John,
I loved what you said last night regarding Oral Roberts and others who had an anointing to perform miracles but yet teach doctrine contrary to the truth. In essence, I believe what you said was that God is not bothered by what these men are teaching to the point of preventing His anointing and power to work through these men. Jesus is seeking sincere hearts, and he is ready to forgive anyone who repents.
I may not have stated your exact words, but I felt a sense of liberty from what you said. I have been guilty in the past of trying to reason with those for example, who believe they are saved. I have learned that it is much better to avoid these kinds of conversations and focus on what Jesus has done in their lives.
As I was reading my Bible this morning, I ran across these scriptures which seem to speak to what you were saying last night.
Luke 9:
49 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth
not with us.50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.”
Mark 9:
38 And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad
him, because he followeth not us.39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.
40 For he that is not against us is on our part.”
Thank you for the message last night.
Tom
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Pastor John,
That was a very good email from Tom, describing the love of God shown to us last night.
The scriptures from Luke and Mark, that Tom shared in his email are right-on with the new liberty that we were just offered in last night’s meeting.
That liberty is more freedom in the Spirit! Freedom to live, without apology to anyone! Freedom to love with our cups running over for other people, without pausing to take a “flesh break” to add the disclaimer: “they don’t know the truth, but…..” It is freedom to just love, period, whenever God has loved someone! Again God has shown us that we are free!
Last night’s message let me understand this: In whomever Jesus dwells, to any measure, it is so by the Father’s doing. And it is holy, and its value is immeasurable…. in every person.
Pastor John, I feel like we were just given permission to “eat up” every little bit of Jesus, wherever He may be found. That includes loving others that God has touched, without fear, while receiving every good and right thing that they have received from God as well. We can trust Jesus completely to keep us all the while. The real boundaries of all of our comings and goings are in His Spirit, within us. We don’t need any self-imposed limitations; we may impede His work.
“We can trust Jesus”. That was the other part of the message last night. We can trust him…while we live! Yes, in everything that we do. No fear, no excuses, no disclaimers – just normal life in Jesus.
I am instantly made better by this. It removes walls from around my heart that God did not put up. Those walls are there, and they extinguish life and fellowship instead of promoting it.
Maybe this love that we have been shown can compel others to abandon their chains too. If anything can do that, surely the love of God is it.
Thank you for last night.
Jerry