Gospel Tract 96: The Spirit of a Serpent and a Dove

Hi John.

I can’t recall how many times that I have read and listened to the tract: Spirit of a Serpent, Spirit of a Dove, but it has been scores.  Every time that I listen to it, there are new thoughts and feelings in each of the sections: “the serpent”, “the Dove”, “the Stone”, and “Jesus”.  There are so many things that I have learned about myself and others listening to your words.  In my recording room the other night, when you read the section about shooting the dove and then finding it alive – that is the section that hits home to me the most.  God’s children are referred to sparrows in the Bible, and look how God cares for them!  And Jesus said that we mean more to God than small, fragile sparrows. 

The Lord reminded me, through your testimony concerning the dove that you shot long ago, that the opportunity to receive God’s mercies and to love one another is a precious gift.  God can heal wounds, and a broken reed He can straighten, and a smoking flax He won’t quench.  His mercies are new and available every morning.  All of God’s little sparrows are precious in His sight, and if the mind of Christ is in us, we feel the way God does about them. 

Just wanted to share some feelings.

Billy

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A Thought from the Lord Today

Wow, Pastor John. 

I was sitting here typing, thinking on the Lord and some things that we, as frail human beings, experience in our daily life. 

I was considering how we can easily get engrossed in our work, beating and banging away all day, trying to produce as much as we can, sometimes losing sight of the fact that the Lord sustains us, not our job – the job is just the vehicle by which he delivers that blessing.  Or he can just rain manna 🙂 

As I was thinking on these things, and how we may give ourselves over to worry during turbulent times in our field or industry, or even the global economy, and how we may worry about whether we will have a job.  Or we get concerned about the amount of work we have now, and whether it is enough to sustain us, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “That is the equivalent of Nebuchadnezzar stepping out onto his balcony and declaring in his heart, that he was responsible for all that his eye could see.”

The Lord was telling me that to worry about your future is to boast that you are responsible for your past.  To worry about what will come is to say in your heart that you are responsible for all that your eye can see – and not the Lord!

I have never seen it quite that way before!  I love that thought from Jesus!

Jerry

 

Real Repentance

Hi Pastor John, 

I wrote these two things down the other day.  I heard them from the Lord.  They were good to my soul.  I want to share them.

“Real repentance is not turning away from ungodly behavior, but turning away from the ungodly spirit that is causing you to act that way.”

“Repenting of ungodly behavior will clear your conscience for a day.  But repenting of the spirit causing you to fall into that behavior will clear it for a lifetime.”

Jerry

 

Loosed Tongue

Pastor John, 

Is there another meaning to “loosed tongue”, other than the dumb being made to speak? 

Michelle 

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Not that I know of, biblically speaking. 

Pastor John

I Heard This from the Lord This Evening

Pastor John,  

I heard this from the Lord this evening – it’s the truth, I enjoyed hearing it. I wanted to share it.

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If cussing and drinking could send you to hell then not cussing and drinking could get you into heaven, and neither one is true. It is the nature of the flesh that is going to send you to hell, if you go there, whether you ever yield yourself to its ungodly desires or not. Alternatively, it is being born again of God’s holy nature that is going to allow you to see heaven, if you get there. 

The nature that you allow to live in you while on this earth will determine your eternity, your behavior will simply be the result of that. 

Jerry

 

Agreeing with Jesus

Hi Pastor John, 

Tonight’s meeting was so good.  And everything that was said about expectations, and disappointments, etc., was just perfect and tied in perfectly with my prayers lately. 

Last night I was driving home from work, and I was praying and trying to get my thoughts straight about things; in particular my life and not having been married and being alone, missing out on family, having a husband and so on.  I just laid it all on the table before Jesus again.  Usually, I end up protesting, and I will be frank about it – and I know this is bad, but I usually would pray, “I don’t agree; I don’t like this.  I just don’t agree (with what you’ve done with my life),” and I would complain a lot.  I didn’t do this with a bad attitude; I said it to be earnest before the Lord about how I felt – he is the only one that can deal with me about it.

Well, last night was different, and I don’t remember how I got there, but my prayer was different, and I was earnest about it.  I was praying “Jesus, I agree with what you’ve done in my life.  Everything you’ve done is right.  You’ve always acted perfectly in my life in response to my actions and what I’ve done.  I agree with you.”  Pastor John, it felt so sweet driving along, praying that prayer over and over again.  I felt the change in my heart about that, and I still feel it today.  And I am so thankful for that.  I’m glad I prayed earnestly before about how I felt – how “I disagreed”, but I’m gladder that I now agree with Him.  I don’t want to lose this, so I am going to keep telling Jesus I agree with him.

Jenny

Sunday’s Testimony

Pastor John,

Sunday was wonderful, and I’m still feeling it.  Saturday night was part one, and Sunday morning continued the second half.  Your preaching of God’s mercy on His children and His love to cause their suffering was touching.  Then on Sunday, the spirit had fallen a couple of times during songs, and I wanted to go out there and dance, but I didn’t.  Afterwards, I sat there talking to Jesus, asking him to please give me another chance.  Going another two weeks before we would be back seemed too long.  

I loved it when Tracey interrupted your sermon!  When you said, “Do you want to glory in your failures or in what God’s done?”, that was it!  Jesus had given another chance.  Once out there, I just felt like spinning!  It felt so good, like things were spinning off! ‍ Yay!  What a relief it was!  I felt so thankful to be able to do that.  

Yesterday while getting ready to take the kids to music lessons, the Lord blessed me with the sweetest feelings of everything being just exactly right. Thoughts of how my whole life has been exactly what I’ve needed–good and bad, and feeling the goodness and love of God in it.  It was thankfulness and sweet peace.

That’s my testimony about Sunday.

Love you!  Goodnight!

Cris