Ah Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, la la la la la la la la la Hallelujah. God ruler of the universe, you are. There is There's no one like you, God giver of the deepest dreams you are. There is no one like you.
God think of what tremendous thoughts you are Thinking for God Royal, holy, true you are. And there is no one like you. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Welcome to Love Never Fails. In these last days, revival will come.
but begins with our individual walk and personal relationship with Jesus. Let's join Brother John now.
Well, good morning, everybody. This is Brother John, and you're listening to Love Never Fails.
Now, as usual, who knows where you are in the world listening, and it may be morning, it may not be, but you know what? Good morning. Make it a great day. If it's the end of the day for you, make it a great night and have a great day starting tomorrow.
So, uh, We're so glad you're listening. And just a couple of things to share with you. We have a guest today, Brother James. And we're not going to tell you his last name because, as many of you know, we work in parts of the world that we can't really tell you exactly who we are all the time because that government or those governments may not be so keen on us coming into their countries to preach the gospel. But we are, Love Never Fails is all about revival in the last days, and how are we going to get to the place?
Where we see revival, wherever it is that you may be. And as our intro says, we believe that revival begins first with our individual relationship with Jesus. And so that's what we talk about. We're talking about your individual relationship with Jesus, we're talking about revival. Revival is not going to begin in your house.
In your marriage until it first begins in you. It's not going to spread out of your house and your marriage into your community until it begins with you. It's not going to spread into your community and your state or your district or your parish or whatever it is until it begins with you.
So instead of sitting back and praying that God would send a revivalist. I just really believe it's time for you and I to be the revivalist and all that creation is waiting for with eager expectation. And so that today we're just going to flow with it and see where the Holy Spirit takes us. One thing we do want to remind you about is or that's new is we have a YouTube channel which is just love never fails at YouTube. You can go there and listen to any of the most recent shows.
There's not any video there. We may be able to put some video with some crusades that we've done there if it's not too revealing. But for the most part, you can listen to any of our radio shows, podcasts there, and you can subscribe to that channel and you don't have to wait for it to air at a certain time. And also, if you want, you can send us emails at love neverfails with brotherjohn at gmail.com. That's love never fails with B-R-O-J-O-H-N at gmail.com.
So, I've had my friend James here with me, and James has traveled the world preaching the gospel, teaching and preaching, and just. Man, he loves God. He loves people. He and I come from a church in the middle of the United States that is very missions-minded.
So both of us are very missions-minded. But James, how are you doing, man? Just say hi to everybody out there. Hello, everyone. John, I'm doing well.
It's good to be here. It's good to talk about the revival, talk about who we are in Christ Jesus and stepping into the fullness of who we are. Only one rule on our show. You can never say your last name. That's our only rule.
So don't call me by my last name. I won't call you by your last name.
So, you know, and people out there, you might be going, what's up, Brother John? What are you trying to hide? What are you really up to? You know, so many cynical people. But I can tell you, years ago, I was snuck into a country that.
I was asked to go in. They basically, I was across the border and sat down in a restaurant about 8 in the morning. And I sat down across the table from a person, and my friend that was traveling with me, who were still friends, were going over to their nation to teach in their Bible school later this year. And so we're sitting in this restaurant on the border of a particular nation in Asia. Eight hours later, we're still sitting in a restaurant.
And I'm like, what is going on? And we were, you know, just drinking sodas and eating these, we would call them dumplings here in the United States. I'm not going to use the name of what they are because then people wouldn't know what country it was. But long story short, At the end of the day, we'd get up to leave, and I had been so just, man, I love to talk. And I could go for hours, and I actually had noticed that there were several men in this restaurant that were there all day.
But I didn't let it bother me. I didn't really think about it. I didn't feel any danger or anything. But when we got up to leave, my friend and I, we go walking out. And next thing goes, we got to go down here.
And this other person, these other two people that were across the table were kind of leading us. And as we're walking down this. Back street behind this building, I noticed all these men who had been in the restaurant were back there. And I'm like, going, I, former military, I tensed up. I was ready to go, I was ready to fight.
About that time, one of the men that we'd been ministering to across the table reached down and grabbed my hand.
Now, also, here we go again. My Western mindset, I'm going a guy holding my hand. But in that region of the world, that's a gesture. Yeah, it's a normal thing, it's a gesture of friendship. And And I still had peace.
And then lo and behold, what it was is these eight men were all underground church pastors. And they did not want any, they didn't want anybody, any foreigner, to come in and preach in their church. or to minister to their people. Unless they knew it was safe. And it took them eight hours.
And after eight hours, they basically had given some sort of signal. And they took us out, went outside, and they said, Brother John, we trust you. We believe that you're the real deal. You're not just here looking for, as I say, a stamp in your, I don't remember the whole conversation, a stamp in your passport or a notch in your belt. I said, yep.
And so they put me in a Jeep. Under a seat. They had the seat cleared out, and they put this thing on me, and three of them sat on me. And we went across the border into this particular country. And the border works like this is even though there's an international border, tourists can go back and forth, but then there's a barrier.
And you can't go past that. Border city barrier. And I heard them at the borders. I didn't understand the language, but I knew we were at the checkpoint. And they let us through the rest of the way.
And after about 25 minutes, they let me out. and uh took me into a building. And in there, I ministered to an underground church. And it was just amazing. One of those situations you just go, wow, God.
And of course, coming back, go ahead. They're hungry. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They're hungry.
And as Brother John says, we're not trying to hide anything. There's just certain nations that don't want to let us in.
So we don't give our last name. It's like the United States stealth bomber. Yeah. We just go in under the radar, we deliver God's message, and we come back out. And the neat thing about it is we live in a country in the US where we are able to prosper In such amazing abundance that when we use that money to go in and I I don't go around asking for support.
I don't go to churches, itinerating. I don't do any of that. You know, James, what I do. I basically just work and then I go. I work and go, work and go.
And, um, When we go into those countries Man. They're not, they may be poor in a monetary. Or even, I mean, they probably don't, a lot of them don't have even this old furniture that I've got that we're sitting on. But they are so rich in spirit, so rich in Heritage and family, and then when they become born again. Wow.
They've got a richness in honor as well that many here in the United States don't have anymore. That's right. They're hungry. They're hungry spiritually, which is nice because as you start talking and sharing the gospel, it just pulls it out of you. That's one of the most incredible feelings.
They're pulling on it. That couple we had dinner with Thursday, we just sat down and it was, you could just, they're pulling. Yeah. And you go to these nations where they're hungry. I like to go, send me where nobody is going.
That's right. Send me where nobody wants to go. I want to go where nobody else wants to go. And for those of us that live in a Western mindset cultures, That's, you know, I was in Nicaragua not long ago with some pastor friends of mine and We did a crusade, and at the end of the night, this couple invited us to their house. And I was like, oh man.
I got there. It was a cinder block home. Everything in the home we in this country would consider trash. We wouldn't even keep it. No.
You know, I mean, like. Our office down in a particular city here in the U.S., where we're working out, we had a couple of chairs break.
Well the other day I was like let's fix them somebody said oh no they're already in the trash That wouldn't happen in those countries. No, they'd fix them. Yeah, they'd fix them and reuse them. And so, um,. We we sit down in this house after ministering the gospel to them and they fed us.
A delicacy, the best that they had. And a lot of you with the Western mindset are going to be hearing this and go, you might go, oh, you know, when I tell you this, but it was pig head soup. The cartilage, the tongue, the eyeballs, the brain, the snot, you name it. Before she served it, she said, I washed it really good. I'm like going, oh boy.
When you're eating that and you can see all, you see the ear, you see the nose, you see an eye, you see a tongue, and some brain matter, you're like, ooh. You only see that in America on TV. You know, I eat whatever they set before me. That's right. I drink whatever they set before me.
That's right. And it's good in its own way. That's right. You know, I've never gotten one time, I've gotten food poisoned in RPCs. But I probably have food poisoning.
15 times here in the United States. From fast food restaurants, normally. The one time I got food poisoning overseas. I knew Not to eat that. And I wanted to try it and I remember as I popped into my mouth, you shouldn't eat that.
And then later that night, I was sick and I was crying out to God, and He was like, Son. And he told me, he goes, You're going to throw up and visit the toilet three times. And then he said, Then you'll be all right. And I woke up the next morning. I didn't wake up the next morning because I stayed up all night in the bathroom.
But, you know, when I finally did come up out of the bathroom early in the morning, oh, I felt so much better. But that'll wear you out. That must wear you out. The only thing I've ever gotten sick on in another nation. We had taken some people with us and we hit a tourist resort at the end.
And we stopped at McDonald's. And I got sicker than a dog at McDonald's. It's the only time I've ever gotten sick eating in another nation. And you know, there are nations out there, guys. If you don't know this, and maybe, you know, I know I have friends in the Philippines that you're probably listening to this, that I'm about to talk about you.
You robber. I'm about to talk about you. And you know, they eat bloat. And I might be saying that wrong. They eat Belot in the Philippines.
Below, for those of you who don't know, Is Basically Uh a half incubated duck egg eggs that they then boil And then they eat it. And when they eat it, they'll eat the shell at all. And I was like, you know, this is going to kind of be a fun episode. But I remember we had a group of teenagers over there, and we were with a particular ministry. You know, the ministry I'm speaking of.
I can't even tell you guys the name of it on this show. But one of my best friends, we both met our wives with each other and all of that. But we were over in the Philippines doing ministry. And I was training leaders for him, and we got off that bus because somebody's 'Oh, there's below, beloved, below, get below.' So, this guy on a bicycle rides up with a basket full of eggs in the front. And man, these teenagers, I remember one of them, his name was Jeff.
He interned at the ministry. And he was one of the first ones to eat it. And I remember I'd already been to about 15 countries. I'd been overseas in the military. I'd seen a lot.
But when he'd been into that egg and I heard the crunch and the bones breaking, I was like, oh, oh, I was like, get me out of here. I did. That's one thing I've never eaten. I've never been served in a house, so therefore I've never had to. Don't anybody go think, okay, let's give John Foyer, Brother Johnson.
We're going to bleed that out. Give Brother Johnson Balut now because I'm not going to eat it if you do that to me.
Now your wife is from Canada. And in Canada, Day. Boutin. Boutin. I ate that for a friend's marriage up there.
Oh, Boutin. It's wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah, but in the United States, you can barely. You might find it up near the border.
It's not the same. The cheese is different. Yeah. It's just not the same. No, it's not.
Because in Canada, you know, you go to those countries and eat, they make that stuff. They're making it out of whole good food. Here in the United States, we have to turn everything into how can we process it and save a penny? Yeah. Oh my god.
Yeah, that's. And then you last longer until it kills you. You don't decompose as much as fast as you stream.
So adventures and missions. I remember there's a movie coming out. of some missionaries. who were killed in India. And I happened to be in India at the same time that these missionaries were killed.
And I remember I was down in uh the lower part of India when we heard that these Missionaries had been killed, then been burned alive in their jeep, and their son, his sons were in the jeep with them, and radical Hindus did it. There's a movie coming out with uh Steven Baldwin. And I believe it's supposed to come out next month or something. You know, people I'm glad that they're honoring that man with that movie, but here's the problem I see in a movie like that: is that it'll scare people from wanting to do missions. It's going to scare moms.
It's going to scare parents. But I may go watch it. But I know I was in the country when that happened, and it sent shockwaves through a lot of people. And I've seen people back down from the call of God because of things like that, and because of the challenges of missions. When you know Where you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to be doing, you are safer.
in the middle of a battlefield than you are in your living room. In the perfect will of God. Yep. 15 miles. from the Pakistan border the day that the United States got Osama bin Laden.
Yeah. I walked out of my hotel room. And I knew in my spirit something wasn't quite right. And I walked over to the front counter and it's the only day all week long. There was an English newspaper there.
Right. There's two guys, maybe fifteen. maybe three meters away. And they're just staring at me the whole time. Right.
And I look at the headline. And I'm keeping a poker face. I totally don't. Show any expression, no change of emotion or anything else. I read the headlines.
I don't read anything else. I don't want to indicate that I'm very interested. And I opened to the cricket section, and I had my first cricket lesson. Yep. And I was where I was supposed to be, doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing, teaching in a Bible school.
And they were watching me, they put bait out for me. And I knew I was safe. Yeah. There's another nation I went to And They told me later on after I was there, oh, yeah, that's known as the graveyard of missionaries. Yeah.
But I knew I was where I was supposed to be doing what I was supposed to be doing. Right. If God is leading you to go somewhere, Go. You're safer there than you are anyplace else. In Colossians 3, verse 15, in one of our translations, it says, Let the peace, the heart peace that comes from the Christ rule, reign, act as an umpire, settling all the questions that arise in your mind with all finality.
You know You have a question, do I go? Do you have peace? Should I go this place? Do you have peace? Should I say this?
Do you have peace? You let peace rule and reign as an empire.
Now, we're real familiar with baseball here in the United States. That that Ball runner is running down and steps on the bag, and that umpire indicates safe or out. Right. And when he says out, That runner's off. That runner's off to the dugout.
Right. When you've got something down in your heart to do, Take some steps. Do you have peace? Take a few more steps. Do you have peace?
Take a few more steps. If you don't have peace, stop. It might be direction, it might be timing. Just pause and just wait. That's good advice.
I think so many people have a negative mindset that they bring into their Christian. What's the word I want to use into their Christianity. And when you share that, one of the things I was thinking about, when Peter said, If it be you, bid that I come, and he stepped out of the boat. And he started walking towards Jesus.
So many people focus on the sinking. But I keep going, wait a second. He walked on water. He walked on water. He stepped out of the boat.
And when he did begin to sink, Jesus reached down and lifted him right back up. And many times, I love what you said because even then, if we look at the Apostle Paul, Paul was a green light missionary. And what I mean by that is. And you and I have talked about this, but we'll explain it for those listening. Is we have an unction to go, we go until we get a stoplight.
Yes, I keep going forward until peace leaves or peace says stop, or something stops me. Slow down, slow down, and check your heart. Check what's going on. And Paul said the Holy Spirit would keep stopping me, stopping me. And then finally, what happened?
Then he had a Macedonian experience where they said, No, come over here. I've had that happen to me. And Years ago, uh And I just remembered this man reached out to me a while ago, wants to talk to me. But he and I were gonna go to Paraguay. And this is in the late 90s.
And we were gonna head to Paraguay and do a crusade in the middle of Asunción. There's a big park there with like a cobblestone area, and it's in front of a building that they call the White House.
So I'm giving anybody out there that wants enough information, you can find this. And we were going to do a crusade there. A friend of mine by the name of Omar was setting it up and. Man, my friend Jeremy comes all the way over. He drives out to North Carolina.
He spends the night with us. We get in the car the next morning. I'm stressing. We're supposed to drive to Miami, Florida. 10 hours or 12 hours to get on a plane, maybe it was Orlando.
and fly to Paraguay. And we didn't have enough money to be flying from Raleigh to there, so we said, we'll drive, park the car. It was cheaper for us to park the car and get on the plane, go to Perryway, do the crusade, come back. We got 30 minutes down the road, and I finally just blurted out. I can't do this.
I'd been stressing for a week. Peace was gone. And as soon as I said, he goes, oh, thank God. I said, what are you doing? He goes, Brother John, he goes, you don't go?
Yeah. He goes, I have not been able to sleep for three nights and I keep getting warned every night. And I literally said, What are you doing? Why didn't you tell me? He goes, because you're in charge.
I said, dude, we're in this together. I said, I'm not. He goes, you're the leader. I said, no, no, no. I said, we're partners in this.
And I was so glad. But get this. We turned around and went home. And everybody, when he walked through the doors, oh, thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness. Many of our partners didn't understand because I wrote a letter explaining we couldn't go.
The Holy Spirit stopped us. The following week, When we were supposed to be right smack dab in the middle of our crusade. USAA had a picture, front page picture, about I don't know if they called it revolution or riots or what. In Paraguay. In Paraguay.
And the picture was of a young man with, I think it was either Big Stone or a Molotov cocktail throwing it, and you see it releasing from his hand. And he was standing in the middle of the crusade spot. And behind him was the building, the congressional building that they call the White House. And I was like, wow. I'm so glad I didn't go.
We would have been stuck there because they, I mean, it. Shut the nation down. It shut the nation down, and we would have been stuck there. But because now we're green light, so we're pressing, pressing, pressing, until we both realize we were both on the same page about something was wrong. There's a trip I went on.
Okay. And I was with a very seasoned minister. And I was the subordinate. Right. And I had a huge check.
I wanted to get a rental car. and he wanted to take some open transportation. Right. Well, with the open transportation, it's blatantly obvious that there's two real light-skinned people going down the road. I had a check, he didn't.
I submitted to his authority. Right. we drove by a mosque Oh no. And It went these guys went berserk. And we were going by it twice a day, every day for five days.
And I told God, I said, Lord. I don't have peace. He does. He is the authority. I'm going to trust you to get us in and out safely and.
keep these people safe. There's times you're going to have a check and you can do something about it. There's times you have a check and I was already there in country.
So it's not like, okay, I'm going to pack up, turn around, go home. I was there before I got the check.
So I knew we were going to have, when I say I have a check, I mean I don't have peace. Down inside, there's a scratch down inside. And Mm.
So it wasn't don't go, but we could have used a little more wisdom in how we handle things and kept things settled down. Right. Well, I think, too, that it's possible that the seasoned minister didn't hear Or wasn't as in touch with his spirit man as you were. But oftentimes, because we're the younger at that time, we just submitted. And God still protected us, took care of us.
And I've been in that situation before where I didn't have peace or I was like, whoa, wait a second. And the seasoned minister, my mentor, who taught me how to do crusades, like, this is how we do it. You know, and there's oftentimes as we're learning and growing, we do things that we're like, you know, we grew up going, I won't do what my parents did. I won't do it. And even as I was coming up through the ranks of ministry, I would say, I won't do it that way.
And there have been times that I've been in a hotel room with another, at that time, the man called us Young Lions. You know, we were back in the 90s and we were in our late 20s. And I remember after he kind of, one night I got rebuked for two hours. That's pretty strong. Yeah, it's the hardest rebuke I've ever had.
And we were on our way from a crusade, and we were getting into the van. And this particular minister, who's very well known and doing a lot of work in Pakistan at this time, so I won't dare say his name, but you might. No, I know who you're talking about. My best friend and I were getting ready to get on the on the Bus or the van, and as we, and there were only four of us, so he and his wife, and then my friend, and I. And as we were getting on the van, I saw a man who was just completely naked, and I took the shirt off.
I always wear a t-shirt underneath whatever I'm wearing. And I took it off. And gave it to the man. And, you know, I'm six foot two, so that shirt came all the way down halfway to his knees. Kind of like a quarto.
Yeah, kind of like we got on the van. And As soon as the main started moving, he lit into me. Oh, you're one of these guys. You'd be into soup kitchens and feeding the homeless, and you need to focus and decide what God's called you to do and do it and not be because he kind of, and I needed to hear it, but at the same time, one of my giftings is in giving and helping people, you know. And so I understood it, so I submitted.
And when we got to the hotel room that night, which they always stay a few hours or a couple hours away from the crusade field because of safety, safety, and uh. My friend said to me, John said, he goes, brother. He goes, I've never seen anybody. I said, you know what? I may not always do things The way he does it.
I said, but I know what I'm learning here. And he's right. To a degree, he was right. I was there on his invitation. I was there under his leadership.
I was there. Learning something that I couldn't have learned from anybody else in this world, how to properly do crusades. Because there's only a few people who properly do crusades, and I was learning from one of the best. And I deserved it. And I knew it.
And maybe that's my military background saying, yeah. You know, and some people wouldn't understand that, but it helps me. You know, we could really go off on a tangent here. Yeah. Great faith.
Yeah. The man understood authority. Yes. I'm a man under authority. I'm a man in authority.
I say go, and he does. Yes. And Jesus said, I have not seen so great Faith in all of Israel. Yeah. And when you're underneath somebody, you submit.
Yeah. You obey Ben Ben military. We're both military. Yeah. Former military.
You follow the chain of command. That's right. And there's times you'll gotta, you finish up, there'll be a grace to finish it. Yeah. You learn what you're supposed to learn.
You pick up what you're supposed to pick up. Right. And then you may connect back with them again. You may not. That seasoned minister.
I never went on another trip with him again. The one that, yeah. The one that they took the open transportation where we were very visible. Yeah. And and I'm one of those people too that I'm very I was in a country just last year that On the way out, they diverted me, they let my luggage come back to the United States, but they diverted me and they said, You have a meeting with immigration.
And I'm like, For what? And I'm like, this is the third time that I've been to that country where they've done that to me. And I knew. And what it was is is some people had put my face with my real name on posters.
So, somehow or another, yeah, it had already been already caught up, you know. And so, one of the things I told all my brethren over there, I said, guys, I said, I'll come back. I said, and I'm working that out to be able to come back and keep going back, and we're pushing into another country from this country. And I said, that's not a problem, but I have to wait.
Now, there's a particular amount of time I have to wait. You do have to wait. Yeah, and in that country, when I went to immigration, Basically, nobody there knew where to tell me to go. And I found it on my own and I walked up. They said, What are you here for?
I said, I was told to come see you guys. And these guys started asking me questions and I just said, you know, I know enough to know if I can make these guys laugh. I'll walk. And that's what I did. And that's my, you know, I just made sure that whatever questions they asked me, I acted like I was a moron, just a tourist.
And I laughed. I don't go into countries dressed like a preacher. I don't go into countries looking like that. I go, you know, I go in looking like a tourist. Like a tourist.
Yeah. Carry the camera and a backpack. A backpack, a fanny pack. Carry a fanny pack. People go, fanny packs are not in fashion.
You know what? No, but fanny packs, fanny packs are just like. The biggest, you're a dummy idiot tourist in the world. Yes. You know, whereas if you walk in wearing slacks and a nice shirt and a tie, They're going to say, I can tell you, I remember walking into, walking through to.
Customs in a particular country, and along a wall, there's a whole line of people and I looked over and I realized every one of them was a preacher. I was wearing flip-flops, shorts, a t-shirt, a ball cap, and a bandana. And I looked like I was hiking. And I walked right through. Walk right through.
Blend it. Paul said, I'll be all things to all men. That's right. And you blend in. We talked about that a little while ago.
You eat what they eat, you drink what they drink. You blend in. Yeah. We stand out enough as it is. Yeah.
And we have this weird mindset in a lot of foreign countries that. I have no problem with people wearing a collar or dressing up. I don't. But when you go to a foreign country, you've got to fit in. You can't just go in there and go, Well, do you know who I am?
How many times have you been in the US and you've heard that kind of attitude come out of people's mouths? If you knew who I was, when you go to a foreign country, you are a nobody. The rules of America don't apply to you in those countries. And you'll be lucky nowadays if you were to get arrested, if our government would go to help you. I'm more concerned.
Not for my safety, but for those who are there after I leave. That's right. What kind of attention did we bring to them? That's right. And that's why those Men watched you for eight hours.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Because when they bring you in, You're going to draw a certain amount of attention. That's right. And you're going to bring them in. This one nation you were talking about.
Um The Holy Spirit told me, He said, Do not go back until I tell you. Yeah, and there's, I know what the change is. That's right. And as soon as that change happens, I will go back. That's right.
But you don't go. If I was to go back. I'm going to bring harm. They're going to watch me. They're going to see where I go.
They're going to see who I talk to, who I spend time with. And then after I leave, people get killed. Yes. And I've seen people killed. I've seen homes burned.
I've seen people, children are being forced into orphanages. Mom and dad are killed. There's a interesting thing about that story: as we were in that restaurant, those eight. men were feeling me out. They invited me back, and probably about a year later, I ran into another minister who heard some of what happened.
And it wasn't me that was running around telling people, it was some of the graduates that were with us that day. And. This one minister, these two ministers actually got very upset with me. And one of them literally said, Why did you get to do that? And we couldn't.
And I was like, What are you talking about? And then it came out.
Well, he they went up there. Both of them went up there at different times and went to that same restaurant and couldn't get in. And they were like, what's so special about him? And I'm going, oh my gosh. Because those people can't take chances on good words, on charismatic whatever, or even on a dollar bill.
You know, just because you have money, does. I was sitting on a bus. Feeling sorry for myself in the mid-90s in a foreign country. Feeling sorry for myself because I didn't have money. I went to a specific country with a plane ticket and less than $200 in my pocket, and I stayed there for four months.
and I have no money. People thought I was a great faster. What they didn't know is I was on a forced fast. And that I was fasting because I I couldn't afford to eat. I couldn't afford to do anything.
And I was crying out to God a little bit one day, sitting on the bus. And I was looking out the window, and clear as day, I heard God, He told me seven things concerning missions. And the first thing he told me, he goes, having money. Does it make you ready? No.
And I went because I was challenged by a particular person who was younger than me, but his daddy was a preacher in the U.S. and he was fundraising hard for him. I can go sit down at restaurants with these guys. Brother John, you gonna order? Oh, no, no, no, I'm good.
Brother John, you're going to know I'm good. And I was forced fasting. I was believing God for food in the midst of. Ten other missionaries. All who had more than enough.
We were in a Brahms overseas. Only, you know, not 37 flavors, they had four flavors. But we were in a Brahms when I got a phone call that my father-in-law passed away. The phone call came through one of the other missionaries because I didn't have a phone. And it was when cell phones were still on the rise.
And this person, this particular person whose daddy was also a pastor, had a cell phone and he handed the phone to me. And they told me, Yeah, your grandpa nigga, where you at? I said, I'm at an ice cream shop. You're eating ice cream. I said, I'm not eating ice cream.
You know, but I couldn't even afford to enjoy the ice cream. And I was crying out to God and I was upset. And that's when, and then I quit after that. After I realized that, and God told me those things at that point, I was like, you know what? I'm sorry, God, for even complaining.
I'm sorry. You got in, they didn't get in because of ego. You got in because of no ego. Yeah. Yeah.
It's, don't you know who I am? Let me in. I'm the big wig. They're going to bring problems. Yeah.
I know of a particular minister who. has used to have some big meetings in in the central part of a nation. And I used to wonder how that happened.
Well, he's got enough money. That he pays people to come to those meetings and puts them up in hotels. He feeds them. He does, so all these people from that nation come there because he puts the money up. But then he takes all the photos, takes everything so that he can come back to the U.S.
and raise more money. Yeah. He can go over there and put all those people up for a couple thousand dollars, come back and raise tens of thousands. You know, I used to be the guy that when I first. Was saved.
It was in a church. In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, I got invited to a play called Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames. And I went to this play and got ran to the altar that night. And what happened is, all my prior Bible reading and questions came to a head right there. And I gave my heart to Jesus.
And it used to make me upset when I'd see missionaries come through. And they'd have pictures of starving, naked, whatever. These Tearjerker photos. It would make me mad. And they would always present it as you need to help them.
And I'm going, why didn't you help them? And then what makes it even worse is, even though that bothered me that they were taking photos like this, it bothered me.
So that was one of the things we didn't want to ever do. We didn't want to take photos of the poor and destitute. We tried to take photos of fun. Because, and somebody, I was, and then the other thing is, I don't like that they come to churches and they show you all this heart-wrenching stuff, and they only can raise 10 cents. I went to a church in the middle of nowhere, Texas.
And I'm sharing about being in a particular country. And I'm not doing it from a negative mindset. And this man just interrupts me. Middle service. I've never had that happen before.
I was. newly married i was 27 years old and this guy's interrupted the word. What are you doing interrupting my service? Oh, this guy looked like he needed to cut his hair. He needed to shave.
It looked like he hadn't changed his shirt in five weeks. He didn't even have laces in his shoes. And I'm like, going, dude, it is nasty. Just straight up, you know? And he goes Brother John.
I just can't believe it. Like, what? And I'm thinking, Pastor, help me out. They didn't help me out. And I said, w what what's the problem?
He goes, I've been to that country. It is the drainage hole of hell. It is the armpit of the world, and you're making it sound like a bed of roses. It's what you make it. And I said to him, I said, brother, I understand.
I said, I know exactly what you mean. I said, but what God called me to do How on earth can I then come to you guys and complain and cry and moan and groan about what God called me to do? I said, I love that nation. Is it nasty? Yes.
I mean, the day I was leaving the airport on that trip, I saw a mother take her baby, her naked baby, hold it out over the rainy street where water was running, and that baby let loose with a stream of yellow diarrhea right outside my cab window. Yeah. That's life. That's life. And again, coming back to where we were a little while ago, be led.
When you're where you're supposed to be, there's a grace to be there. Yes. And where one person is going to find it extremely nasty, the one person who's supposed to be there, yes, it's dirty. Yes, it's nasty, but there's a grace. It's not offensive.
Go ahead. I totally agree with you. You know, we've been to enough countries. We know that what we have in the Western world is charmed. You know, I mean, I heard this said, and I hope this is really helping some of you out there listening because we're going to probably do two hours of this, but.
We have many, many friends, you and I do, who are missions-minded. They are missionaries. I consider myself a missionary. I've never stayed in one country for years on end, but I've worked in countries back and forth, and from time to time, lived in them for a year or two at a time. Establishing the work, turn it over to a national.
Get the work started, turn it over to a national. But one of the things. That I've I've noticed and a lot of my friends and I agree We come home to the United States. And there was a point in time Where we get sick and tired of red lights, green lights, hamburgers, and all that. And it's almost like this itch where we get so sick and tired of this country.
And my friends always go, When you get to that point, Just run screaming to the airport and get your butt on a plane and get out of the country and go preach to people. And as missionaries, we have that in us. Yes. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah.
There's times I'm just burning. I'm itching. I've got to get out of the United States. The nations I really love, I actually like their food more than I do American food. Yeah, I do too.
Let me out of town and. This one, I went on my, I've not been to as many nations as you have. But I've been where I'm supposed to be. That's right. And I went to one nation, and then I went to another one.
Little rabbit trail. Um It was the very first trip, it was a seasoned minister. Right. They didn't make it out of the airplane, and I said, or out of their airport. I said, Well, I'm going to stop and wait for you.
In this city. We had a connection there. We were supposed to be there 12 hours. Instead, we were there for 36. And as a result of being there for 36 hours made basically a lifelong connection.
Right. And I can go over there, I can sleep on whatever they provide for me to sleep, heat, no heat. There's a grace to be there. You know here in the United States, When I'm in the United States, I have to be pacified. Can I say it that way?
Yeah, why not? But when I go overseas, I'm in my place. I can sleep in a bed with no air conditioning overseas and no problem. I can eat things overseas that I can't eat in the United States, no problem. I can go places and accomplish things that people go, How did you do that?
And I. T.L. Osbourne used to say that when he got off the plane. he would put his hand down on the ground and just say, I declare and decree that this is this belongs to God. You know, and he would just pray over that land.
And he would always talk about this sense of. I want to use the word oneness, but this sense of belonging. Overseas. There are people that have come to me throughout my life as I've traveled overseas and they say, Boy, I'll give you an example. At a church in North Carolina, Oh This is back in the 90s.
We took a team overseas a few times. And somebody came up to me and said, Do you know? You are a completely different person. Overseas than you are here in the US. And I just laughed.
And they said, what is that? I said, because I'm not, I'm out of place in the United States. God said, go to nations. I argued with him, but he said, I want you to go to nations. And so my place, my And I don't like using this word because it is so abused, but the anointing and the calling carries me there.
Yes. And when I land there, it's like it is a hedge of protection, it is the light. That draws them. It is Isaiah 60. It is the light that casts the shadow, exposes the shadow in the valley of death.
It is a thing that when I go overseas, Because that's my place. It's easy. In creation, It's easy. It's easy. It's peaceful.
It's easy. Yes. Oh my goodness, we've had. I remember one time we landed, and the first night we were in this particular country. Cockroach crawled into my wife's mouth in the middle of the night.
She woke up gagging. Freaking out. Yeah. I mean, we've seen, we all have that. Hmm.
Okay, that's fine. But when you see You know, I'm going to a country now that 20 plus years ago, we were in there helping establish a small work. And now Some of those churches that we helped plant. Have grown, they've multiplied, they've opened other churches, and some of them even started Bible schools. And they say to us, we don't want Americans, we don't want Westerners, but yet we are the ones who taught them, but now they don't want us.
Most bring problems. Most bring problems. Most bring an ego. Yeah. They've got to have their attention.
Yep. And you can't do that because you're going to create problems. There was one trip I was on. And We worked with a group of people that uh didn't normally work with. And this guy is up there giving illustrations.
Totally irrelevant to this culture. Right. And I pulled him aside afterward. I said, Can I offer you some constructive criticism? Yeah.
And to his credit, he said yes. I said Every illustration you gave Is American. That's right. These people can't relate to it. You talk about jumping into a car.
When it's all these people can do to get a bicycle.
So instead of talking about your car, talk about a bicycle. Use the illustration. You know, he talked about going out to dinner. I said, these people, that doesn't exist. Yeah, that doesn't.
They might eat it at a cart on the street. Yeah. But. make your illustrations relevant to them.
So it's no wonder these guys don't want them to come back because what they share is irrelevant. I know people who've gone to jail. Because of things that Americans have done. American, British, Australian. Those are the, from my experience, are the three worst.
And I'm not knocking. If you're called to missions, please, we're not beating up preachers. We're just being honest. We're preachers too. But I remember a minister showing up.
in a particular area that we were in. And We had a code language in this country, and everything was based on. In emails, phone calls, everything, even in public. We would use this code. And we said, we're here doing this, so we must use this lingo to talk about everything we do.
So let's say I'm a librarian.
So we're here studying and to study to whatever. Everything would be about books. Everything would be about particular books. And the name of a book would be: oh, that means this or that means that.
Well this guy showed up His name was Rob. I will not tell you his last name. And he just started. I'm called to be, I'm the apostle of this. And I'm like, going, oh boy, he's trouble.
Please shut up. Please shut up. We, after about three weeks, we managed to convince him. That there was a wide open area all the way on the other side of the country. That and we you need to go over there.
Help him with the plane tickets. Yeah, we literally helped him get there. He had his family with him. He goes up there. And within six months, He got deported.
and kicked out of the country. But the thing is, because he didn't protect anything in his email, anything in any of that. He got all those other people kicked out of the country with them, and some people thrown in jail, the Nationals. You know, there's one nation we went to that if you're not careful, the first time they catch you is three months in jail. The second time, I believe it's either a year or something.
Then the third time they catch you, they walk you to the border with nothing. No papers, nothing.
So when they kick you out of their country, You're high and dry. You're high and dry because the country they're throwing you out into can't do anything for you either. And now you're basically trying you know, you're paperless. You've got to find an embassy. Yeah.
And so it's very important to have wisdom. When you're going to these countries and doing the right thing. Because you can't just go in and just. You know, it's not football where you can act like you just made the best touchdown in the world. Let me celebrate.
If you do that kind of nonsense, that bravado nonsense as a missionary, you're putting lives at risk in a lot of places in the world. And that doesn't fly. I know of a guy who planned in a Bible school, came to America, got his teaching in America, went back to this country. And it was on the his Bible school on the border of a country, and he only had three. You know, three or four students his first year.
Now he runs about 15 students a year. Been in. Doing the Bible school for 20 years, he doesn't get paid to do it. People come to him because they want to learn, and he's literally like, Why do American preachers think they got all the answers? And probably the greatest thing that I hear that disturbs me most is when they say, Why do American or Western preachers think we can't hear from the Holy Ghost?
Wow. That one hits not below the belt, but below the belt because we deserve it. When we believe that because we're raised in a Western mindset, church, we're the only ones who can hear from the Holy Spirit. We just told God We slapped him in the face. Yeah.
We just, it's like if you and I, our kids walk to each other and goes, you're not really his child, slap, get out of the house. That's what we might as well be. Yes, yes. But yet, that's what a lot of American missions organizations teach is.
Well And I've been guilty of saying this: most Americans have enough in them. That who go to church and are studying the word, that they go overseas and preach for a while. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Problem is, there's no anointing, there's no grace, there's no calling there.
So they get in trouble. And there's a lack of wisdom. Yeah. Yep. Um And I said it earlier: one of my greatest concerns when I go is, where are the people going to be when I leave?
Yeah. I preached a graduation one time. in the graveyard of missionaries, that that one area. And I told these people, I said, I don't care where you are next week. I don't care where you are next month.
So, what I care about is where you are in 20 years. But if I do something stupid, They're not going to make it to next week, much less 20 years down the road. That's right. There are people that are just looking. For an excuse to throw somebody in jail.
They're looking for an excuse to burn these people's homes down. That's right. To throw these malt off cocktails or whatever. And Again, go back. Harm, why is the serpent harmless as a dove?
Yeah. And you just go in below the radar. One of the things that happened. Several years ago when my son who's now in Bible school was I think he was probably Tim? My mentor called me.
And he said, John, he goes, you know the country we're working in. We cannot He said, we're having an issue. I said, what's that? He goes. We cannot do a crusade any longer without starting a school.
He said, because once these kids become Christians, they're not accepted in this government school.
So we must start a private school.
Well, how much will it cost? They need 7,500.
Okay. He told me that I said I'm on it And short notice, I said, I'll do a fundraiser for you this weekend, and that's something we would do all the time. And we'd cook all this meat and ribs and everything. And I said, I'll get started. And we uh We Went out there on a hot July day.
and did everything we could. And by the time it's said and done, Joel and I were at the end of the day were counting the money. And we basically had profited less than $100. And and Joel starts crying. And it broke my heart, and I looked at him and said, Son.
I said, did we do all we could do? He goes, yes, sir. I said, then don't give up. Do not give up. Don't quit.
The next morning, I had to get up and drive. to another state. out to West Virginia. And I left about six in the morning. About one o'clock, my phone just starts ringing.
And I'm in the mountains of West Virginia, and the service receptions in and out. And finally, I get something on the phone. They said, Have you heard? Have you heard? I said, What?
They said, Basically, long story short, somebody that I have sold... Oh The uh Um Rapes the plate of food to the day before. Because it was so thrown together so fast, they didn't really know if what we were doing was real. Because, I mean, I hadn't done this thing in a matter of days. And so we're on the side of the road selling food, trying to raise money.
And he went to a church service where a friend of mine who's a pastor was saying, Yep, you know, we got some friends, they're trying to raise. And this guy goes, I met those guys. Were they on the saturday? He goes, Yeah, he goes, and he wrote a check. Covered the whole thing.
Covered it all. And Joel, everybody's just freaking out. Going, did you hear? Did you hear? And you just go, man, that's what faith is about: that you don't quit, you don't give up.
You don't, you know, when God has you going somewhere, He provides. It may not come through your hands, but what if we had not been out there on the side of the road? You wouldn't have met him. We never would have met him. He never would have said, okay, you know, and thank God.
You know, we couldn't have orchestrated that any better. No. But that's gone for you. You know, and so. It's neat when you see God doing those sort of things and you get to watch it.
I tell people all the time, I said, It's not me. I said, I'm usually more of an audience than I am anything else. People want to talk about all the different miracles and everything. I tell people, say, listen, most of the time, I'm just a spectator. I just try to get out of the way.
Yeah, because it's not me that's doing these things, it's Jesus doing it. I was just a spectator. I mean, I can literally tell you, and maybe we'll have to do this next episode. I can literally tell you about times that we've had where I've seen amazing miracles, and it was just simply me watching.
So, all right, well, listen, we're at the end of this episode. We're going to pick this up on the next episode. Just, we're going to call this the challenge of missions. And we'll pick it up next episode. We thank you for listening.
Remember, Jesus loves people, and love never fails. Thank you for listening to Love Never Fails as we pursue revival. Remember, Jesus loves people, and love never fails. For more information on Love Never Fails and ministry events, please email us at love neverfails with brojohn at gmail.com. That's love never fails with B-R-O-J-O-H-N at gmail.com.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah
