Solomon’s Wisdom: The Secret Pathway to Happiness*

Oh, Pastor John!

How did you get so much truth and gold into one book?

I am amazed.  As we read through this I saw so many things that I experienced and because of those experiences, I know what you wrote in this book is true. Like I know my name, I know it is true.

It breaks my heart that I know this because I walked contrary to God.  I know what wrong decisions and wrong choices lead to, AND I know what a loving, compassionate and merciful God we have, too.  I am overwhelmed by the truth in this book. 

How easy it is to ask Jesus to keep every young heart in that room from anything contrary to him and to etch this wisdom on all our hearts.

The truth in the last paragraph of page 78 took my breath.  That is my testimony.  That is what decades of sin led to.  That is exactly where I was when in desperation, I asked Jesus to end my pain and get me out of this world.  I used to lie in bed and cry because the sun would be coming up soon and I couldn’t face another day.  Dawn was a dreaded event. 

And God does heal the broken heart.  That is my testimony.  I am living proof He does.

I can’t say it enough, that I am overwhelmed by the truth in this book.  Jesus wrote this book.  Some things young hearts can’t take in, and I don’t want them to know or hear about that old dead girl, and yet, how can I not talk of the goodness and truth in this?  I decided to take it out on you! 

What wonderful instruction for every one of God’s children!

Beth D.

* Going to Jesus.com –

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Jeremiah 29:8

Hi Pastor John.

I have a question about Jeremiah 29:8.

What does it mean when He says, “Give no heed to your dreams that you are causing them to dream!”

How can someone cause someone else to dream a dream?  Or is that not what is being said at all?

Thank you,

Anna

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Hi Anna.

It is easy for an evil man to cause others to dream his dream if those people are not filled with the Spirit and led by it.  I will give you an example.

A few years ago, a sister wrote me, saying that God had woken her up to pray for me and that she felt compelled to warn me because I was breaking up marriages.  I could not have been more stunned if she had told me that God put it on her heart to tell me to stop committing fornication with little green Martian women.  Her charge, that I was breaking up marriages, was that foreign to my life.

A few years after that, in late 2007, I learned why she had called me.  A backslidden brother was telling people, including that sister, that I was breaking up marriages.  She took in that lie; it grew within her, and in her sincerity, she had prayed for me and then felt that God wanted her to warn me.  That was not her dream; she would have never dreamed that up.  It was the dream of a slanderer to whom she had listened, and he had made his lying dream hers.

That is how it works, Anna, and it happens often.  Pray never to fall into such a darkened spiritual condition that God uses you to try the hearts of others by making them dream your evil dreams.

Stay happy and free in Jesus, and you will be used of God for the blessing of His people.

Pastor John

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Revelation 1:8

Pastor John,

When is the Father “coming” in reference to “the Alpha and the Omega, … the one who is, the who who was, and who is to come, the Almighty”?

Allison

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Hi Allison,

In that verse from John’s revelation, the meaning is not that the Father is coming as we speak of Jesus’ Second Coming.  Rather, the meaning is only that the Father always has been, is now, and always will be.

Pastor John

(See Pastor John’s book, Revelation, by following the link below.)  

https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=revelation

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What’s Worse?

Hi, Pastor John.

I am working today and thinking about how wonderful it felt Sunday, to be able to be down on my knees and to tell Jesus how thankful I am.  Actually, I think Jesus told me how wonderful that is!

As I am over here feeling all these sweet feelings, and inspecting cars, I just had the thought that what is even worse than not being able to get down on your knees to Jesus when you feel him, is never feeling him like that at all.

I spent years in a hard pew, not moving, and reciting whatever they put before me and only one time did I feel something.  When I did, a tear ran down my cheek and I immediately went to the restroom to avoid the suspicious stares I would receive for crying.  That breaks my heart for all the other hearts that could be feeling Jesus pull them to their knees, or fill them with so much love that they can’t stand, or that tears fall.

I loved Michelle’s email today. Her heart matches my heart. I believe it matches Jesus’ heart. (See post: God’s Children 12/20/2023.)

Beth D.

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Hidden with Christ

Morning Pastor John,

I wanted to express something that’s been on my mind since your last meeting when you discussed the hatred towards Israel.

If we, having God’s spirit, are the real Israel, and the ones that the world actually hates, but we are hidden with Christ in God and kept safe from that hatred, I’m trying to reconcile in my brain…how are we supposed to suffer persecution, then, If we are hidden in Christ? 

Brad

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Hi Brad.

People can see that Spirit-filled people are different, and hate that without knowing who they really are.  Peter mentioned this (1Peter 4:3–4): “The time that is past is sufficient for us to have done the will of the Gentiles, walking in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, banquetings, carousings, and lewd worship of idols, concerning which they think it strange that you do not run with them to the same excess of debauchery, speaking evil of you.”

The fleshly nature of man hates the nature of God that is in the Spirit, even if it does not understand it.  Your life being hidden in Christ means only that the world does not know who you really are.  John said that (1Jn. 3:1): “Behold, what great love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God!  The reason the world does not know you is that it did not know Him.”

Righteous people will suffer in this world, even though the world does not really know why it hates righteous people.

Thank you for the question.

Pastor John

 

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Acts 15:20-21

Hey John,

I have a question about Acts 15:20-21.  In the letter that the elders from Jerusalem sent to the Gentiles, they listed some things for the Gentiles to abstain from for the sake of the Jews.  One of them was abstaining from “what is strangled”.  Was there a law in the Old Testament about not eating something that had been strangled?  I was just wondering where this came from.   It stood out to me because it doesn’t seem like something that would be in the top 3 or 4 things that the elders would have named in that letter, but since they did, it must have been important.  I searched for the word “strangled” in the Old Testament and didn’t find anything.

Thanks,

Lyn

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Hi, Lyn.

If an animal is killed by strangling, the blood remains in the meat, and you know what God said about eating meat with the blood:

“You shall not eat anything with the blood” (Lev. 19:26a).

And this:

“If any man of the house of Israel or of any stranger who dwells among them consumes any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who consumes the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people” (Lev. 17:10).

These are the commandments to which the elders in Jerusalem were referring.

Good question.

Pastor John

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God’s Children

Pastor John,

Earlier today I saw this post on Instagram and it really struck me. I started thinking of where God has brought me from.  For years I was sitting at a table, sick and starving for truth and didn’t even know it.  I had so many questions.  My heart yearned for answers.  I desired the joy and peace I read about in the Bible.

Then, Jesus brought me here, opened my ears, my eyes and my heart to the truth.  Now, my belly is full, my heart rejoices and my life is filled with peace.  I am so thankful for His mercy on my life.  I am so thankful for the good nourishing food we’re given and for the appetite Jesus has put in us.

The other night I fell asleep talking to Jesus, thanking him for my life.  In the early morning hours, I woke and was praying for God’s children everywhere. There was such a sweetness in the feelings for His children. God really loves them!  I’ve never had a prayer quite like that before.

I fell back asleep and later when I woke up all I could think about is us and what Jesus has given us.  We have a smorgasbord for God’s children, if they would only eat.

Michelle

As has been said, “God has removed you from a table where you used to sit…. In order to save you from a host who was serving you poison.”

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A Clear Conscience, Paul and Job

Pastor John,

The Spirit-filled believer’s clear conscience toward God is a must.  Real faith in God lives in having a clear conscience.  Yet, the apostle Paul (1Cor. 4:4) said the following: “I am conscious of nothing against myself; however, by that, I am not justified.  The Lord is the one who judges me.”

A clear conscience in the Lord is everything, yet, in many ways, it is nothing.  Both statements are true.  I believe our study of the Lord’s judgments in the book of Job has helped me to understand this.

Just as Job was a perfect man according to every standard established by God on earth – yet that was nothing in the sight of God – so is a clear conscience toward God, if we understand Paul rightly: a clear conscience is required, but it in no way justifies us. 

The lesson of Job to us has been that our glorying is in Jesus, not in our deeds.  It is not in our righteousness. Nor is it even in our perfect response to the Father and His Son.

Our being is in Jesus.  Our mercy is in Jesus.  It is because Jesus accepts our deeds that we live, not because they themselves are anything to Him who created it all.  He has granted us life through these mercies.  They do not carry us to him or make us worthy.

Our clear conscience is not our glory.  Our glory is in Him who will accept it.

The revelation we have recently experienced in learning so much more about God through the book of Job is making the Father and Son so much greater in everything – and it makes man so much smaller.  It makes His every mercy to us so big.

Thank you,

Jerry

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Amen, Jerry.

It is as I have often said, Jesus’ perfect sacrifice did not accomplish redemption for us; his Father’s acceptance of that perfect sacrifice did.  Jesus had to be perfect, and he was, but the Father alone decided it was sufficient.  His acceptance of Jesus is what “sealed the deal”.  And, thank God, He has made us acceptable in His sight, through Jesus.

Ephesians 1:1, 7.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the richness of His grace.”

Pastor John 

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The Saying of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

Pastor John,

You sent us this quote from Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor.: “To have good repute amidst such a world as this is an empty thing.”

How does this fit with what has been said in the past: “If you want to know how God feels about you, find out how your boss feels about you.”  I don’t remember word for word, but you once said something like that.

Steve

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Good question, Steve.

It’s a case of applying that saying to the right time and place.  There are many seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible that are both true, such as these by Jesus:

Matthew 5:16.  “Let your light shine like that before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:1. “Beware not to do your alms before men, to be seen by them; otherwise, you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

It is a matter of the heart.  And we need the Spirit to let us know when to do what.  I took that saying from the emperor to mean not to chase after the favor of men, for it is vain.

The question is, Why are we doing whatever it is that we are doing?  Is it to please God, or to please people?

Paul exhorted the saints to do whatever they do, “as unto the Lord”, that is, not just to be seen and praised by men.  He made this point several times.

Ephesians 6:5–7. “Servants, submit to your human masters with fear and trembling, with sincerity of heart, as to Christ, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ gladly doing the will of God, rendering service with good will, as to the Lord, and not to men.”

Colossians 3:22–24.  “Servants, obey your earthly masters in all things, not with eye-service, like men-pleasers, but with heartfelt sincerity, fearing God, and whatever you do, work at it whole-heartedly, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the reward of an inheritance, for you are working as servants of the Master, Christ.”

And Paul said that if we live that way, we would please both God and the people around us (Rom. 14:17–18).  So, while the primary goal is always to please God.  If we do that, as a rule, we will also please our bosses in this world.  That is not always the case, unfortunately, because some bosses are not good people, but the ones who are reasonable will be pleased with you if you do your job with your whole heart, “as unto the Lord”.

Hope that clears things up for you.

Pastor John

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Jesus!

Hey Pastor John,

I love the feelings I’ve had since our reading of Job.  It has done something in my heart.  When I read the Bible, I see more of Jesus; when I look out my window and see the trees and the birds and the sun shining, I see more of Jesus.  More than ever before, he is becoming everything to me; he is the answer for everything.

Jimmy T. has provoked me, and I’ve started reading the Jerusalem Council book* again.  Even in this, I see more Jesus and his greatness.  This is a quote from Paul that just sums up what’s been magnified in my heart since Job: “He is the one whom the prophet, said God would make ‘most blessed, forever’, for God has exalted Jesus above all things, and placed all power in his hand.  Nothing can be added to him, and nothing can be taken away.  Jesus has all power to save forever those who come to God by him, and nothing but Jesus can save at all.  He needs nothing, and all that we need is in him.  He is uniquely our Savior, and from that truth springs all else that I know and teach.”

Whew…amen!

Michelle

*https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=the-jerusalem-council

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