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. Angels proclaim.
Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Praise God. Thank you for listening. to love never fails.
Well Just a quick intro, and then we're going to dive right back into where we've been talking for the last couple of days, which is Ephesians. Um Just so you know, this show we're just going to go through for an hour and just teach right out of the word and expound and explain and maybe make some mistakes, but. Our prayer, our hope. Is that you learn something, you grow, you become more. Than what you were than when you started.
It's not because of me, but it's because of the word. And we're going to be looking at the word and we're going to start with the Ephesians prayer. But the first thing I want to do is I want to pray the Ephesians prayer over you. If Paul, who wrote this prayer, prayed it over the church of Ephesus, I'm pretty sure we can pray it over ourselves and it'll bring about some fantastic results.
So let's just get started right here in the book of Ephesians. And it starts with. Chapter 1 Verse 15 is where I'm going to start it.
So he says, Whereas I also, after hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love for all the saints, cease not To give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. And that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working out of his mighty power? Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that can be named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And has put all things under his feet and given Him to be the head over all things, the church, which is his body.
fills the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
So, this is what we call the first of the Ephesians, the Ephesians prayer. It's the prayer that Paul prayed over the Ephesus church. And there's another one that he prays over in chapter three that we'll get to in other episodes. But when I was a young man, well, actually, I was in my 30s, and. I was sitting under the teaching of another person, another wonderful preacher, and he would come in and start out.
By having us recite this to the point that I had it memorized at one point, and it was just Incredible because the amount of, I mean, the entire gospel is in that prayer. The entire gospel. And when you really begin to break it down and you begin to see what it is that God is after, what it is that God wants. Out of us, not just because we're Christians and because we go to church or because we went to Bible school or because we have a calling or he's called you to do this or he's called you to do this, but because you Yeah. or his child.
That's it. It's as simple as that. He wants you, and we talked about this in the last episode. I'm going to try not to go backwards, but he wants you. To walk in a spirit of wisdom and revelation, and to know him.
He wants you to know that. And we talked about in the last episode: what is the spirit of revelation and knowledge of him? We only got through that first verse. And we probably could have kept going. We got through.
Verse 17: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. And at rabbit trail, as we examine that, it took us to Psalms 1, it took us through so many different scriptures. Why? Because it all, I mean, it's all in the gospel, it's right here. How do you get the Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledge of Him?
And well, First it begins. That you lay your heart on the altar. You cry out to him. And then we talked about Romans chapter five, verses five and eight, where he talks about what happens when we confess Jesus is Lord. God deposits a portion, a seed, a mustard seed of faith And it's not of faith, it's of love.
He used, he it says, and God has deposited, or God did, he demonstrated his own lovers that while we're yet sinners, he imparted a portion. of his nature, a seed, a deposit. in us, in our heart, a seed of love. A seed of himself. Why?
Because When you're going to build something, You need the blueprints. I mean, I build stuff all the time and I have to go to the city and say, hey, I want to build this. They go, not without plans, you're not. And so a plan, I have to go get a plan. I have to go to the engineer and the architect.
Those would preach, wouldn't they? And I have to. Get a set of plans. And then, once I get those set of plans, I study them, I know how they are. I mean, I've been in the business long enough that I know how to read plans.
And because of that, I begin. Two Build What I got plans for. When you become born again, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. What happens is God, and it says this in Romans, that He deposits His love in you, a seed part of His love in you. That's the plans, that's the purposes, that's the pursuit of God that He deposits in you.
So that you can begin to build. The life and the nature that he has for you. God, you know, I'm not a believer. That you can just be born again and live the rest of your life the way you've been living it. I am a believer.
I believe this with all of my heart, all of my soul, all that I am, that when you say Jesus, be my Lord, you pray the sinner's prayer. When you get up from that, you have to start a transformation. The old you've got to die. The new you's got to come alive. You've got to start growing that seed that was deposited in you that day.
We talked about in the last episode that if you think you're just praying that prayer to get fire insurance, well, the Bible's very clear that you could be one of four types of ground. And if you don't nurture and water and protect that seed, then you could be fallow ground. You could be shallow ground. You could be rocky ground. You could be ground full of weeds.
The cares of life snuff out that deposit. And the next thing you know, 10 years down the road, somebody goes, Are you born again? And you go, well, yeah, I prayed prayer on September 13th, 1987. And they go, well, we don't see it. Don't judge me Really?
Well, the Bible judges you. The word of God judges you. The Spirit of God is going to judge you. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess, and you will one day or another. End up in one of two places: either heaven or hell.
Sorry, but there is no purgatory. There is no way of earning your way into heaven after this. You've got to.
Now, I do. You say, well, John, are you talking about deathbed prayer? No, I'm not talking about deathbed prayer. I'm talking about you get up and you pray that sinner's prayer, and you said you're a Christian, and maybe you go to church, but you're one of these people that believes that how you go to church and how you run your business are two different things. Maybe you're one of these people who believe you can go to church on Sunday morning, preach a sermon, but then you can go treat the waitress like junk afterwards.
You're one of these people who you don't realize that the way you act in church is the way you should be acting 24/7. And for a lot of you, you go to church and act like a jerk. And, you know, the Bible talks about not being cruel, not being, you know, we nowadays call it being a jerk, you know, that you shouldn't go out and act a certain way. You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that. But yet, in our modern world, we accept those things.
And then we wonder why the media and the world doesn't want to be like us, why they mock us. When then all of a sudden, we get a hair up our rear end and decide we're going to go out and evangelize people, and people don't want to hear us. Because you don't have the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. And people can snip that out in a heartbeat. You're not walking in love.
When people around the world speak of Christianity, they used to say the people of the book.
Well now they refer that to Buddhism. The people of the book are Buddhist. Because Buddhists have seem to have more love. than a lot of Christians.
Now, I'm not trying to throw out blanket statements here. I'm not trying to lump everybody. What I am trying to do is to agitate you and to get you to think. About your personal growth and development with God. Where are you?
Well, Brother John, I go to church every Sunday and I'm believing God for revival. Good. Have you revived your life? Have you started A revival in your own life, in your house. You can't start a revival in your own house if you don't have a revival in your heart.
You can't start a revival in your neighborhood if you don't have a revival in your house. You can't start a revival in this country if you haven't started one in your house. And in your closet? Oh, you might you know see Here's what a lot of people don't realize. The days, see, People are g wising up.
to charisma and and to the the business of ministry and the the the technology of of being fancy and and having the next best thing. People, especially this younger generation, they don't want the fluff. They don't want the smoke and mirrors. They want the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of God, which is walking in love. They want to know Christ.
And when they get to know him, they'll make him know. And that's where that revival is coming from. Oh, we can laugh at them and talk about their technology and all this, but I'm telling you, they want something that we have not given them in our generation. You know I believe, and this is my personal belief, but I I can Over 200 scriptures referring to pastors, preachers, elders, and shepherds, and what God's going to do. And not all of them refer to this, but many of them refer to bad pastors in the last day, bad shepherds in the last day.
How the great apostasy. How can there be a great apostasy if there aren't bad teachers? How can there be a great apostasy if the church isn't deceived? How can there be a falling away if we're not teaching lies? Because, see, if we're teaching the truth and we're teaching love and we're endeavoring to disciple people to walk in love, they won't fall away, they won't go into apostasy, they won't be deceived.
I want you to question. It is okay to ask questions, it's not okay to beat people up. It's not okay to accuse and to condemn. But it is okay to ask questions. It's okay.
to find out That something you've been taught all your lives in the church is wrong. Just don't teach it. There are things that God has told me not to teach. You'll never hear me teaching on this radio show. I won't even tell you what they are.
Because God said, don't teach them. It's kind of like I tell my kids all the time. Oh, you know, they run around, go, I got a secret, I got a secret. I said, No, you don't. I haven't told you what it is, but it ain't a secret because I know you got it.
And I'll figure it out now. You know, the whole point of having a secret is that nobody knows. Yeah. I mean, that's the whole point of a secret. I tell the kids: if you have a secret, don't even let on that you have a secret because people are smart.
They'll figure it out, they'll get it out of you. And so there are things that God has spoken to me, and there are many of you out there. God has spoken to you, and He's told you things. You don't run around and blab those things everywhere. You don't put them in print.
You don't make big, you know, 20-page or 20-tape series CDs or DVDs out of them. You don't do that. That's between you and God. God's showing you those things, teaching you those things. Why?
He wants you to know so you can prepare, you can get ready, you have a spirit of wisdom and knowledge. Why? Because so that when things come, they don't surprise you and you know what's going on. Yeah. God has shown me things about people that He never released me to tell.
And then when they happened, I just didn't go, why God? He goes, I needed you to know. And then I see, I understand. There's been other times God has told me things about people, and He told me to go tell Him. There's been times I've had to write things down, put it somewhere, and.
Later, come back and go, Hey, send one of my kids to go get it. Or I've even posted things on Facebook. For the sole purpose of writing it down.
So that later on I could say Go look. And and and you know, I mean He gives you a spirit of wisdom and knowledge so that you can know him better, but so that, like Paul said, I might know him and make him known. God will speak to you, my friends. One of the things I love to teach besides walking in love is how to be led by the Spirit. Why?
Because walking in love and being led by the Spirit go hand in hand. And I'm a firm believer that anybody can learn how to walk in love and be led by the Spirit. You will succeed in every avenue of life. But I'm telling you, you have to yield every avenue of life to him. If you're a business owner, you have to yield the way you do business to his spirit.
If you work for people, you have to yield your work. to the spirit. You cannot just be a Christian during Christian hours. There is no open and closed sign. on the life of a Christian.
You either are or you aren't. Hmm. And the transformation of who you are to become is required. I want to see revival in your life. I want to see revival in your family.
I want to see revival in your neighborhood. I want to see revival in the country and in the world. But If you study history Every major revival started with a person, which led to a group, which led to so forth and so on.
Somebody's got to catch fire.
Somebody's got to go after the truth.
Somebody's got to get the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him, and in a manner that allows you to teach it to others. Because it doesn't do any good for you to have all of that and not be able to teach it to others. For free. No strings attached. I remember I was in college.
And I spent a summer Um I I was supposed to go Fuck. Anyway, I had a summer where I'd been laying asphalt during the summers. If I wasn't going overseas on a missions trip or doing my reserve time. I was working for a Company that built roads and laid asphalt. And uh My second summer I went to go back to do that job.
And after about a week, The business owner showed up. stoned out of his mind, probably drunk. It's sunrise. And he's out there cursing and yelling at people. I just walk away.
and I just go to do my job. And uh I came over to a sign. And I went to pick up the sign and stand it up. to let traffic knowing that work was ahead. And when I went to pick up the sign, There was another guy there by the name of Danny.
and another fellow, I don't remember his name, and they were both older than me. and I went to pick up the sign. And as I did the Spirit of God stopped me. When he stopped me, I knew I was done. My job was over.
God had already been moving on me. There were some things that I'd been thinking about, meditating on, I wanted to do. And I said, well, And and that morning I stood up. And I was kind of frustrated by how our boss had been acting that morning. And he wasn't the owner of the company, but he was the son of the owner.
And. When I stood up. I didn't pick up the sign. These other two men looked at me and and this realization crossed their face. And I said Take me to my car.
And they both said no. And and they knew I was done. They knew they could see it on my face. And one of them began to cry, he goes, You can't quit. You can't leave.
And I said no. I said, this doesn't have anything to do with that guy in his drunken stupor. I said ah This between me and God. I said, I need you to take me in my car. And they didn't want to take me to my car.
Um so I said I'll walk.
So I started walking miles back to my car. And the boss's son tried to pull, you know, they got on the radio and let him know, oh, John's quit, he's done. And the boss's son, who's stoned and all that, is trying to stop me. You know, then the boss comes up and he drives out there because it was like a 40-minute walk to my car. And I'm walking through the construction site back to my car.
The boss comes up, and the foreman comes up, and the boss is on a cell phone and trying to talk me into not quitting. And he's offering me more money. And this is the owner. He's offering me more money. He's doing all this stuff, everything he can.
I said, listen, this has nothing to do with your idiot son. And I didn't say that, but that's what I was thinking. I said, but this doesn't have anything to do with him. This just between me and God, I've got to do what I've got to do. I said, I'm sorry.
I apologize. And I finally got in my car and I drove away. And over the next week, they did everything they could to get me to come back to work.
Well, he just needs a day off. He just, but what I did. Is I went to the church that I received the Lord in. And in 1987, I went to that church. And I said, can I come pray?
Durn the days. And they said, sure.
So every day for the next eight weeks, I would go to that church, and they had a little vegetable. Did I say that right? A vest jewel, whatever it is. A little room off to the side of the sanctuary in the offices. And that was the room I'd gotten saved in.
They gave me my own first Bible. And I would go in there and I'd pray. Matter of fact, that Bible's in this room with me. I would go in and pray. And I didn't know how to pray.
I didn't know what to say. And I would go in and read. And I remember I was reading Acts, and I said, God, I want to live the life that Paul led. And uh And every day I'd go in there, and after several weeks, I was like, I don't want to even believe I'm born again anymore. And I would cry out to God.
And I wanted to know that I was saved. I wanted this spirit. I wanted to know it was more than just a feeling. It was more than just people saying, Yeah, you're born again. I needed to know it, I needed to know God.
And After eight weeks I had an encounter with God that has put me on a path the rest of my life. Many of the things that I saw that night have not come to pass. And I have scripture for them. I've always told God, I said, if you show me something, you better give me scripture for it. And it's not that I'm trying to tell God what to do, but you know, in this world, people are going to say, well, you know, they're going to challenge you and say, Do you have scripture?
Do you have proof? And I say, well, here it is in the Word. I can even tell you the whole thing of what I saw that night from the Word, and you would know that I was describing to you long before I learned the Word what I saw that night in the Spirit. But after that, things began to happen. And I tell people, the best way I know to explain it is it was an accidental miracles would happen.
I didn't mean for them. I didn't plan for them. I was not accepted in a pulpit. I was not one of these guys that people would say, oh, come preach for us. But I would go places and things would happen.
And it was just amazing. And people, and it came time to go back to school. And a About two weeks before school started, I went down there to have lunch with some people from my college group, and they said, Hey, we want to start a, you know, well, I was having lunch with them, and I said, We need to start. A ministry, we need to call it this and do this and this and this, and we need to do stuff on campus. I said, I know some dramas.
We could do these dramas and these skits and just let's start evangelizing people.
So obviously, not everyone's going to get saved, but let's begin to outreach.
Well, it wasn't long after that. Um that we started this group. And somebody, um managed to come in and take over. And This person Um, started taking credit for everything. They started, you know, they're the leader, and I personally didn't care, but at one point.
They got up and began to misquote scripture. And on the inside of me, I'm going, oh my gosh, I didn't understand that it was a leading of the Spirit. I knew that what they were doing was misleading. And then what happened is over time, under their leadership, we got away from doing what had originally been placed on my heart by God to doing all these other things that had nothing to do with what God had originally laid on our hearts. And.
So I didn't I didn't stay with it. But the amazing thing was that that night when God dealt with me during the summer. Things began to happen, and accidental miracles would begin to take place, and it was just a normal thing. And there were people. Who were not college students, who from that hometown said, um, We're going with you.
I said, where? They said, where are you going? I said, I'm going to college. I'm going back to school. I live here.
And they said, we're moving there. We want to be where you are. I was 20-something at the time, had no idea what was happening, and now people were wanting to follow me. To be around me. I'm like, going, I don't have a ministry.
I don't have this or that. I said, matter of fact, most people think I'm the black sheep. Why would you guys want to follow me? He said, because you've got the spirit. You have the spirit.
I said, but that's not why you should follow me. I, you know, that's, can we just say lack of teaching, lack of understanding? I had never really studied the word and never been taught the word. I'd always just gone to church after I got saved. And this is a few years after getting saved.
I'd gone to church, I'd learned some things from pastors, and I would read the Bible, but it wasn't coming to me. Like I wanted it. And so when my heart began to seek out after God and I wanted to know God and the spirit of have this spirit, as Ephesians talks about, of revelation and insight and knowledge into him, things began to happen. And you could say that I was beginning to have a revival that was spilling over into other people. And there's been a few times in my life where that's happened because not long after that, you know, I went to college, and man, there were guys, there were miracles and all sorts of things that happened.
And you just go, wow. And I couldn't explain them. And people would try to go, that didn't happen. And then other people go, but wait a second, we were witnesses. We saw it.
How can we not say? And it wasn't long after that that campus, our group grew from 60 to well over 1,400 people. I might be lucky if it was 60. But in the process of that happening, And I shouldn't be using the word um. There were things that happened.
There was one night. In October of that year, that I was standing in a room, and all of a sudden. Everybody disappeared, and all I saw were their spirit man. And I saw all the different little. Yeah.
sins in their life. And I began to cry, and I ran outside after the Spirit of God lifted out of the room. I ran outside and I leaned against the fence. And two people, one of whom had followed me there, two people came out. And when each of them put their hand on my shoulder, because I was leaning against the fence just praying and crying.
They immediately saw what I saw. And It ended up becoming an issue.
Some sin in leadership was revealed, and I didn't reveal it. These other two people did. And they tell the story that the minute they put their hands on me, bam. And Um It wasn't long after that that the leadership of that group changed. And it was the Spirit of God that brought it forth.
And I'm not going to go into detail of what it was, but Um a um afterwards things began to change and and and evangelism and all these different things. And about that time, God moved me away. And the next year they went from you know, they they just soared and and people started talking about revival on that campus and and so much so that that Pastor of that group got elevated to a big church and all these great things.
So You know, having the spirit of wisdom in revelation, as Paul prayed about, will bring about. Change. It'll bring about. things in people's lives. And in your own life.
That you never knew what happened. I used to be one of these people that was scared. of what God would actually ask me to do. if I got close to him. I was one of these people that was scared of what God would do to me.
If I shed all of my Hypocrisy. If I shed all of my masks, if I shed all of my outward appearances. What will God actually ask me to do? But I like. This I like this pet thing.
I like this. And as the years have gone on, I've come to realize that they're all just pet. personality traits and sins that I had to get rid of. But I was one of those people that was scared. of what would God actually do with me and to me.
But what I have found is that as I've given my life over to God in those seasons and I've lived yielded to him, because there are seasons, my friend, you still have to live in this world. You still have to be a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, an uncle, an aunt, whatever. And you still have children to raise. You still have a job to work. You still, you know, some of you preachers out there, you want to be the next big whatever, but 70% of preachers.
work jobs and own businesses.
So, you still have to be that light in that business place, and in that, you still have to mature and carry the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him in those places, the place of greatest ministry that you could ever have. Few of us will ever, ever become the next great whomever. And we've got to get over that desire. We've got to get over that and say, I just want revival, God. I don't care who gets credit.
I don't care who gets to do it. I mean, how easy would it have been for Jesus to just say, Ah, you know what? I just walked the Via Del Rosa. Could you imagine? Jesus walks to Via del Rosa, and all he's bloody, his knees, when his knees hit the ground, those that gravel, those stones digging into his beaten knees, and the cross on his back with the exposed bone.
And he's looking up, and through his bloodshot eyes, and the blood and the hair down his face, he sees people who the week before he had fed them that the miracles that had taken place, and now for a filthy lucre of a dollar, they're standing there cursing him and mocking him and spitting on him. And then he looks at them and they know, they know who he is. And what do they do? How do they react? And here's Jesus walking to Via del Rosa, enduring what he never had to endure.
except by his choice. And what if Jesus just all of a sudden he gets all the way up to Gilgotha and they strip him down and he's standing there and he looks around at these men. And as he looks around, his skin begins to heal. The flesh begins to come back on his bones and his clothes come back on him and he's no longer just as beaten, shriveled up, nasty, as Ephesians says or Isaiah said, unrecognizable form of a man. But now he turns into this beautiful, glorious Jesus with the sword and the fire.
And he looks and goes, Listen, this isn't going to happen. I've changed my mind. And he just goes out and begins to minister and teach and he did all these things. But salvation would never obviously salvation. But he could have done that.
He could have had that choice. What do you think the devil was offering him after the 40 days? But no, he could have taken all that and used it for himself. He could still be walking this earth right now if he wanted to. But even in all of that, with the population of the world as it is, for everybody to go to Jesus in his limited form of a body.
And for every one of us to go to him and be ministered by him would take thousands of years of waiting in line just to get a minute with Jesus. He could have done it. But instead Instead he allowed them. He saw the hammer laying there. He knew what he saw the nails.
And he let them do it. He let them do it. His body's already broken and all of this. And he puts his wrists out there. I'm sure they didn't struggle.
He laid there like a lamb led the slaughter. He knew He hung on that cross and said, Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. And then he walked into heaven.
Well actually he went to hell first, preached the gospel to those who were held in Abraham's bosom. Then the Hebrews says, and he ascended. And what does it mean? He ascended if he didn't also descend it. He goes to heaven.
And he says, Father, I've done as you've asked. And there's this story, the speculative story, where an angel or Peter says to Jesus, Well, who did you leave it all to? He goes, To those 12. Those twelve who, a few days later, He walks into a room, the upper room, and instead of them out preaching the gospel, instead of them out doing everything he taught them, they're cowering in fear in this upper room. And he didn't walk in and rebuke them and go, You idiots, why aren't you doing what I taught you to do?
Why aren't you? No, he walks in and he goes, Peace be with you. Think of the fear and the darkness and the trembling that was in that room. They were in their own personal hell up in that upper room, hiding together. And Jesus walks through the wall.
He doesn't rebuke them. He doesn't say, pull out your notebooks, let's go back and start teaching them. No He walks in, and with a couple words, he restores them and puts them back in their place, and he says. Peace be with you. He didn't rebuke them.
He didn't counsel them for hours. He said, Peace be with you. He gave it to twelve fallible men. He didn't do it. With a whip and a.
And and a rebuke. Oh, yes, there's times for that. There are times for that. But he he wasn't rebuking his children. when he was turning over the money changer's table.
I don't know who this is for out there. But I would caution you that if you're one of these people that loves to argue and rebuke with. your brothers brethren. Let me remind you that long before Jesus ever sat down to braid that whip, Oh, it was premeditated. He knew what he was going to do long before he finished braiding that whip.
But long before he ever braided that whip, Jesus mastered something else that many of us never have mastered. He mastered Walking in love. He mastered how to be led by the Spirit. It is. We as humans Recognize False authority.
We recognize Fake. Most of us do.
Sometimes it's just something on the inside that doesn't sit right.
Sometimes, if you're mature, you understand what it is.
Some of us just say, well We spit the hay s you know, spit the stubble out with the hay. Yeah. We recognize falsehood. And you might be able to get people to follow you for a while. Wait, did that?
Yeah. They won't stay. You you'll be a flash in the pan. You where you are. Maybe you're listening to this and you're wondering, how do I know?
How do I know that? I would tell you that you need to endeavor to walk in the Spirit. of love. And learn how to be led by the Spirit. And one thing is that the Spirit of love will the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of love, will never teach you something or tell you something apart from truth and love.
There may may be days That you have to rebuke people, that you have to correct people, that you have to, but it's not every day. I can tell you, in my life, God has put people in my path. that I had to Correct. And I'm very cautious using that phrase. Please understand, I am not promoting.
judgment of of people Because I am first and foremost I love man. But I had to. God put a man in my life. And for months. I ministered to him.
I loved him. I did everything I could. I knew I knew how he was. I knew he was wrong. But I knew that God loved him.
And He was a challenge. He would challenge me. All the time, so much so. That I would get done after four, five, six hours. of ministering one-on-one.
I would be exhausted. I would be almost exasperated. And It even got to the point where I felt like all I was doing was praying and feeding just to minister to him. And really, what I was doing was interceding for him. And it got to the point that I had to go separate ways because he attempted to manipulate.
He he really what was happening is over that whole time, he was learning, but he was getting to learn, you could say, my programming, so that he could manipulate me. And that's often what deceivers will do: they will get close and let a long period of time go. They're learning you, they're learning your lingo, they're learning what makes you tick. And he would so often get frustrated with me because the Spirit of God would warn me, and I'd sidestep some. Dumb stuff that he would do.
And people around me go, How did you do that? I go, I don't know. That was just the Holy Ghost. Thank God. And you know, there was even an occasion where he was out spreading rumors.
And because when he was around me, he acted one way. When he was around others, he acted another. And I knew that. But And this is all in a foreign country. And I got called to actually what happened is I was somewhere in in an elder Of mine saw me, said, Brother John, have you da-da-da-da-da, said this, said that?
I said, No, why would I ever say that? Don't even sound like me. And uh, he said, 'Oh, I know that's that's why I asked you.' And he said, 'Come with me.' I said, 'Okay.' And I was out running errands and had no idea what was happening. And I show up. With my friend at a house.
And uh, Yeah. I'm at this house and there's men gathering. and they're putting chairs out on a front porch and uh and They had me sit down and Everyone's being cordial, nice, but the hair on your neck begins to stand up. You know something's up. And They begin to talk.
about all these rumors and lies. And it was probably thirty minutes into it when I realized that they had thought that it was me. that they were being told that I was the one saying these things. And Oh, I hadn't said a word. I'm just listening.
And I was like, I'm not supposed to be in this meeting.
So I just kept my mouth shut. And halfway through, I'd say about 45 minutes into this. This guy that I'd been Ministering to and allowing around, and this man. Was so deceptive that other pastors would come to me and say, Brother John, why do you let that man into your church? I said, oh.
So, what you're saying is, you want him in yours.
Okay, brother, I'll let him know that he's. And they go, no, no, no, no. We don't want that man in our church. I said, then why are you criticizing me for letting them in mine? If you don't want him in your church, does not God have a right to minister to that man?
Does not God that man have a right to correct teaching? They say, Yeah. I said, Then pray for me. Pray that I would have wisdom and revelation on how to handle him for the sake of his soul. Yeah.
And so now going back to this porch meeting. This man shows up. And as he drives up. These these elders all look over and they go, Well, I know who started the rumors. And they all kind of go, you're right.
And somebody actually says, well, I always thought that that never sounded like something Brother John would say. And that's really when I knew for sure I was the one that was on the hot seat.
So then this man comes up and he's shaking hands, being nice, smiling. You know, they're always so nice and cordial, and he sits down. And he goes, so what's going on, man? All of a sudden they said, oh, we're just having a meeting. And just talking about some stuff.
Of course, nobody ever told him what it was about. Everybody there knew that it was over. Everybody there knew that it was who it was. And We all hung out there on that porch for probably another forty five minutes to an hour. And As each man left, I got a handshake and a hug, and a couple of people said a few things to me, and they let me know.
They said, Isn't it interesting that God would have you show up today? You know, and so many different things. And I just laugh. I go, you know, my testimony. and the way that I live and I walk, people know I would never say that.
Okay. I had something just recently where somebody walked into a business partner Mm. That I do business with, one of the people that works for me walked in and said some very rude. and basically cussed out an employee inside that business.
So much so that this young lady began to cry. She began to just, I mean, and so I show up at the business a few hours later, and they're still all upset. Over what Yeah. this employee had done. And I was like, what's happening?
Well, so-and-so, da-da-da-da. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And I was just like, and I start apologizing, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I said that. And of course, as soon as I get out of there, I'm sending messages to this guy.
And I'm like, dude, that was totally unprofessional. That's not the way we do business. That's not. And I mean, you just aren't supposed to be cruel and crush people.
Well, that was weeks ago. the other day and I mean I laid it hard on this guy. And The other day, he's at the table. He goes, Well, I went back to that business and set up my own account, and I made sure she got credit. And I told the manager, said, Well, I was just doing what I was told.
Yeah. Of course, here I am seating at the table with this guy who Has absolutely no, has not accepted any that I can tell transformation in his life. And He's sitting there telling me that he told the bank, the manager, that. Hey. I was just doing what I was told to do.
And three times he said this to me.
Well, the manager said, Well, you're just doing what you were ordered to do. That did not sit well with me. I was upset. I'm going ugh. As it just so happens, yesterday, the day before this episode is recorded, I went into that business.
Now, a week ago, I went into the sister business of the town that I live in, and I talked to the manager there who does most of my dealings, and I said, and I told him about it. I said, would you please call that manager down there and let him know that? And he goes, John, we absolutely will. We know. He goes, it's probably not as big of a deal as you made it.
I said, yeah, but that girl's heart didn't deserve that. And I don't want people out there that work for me lying to people and making it sound like that's how our company does business. I said, that's not what we're about. And he goes, John, we all know that. And I said, well, I said, I would appreciate if you let him know that.
And then yesterday I went into that brand, that business. And uh The manager was there. And I went right to that young lady. I did all my business with her. And then I turned around, and the manager there were talking.
And I said, Can I say something? He goes, sure. And I told him, I said, listen, I said, I know so-and-so came in here. I said, he said to you. He goes, yeah, he did.
I said, Listen, I never ever told him that. I don't know why. He even did that why he's blaming me for telling coming in to say that. To trash that girl. I said, that is not the way I do business.
And I've dealt with him and told him that that was completely unprofessional. All this guy was doing is after he realized he hurt her, and I chewed him out for it, he was trying to cover his own rear end by blaming me. And that manager look at me goes, John. He goes, I know what kind of man you are and I appreciate it. You know When people know what kind of a person you are, because you've begun to transform, you've begun to say, I want to live this transformed life, I want to live this life of love.
When other people try to throw dirt on you, it doesn't stick. It doesn't stick. But at the same time, we can't treat people with just this judgment and this rebuke as if they're all trash. I will go to great lengths to try to restore people, to try to bring people into this love walk, into this transformation, into the spirit of knowing God, the spirit of revelation and knowledge of Him. I will go to great lengths.
It will do me no good to hang on a cross. It does me no good to carry the cross on the Via del Rosa. It does me no good to be a martyr. But every day I do pick up my cross and I carry it to great lengths. For the sake of reaching one person.
And I deal with each and every person as an individual. And this person did that. I will go to great. Matter of fact, I can tell you, I've already invested two years. over two years now into this man's life.
Hmm. And I've prayed. I said, God, what do I do? And I've never been released. to let him go.
I'm hard on him. I'm as hard as I can be. And maybe many of you, you listen to this, go, oh, you're a sweet fella, John. No, I am not always a sweet fella. I am the nicest guy on the planet.
You can do a lot to me. and I am long suffering. I will seldom let on that you've hurt my feelings, that I have a problem. And I can tell you that many of my clients, many people will come to me and go, you reacted completely different than I expected you to. Like That's because I have a completely different spirit.
It's called the spirit of love, it's called the spirit of wisdom and knowledge and revelation of who he is. And I will not do things the way the world does things. Father, help me. Teach me, protect me, help me honor those words, Lord. I've been rebuked.
I've been. Treated with cruelty I've been treated so much so that our we lost everything. I've been lied about, cheated, stolen from. I can sit here today and tell you that I can show you. on paper that we've had millions stolen from us.
I will not let it bother me. I will not. Hold a grudge. I will forgive. Why?
Because when I forgive, I'm forgiving a prisoner, and that prisoner is me. When you forgive people for things they've done, the one you're setting free is not them, you're setting yourself free. Holding a grudge against things people have done to you is you making a poison and drinking it. thinking that they're going to be the ones who die. Vengeance is God's.
He will restore. He will bring back. He will take care of those people. If He puts somebody in your life like those individuals, He's put them there for a reason. Ask Him what it is.
I'll fend it. We got off track on this episode, but I believe we're helping somebody. But. There was a situation, a Bible study. That I had organized.
I had put together Okay. And I went out to do some ministry, and when I came back, it had been hijacked by another individual, and two other men showed up. and started a Teaching The law. And they wanted everybody basically to live according to the $630,000. 618, or there's arguable about how many there are.
The 600-plus rules that are listed in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and all of that. And People were frustrated and and They would every Bible study. Attack me. in front of everybody. they would verbally attack me.
so much so that when one of my pastor friends came to visit, He said, and this was week six, he would say. Why don't you Take them down with the word. You know the word better than they do. See? Can't do it.
Because when it, the first time it happened, I kept my mouth shut. I said, Lord, what's going on? I went home and prayed. And what's going on? And the Lord just kind of ministered to me: keep my mouth shut, endure it.
Don't say a word. Don't defend yourself.
So that's what I did because I didn't know exactly what was going on. But every week, these two men for eight weeks would attack me. Ridiculed me. And most of the people there, I didn't really realize it, but were looking to me for leadership. And there was starting to be some murmuring.
People wondering why I was keeping my mouth shut. Why was I not defending myself? Why was I not defending them? And We would do the Bible study that I didn't lead anymore. This other person would lead, and good man.
And then towards the end of the Bible study, these men would begin to start their attack. And they'd take over, and it was just kind of getting to the point where some people were beginning to wonder if they wanted to keep coming. And then my friend came from the United States and and The seventh week, he's like, oh, John, why don't you? And even my son, and you've probably heard this story before, my son got in the car that night and said, Dad, you know the Bible better than him. Why don't you do something?
I said, Son, the Spirit of God has told me not to. He said, Why does God allow things like that to happen? And he was 14 at the time. And I was like. And I said, God.
I need help. You know, I would have a rock I carry in my pocket oftentimes rocks, and I call them love rocks. And I would sit there in these services and rub these love rocks. And I said, God, I need help.
Well, the next week on Monday morning, I went to prayer up on the roof, and I was up on the roof praying and studying the word. And I got five things. None of them made sense. And I even told my wife and my friend, pastor friend over coffee, I said, this morning prayer, I got these five things. And if I didn't know better, I'd say I ate pizza last night because they don't make sense.
Well, that night we go to the Bible study, and I'm starting to speed the story up because we're getting to the end of the show. And. We get there. Bible study goes on, and then towards the end, these men just start. doing their thing, attacking me.
And They said one of the things that had come up in prayer, so I answered it. Then the second thing came up. I answered it. Then the third thing was a question that I asked them. They answered it.
By now, my wife and my friend are looking at me like, oh boy. And I was getting excited because we're going. And then the fourth thing, I asked a question. Then the fifth thing, I asked a question. When I did, it exposed the deception, it exposed everything.
And when they answered the question, Their jaws hit the ground. Everybody's faces in there lit up. Eyes wide open, everybody they had been trapped by the Holy Spirit, and the deception was revealed. And the older man that was deceiving the younger man went, uh oh, I mean, he verbally said out loud, uh-oh. And the younger man looked at him, looked at me, and realized that he'd been duped by this older man all this time.
And then over the next few weeks, months, he began to study the word. He separated himself from that deceiving wolf. That deceiving wolf got run out of that country. And now that young man and his family are serving God, studying the word. They're loving people, and restoration came.
Why? Because instead of choosing to defend myself. Instead of choosing to be a man of rebuke and control and correction, I chose to walk in love and be led by the Spirit. And over eight weeks, I had to walk that personal Via del Rosa, even though people around me were going, I can't believe you're letting them do that. And the conversation was, why are you letting them do it?
Everybody knew I could take him down with the amount of word that I knew, but I wanted to obey the Holy Spirit. And the night after all that happened, I was nervous. I was not, this is not something John does all the time.
So I got up and I go into the kitchen inside the house and I'm standing in there. I'm shaking. I said, God, please, I hope I did the right thing. And then this Mennonite woman comes in, and she's as tall and big as me. And she comes in and she's got her finger up, and she runs that finger under my nose and does a 360 and stops with her finger up and looks at me and goes, I've been waiting eight weeks for you to do that.
And then one of my friends, his wife, comes in and she walks right past us to the coffee machine. And when the lady walks out, My friend Sonia says, she's making coffee, she goes, Brother John. Would you like a cup of coffee? With this smile on her face, I said, Yes, Sonia, I would. And I was crying.
She said, Isn't God good? Yeah. Now, the next day, I got phone calls about how I treated that guy, how that was wrong, and I said, ah. But over the next few weeks, as that man separated himself from that wolf and he began to grow, he began to become what God wanted him to be, freedom came and he began to live the life of. Spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him.
Sometimes to walk in love, you have to bite your tongue.
Sometimes to walk in love, you have to tell the truth hard. Because walking in love does not make you a doormat, but walking in love doesn't. Give you permission. to trash and treat people cruelly. Listen, my friends, we love you.
We're getting to the end of the show, and we're still in Ephesians chapter 1, verse. 18. That the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know the hope of his calling, and what is the richest glories of inheritance in the saints. Wow, we kind of preach some of that. But we'll pick that up on the next episode, that you may know the hope of his calling and the riches, the riches, not just money, but in the experiences I've shared with you, that you may know the riches.
Why? Because Jesus loves you, Jesus loves people, and remember, 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
