asked God about the meaning of my name. I received Proverbs 29:17, “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul” (NKJV).

“When I asked my mother the meaning of my name, my mom explained the meaning of my name. In 1948 my parents went from Sangihe, Indonesia to the Balagu district of Glan in South Mindanao, Philippines. There the people did not believe in Jesus, but instead worshiped idols. In 1962 two missionaries, Mr. Mickelson and his wife Alice, came to Mindanao and preached the Gospel. They had previously been in Borneo and Irian Jaya in Indonesia.

“Among the first group to which Mr. Mickelson preached were my parents. They held a series of public meetings, and near the end of that time gave an altar call to repent and pray to receive Jesus. As they prayed for deliverance over the group, there was an earthquake, which occurred only at the place of the meeting. After the earthquake some of the leaders from the village stood up and opposed the missionary, saying he was from the devil and deceiving us. The proof was the earthquake.

“However, my father stood up and for many hours publicly defended the missionaries, saying the earthquake was a sign from God that God was speaking to us through this missionary, and that the village needed to respond. In the end my father managed to convince the group, and as a village they repented and gave their hearts to Jesus. It was then and there that my parents received Jesus in a personal way as their Lord and Savior. There were many others present (most of the village) who also received Jesus and were restored.

“My parents and a few others then went with Mr. Mickelson and his wife to preach the Gospel to the nearby islands. They traveled using a boat owned by Mr. Mickelson for the purpose of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. The name of this boat was “Cinthia Joy”.

“In 1965, many people had already come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior in these Islands of The Philippines. This was the year that Mr. Mickelson built a Bible school named “Mickelson Alliance Bible Institute” in Malagupos, Mindanao, in the Philippines. My father, Yunus, was one of the first students to be trained and then graduate from this school. In 1966 Mr. Mickelson died in the Philippines, and is buried in Malagupos.

“In 1977, my parents returned to Sangihe, Indonesia and ministered in the Sangihe Islands. I was born on the18th of February, 1979, and given the name “Cintia Joy”. My name was taken from Mr. Mickelson’s youngest daughter, which was also the name of the boat he used to preach the Gospel. The reason my parents gave me this name was to remind them that Mr. Mickelson had introduced them to Jesus Christ. It was a sign of honoring Mr. Mickelson and something to always remind us of God’s goodness to us in bringing Mr. Mickelson to us.

“In the year 1986, my father died in Sangihe, Indonesia. He is survived by my mother and other family members who still live in Sangihe. From before I was born until today, there is a large 2 foot by 3 foot old, faded, discolored photo hanging in the center of our living room wall of Mr. Mickelson and his wife, the ones that led us and this village to Jesus. I would have to say that while growing up, I was taught to respect and honor Mr. Mickelson and his wife more than anyone else. They were always highly revered in our family and village.

“At the end of 2009, I traveled to Sumatra, Indonesia for a one-year outreach with the DTS. On October 3rd, 2010, Mr. R hosted two guests in his home. They were Mr. R’s pastors while he was a teenager in Minnesota, USA and served Mr. R with many visits to Sumatra over the years. They visited all the departments in our organization and prayed for each department. Mr. R invited us to dinner where he had invited the guests to share the Word of God with us. Mr. R introduced us to the guests: Mr. John Matthews and his wife, Mrs. Jackie.

“After a short introduction, Mrs. Jackie felt led of God to tell us about her parents that were missionaries to Indonesia; that she had grown up in this part of the world and always had a special place in her heart for the people of Indonesia. She shared how they did evangelism in Sangihe, Indonesia and in Mindanao, Philippines. She also said that when her father prayed and shared the Gospel, there were sometimes earthquakes. So I remembered my mother’s story.

“The story that Mrs. Jackie was telling was very similar to the one my mother had told me about the meaning of my name. After Mrs. Jackie shared this, my heart was pounding and I could not wait for the meeting to end to ask Mr. R to help me to talk to Mrs. Jackie. I wanted desperately to ask her more abut her father and family. I hardly noticed that Mr. John then went on to speak to us for the next half hour on “joy” and walking in God’s joy daily in our lives – I found it interesting that he spoke on joy and my name is Joy.

“After the meeting had finished, I asked Mr. R to help me to talk with Mrs. Jackie, and I explained what my mother had told me regarding the meaning of my name. To my amazement, surprise and shock I found out that Mrs. Jackie is the daughter of Mr. Mickelson who introduced Jesus Christ to my parents so many years ago. I was so glad, so excited, and completely overcome with gratefulness and thanks that I could meet Mrs. Jackie and Mr. John.

“I found out it is Mrs. Jackie’s younger sister that I was named after! Mrs. Jackie has a younger sister named “Cinthia Joy”! (Cynthia Joyce) Mrs. Jackie showed me a photo of her sister – the daughter of Mr. Mickelson - after whom her father named his boat, the boat that I was named after!

“I thank Mr. R and Mrs. R for making it possible for me to meet the daughter of Mr. Mickelson. This is indeed a miracle and I am most grateful to God for giving me this experience.

“Reflecting back a few days later, I remembered my father always telling us and I guess dreaming that we (as a family, village and island) needed to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to other areas and Islands, just as Mr. Mickelson had done for us.

“Now many decades later it is happening. My brother and myself (and hopefully many more) are committed to going to unreached Islamic areas of Sumatra!”

Cintia Joy Morahing, December 2010

My 52nd mission trip to Krivoy Rog, Ukraine and Churches of Praise

2010-12-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,
Merry Christmas and here comes 2011!
I (John) returned home a few days ago from Ukraine, and want to thank those who prayed and those who gave to this trip. The travel itself was uneventful, meaning it was blessed. The time in Krivoy Rog was also blessed. Preaching, teaching, and praying for people who came to give their lives to Jesus was all a great privilege as always. Pastor Gregory and I spent much time with ministers, and he and I were able to spend considerable time together as well, unlike many trips where lots of events sometime keep us from extended personal conversations.

Such conversations are important at this time, with a new wave of church planting in motion. Nearly 40 church plants have begun since August.

You need to understand that finding leaders among the Churches of Praise who want to open new churches is not a problem. Many are ready and trained to do this. But it takes the joint effort of the existing churches and others, and even with help it takes faith to move into what looks impossible. What an honor it is to be with these pioneers who have that sparkle in their eyes that only comes from being on an adventure with God!

The existing churches are doing well. Many have grown, yet with no permanent place to meet. It is not easy to find a place for a church. One meeting a week at the beginning is not so hard, but as the church becomes busy all week, it is harder to find space. It is best to own a building.

Among the 185 Churches of Praise (not counting the 40 new church plants), 36 now have their own building. Every building is a miracle.

In the villages, the best thing for a church to do is to buy a house with land. The house is then gutted and remodeled. Having some land gives room for expansion later.

In the city, this is sometimes a good plan as well, if the church is not large, and meets in a neighborhood where smaller houses can be purchased. (The majority of people live in apartment buildings.) The cost for a house and land is considerably higher in the city, however. For these small churches, whether in the village or the city, these costs are beyond their reach.

Below are 15 Churches of Praise that are more than ready for their own building. In each case, the need is urgent and immediate, and properties are available for purchase, ranging from $4,000 to $15,000, depending on the location of the church. Some of the churches have saved money for a long time towards a new building.

These buildings will allow each church to more than double in size, have a permanent home, and have space for developing the various ministries needed in a local church.

The cost listed is the highest expected price for the building purchase, minus the amount the church has saved from their own offerings.

15 opportunities for prayer and giving:
Pastor Shkarin Anatoliy
1) Village Behteri $5,000
2) Village Dobropolie $4,000

Pastor Vadim Ignatenko
3) City Tsarichanska $10,000
4) Town Lohvitsa $6,000

Pastor Dennis Eliseev
5) Village Valyava $5,000
6) Village Starosilie $5,000
7) Village Kosari $5,000
8) Village Truzskoe $4,000
9) Town Smolina $7,000

Krivoy Rog Churches
10) Pastor Nichiporuk $5,000
(village church)
11) Pastor Dima (city church) $15,000
12) Pastor Yuriy (city church) $11,000
13) Pastor Ira (village church) $5,000
14) Pastor Lida (city church) $10,000

Vanadzor, Armenia
15) Pastor Varoos (a city church)
a. Buy the land $4,000
b. Build new building $15,000

With deep appreciation for your friendship,
John and Jackie

Choose Life!

2010-10-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

I recall an early morning sometime in the last century. (Wow, I must be ancient!) I was scheduled to speak that morning on prayer to Judy Sutch's women's group at Way of the Cross Church.

I awoke in a panic. How could I teach on prayer? My own prayer life seemed weak. I couldn't remember anything I knew about prayer.

My mind scratched for a way to stay home.

Maybe I'd call in sick....but I and all of us believed in divine healing. That seemed too embarrassing to admit, especially since it was a lie, unless I told Judy I was emotionally or mentally sick, which seemed like the truth at the time... "Judy, I can't come. I've had an emotional breakdown."

I couldn't see myself saying that to her, especially since she would probably start driving the devil out of my head over the phone. It's good to have a friend who can do that.

It didn't help that I was known as a prayer leader in the city.

In desperation, I opened my Bible. It fell open to Romans 8, and verse 6 captured my eyes.
"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace."

It was immediately obvious where my mind was set by how I felt. I felt like I was going to die in front of Judy Sutch and all her ladies.

It seemed reasonable to feel that way. I was totally inadequate and weak in prayer and I didn't really know how to pray like I should. How could I teach in that condition?

...but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.

I had no choice but to set my mind on the Holy Spirit. I chose life and peace. I chose God. I chose the truth that I was saved and that I was His son.

I put one foot in front of the other and showed up at the ladies' meeting. I knew many of the ladies, and knew they were women of prayer.

I didn't know what to do until I stood in front of them, but I had chosen to set my mind on His Spirit where there is life and peace.

I heard myself say, "Turn to Romans 8:26."

I read it: "In the same way the Spirit helps our weakness, for we don't know how to pray as we should..."

I heard myself say, "The doorway to prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit is in your weakness and in NOT knowing how to pray. If you feel strong and think you know how to pray, the Spirit will let you do it yourself without His help. If you want His help, you must be weak in yourself and totally dependent on Him to know how to pray..."

We had a great time. I chose life and peace.

You can too. At any time.

The enemy of your soul will put you down in fear and condemnation as long as you let him do so, and as long as you keep your attention on yourself. Set your mind off from yourself and on the Lord. Life and peace will invade your mind and your emotions, and the feelings of death and depression coming from fear and shame will fade away.

Your Anchor Holds!

2010-08-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

We grew up singing the great hymns of the church, hymns not so popular these days due to the rapid change in musical styles. Some of the classic hymns carried a strong and timeless message, such as this one:

“Tho’ the angry surges roll
On my tempest driven soul;
I am peaceful, for I know,
Wildly though the winds may blow,
I’ve an anchor safe and sure,
That can ever more endure!

“And it holds, my anchor holds;
Blow your wildest, then O gale!
On my bark so small and frail;
By His grace I shall not fail,
For my anchor holds, my anchor holds!”

Another classic hymn has this refrain:

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”

This anchor is spoken of in Hebrews 6:19,20:
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever...”

The “Presence behind the veil” is God our Father Himself in heaven. It is His presence on His throne, which throne is the “mercy seat” within the heavenly Holy of Holies. Jesus went there ahead of us with His own blood on our behalf. Through that precious blood of Jesus, the way into God’s presence was opened to all of us who put our faith in the blood of Jesus.

We need to anchor our souls (our thoughts and meditations) at this mercy seat in heaven.

While meditating on this heavenly anchor some time ago, I realized that an anchor is normally cast downwards — into the sea, to hook a ship to something immovable on the ocean floor. But in this case, we are to throw our anchor of hope upwards into heaven itself, and see it lodged at the very throne of God!

Interestingly, many twenty-first century ships now anchor to the heavens, not the sea floor. The ship’s GPS (Global Positioning System) is connected to the satellites high in the sky, not the sea floor! This GPS becomes its anchor, enabling it to hold position anywhere. In like manner, your heavenly GPS (God’s Positioning System) keeps you anchored to God’s throne of grace in the heavenly place!

This anchor of hope is explained clearly in Hebrews 6: Our hope is the rock-solid promise of God to bless us.

The explanation begins with Abraham, our father of faith, and leads to YOU: Open your Bible to Hebrews 6:11-20, and Galatians 3:16,29:

1. God’s covenant, which is the collection of His promises, is a covenant of blessing, first spoken to Abraham. “For when God made the promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” Heb. 6:13

2. The promise to Abraham was spoken not just to Abraham, but to His SEED which is Christ!
“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.” Galatians 3:16

3. The great news is this: YOU are Abraham’s seed because you belong to Christ!
“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29

4. You are one of the “heirs of promise”!
“Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” Heb. 6:17,18

5. God swore on His own character that He will bless you!
What were the two “immutable” (unchangeable) things? They were both God’s promise to bless – the same thing said twice! First He said it as a promise; secondly He said it as an oath, swearing by His own faithfulness and integrity — because there is nothing stronger to swear by!! — that He will bless!!
He said “I will bless you!” Then, as an oath, he added “Surely blessing...!!” In other words, He said the same thing twice. “While surely blessing you, I will bless you!!” Twice He said he would bless, and in both cases, the word is unchangeable, for God will not, and cannot lie!

6. What God swore to Abraham He swears to you!! “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

7. This great promise of blessing is your great hope!
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

8. Jesus sealed this covenant of promise with His own blood!
When Jesus entered heaven with His own blood, as our High Priest, he settled all accounts against us:
"He forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross." Colossians 2:13,14 Living Bible

He also removed the curse from our lives due to our sin (Galatians 3:13), and established a blood bought covenant of blessing and fruitfulness for our life. (Hebrews 9:15) He opened the way for you to enter in and live in the Presence of the Lord. (Ephesians 2:13,18)

9. This is the anchor for your soul.
This is the reason for continuous hope! This is the basis for courage and stability in the middle of anything, whether life is like a calm sunny day, or a raging hurricane. This anchor holds!!

Cast the anchor of your mind and your meditations at the mercy seat in heaven. See yourself firmly placed in God’s Presence through the blood of Jesus! Acknowledge and agree with God’s sworn word to you, that His immutable (unchangeable) determined promise is to bless you and multiply that blessing! Actually, He has already given you the blessing! (Ephesians 1:3) You can just receive it as a finished work!

This is our hope. This HOPE we have as an anchor of the soul. Another great hymn of the Church says it clearly:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus” Name!

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil!

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the ‘whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay!

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

On some days, you may feel weak in faith. It may be better to say you may lack specific faith for the specific need of the day. Your hope is what will bring you to fresh faith, because your hope will remind you of the great truth. The great truth is that you have direct access to your Father in heaven, and He has sworn that He will bless you because you belong to Christ, who is Abraham’s seed!

On any day, regardless of your circumstances, your feelings, or your thoughts, you can pull on your anchor and know it is firmly lodged at the mercy seat, where you have access to God through the blood of Jesus!

That hope will give you courage to continually “come boldly to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16

You have a wonderful Father in heaven who loves you, and Jesus your Great High Priest who has shed His blood for you! There is a place of mercy and grace for you every day and night, where you can come freely to receive everything you need! It is not called a throne of judgment. It is called the throne of grace!!

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, LET US DRAW NEAR...” Heb. 10:19-22

Your Anchor Holds!

Blood and Fire

2010-05-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day it is here in Minnesota! The sun is warming the cool spring air, making it a pleasure to be outside. How great it is that we are the right distance from the sun to feel its warmth - and not it's awesome power to consume anything and everything!

Hebrews 12:29 says, "Our God is a consuming fire!" I noticed that verse on a day I had just finished reading an article in a science magazine. The article was about the universe, as seen through the eyes of the Hubble telescope. Looking through this new window to the skies, astronomers were now able to estimate the size and scope of the visible universe. The estimate was that there are at least one hundred billion galaxies, each with at least one hundred billion stars.

On a clear night in a country place the sky visible to our eyes is blazing with stars. But most of we see is only one galaxy - the Milky Way - in which our earth resides.

Our sun is just one of those stars.

The sun is an unbelievably huge ball of fire, like thousands of hydrogen bombs going off continuously. How can we comprehend a universe with billions times billions of these all-consuming worlds of fire?

The One who created this universe meant to leave his mark. He filled it with fire.

"Our God is a consuming fire." Who is this One who flung these billions and billions and billions of fiery spheres into space?

Amazingly, this God of fire is the same One who loved this small world so much that He sent His only Son to shed His blood for our sins. He is the same One who established the great covenant of love sealed in that blood, called the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That blood covenant gives us not only forgiveness from all our sin (Eph. 1:7), but also deliverance from its power (Rom. 6:6). That same blood assures us of healing from our sicknesses, for by His wounds we were healed (Is. 53:5). That same blood covenant declares that we have protection from Satan and the kingdom of darkness (Heb. 2:14-15, Col. 1:13). That same blood takes us from a cursed life to a blessed life (Gal. 3:13-14), and opens up the greatest blessing of all -- to live forever in the very presence of the Father (Heb. 10:19, Eph. 2:13, 2 Cor. 5:1-8).

Jesus was announced by John the Baptist as He who would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit, AND WITH FIRE.” Pentecostal fire enables you not only to experience your great salvation in the blood of Jesus, but to also carry its message to the ends of the earth!

Blood and Fire
The Salvation Army was born in the heart of William and Catherine Booth on the East Side of London among masses of poor downtrodden people who had no hope in this world or the next.

This vision became a worldwide army of Christian soldiers, whose motto was "Blood and Fire".

The Blood spoke of the great salvation by grace that comes to us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Fire spoke of the great sanctifying and empowering work of the Holy Spirit that changes believers into faithful and courageous soldiers for Jesus.

These blood-washed fire breathing soldiers, mostly young women and men, took the love and salvation of Jesus everywhere, it seemed.

Roy Haterrsley, biographer of William Booth, wrote this:
“Reformed drunkards, thieves and prostitutes marched shoulder to shoulder with the morally spotless officers of the Army and urged other drunkards, thieves and prostitutes to mend their ways. They were certainly noisy. They shouted the hope of heaven from street corners and played their trumpets and trombones outside peaceful public houses. They were also colorful when they could afford it. The women had given up feathers in their hats and brooches on their blouses and the men had sold their watch chains to help the poor. But they marched behind banners and their working uniform was emblazoned with the scandalous motto "Blood and Fire". They disturbed the peace. Worse still, they disturbed consciences. Indeed, they impertinently suggested that disturbance was their mission.”

We need another “disturbance” of the Blood and the Fire. Many Christians and some churches are beginning to press into God every day in earnest prayer for another great awakening in America. Will you? It is becoming very clear that nothing else will save your country from tragedy. We need a fresh movement of the Blood and the Fire! We call it revival!

“Keep the fire burning on the altar…”
A blazing bonfire starts with the tiny fire of just one match. You might feel as though you have very little spiritual fire in you. It is not important how big the fire is in you. What is important is that you don't let it go out.

In the tabernacle of Moses, God demonstrated the place of His spiritual fire in your life. In the outer court was the brazen altar, on which all animals were sacrificed, and their blood spilled - a clear demonstration of the cross of Jesus Christ, where the true Lamb of God was sacrificed, and His blood was spilled for us.

On the day the tabernacle was dedicated, and the priests were ordained, the first slaughtered animal was placed on the brazen altar. Fire come out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the sacrifice (Lev. 9:24). God gave the instruction to keep that fire on the brazen altar burning, and never allow it to go out (Lev. 6:12-13)

Every morning and evening, the priest would take burning coals from this perpetual fire on the brazen altar, and carry this fire into the Holy Place, placing the coals on the golden altar of incense. The priest would burn incense on the golden altar while he was trimming and refilling with oil the lamps of the golden lamp stand.

Keeping that lamp stand lit is a picture of your daily fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The golden altar of incense is all about your prayer life (Rev. 5:8, 8:3). Just as the fire on that altar of incense came from the brazen altar, so the fire for your praying comes from your passionate faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.

God’s fire came into your heart when you were saved and filled with the Spirit. Stir that fire in you. Blow on it by mediating on what Jesus accomplished for you in His death and resurrection. Pray earnestly and passionately from your heart. An honest cry to God from your heart will stir up your spiritual fire. Get into prayer with other people who yearn for a spiritual awakening in the land.

May the Church of Jesus Christ become a blazing inferno of persistent and united revival prayer. May you help start the fire!

Speak the Word of God

2010-04-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

After Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit came down on Him. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Father thundered out of heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased”. Immediately, Jesus was led by that Spirit into the wilderness to face the devil himself.

How did Jesus deal with Satan? He used the highest, purest, and most powerful weapon of spiritual warfare: He proclaimed the written Word of God. “It is written…”, Jesus said to Satan, each time he was tempted. He just quoted the Bible to the devil.

Spiritual victory can be won most effectively by verbalizing in faith the words of the Scripture, as those words are brought into your mind by the Holy Spirit.

You can say these words of God, shout them, whisper them, or sing them. The Word of God is more powerful than a sharp two edged sword! In reality, it is a sword, God’s Sword, and this sword is meant to be in your mouth! In the first chapter of Revelation Jesus appeared to John in his glorified heavenly state. His face was shining like the sun, and from his mouth came a sharp sword.

You are part of the body of Christ, and your mouth is His mouth. From your mouth should come the same sharp sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Jesus Christ the head of the church.

That sharp sword came out of the mouth of Jesus in the wilderness when he faced the devil. He defeated the devil by proclaiming the Word of God.

You notice, of course, that Satan also spoke the Scripture to Jesus. But the Scripture, in the mouth of Satan, is not the Word of God. It's the word of Satan. He tried to use the Scripture to manipulate Jesus. Though the devil knows the Bible, and can probably quote it from memory forwards and backwards, it is not his Book. He fights against that Book and against the Author of that Book. At times he will even use the Book against you. He may quote Scripture to condemn you. That is not the Word of God to you. God has given his Word to you to build you up, not to tear you down.

Satan has no right to the authority of God's written Word -- neither His promises, His commands, or any other part of the Word. You do have that right, however, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and He is your Lord and Savior. When you speak the Word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is God's Word put into action. When you speak that Word, the power of that Word and the authority of that Word are released against the powers of darkness.

You not only are to proclaim the Word of God against the powers of darkness, but you are to proclaim the Word of God, sing the Word of God, and shout or whisper the Word of God over every circumstance of life. God’s spoken Word will bring forth life where there is no life! It will be like water on dry ground! It will cause walls to crumble! It will make prison doors open! It will cause that which seems dead to rise again!

It will even do these very things right inside of you! When you speak the Word of God to yourself, life will rise inside of you! You will water the dry ground of your own heart! Walls of impossibility will crumble in your mind! The prison in which your soul seems locked, will open by the power of your spoken word!

A little song testifies to the power of this Word of God:
His Word is working mightily in me,
His Word is working mightily in me.
No matter what the circumstances,
What I feel or see,
His Word is working mightily in me!”

Isaiah 55:10,11 declares the power of this Word:
“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

You need to treat your mouth as if it is God's mouth. Your mouth is God's mouth! Your tongue needs to be totally set apart for God’s use! As a member of the body of Christ, when you open your mouth, your mouth is to be the mouth of Jesus Christ. You are to say what Jesus would say. You are to say what He did say in the Bible. You are to say what He is giving you to say through the inspiration of His Spirit. You are to say what He would say if He were speaking while present in bodily form. Actually, He is present in bodily form when you are speaking. He is inside of you! “Christ in you, the hope of glory...” Col. 1: 27

Isaiah had an encounter with God concerning His mouth, as recorded in Isaiah 6:1-7:
“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
“Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
“And one called out to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory'.
“And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
“Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’
“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
“He touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.’”

When Isaiah saw the glory of God, he felt ruined because of how he had used his mouth. The seraphim took a burning coal from the altar and touched the mouth of Isaiah and took away the sin and iniquity of his mouth.

May God do the same for our mouths, for your mouth and for the mouths of the body of Christ. May our mouths become cleansed to be the mouth of Jesus, our tongue become His tongue, and our words His words.

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue...”
Your tongue is more powerful than you realize. Have you been speaking words that bring death, or words that bring life? Your mouth is meant to speak words that bring hope, grace, peace, love, and faith into your own life, and into the life of those around you. Your tongue was not given to you to tear yourself down or tear down the life of others. Use your tongue to bring forth life!

God created the universe through the power of His words. He spoke the worlds into existence. Life came forth. Light came forth. Creation came forth through the power of his Word. This Word of God at creation we know to be Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, the son of God. John 1:1-3 tells us this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him and nothing came into being that has come into being.” That Word became flesh.

This Jesus is now your life. He is the living Word of God inside of you. He is Christ in you, the hope of glory. God has great hope for his glory to be revealed through your life. One of the ways for his glory to shine out of you is for His glorious Word to come out of your mouth.

Jesus inside of you is a like well of water springing up from your spirit to bring life to you circumstances and to those around you. That living water is released through His Words coming out of your mouth.

Let your heart, your mind, and your mouth all work together as a river full of the living water of the Word of God. Keep your heart full of the Word by reading your Bible daily, and by meditating continually on the wonderful promises and instructions of that Word. Then God’s Word will flow out of your mouth as a refreshing stream in every circumstance. You will be able to speak life: a word of wisdom, a word of understanding, a word of patience, a word of faith, a word of hope, and a word of love.

The effect of the Word of God coming into any circumstance is described in Isaiah 40:4,5:
“Every valley shall be lifted and filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked and uneven shall be made straight and level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory and majesty and splendor of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Living in the Presence of the Lord

2010-03-13T01:43:00.001-08:00

This is called "coming to the throne of grace" in Hebrews 14:16; in Hebrews 10:19 it is referred to as "entering the Holy Place". In Psalms 91, the same way of life is called "dwelling in the secret place of the Most High". In Psalms 61, it is called living "under the shelter of His wings". Jesus said it is to "abide in Him". Paul wrote that it is to "walk in the Spirit". All these point to one way of life: Living in His presence.

This is the most magnificent result of the finished work of Christ on the cross. When he hung there and His blood ran down into the ground, many important things happened for you: He broke the power of sin, so that you not only are forgiven (1 John 1:7), but so that you also can live a life free from sin (Romans 6). He broke the power of sickness (Is. 53:5) so that you can be healed and live a healthy life. He broke the power of Satan (Heb. 2:14) and all demons, so that you can be free of torment and have inward peace and joy. He broke the power of the curse (Gal. 3:13) so that you can experience the blessing of Abraham -- which is to be blessed in every way. (Genesis 24:1) Now remember this: you may be partially experiencing these blessings, but your salvation calls you to "higher ground" than where you have been living. God's word and the power of salvation pull you upward to Himself, to live on the higher ground of His great promises.

The greatest of all that the blood of Jesus has done for you is to restore your fellowship with your heavenly Father. This is the best thing that can ever happen to you -- to know the Lord, and live in His presence. This privilege was purchased for you by His blood.

It is the presence of the Lord that is the ultimate solution to everything. It is in His presence that you will come to experience more of all that has been provided through the death and resurrection of Christ. More freedom from sin and sickness, more freedom from torment and depression, more fruitfulness and blessing in your life -- so much so, that you become a blessing to others. That was the promise made to Abraham: "I will bless you....and you will BE A BLESSING." This is the great hope of Hebrews 6, called there "the anchor of the soul" which enters "within the veil" where Jesus has gone ahead of you -- with His own blood opening your way to the Father.

You have not yet seen all that God will do in your life. The best is yet ahead. "He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil 1:6). If God has done something in your life, He for certain will do more. And more. And more. Until He has completed His work in you!

Don't you give up, or resign yourself to spiritual mediocrity. Lift up your head and rejoice, and keep your eyes fixed on the grace and mercy and goodness of God which will follow you all the days of your life! (Ps. 23)

The Alabaster Jar

2010-02-28T17:49:00.000-08:00

There is a story told in Mark 14 about a woman with an expensive alabaster jar of perfume, who broke it and poured it on Jesus’ head. At the time, the Passover was just two days away (which became the day of His death) and the chief priests and teachers of the law were trying to find a way to kill Jesus. They said, “We don’t want to do it during the feast or the people may riot.” It’s hard to comprehend spiritual leaders actually trying to kill Jesus, but this is the way it was. Empty religion can be very cruel.

The story continues:
“While he was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the leper, a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard.
"She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor, and they rebuked her harshly.
"Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? For she has done a beautiful thing to Me. The poor you always have with you and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have Me.
She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will always be told in memory of her.”

I don’t think there is any other incident about which Jesus said, “Wherever the gospel is spread this shall be spoken of…”. It must have been very significant to Him. What seems to make it even more significant is that it happened more than once!

In John 12 you will notice the story of a similar incident, one that happened four days earlier than the incident in Mark 14. John 12:1 says it occurred six days before Passover. (not two, as in Mark 14:1.) It happened in the same town of Bethany, but in a different house. Instead of Simon’s house, it occurred in the house where Lazarus and Mary and Martha lived.

“Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at table with Him. Then Mary took a pint of pure nard…”

(Notice that in the other story it doesn’t say it was Mary, but here it was Mary. It’s a different house, a different day.)

“Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume, poured it on Jesus’ feet, wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

"But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected, why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.

"He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You always have the poor among you but you don’t always have Me.”

In the Mark 14 account, when the woman poured out her vial of perfume on the head of Jesus, she met a surprising resistance. She had put herself in a vulnerable position. Who was in the house? As far as I can see, it was the friends of Jesus who were in the house. Some of those present replied with indignation, “Why this waste of perfume?” As far as we know there weren’t any enemies of Jesus in there. It was probably His own disciples who expressed this indignation!

Did they know what was going on when this lady broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head? Well, they thought they knew. They said, “This is a waste.” Here was a bottle of perfume worth a whole year’s wages. Put it’s value into whatever your year’s wages are: that is how much it was worth. Would you pour out a year of your income on Jesus? It brought an immediate response in the room. “Why was this perfume wasted, when it should have been sold and the money used for the poor?”

Let’s say it was $20,000 worth of perfume in American wages for a year. Someone just poured out $20,000. You could sell that jar of perfume, get $20,000, and how many homeless people could you feed? If you were in India you could feed an awful lot of people with $20,000. You could start many churches in Russia with $20,000. You could support many, many pastors for a year in most third world countries on that amount. There could be hundreds, maybe thousands of people saved with an investment of that $20,000 from this one bottle of perfume which the lady brought and broke…and wasted.

I always think that this question wasn’t quite complete. Those who spoke left a couple of words unsaid, which complete the question, “Why was this perfume wasted….?”. The unsaid, but understood words were “…on Jesus”. “Why was this perfume wasted …on Jesus?” Isn’t that what they were saying?

It was as if they were saying, “Think of all the poor people out there. All the things that need to happen, and here we are wasting $20,000 of valuable perfume on Jesus. He doesn’t need anything. Why waste anything on Him? Let’s go out and do something good. This is not good. Why, this was a waste. Pouring out that perfume on Jesus was not right!”

Yet Jesus, the lover of the poor, said, “Let her alone…she has done a good thing to Me….”

What was happening in that house? The woman was displaying her love for Jesus. She loved Him so much that she wanted to honor Him as best as she knew how. (Anointing someone out of respect was common in her culture.) She no doubt gave the very best she had… to Him. It was pure worship. It was pure honor to the One that had perhaps forgiven her or healed her.

Pure worship can only come out of a heart that loves the Lord and is not being coerced out of fear or guilt. She could have thought, “I better worship the Lord. I better go find something I can give. She probably wouldn’t have come up with a $20,000 perfume bottle if she had been motivated by anything but pure love for Him. She probably would have found something worth $2.50 — because it was something she HAD to do. But when she did what she did, the atmosphere of overflowing adoration and honor for Jesus must have filled the house just like the fragrance of the perfume!. A spirit of self-righteous indignation immediately rose up in those around her. “What a waste! Get out there and do something good! There is so much out there to do! Why waste this wealth on Jesus?”

There is an insight into what was in the hearts of those who said this. In the John 12 account, in the other house, four days earlier, a similar thing happened. In that case, it wasn’t several people who rose up with indignation. It was Judas. It wasn’t that he was concerned about the poor. Actually, he liked to pilfer the money. He was a thief.

Here is the insight. If you are going to worship and honor the Lord, if you are going to take time to pour out your soul in love to Him, the voice of a thief - a betrayer - is liable to stop you. And he will do it, not by leading you into outright sin, but by distracting you with the urgency of other good things. That voice will tell you that taking a lot of time in worship, devoting much energy and attention on the Lord, is a waste of time.

A life of fellowship with God, of honor and worship to Jesus, does not come cheap. It costs something -- your best. It costs the best of your time, your energy, and your attention. That is the price you must pay to have a life of fellowship with God.

The voice of the betrayer will rob you of your life of closeness to God. This voice comes mainly in your own private thoughts. This enemy is closer than you think, because the thief is not in somebody else’s flesh, it’s in your own flesh. As you kneel down to pray, the voice says, “I don’t have time for this”. “I have too much work to do.” As you attempt to meditate on the Word, or just to sing to the Lord, the pressure of life – the tyranny of urgent matters – steals you away from God Himself.

Do you know how to “waste” the perfume of your time, your honor and your attention — on Jesus? Have you learned to resist the voice of the thief, the voices of all the urgent matters that keep you from having any time for pouring out your love and admiration on Jesus Himself? If not, you are more loyal to other things and other people that you are loyal to Jesus.

One day I was meditating about a life of worship and prayer. I had a vision of a river and saw a dam being built in the river. The Lord asked me in my heart, “What is that dam for?” I thought about it and said, “Well, it stops the flow of the water”. “What else is it for?”, the Lord said to me. “Well, it raises up the level of the water and creates a reservoir behind it.” “What else?”, He said. “Well, when the water is raised up it can go over the dam and it can create power.” He said to me, “That is like prayer. The river is the flow of the activity of your life. Prayer must interrupt the flow of your life. You will never, by just rushing down with the river of your activity, get a prayer life.

Prayer interrupts the flow of your activity. Prayer is like that dam. It temporarily interrupts the flow of your life, and creates a reservoir of life within you. In prayer the level of your inner life comes higher and nearer to Me, so that the flow of your activity will be on a higher plane, with more power.”

We must find the courage to interrupt what is going on in our life, even if it is good, and build a dam of worship and prayer. God wants to raise us up to a higher level of faith and hope, create a reservoir of His presence within us, and create a higher level of spiritual power that can be harnessed for the work of His kingdom. The woman with the alabaster vial interrupted everything to pour her perfume on Jesus.

To honor the Lord is to pour on Jesus the best that we have, and with it comes a breaking. An alabaster vial was broken, so the perfume could come out. In our case, something has to break inside of us -- mainly our pride and self-righteousness. All that we were, all that we are, all that we ever hope to be, must be laid at His feet. Then our worship can be released: a pure love for the Lord, a fragrant aroma to Him and to all those who get near us. Without such a brokenness we will be doomed to a life of powerless religion, trying hard to stay busy doing good things, but not enjoying any fellowship with the Lord.

We need a life humbly lived in the presence of the Lord Himself. We need to pour on Him -- without embarrassment -- our worship and honor, unconcerned about the reaction of those around us, and undistracted by the pressures of life around us. We need a life devoted to Jesus Himself.

“Lord, help us to follow the example of these ladies who loved You so much, who poured out something of great value to honor and worship you. Help us to ignore the voices within and without that would keep us from living lives of worship and prayer. Help us to be as those alabaster vials of perfume, broken and poured out for You, Jesus. May our lives be a fragrance of honoring Your Presence that fills the air around us and draws others to come closer to You..”
John Matthews

The Spirit helps us in our weakness

2010-01-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

Romans 8:26,27 says that the "Spirit helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

The phrase, "He who searches the hearts" most likely refers to our Heavenly Father, the One who answers prayer. He is looking for the prayer that He can answer: simply, one that agrees with His will. This is one important reason that He wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit can pray the will of God through you.

The Father is searching for the mind of the Spirit in our prayer. It is the Holy Spirit in you that is the true intercessor, not you. Successful praying is all about yielding to the Spirit within you, and letting Him pray through you. The Holy Spirit knows how to "intercede for the saints according to the will of God". If you will couple your close attention to the written Word of God with continual yielding to the Holy Spirit within you, you will reach the main goal of prayer -- to get an answer to prayer!

Remember, the Holy Spirit does not have a ministry of intercession apart from you. He needs your heart and your mouth to carry out His intercession.

The other great intercessor named in this same chapter of the Bible is Jesus Himself, who "sits at the right hand of the Father, who also intercedes for us." (Romans 8:34). Jesus is our Head, the Head of the Body, the Church. He is the great High Priest and the eternal intercessor. If the Head is at work praying, we as the members of His body should work with Him in prayer. That is one reason why we are given the Holy Spirit, so that we can cooperate in prayer with the Head of the Church in heaven.

It is the leadership of Christ in you and the presence of the Holy Spirit in you that enables you to pray. Apart from this divine presence, we are all weak and ignorant in prayer. Weakness and ignorance in prayer is actually a good thing! They are the doorway to get the help of the Holy Spirit!

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness..." He does not help us in our strength. If we try to operate out of our own strength, the Spirit goes to the sidelines and waits for us to run out of that man-made energy. He helps the weak, not the strong.

And if we think we know how to pray, He will also wait until we are drained of confidence in our own ideas or our own intellect.
So if you feel weak, and you don't know what to do, you are on miracle ground! Just cling to God in that weakness and ignorance, and yield to the presence of His Spirit.

Remember that the Holy Spirit may inspire you to pray a very simple prayer. We have experienced significant breakthroughs from the simplest prayers of the saints!

Living above your circumstances

2009-11-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have been preaching for the last five Sunday mornings at a church pastored by friends on the theme, "Living above Your Circumstances".

I have often said that a preacher's best sermons are the ones he preaches to himself. Though many have come to me after each Sunday service to let me know that the message was just for them, I felt that my messages were first of all for me! In reality, the theme of living above your circumstances is for all of us.

The Bible was written to people who lived in troubled times. The world was not an easy place in which to live through all the centuries of Bible history. Jesus was born into a nation under the iron fist of the Roman Empire.

God's Word does not only prepare us for eternity; it also prepares us to live in peace and joy even in difficult circumstances. The grace of God is not just for the sweet bye and bye, but also for the nasty now and now!

The poet Richard Lovelace penned these words:
"Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage."

The real prison -- or the real freedom -- is in the soul. It is not in the circumstances which may feel like prison walls! Paul wrote his highest revelations concerning Christ while he was in prison.

You can find happy people who seem to have nothing; and you can find very unhappy people surrounded by riches.

God has provided outward prosperity in His covenant Word: but He never said it would be the source of your peace and joy. Only the Lord Himself is your source of peace and joy.

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle John wrote, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers". (3 John 2) When your soul prospers with the peace and joy of the Lord, outward blessing and change come.

Psalms 16 says, "In His presence is fullness of joy; at his right hand there are pleasures forever." The happiest people in the world get their joy in the presence of God, not from outward things.

Are you still trying to find your peace, your joy, or your comfort from your circumstances? If so, you are working against the ways of God. He works from the inside out. We would rather see it happen from the outside in.

We might say, "I will have peace and joy when my mortgage is paid." God teaches us to stop our anxiety NOW and receive our peace and joy from Him before the bills are paid! (Psalms 16:11, Phil. 4:6,7)

Romans 14:17 says this: "The kingdom of God is...righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." These are the things that give us a good life. They are the prosperity of the soul: knowing you are right with God, being settled in peace by knowing your security in His care, and possessing joy that springs up from His presence, regardless of your circumstances.

You already have it all inside of you, since Christ is in you. You have righteousness, peace and joy in every situation, in every season of life!

Turn your face to the wall

2009-10-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

When in Ukraine in July, I watched pastor Galina pray for a crippled young lady for a long time during the leaders' conference. Finally this young lady was using her legs to walk like she could not do before the prayer. (We wrote this testimony in last month's letter.) As we watched her walk without her walker across the front of the church, pastor Galina leaned over to me and whispered, "We've got to be more stubborn in prayer!".

Turn Your Face to the Wall
“In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill; and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’

"Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Remember now, O Lord, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Thy sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

"Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying ‘Go say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of you father David, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.

"And this shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken; behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.’ So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.” Isaiah 38:1-8

How would you react to a word from God that said you were about to die? Would you accept the fact, assuming it couldn’t change, since God said it? Like Hezekiah, you might weep bitterly, for few of us want to die and leave our loved ones. Perhaps you would, like Hezekiah, “turn your face to the wall” and pray with all your heart!

Something unusual happened when Hezekiah “turned his face to the wall” after hearing his death sentence. Even though God seemed to have already determined his death, Hezekiah “beseeched” the Lord. (Beseech means to entreat, ask earnestly, or to beg.) He begged the Lord to change His mind and let him live.

Remember, Hezekiah was not only dealing with a word from God about His death. He was mortally ill — sick to the point of death. Could a man be brought much lower than this, to be deathly ill and also have a sentence of death from God Himself? Could a situation be more hopeless than this? What use would there be to pray in the face of such obstacles?

The picture of Hezekiah with his face to the wall is certainly a fitting image. He was facing the biggest “wall” of his life. Death was at the door through sickness and the word of the Lord. When he turned his face to the wall, he was facing the greatest challenge, the deepest valley, the most impossible situation of his life. As he looked at that hard and impenetrable wall in front of him, he was facing the impossibility of his circumstances and the force of God’s word to him. And in turning to the wall, he was turning away from people, realizing that there was no person who could help him.

Hezekiah seemed to know something beyond his wall of impossibility; He knew God Himself. Though the word had come to him from God through the prophet, he did not resign himself to this fate. He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He did not accept as unchangeable the word of judgment that he had heard from the Lord. Something he knew about God made him press through, with bitter tears, to seek the Lord Himself. His heart reached through the blackness and finality of the situation and he got hold of God.

Wonder of wonders, God heard Hezekiah’s cry! He changed His mind about the death sentence, and added fifteen years to Hezekiah's life! Furthermore, God responded to Hezekiah beyond what he actually prayed for. God promised to deliver the city from the Assyrians!

This is a reminder of Ephesians 3:20: “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all we ask or think...” God did for Hezekiah far beyond what he asked for. He had pled for his life; in hearing his prayer and seeing his tears, God also gave deliverance for his city! God even set aside the astronomic laws to give a sign to Hezekiah! He caused the sun’s shadow to back up ten steps on the stairway. (Did He reverse the earth’s rotation???) How majestic was God’s response to a dying man’s weeping prayer!

Hezekiah knew when to “turn his face to the wall” and pray to the Lord. Do you? He knew God well enough to hold on to Him even though He had pronounced a judgment of death. You can do the same thing. He knew that he could appeal to God’s justice and mercy, and present his case before the Throne. So can you!

God loves to respond to our entreaties and intercessions. He longs for someone on the earth to appeal to His love and mercy, even when judgment is deserved.

Such was the case with Moses, who interceded on behalf of Israel when God ran out of patience with them. It is likely that the many years that Moses spent on the backside of the desert were in preparation for that day recorded in Numbers 14, when God was ready to destroy the whole nation.
God told Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? I will smite them with pestilence -- and make you (Moses) into a nation greater and mightier than they!”

Moses response was to “turn his face to the wall” of this impending judgment. He pled with God to pardon the nation; He appealed to His character, His mercy, His covenant, and His glory. And the Lord said, “I have pardoned them according to your word.” God changed His mind!

God’s judgment is righteous and good, and His judgments are in the earth all the time. His judgment causes men to reap what they sow; it causes nations to groan under the oppressions arising from their own rebellion against His ways. However, God’s heart is for redemption. He longs to be merciful, and desires to show compassion.

His redemption and mercy is available because of the great reconciliation He provided for all through the blood of Jesus. This mercy is administrated through His servants who pray out His Word and plead the blood of Jesus over people and circumstances, who stand in the gap where the wrath of God is due and overdue. His intervention comes as people “turn their faces to the wall” in times of desperation, crying out to God for their own lives and for the lives of others. God longs to move in power and love, but someone needs to pray it out!

In the face of unpleasant circumstances, like Hezekiah’s impending death, or Moses’ leadership of a stubborn people, you can “turn your face to the wall” and get through to God. Like Hezekiah, you might begin with only tears and desperation, but you can learn to cry to Him boldly and without shame, because you are anchored in His love, His word, and His blood bought redemption!

Hezekiah did not have the knowledge of the blood of Jesus, and only knew to plead his case from his own efforts to please God. You have a more sure foundation to plead your case with God. Your foundation for prayer is the blood of Jesus which has cleansed you from all sin and given you bold access to God. Your plea in prayer is the righteousness of Christ, not your own righteousness. You plead your case in the wonderful name of Jesus and boldly ask for mercy and grace because of what Jesus has finished on the cross!

The walls you face may seem too high, too impenetrable for your prayer to make a difference. Remember how God answered Hezekiah’s plea abundantly above what he asked for! Remember that God interrupted the very laws of creation to give Hezekiah a sign of His love. He is just as ready to be merciful to your entreaties. He is ready to pour out His compassion, ready to bare His strong arm of deliverance in response to your prayer!

Armed to the teeth...no, to the tongue!

2009-08-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Anyone who serves the Lord knows that there are times when you face great resistance, either in your circumstances or internally in your thoughts -- and usually both of them at the same time. The Bible makes it clear that it is a spiritual battle.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
"Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
"Stand firm therefore, having (1) girded your loins with truth, and (2) having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and (3) having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, (4) taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
"And (5) take helmet of salvation, and (6) the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints..."
Eph 6:10-18

The armor of God is all about Jesus.

Romans 13:-- points this out: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh."

The picture of the armor of God helps us to capture and make active by faith the essential provision in Christ that keeps us protected from -- and dangerous to -- the enemy of our souls, Satan. We would be fools to ignore this battle, and fools for trying to fight it with our self made efforts.

God has given us in Christ His own armor with which he fights His enemies. God showed the prophet Isaiah about this armor of God:
"Now the LORD saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle." Isa 59:15-17

The armor of God is exactly that...it is the armor that God Himself uses!

1. Jesus is your truth. (John 14:6) To gird your loins with truth is to anchor your minds in the truth of Christ. Let Him be the cornerstone, the anchor, the foundation of your thinking. Your mind is very imaginative, and can dream up scenarios that capture you and take you on a mental trip down the wrong road. I Peter 1:13 says "gird up the loins of your mind..."

2. Jesus is your righteousness. (1 Cor. 1:30) What else would be an armor for you against the condemnation that Satan shoots at you to get you out of the battle? Your faith in the righteousness of Christ is what keeps you spiritually alive through anything that takes place in your life!

3. Jesus is your peace. (Ephesians 2:14) In that peace you stand. Shodding your feet well is one of the most important things for a soldier. Good strong boots protect a soldier's feet. The word "preparation" is also translated "foundation" or "establishment". The Bible word for peace means much more than absence of war. God's peace means everything is normal and healthy; everything is provided for; everything is blessed, everything is protected. His peace is the foundation on which you securely stand -- anywhere!

4. Jesus is your shield of faith. He is the author and finisher of your faith. (Hebrews 12:2) Ephesians 6 says "above all, or with all" take this shield. More than anything, it is your faith in Jesus Christ that arms and protects you against the attacks of Satan.

5. Jesus is your salvation. His name means "Jehovah is salvation". (Vine's dictionary) Salvation is more than forgiveness. It includes life, healing, protection, deliverance, provision, and more. The helmet protects everything inside your skull. The helmet of salvation enables you to think according to the promises of God. In other words, you expect salvation in every situation. In every problem, you think about the hope of salvation, the fact that God has saved and will intervene again to save you, help you, protect you provide for you, have mercy on you, give grace to you, restore you, and bring a great victory!

6. Jesus is your sword. He is the living Word of God. (John 1:1) He is in you, and the truth about Him which is in the Bible is alive in you. The placement of the sword in wearing your armor can be found in Revelation 1:16: "Out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword..." The sword of the living Word of God belongs in your mouth, in the same place Jesus carries it. God has issued this weapon, His Word, to every one of His soldiers, and it is to be spoken.

You fight spiritual battles with the power of the Word of God. Get it off the bookshelf and in your hand first; read it so that it gets into your mind; meditate on the Word to get it down into your heart, where you can mix faith with it. Then go to war with that sword by putting it in your mouth. It comes out of your mouth in words. Speak THE WORD. It also works in praise and in worship. Sing THE WORD. It works in all kinds of prayer. Pray THE WORD over every situation. Put THE WORD OF GOD into your conversations, so it will cleanse the spiritual atmosphere and bring life to those around you.

Proclaim THE WORD over any circumstance that resists the promises of God. Jesus said if you speak to a mountain, and believe in your heart that what you say will come to pass, that mountain will move. (Mark 11:23)
What have you been doing about your mountains? Worrying about them? Staring at them? Denying that they exist? Are you accepting things in your life as unchangeable that are in disagreement with God's Word?
The first mountain to be pulled down is what is in your thoughts. Use the Word of God first to bring your own mind into submission to God's Word. Only then you can use the sword of His Word for circumstances and situations that need change.

I remember a afternoon while I was in India alone. I sat in a hot village bedroom waiting for evening to come. I was discouraged and wanted to go home. I decided to pray for India. As I spoke out some words on behalf of India, it was as if the words fell to the floor. I then heard a still, small voice inside of me: "John, first take authority over your own mind; then you can take authority over India."

I saw my mistake: I brought down the stronghold of discouragement through repentance and put God's wonderful promises on my lips, and that Word caused the joy of the Lord to rise from deep within me. Once I had used my weapon of the Word to win the battle in my own mind, I had a great time praying for India!

Use your sword. It is the sword of the Lord. "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses; we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." (II Corinthians 10:4,5)

Do you have your armor on? Do you have your loins girded, and breastplate in place? Are you standing solidly in you boots of the good news of God's peace -- assured of His love, His blessing, provision, and protection in every area of life? Is your shield up, your helmet on, and your sword in your mouth?

Now, where is the war?
You will find the primary battlefield pointed out in Ephesians 6:18, which immediately follows the instructions about the armor:

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints..."

Get fully dressed in your armor: in other words put on the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart, your mind, and your mouth. Now, get out on the battlefield, soldier of God! Go to prayer, and stay there! That's where the battles are won! And stay in your armor! Why would you ever take it off?

God's oil keeps flowing

2009-07-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

On a Sunday morning before we were to leave on a mission trip, I decided Jackie and I should take communion together as we sometimes do, bringing all our needs to the Lord and reminding ourselves of the finished work of Jesus Christ. As always, we had to look away from our needs to see Jesus, and apply His name and blood to our lives in expectation that He will meet every need.

I took a jar of grape juice out of the refrigerator and noticed it was almost gone. I began pouring what little was in the jar into a small glass for our communion service. As I poured the last drop of juice, suddenly I remembered the event recorded in 2 Kings 4 about the widow and her two children. Her husband, a minister, had died. She was in debt and the creditors were about to take her children away. She came to Elisha, who said “What do you have in the house?”

“Only a small jar of oil”, she said.

Elisha instructed her to go to her neighbors and get all the empty vessels she could find. “Don’t get a few,” was the command. In other words, she was to get many vessels, a lot of them. Empty ones, of course. She did this, and then followed the instruction to go in her house with her children, shut the door and start pouring the oil out of her little jar into the empty containers.

I imagine she filled the room with these empty containers.

And, as you probably know, the oil kept flowing and filling each vessel. It never stopped, until there were no more vessels to fill.

I am sure, had they found more empty vessels to fill, more oil would have flowed. As long as there was another empty vessel, the oil supernaturally kept flowing and filling. She was told to sell the oil, and pay her debts, which she did, and she and her children lived on the rest of the profit.

As I poured the last drop of juice that Sunday morning, it was as if I stepped into this event -- as if I stepped out of our kitchen into the house of that widow. When I came into the living room where Jackie was sitting, I sat down with the little bit of juice and the cracker for us to celebrate the Lord’s communion. We had placed our needs between us, a folder of bills and the needs for this next trip. In a moment I saw that these were not just needs, but vessels waiting to be filled. Instantly, I became actually happy for all these needs, for they were opportunities for God to pour in His supernatural provision. I thought, “Wow, I'm glad we have all these needs. As long as we have needs, the oil of God’s power and provision will keep flowing. And, praise the Lord, when we come home from Ukraine, we’ll have more needs. And the next month we’ll have more needs. And the month after, more needs.”

Not only was it our own needs beside us, but all the needs of the Churches of Praise, as well as those of our children, our church, and our friends. Hallelujah, I thought…the oil will keep flowing, and I hope we never run out of needs! (Small chance of that happening.)

“I Love Problems!”
Ukrainian Pastor Gregory says to us now and then, “I love problems. The bigger the better. It’s interesting to me to solve them.”

I think God is like that. He loves problems. He loves to solve them. He loves to solve your problems.

However, a problem or need is not a vessel waiting to be filled until it is brought to the Lord in expectation and faith.

In the widow’s case, she was desperate. But the oil only flowed when she heard the word of God and presented all the vessels in God’s presence, in faith and obedience doing what He said. Then the supernatural supply came. And kept coming. And coming. And coming.

Some time ago, I asked the Ukrainian Bible school students to count their problems. I also counted mine. I asked them how many problems did they have? Ten? Twenty? "Get more!", I said. The oil of God’s faithfulness and grace and power and provision is flowing, and it will keep flowing as long as there is another problem, another need, presented to Him. After all, a need is just an empty space waiting to be filled with God’s solution!

If you run out of problems, I told them, go next door to your neighbor and get his or her problems. Go out on the street and collect more problems from the people you meet. Bring them all into the presence of God. The oil of His presence and power will keep flowing as long as there are desperate and hungry people who have large needs, and who also have the “foolishness of faith”: the audacity to believe, and the humility to obey. The oil will keep flowing!

“Don’t you realize how bad things are?”
A few days ago, pastor Gregory spoke by phone to our leader of the ministry in Afghanistan. “How are you, and how are things?”, Gregory asked. “Wonderful! Glory to God!”, Rustam replied.

This is how Rustam always is; it seems as though he doesn’t know what country he is in. You would think, when you are with him, that he was living in Hawaii instead of one of the most volatile places in the world. He is not naïve. He and Anora have faced huge difficulties. Enemies of the gospel have attempted to kill him on three different occasions. They even opened fire on him from six feet away, and all the bullets missed him. Rustam and Anora are raising four beautiful children in a place known for danger and chaos.

How? They keep bringing all their needs to the Lord in expectancy that God will do something wonderful. Instead of complaining about how hard things are, they always see the need as an opportunity for God to work.
And so can you. In your mind, turn your problems into vessels that are waiting to be filled with God.

The most important thing about an empty vessel -- like a cup on the shelf -- is the fact that the cup is waiting to be filled. It is available. In like manner, place your needs and problems before God, and give Him the opportunity to pour the oil of His Spirit into those large vessels of need.
He will always be everything you need…

Remember, the oil filled all the vessels. It didn’t matter what kind of a vessel it is, as long as it was empty. You may have need for healing, for finances, for a job, for family restoration, or for ministry. The need may be there because of your own failure, or because of the world’s circumstances. Regardless, the oil of God’s Spirit will provide for all those empty vessels.

Praise God for your needs, and thank Him that you have plenty of them to be filled! Collect even more needs from those around you, to make sure you keep an endless supply of opportunities for God to show Himself strong and faithful!

Set your mind

2009-06-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 8:6, NASB

We must learn to examine the content of our mind. Too often our minds rule us, and we submit to whatever happens to be in our thoughts. The problem is that these thoughts are not always from God. Our mind was made to be a tool for our spirit, not a tyrant to rule us.

Your mind must be set in the direction of the Holy Spirit. In other words, you need to set your mind in agreement with the thinking of God. The foundation for how God thinks about your life is found in the thousands of His wonderful promises to you which are sprinkled throughout the Bible.

If you will set your mind in agreement with His promises, the fruit of the Spirit will be in your thoughts, for the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. The thinking of the Spirit always brings life and peace. Even when the Spirit is attempting to bring you to repentance from sin, there is an element of life and peace, for He always brings the solution for that sin. God is full of life and peace, and His thinking produces the same in you.

Too easily, however, your mind is not filled with life and peace. It may be filled with "death", which can mean double-mindedness, doubt, discouragement, depression, despair, or defeat. You may be doing this to yourself by choosing the wrong direction for your thoughts (the mind of the flesh) rather than the declared promises and commands of the Word, which is where you find the mind of the Spirit.

In addition, Satan may be injecting thoughts into your mind. The problem is that he comes religiously, imitating God. Satan has some facts about you, so he will try to use them against you, because he is the accuser.

When you come under condemnation, there is always an element of "truth" – or facts – in it, or you would not believe it at all. He also knows how to keep reminding you of the impossibility of your problems. Satan has enough of this information to build a good case in your mind for condemnation and fear, which produces discouragement and hopelessness.

When your mind is set on the flesh -- on natural knowledge rather than God's knowledge -- there seems to be no solution to your problems and all seems lost. Because these thoughts seem so logical, (since your failure is real and the problems are big!) you may give in to these natural thoughts. But they are not God speaking to you! If He were speaking, there would be some life and peace!

Facts about your problems and your failures are not what the Bible calls truth. Jesus said, "I am the truth." Jesus also said, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

This is why we must have our minds continually cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and our thoughts centered (set) on Him. This is why we need to praise the Lord, and exalt the name of Jesus. This is why we need Jesus on our minds continuously. This is why we need to remember the goodness of God and the promises of His Word.

It may not be logical to us that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning, but it is logical to God and it is the mind of the Spirit. It may not be logical to our natural mind that Jesus never leaves us and never forsakes us, but it is logical to God and it is the mind of the Spirit.

We have the mind of Christ, the Bible says. The mind of Christ is based on His character, His redemption, and His promises. The mind of Christ is the truth. The mind of Christ is rooted in the cross, and in His death, His resurrection and in His unceasing intercession for us. This is why His name, His blood, and the Word concerning Christ are our chief spiritual weapons. These weapons set our minds "in the Spirit" -- where there is always hope, there is always wisdom, there is always salvation, there is always a miracle coming!

With the mind set on the Spirit, the most logical thing to do in every situation is to TRUST GOD, even when we have “blown it”; even when we have failed or made stupid decisions. Sure, we may need to make things right. We may need to make changes. We may need to repent. But it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, not the condemnation of the devil. Hopelessness never brought anyone to repentance. The spirit of death never gave anyone wisdom on how to make things right.

Life and peace come to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Life and peace are gifts of God. "He who has the Son has life." "Being justified by faith (in Jesus) we have peace with God..." That is how God thinks!

The mind set on the Spirit is the mind set on Jesus and the promises of God. Choose life! Choose peace! Set your mind on Jesus and God’s great promises! This will straighten out your mind and give you God’s thinking for the day – or the night. It will get you in touch with God’s logic, God’s reasoning, which always results in peace of mind and life worth living!

April Fools' Day

2009-04-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

In America, today is "April Fools' Day".
It is a day to play a trick on someone, or to make someone look like a fool. There is a computer virus on the loose that will supposedly rise up today from its hiding place in computers all over the world and make technological fools of us all.

As of this moment, my laptop computer on which I am writing has not humiliated me with the April 1 virus. But then, my computer makes a fool of me almost every day, even without a virus!

Now consider the bigger problem. No one wants to look foolish. Avoiding that is a primary motivation of the human psyche. Many people will do anything to avoid looking or feeling foolish.

For those who want to have faith in God, it is a problem to overcome. Many in our 21st century culture think every day is "fools day" for believers in Jesus and the Bible.

Some have shrunk from faith because someone made them feel like a fool. Even "faithful" Christians will sometimes back away from steps of faith that might make them look foolish!

However, God will have the last word on who is really the fool!

"For God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never find God through human brilliance, and then he stepped in and saved all those who believed His message, which the world calls foolish and silly. 1 Cor. 1:21 TLB

"Notice among yourselves, dear brothers, that few of you who follow Christ have big names or power or wealth. Instead, God has deliberately chosen to use ideas the world considers foolish and of little worth in order to shame those people considered by the world as wise and great. He has chosen a plan despised by the world, counted as nothing at all, and used it to bring down to nothing those the world considers great, so that no one anywhere can ever brag in the presence of God. 1 Cor. 1:26-29 TLB

"But the man who isn't a Christian can't understand and can't accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can't take it in. But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can't understand him at all. 1 Cor. 2:14-15 The Living Bible

Don't back away from a life of faith in God and obedience to His Word from fear of looking foolish. Lighten up inside! Stop worrying what others will think, and don't let your mind stop you from believing and obeying the Lord.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

God is no fool, and following Him with all your heart, your strength and all your mind will in the end be the smartest thing you ever did!

My healing story: PG for pretty gross, then pretty great!

2009-03-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

I'd like to tell a little story about what happened to us on the day that we began the last Blood Covenant seminar at the end of January. We know that some of you were there.

(This story is rated PG: pretty gross. But it has a great ending!)
I (John) woke at 4 am that day with rumbling in my digestive tract. I lay in bed until 7 am, trusting that it would go away. Instead, I was soon "kneeling at the throne" in the bathroom, if you know what I mean. It was like a terrorist attack; my body felt like it was exploding in all directions -- it was biological warfare gone wild!

Anyway, the violent diarrhea and vomiting went on for five hours, until I could no longer walk, and was barely able to lift my head. I told Jackie, great man of faith that I am, that if I threw up one more time I thought I would die. At 7 pm that evening, I was scheduled to teach the Blood Covenant for two hours.

By noon, Jackie saw that I needed to get to a hospital. She decided to drive me there, though an ambulance was offered when she called the emergency department. My son Jay came to help get me in the car.

By some supernatural grace, I shuffled to the car and we arrived at the emergency unit. Jay helped transfer me to a wheelchair, and in we went.

By this time, Jackie was saying repeatedly, "You will preach tonight!" My own faith and my body both felt like a squashed worm on the floor.
She had called our church emergency pray line before calling the hospital, so hallelujah for saints at prayer!

They began to pump IV fluids into me, with Jackie telling the nurses I needed to preach that night. At 4 pm I still lay on the cart like a wrung out dishrag, and my faith felt the same. I had clear visions of Jackie doing a great job preaching in my place that evening.

At 4 pm, seeing me still lying there like a limp noodle, she decided she had to engage Plan B. She left the room to call our children for help. She would go home and clean herself up from handling the messes I had made all morning, and get herself to the church to begin the meeting. One of our children would bring me later.

I would be preaching!

When she came back to my cart at 4:10, I was sitting up on the cart and told her, "I'm feeling fine, let's go home." We told this to the doctor, and after disconnecting my IV, we were gone in fifteen minutes. By 6:30 we were at the church. I preached and taught all evening, with the help of the Holy Spirit -- and the next two days.

We later heard an interesting thing: At 4 pm, while I still lay like a limp noodle, our pastor of prayer, Ray Kelly, got a call about my condition. He was walking in the church and praying for me when it seemed like I just "rose from the dead".

We thank the Lord for His saving power that works, not only in our souls but also in our bodies. We praise Him for hearing and answering prayer. We thank Him also for loved ones and friends that stand on behalf of others with believing prayer!

Blood Covenant Seminar

2009-02-25T15:13:00.000-08:00

We just finished a wonderful time with a group of believers in our home church doing a blood covenant seminar, which we called, "It is Finished!" We taught at the communion table for two evenings and a Saturday morning, magnifying Jesus and His glorious salvation for every area of our lives.

Since more people showed up than expected, those who prepared communion for the first night didn't provide enough for everyone. How strange this felt to us, when our message is that God's provision in Christ is "more than enough" for everyone and every need! Since our teaching is also in demonstration of the truth, we asked the Lord how to serve communion during the rest of the seminar.

We both immediately knew what to do. On the second night we set out several gallons of grape juice and ten large loaves of bread, and told the people they could come to the communion table anytime during the teaching and take as much as they wanted, as often as they wanted! We kept on teaching as the people kept on coming to the Lord's table. It was a clear reminder that God's provision in Jesus is indeed "more than enough!"

God Himself encourages us in Hebrews to come to His throne of grace continuously to receive all the mercy and grace that we need!

We emphasized once again the five great things that happened on the cross (count 'em on one hand!):
1. He broke the power of sin and made us holy.
2. He broke the power of sickness and made us healthy.
3. He broke the power of Satan and made us free.
4. He broke the power of the curse, and made us blessed and fruitful.
5. He restored our fellowship with God. This is the greatest of all the blessings!!!

These are the things that come in your salvation, and when you are brought into Christ through the blood of Jesus, they are all yours.