TO CHRISTIAN WORKERS TOILING IN QUIETNESS AND WONDERING

Many wonderful people toil in this world to do the work of the Lord, to fulfill what they understand is their calling.

For some the results are immediately apparent, such as giving relief aid to starving people, helping build houses for the poor, that kind of thing.

For many others the results are not as obvious – such as for those striving to help others understand who Jesus is, what he did, who they are and can be in him.  Remember, Jesus said some sow and others reap.  The sowers who are aggressively out there may operate in a personally lonely world.  Telling the truth, even the wonderful God’s truth, is not something a lot of people want to or can receive easily.  The evil one has done a great deal of work creating interference, noise, confusion.

Once I wrote a poem to Emily Dickinson.  She is one of the two or three that might be considered America’s greatest poet.  Now I have no evidence she strived in ministry anytime, but she wrote countless poems that are quickly read and go right to the heart of life and life’s great issues.  Her poems are just plain wonderful.

Yet in her life she did not know that she was so regarded.  Maybe one or two of her poems were published in a local paper.  She just lived a lonely, quiet life, not married.  At one point she wrote a poignant poem that began with this line:

     This is my letter to the world,
     That never wrote to me,-     

There is more, but that makes the point about her life.  So one day I decided to answer her letter to the world with this poem:

A Reply to Emily Dickinson   (poem copyright © 2004 by John Newlin)
     We received your letter to the world
     That never wrote to you;
     We read it twice, thousands of times,
     Your words and heart come through.
   
     Our physical hands are the ones
     That you just could not see;
     With admiration from afar,
     We judge you tenderly.

She would have liked that poem.  It is in her style.

But my point to all of you in sharing this is that you do not know your impact on others.  You have no idea how you are impacting them or how you are being used by God.

Just one closing example.  For years we were on television from New England all the way to Florida.  One a day a young man from the Boston area called.  He requested a few CDs.  I offered but he did not want to be added to the distribution list.  We talked just a few moments.  Suddenly he blurted out ”Your programs are wonderful!  Saved my life.”  And with that he was gone.  I lived a long time on that phone call.

God knows who you are, what you are doing, what you need.  Sometimes when you feel most alone, he just steps in.  And then sometimes maybe when you are so alone, you wish he would step in!  Just remember, we don’t see the big picture.  We can’t.  If you are doing what you think you are supposed to be doing, what God has called you to do, that is it.  You are fulfilling your call.  And maybe this message from me is God’s message to you.

                                                                                        February 2020
                                                                                        Copyright © 2020 by John Newlin


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[This article should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the copyright and the ministry contact information).  It may also be quoted in part as long as appropriate attributions are given.  We in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]
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NOTE:
It goes without saying that we are living in the last days before the return of the Lord.  It goes without saying that most people on earth, including a great many who attend churches on Sunday, don’t know at all about this.  They just aren’t aware.  For your family and friends and really anyone you care about, please get copies of our book WAKE UP AMERICA! now!  Give copies to those you care for.  Most people will accept a gift of a book, even if they are difficult for you to speak to about such important matters. 
Order from our ministry by clicking here: JNMI
Order from Amazon by clicking here:  AMAZON
Or directly contact our ministry by calling 910 395 1465. 
And if you are ordering ten or more copies all to be sent directly to you, contact our office for a greatly reduced price!


All contributions to John Newlin Ministries, Inc. – whether money or material goods or stocks or bonds – are tax deductible.  John Newlin Ministries, Inc. is a 501 © 3 nonprofit corporation.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON JESUS!

JOHN NEWLIN MINISTRIES
P O BOX 1038
CARY, NC 27518

https://johnnewlinministries.org
email: john@johnnewlinministries.org
Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin
Blog: johnnewlin.blogspot.com
tel 910 395 1465

* THE COSMIC BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL IN OUR TIME

The cosmic battle between good and evil has reached epic proportions in our day.  What we see being played out in our world, in our nation and throughout the planet, is but the local physical manifestation of a gigantic struggle in the spiritual realm.

Good.  And evil.

Our battle, the battle of those in the good camp, is not really against flesh and blood but against all those various hierarchies in the spiritual realm who are in the evil camp.  In Pauls’ words in Ephesians 6:12… we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  These are all ranks and positions in the evil spiritual world.  But of course the physical manifestation of that battle is most assuredly physical as well.

Good.   What is good?  For our purposes, for our understanding, it is all those who ascribe to the values and standards and commandments of God himself.  That is the good side.  Evil therefore is obviously all those who do not, knowingly or not.

Suddenly, shockingly in our day, we are now confronting a large number, a great number we had not heretofore recognized as so obviously in the evil camp.  For earlier decades in the lives of people living today, evil was apparent in violent crimes, in the behavior of a certain few national governments that were so antagonistic to a peaceful world, and on a more personal basis in the more private inner struggle of individuals not to sin, not to give in to impulses that obviously are wrong.

But we had not yet recognized the mammoth scope of evil on earth.  Now that is apparent.

The evil side has always been led by a cunning being who is sophisticated in his presentation.  He uses deception above all else in his leadership, and appears himself at times as an angel of light.  He leads people astray, people who do not know the truth, who do not have the rock solid foundation of God deep in their hearts and souls.  He is a murderer and has been from the beginning.

Yes, we are frightened and troubled by the highly violent without limit terrorist organizations in the world.  That is readily apparent evil.

But what I focus on here is the giant evil movement that has now become public in America and in other lands.  It has captured a mass of the population.  Half?  Who knows?  Maybe.

Of all the scriptures that fit our time, the one in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the god of this world [the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers is the most accurate and to the point.

In past years we could conveniently ignore that many around us - including many who go to traditional Sunday church services - really did not know the Bible and did not know Jesus, did not know God.  We as a nation went forward under some general understandings of a set of civil values that enabled at least on the surface a somewhat harmonious discourse and relationship among the people.

That was always a false bubble of course, but the nation continued on in it.

Now, in these last days, the bubble is gone.  We see that thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people are so apparently deluded.  Their minds do not work as ours.  They do not see the truths in situations that we believers see.  They take stands and espouse positions that to us are insane at the core and dangerous to the very existence of our society and nation.

Yes, that is what is going on and has happened dear believers.  The devil has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.  And there were always and are now a lot more unbelievers around than you had thought.  They make up the majority of the nation and world.

These massive groups of people – political groups, social groups, groups of young people, most of the media, most of the entertainment world, large numbers of the religious world – that are so irrationally vocal and virulent, that is the evil side.  They cannot see the truth because they don’t know nor recognize the truth.  They don’t know because they truly don’t know.

Right to our face, right from the TV screen or the Internet or the newspaper or in public meetings or on university campuses they say and shout things we know are a hundred percent wrong and dangerous and harmful, evenly blindly stupid.  Yet they cannot see.

These are the physical manifestation of the efforts of the evil one to move to that one-world government for which he has labored for so long.  In past centuries he has at times gotten far in building this only to be turned back – in the days of Rome, in nazi Germany in the last century, in the communist Soviet Union under Stalin, in isolated pockets such as Cambodia in the last century, in parts of the arab muslim terrorist world.  But now with all the benefits of modern electronics and communications he has reached much further – in Europe, in America, and elsewhere.  He is oh so close, and he knows that.  The serious powerful human leaders of this movement that rarely if ever are public have been pulling strings and developing organizations for this purpose for centuries.  They and their leader can taste the prize.  It is close.

But suddenly in just the last couple years there was pushback, maybe a final pushback, from the remnant of God’s people and their impact on those still not overcome by the evil one.  In Britain, then the US, and perhaps elsewhere, pushback.  An effort to stop the tide to this controlling worldwide bureaucratic, evil government.  And that effort has infuriated and enraged the evil one and all those millions in his camp.  It has pushed them over the edge.  No longer are they concerned with maintaining the charade of civility and harmony.  No longer do they want to appear as part of a larger peaceful society.  No.  It is full steam ahead no matter what.  Destroy any effort to the contrary, and any people in the way.  They appear insane in their views and words and actions.  They are, evil and apparently insane under the influence of the evil one.  They are lost.

And that is happening and it is going on.  It is terrifying and it is in front of our faces and it is rolling.

This last great push of the evil side and its leader will result in some form of one-world government, whether it ever really gets completely to that point or not.  It will result in the maniacal leadership of the anti-christ and his false prophet.  And they and it will be destroyed in short order.

One day the anti-christ will be revealed, the Lord will collect his believers, the seven year Tribulation will occur with God’s judgement on the world playing out and ending in the final battle at Armageddon, the establishment of Kingdom rule from Jerusalem, and the move into another era.

And what is our role?  To clearly recognize the times we are living in.  To utilize the gifts God has given us to discern the truth in every situation.  To keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, on Jesus.  To represent the Lord and tell others about the Lord every opportunity as the Holy Spirit guides.  To watch, to be alert.  And to realize that the days of this current world and American society are numbered and dwindling rapidly, like sand through an hourglass.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                            (May 2017)

                                                                                                            Copyright © 2017 by John Newlin

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the copyright and the ministry contact information).  It may also be quoted in part as long as appropriate attributions are given.  We in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

                                                                                                                                                                               

P. O. Box 15797, Wilmington, NC 28408       910 395 1465        

www.johnnewlinministries.org          

Email: info@johnnewlinministries.org       Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin       

 Blog:  johnnewlin.blogspot.com

* WHAT IS A BELIEVER IN JESUS CHRIST TO DO TODAY?

For many years now we have sent out through various channels lots of information and revelations about Jesus’ imminent return

Why?

Because the Lord has specifically told me to tell people about his return. 

Because the Lord really is coming very very soon to collect his sheep, his true believers, his CHURCH.

What does it matter that we send all this out, beyond of course that we are fulfilling God’s assignment that the return message is my message right now? 

It matters that this is the time that the Lord is returning.  It matters that most people do not know the Lord and most certainly are not ready to go with him.

(We still of course heal people as they ask and teach on all the gospel subjects, all very important, but that is not the primary focus.  Jesus has made it patently clear to me that our ministry focus now is his return.  Think about it.  What does it matter if a person is physically healed but doesn’t get into the Kingdom?  That person is still lost and set up for a horrible eternal existence.)

One hope – if all this we send out indeed reaches people who are not true believers or perhaps are just on the fringe of belief – is that all the shocking evidence that the return is upon us will press them to seek the Lord themselves, to seek more truth in whatever sources are available to them.  God can use this to wake them up to where we are in time and that they are in a precarious position.

The other hope, perhaps even the major impact, is that these writings will encourage believers and equip them to get out there to reach more with the gospel truths of Jesus and his imminent return.

The challenge for all believers today is to do all they can to reach those who do not know the Lord and thus will miss him when he comes to collect his sheep.

There is little time left.  The events of our day and recent years make that patently clear.  If you are one of Jesus’ true believers, you are a member of a royal priesthood.  Christ’s priests and missionaries are not just for taking the good news to distant lands; they are also for taking that news right here to those around us.  Where you live is a huge mission field.  Most you encounter in daily life probably do not know the Lord and will not be going with him unless things change in their lives.  I’m talking about some of your neighbors, your friends, your family, your relatives, your co-workers, many of those you know and encounter.

Now I realize how hard it is to know how to reach others for Christ, to get to those who are so difficult to engage with, to listen and consider.  And it is not fun to have people rebuff you when you are talking about the most wonderful thing in your life.

Since Jesus is returning soon, it should be obvious that when he picks that small group of true believers in him and takes them with him, the rest of humanity will remain to suffer the wrath of God spelled out in Revelation and the atrocious behavior of the evil one, the anti-christ, and the false prophet.  So if you care at all for other people, at least those in your network of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, you should seek how best to get the truths of the gospel message to them.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to orchestrate encounters, to soften hearts to receive, to arrange whatever he would.  It may not be easy for you to engage in head to head evangelism, but the Holy Spirit can set up situations that work even for you.  Don’t force things.  Let the Holy Spirit be your guide.

Aside from meeting other people in a head to head discussion, you can do such as some of our ministry partners do.  One sends our CDs on Jesus’ return (Prophecies Fulfilled, The Importance of Israel, What Happens Next?, and Where Are They?) plus our other CDs about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit to those she knows throughout the country.  Another prints out copies of our newsletter and gives them to neighbors.  Another forwards them by email to a large number and tells them how to be added to our distribution list.  Another in a national ministry actually sent one recently throughout the country to her network.  And another at times includes our newsletter in his publication. 

I myself when dealing with people far away often direct them to watch our television programs that are on our web site.  You can do the same.  People then can watch these in their own homes in private and think and pray about it all. We have many there on the return and other subjects.  People around the world have had their lives impacted by those television programs.  How do I know?  By the telephone calls and emails and other communications they have sent.  You can also tell people to go to our blog, search for the “return,” and read many of our writings on this subject (our newsletter archives on the web site are another good source).  I hope you realize that God reaches people in many ways – through one-on-one people interactions, through newsletters and books, through videos and such, and even through direct encounters of the person with God. 

I know it is hard to reach those who do not know the Lord or who just attend church and think they know when you clearly see they do not.  And the truth is that no one can come to Jesus unless God draws that person to Jesus.  The Lord himself said this.  Still, the Lord does work through people.  And that is us, you and me.  The Holy Spirit is your guide and friend in all this.  And if someone does not respond positively, just do what the Lord did when on earth.  Go on to the next person.  Maybe what you have done will have impact in the future.  Or maybe not.  You can always continue to pray for the person to receive the Lord.  You want to help as many of your friends, family, and contacts as possible to at least have a chance to do so.

One final thought.  For those who might be left behind when the Lord collects his believers, you might leave behind in obvious places in your house or elsewhere CDs and writings and such that will help them in their upcoming difficult days and perhaps help in God leading them to Christ even then.  We have for a long time had a copy of our CD Where Are They? in a very visible place in our house.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                               (April 2017)

                                                                         Copyright © 2017 by John Newlin

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the copyright and the ministry contact information).  It may also be quoted in part as long as appropriate attributions are given.  We in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

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PS - Thanks again to all who support John Newlin Ministries with your prayers and contributions and efforts.  This is the primary way we receive support, through people like you.  If you have not contributed, please consider joining all those partners who make this ministry possible and contribute what you determine in your heart to give. If possible, even become a regular monthly contributor.  Giving to where you receive is even scriptural, for the Bible says:  “…one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor” (Galatians 6:6).

[All contributions to John Newlin Ministries, Inc. – whether money or material goods or stocks or bonds – are tax deductible. John Newlin Ministries, Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation.]

JOHN NEWLIN MINISTRIES
P O BOX 15797
WILMINGTON, NC 28408

www.johnnewlinministries.org
email: john@johnnewlinministries.org
Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin
Blog: johnnewlin.blogspot.com
tel 910 395 1465

* STANDING IN YOUR FAITH

What a wretched time we live in.  And what a wonderful exciting time we live in.

Yes, all at the same time.  We are living in the last of the last days, in the time leading up to and the actual return of the Lord.

We are getting to see the fulfillment of all the Biblical prophecies of things to happen before and right up to that return.  Much of that is not pleasant and some of that is quite dangerous, as we have already seen. 

Even now we live in the midst of behavior by many that is outrageous and horrifying to any true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is startling and difficult for true born-again, Spirit-filled believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to even comprehend how and what many people think today - their opinions and decisions seem so confused and lost.  The national and local media seems full of such people, and especially the entertainment world and much of the sports word.  And of course much of the political world.  Even the universities seem laden with many lost students and professors and administrators who don’t know and obviously cannot see the truth of the Lord.  They have even given up on free speech and freedom of ideas, the very cornerstone of the academic world.

The wheat and the tares are growing together.  Frightening and evil things and possibilities are everywhere.  And yes there are reported awakenings to the Lord occurring in several countries throughout the world.  Certainly not in the United States, at least not in any visibly big way!   As has been the custom in recent years, those most lost in society and with the loudest voices dominate the airwaves and the public discourse.  And thus the concern and anguish of the true believers in our modern society.

Well, maybe actually it is time for a kick in the backside to those true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  So many of these just remain silent in their anguish, they don’t seem to want to speak out, to stand up.

I remind all of us of these extraordinary and challenging words from the Lord:

 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” – Mt 10:32-33 NIV

“If you do not stand in your faith, you will not stand at all. -Isaiah 7:9b NIV.

An editorial posted under Fox News Opinion on March 12 deals with the subject of why are Christians such wimps.  I recommend you read it.   The writer makes the point that some Christians “have confused Christ’s command to love others with being likable, as if that were an attribute of God. (It isn’t.)”  Being likeable is not the point of God’s love.  Sometimes standing up for Christ might make a person appear bold and strong and firm in the eyes of unbelievers.  How do you think David looked to the Philistines?  Or Moses or Joshua in the eyes of the groups they opposed?

If ever there was a time for believers in the Lord to stand firm in their faith it is now.  Remember, when Paul writes of putting on God’s armor to protect yourself, he concludes by telling you to stand.  Stand!  Stand!  Don’t retreat.  Be firm and bold in your faith. 

And remember what Peter said in Acts 4:29 when he prayed for himself and all Jesus’ followers around him in Jerusalem who lived in the midst of those who were a threat to them all: “Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness (NIV).”

Now at the same time I am encouraging you to be bold in your faith, to stand and not retreat, to speak up for Jesus whenever the opportunity presents itself, I also am not encouraging you to be stupid.  You certainly must be guided by the Holy Spirit as to when and where and how to speak up, as to whether a certain moment is the right time to address someone about their faith or perhaps publicly oppose some government or newspaper or even false religious leader.  And you must always remember that the god of this world (the devil) has blinded the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4).  So unless God is opening the minds and hearts of the person or persons you are speaking to about Jesus, you likely may not get a friendly or positive response.  Jesus himself said in John 6 that no one can come to him unless the Father draws the person to him.  Still, how are people ever to hear the truth unless someone who knows that truth presents it to them?

The Lord Jesus Christ is returning very very soon.  I know that.  It is not debatable.  I trust if you have read our writings in the past, heard our CDs or watched our programs or videos and more, you know that. You should know that just by reading the applicable books of the Bible, such as Luke 21, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 17, and many more.  The evidence is right there before your face and in the daily occurrences of our lives.

When he comes is he going to find faith on earth?  Is he going to find faith in you?  Is he going to find you out there standing up for him, representing him in a lost, confused, dark world?

Well, you have to answer all that.  And you have to seek his face to understand ever more what he expects of you at this time.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                  (March 2017)

                                                                                             Copyright © 2017 by John Newlin

                                                                                                                                        

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the copyright and the ministry contact information).  It may also be quoted in part as long as appropriate attributions are given.  We in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

P O Box 15797, Wilmington, NC 28408       910 395 1465      

www.johnnewlinministries.org

           Email: info@johnnewlinministries.org       Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin    

                                        Blog:  johnnewlinblogspot.com

* A STORM WARNING AND CALL TO ACTION

It is time for believers to take action against this storm Matthew that is currently in the Caribbean.  According to the weather experts, many population areas are in the potential path of this storm.

But of course we know the Lord.  We know what he can do.  And we know what we can do in him.

In John 14:12-14 Jesus said these words:

¹² … whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (NIV)

What did Jesus do?  Healed the sick, cast out demons, fed thousands of people from just initially a tiny amount of food, and CHANGED THE WEATHER (see Mark 4:35-41 and Matthew 8:23-27)!  And much more of course.

In past times of dangerous storms we have called upon those on our distribution list and especially those in the possible path of the storm to go out on their decks and porches or just the land itself and face in the direction of the storm and in Jesus name order the storm to dissipate, to go away, to turn away, to weaken.  Order the winds to be no greater than 20 miles an hour.  Order it to go out to sea.  All those things.  All in Jesus name.  Speak to the storm just as Jesus did.

You can do those things.  We can, in Jesus’ name.  We have, for years.  I’ve sent messages like this one out several times in the past and you and we have taken action and God has honored that!

Some years ago a powerful storm came directly toward where we live on the coast, and we and others took such action.  The storm roared up and stopped a few miles off shore.  It stayed there.  And we all kept ordering it away in Jesus’ name.  It stayed about a week!  And then it turned and went away.

God’s words are truth.  They work.

Exercise what Jesus has given you.  Do it.

May God bless you all.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                    (October 2016)

                                                                                                  Copyright © 2016 by John Newlin

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included.  We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

P O Box 15797, Wilmington, NC 28408       910 395 1465      

www.johnnewlinministries.org

           Email: info@johnnewlinministries.org       Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin    

                                                     Blog:  johnnewlinblogspot.com

* LETTING GOD BE GOD

It is the early hours of the morning and I am still excited. 

Learning more every day of the Father’s magnificent hand in our lives, of the Lord’s putting together every step of his plan.

I will guide you step by step, he has told me.  I will show you the way.

So often in recent months and years the point has been made.  I can’t do it.  No, I can’t.  For all the best of motives and goals, in trying to go forward and implement what I understand to be God’s call and assignment, I can’t do it.  I can make headway, to be sure.  And good things at times can happen, to be sure.  But to fulfill his plan, his objective, his assignment, he has to do it.  Through me.  Around me.  I have to become nothing.  To give myself up entirely.  To be consciously and unconsciously open to what he is doing, sensitive to him always, not ever pressing or forcing anything that I think must happen but rather letting him work through me to accomplish.

Dying to self.  How many years, Lord?  How long ago did you tell me that, that I would be dying soon?  At least twenty.  I remember talking about that with two wonderful people you put in my path decades ago.  We were pondering.  And yes, I and we all had the right answer.  Dying to the old self, the old priorities, the old interests, the old objectives.  But year after year in all you have taught me and all that we have done together, still learning.  Still learning what that means.

Just not me.  No evidence or glory of or for me.  It is all about you, Lord.  It is all you, Lord. Everything.  And if I don’t know or see how something is to go forward or might happen that you have revealed to me, well, that’s alright.  You will reveal what you want me to know at your time, your perfect time.  It is never my time that counts, but yours.

Surely the Lord does nothing without revealing his plans, his secrets to his servants the prophets.  Yes, the Bible says that.  And how true it is you have shown me.

 

So long ago you revealed your plan.  You made it known.  And then suddenly you act and it all comes to pass.

There is no god but God.  All things are possible with him.  We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Rest in him.  Live in him.  Use all the tools he has given you, and live in him.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                            (May 2016)

                                                                                            Copyright © 2016 by John Newlin

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included.  We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

P. O. Box 15797, Wilmington, NC 28408       910 395 1465        www.johnnewlinministries.org          

Email: info@johnnewlinministries.org       Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin        

Blog:  johnnewlin.blogspot.com

* NOW IS THE TIME TO GET ON OUR FACES. NOW!

I’ve written of how people hear from God in a variety of ways.  Our newsletter of October 2013 dealt entirely with that.  It is of course a subject of great interest to all believers.  People hear from God directly sometimes in a still small voice or even an audible voice, or in times of prayer, or through reading and focusing on certain scriptures, or through a dream, or a vison, sometimes through other people, or circumstances, and more.

Over the years I have at times openly spoken of some specific revelation or word of guidance I have received from the Lord that I know is to be shared broadly.  Many of those in recent years have related to the imminent return of the Lord.

Well, in the wee early hours of May 2, just a few days ago, I had a dream that was so clearly from God.  It was a message that must be shared.  I sat up in bed, got my writing tablet, and wrote all down the Lord had shown me.  This I pass on to you now, because surely it is for everyone.

In this dream, I saw the action before me.  I was not actually a character in the dream, just an observer.

As the dream began, the scene was in Congress.  Three men were walking pointedly down a corridor, very purposefully, determinedly.  One was a senator and was carrying a briefcase.

In the dream I saw as if from behind, and I saw these three walking.  To the left of these along the corridor was an area that continued the length of the corridor.  It was full of people watching and murmuring.  Murmuring.  There was a sense that the senator and Congress don’t know what they are doing.

The senator was walking to vote on a very important matter – environmental, economic, something like that, something important.

And this murmuring from the crowd continued.

Suddenly the senator turned to the crowd and spoke:

“Yes, we don’t know what to do.

But here’s the truth.

You don’t know what to do either.

None of you.

No one on earth knows.”

And in the background these three words came forth:

“Only God knows.”

And then this message: People have to get on their faces and ask God – all people!

And the dream ended.

That was a direct message from God. 

The key of the whole thing is obvious:  This situation we the people are all in now cannot be solved by people.  The people do not know what to do.  The organizations and the world systems just are not working well. 

Obviously for any believer, the only one who does know is God, and then anyone to whom God reveals his guidance and plan.

God.

There is that wonderful scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (NIV)

That’s it.  That’s the message God just gave me for the people.  For all of you.  For everyone.

The last message of the dream is that people have to get on their faces and ask God – all people.  That is humbling themselves.  That is praying and asking God.

We know we are so close to the return of the Lord.  We know the vast majority of humankind in the world and in America is as lost as skunks and not at all ready for the events soon to unfold.

And yes we serious believers – ministers, pastors, teachers, everyday people – try to do all we see and understand and are led to do.  But as of now, the vast majority still does not hear. 

Get on your faces and pray!  Seek God and ask!  The Bible talks in Philippians about how at the name of Jesus everyone will be on their knees.  Well, in this dream from the Lord, he wants us on our faces.

Now look at this!  I today watched a video of Jonathan Cahn speaking on May 5, just three days after my dream.  As I watched I was amazed by what he said.  He called on everyone to fall on their faces before God!  Again, the guidance to get on our faces.  He heard the same thing I did!  Cahn went on to call for the Holy Spirit to fall, for a revival in the land.

Add to all this another dream:  A few days ago my wife Cathy had a dream clearly from God.  In it people sat in a theater watching a play about a fire burning a building.  All the while, the theater itself was on fire!  Can you think of a better description of our situation in America today?  People all the time watch movies and programs and activities with violence, mayhem, wild disasters, immoral behavior, and more, all the time they themselves are living in the midst of and at risk of that very thing in this society.

My message to you:  It is time.  Now is the time.  Help us people.  You are the people.  Newsletters and services and preachers and such can only reach so many.  Help us.

Pray for God to remove the veils from the minds of the people, that they will be able to see and to receive and to understand the truth – to understand who the Lord is and the times we are living in and to receive the Lord as their savior, their King.  Pray for revival.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to touch everyone.

Help yourselves and us people!  Yes, the Lord is coming soon.  But surely we don’t have to sit by and let America totally fall to shreds before he comes.  Certainly we can be out there striving to do all he has asked.

We all do have to answer to the Lord too.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                               (MAY, 2016)

                                                                                             Copyright © 2016 by John Newlin

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included.  We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

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* SOMETIMES LIFE DOESN'T TURN OUT THE WAY WE THOUGHT IT WOULD

One very early morning not long ago Cathy and I were in the house of a young man who had died surprisingly in the wee hours of that morning.  He was a vibrant, active, bright, charming, seemingly in-shape man who was well liked by all, and his shocking death was devastating to the family and all who knew him.

So very early that morning, as I comforted his wife, suddenly I found myself saying to her a really strange phrase:  “Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would.”  I hadn’t planned that sentence.  It wasn’t a thought I had pondered.  It just came out.  I have to believe it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me.

 

The truth of that sentence is overwhelming.  Here was a young family with friends and plans and good jobs and a bright future.  And all of a sudden in the middle of the night, life was changed drastically forever for those left alive.  The words I heard neighbors say who came that morning were “terrible,” and “this is terrible.”  The deceased man’s boss was there, and he said he had an office full of crying people.  I don’t doubt it.  We tried to comfort.  We wondered what more to do.  And in the end of course we all could do little.  A surprising death is like that.

Now, yesterday we were in a funeral service for a young woman and mother of three.  Cathy and I had gone to her wedding not too many years before.  Her husband and his parents had lived near us.  She had been in a car accident and had suffered a broken leg.  But then, two days later in the hospital, suddenly she had died.  Devastating.  The church was overflowing with people who had come.  An enormous number of family had come, because it was such a shock, perhaps also because just two weeks prior they had had a funeral for the woman’s father in the same place. 

So we sat there and heard some music and some words from the pastor, who correctly stressed he had no answers for what had happened.  Some spoke personally about the woman in short eulogies.  There were pictures shown.  I looked over all the heads, all the people.  And I thought here now we have a young husband left with three young children, and a larger family and group of friends and co-workers whose life has been changed drastically forever. 

“Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would.”  I remembered that sentence.

And as I looked over all the people, all the mourning people, I thought about how little people know of what is going on here.  How little we all know, even those of us who are so blessed to know the Lord.  And many of those there certainly did.  I thought about how people really are sheep.  As Jesus said to me once in a service, they really are sheep, aren’t they, John?”  The answer is yes, they are.  Yes, we all are (Sheep are animals that very much need a shepherd to thrive and even survive.).

If we ever get deep enough in our contemplations to think about life and where we are and what is happening, goodness, yes, people are sheep.  Thank God for those who believe and know the Lord.  We have the peace of knowing where our loved deceased are and where we will eventually be – with the Lord!  Thank God for that peace.

But why these surprising deaths of such apparently good people at the prime of their lives, deaths that so hurt so many?  Oh, certainly, yes, God will and does use their deaths to work in the lives of those impacted.  But doesn’t the Bible say why die before your time?  Yes, it does.  In Ecclesiastes 7:17.  It also says over in Isaiah 57:1 that God may take a good man away early to spare him from what is coming.  Difficult thoughts to fully grasp. 

Imagine the terror of those who do not know God at all when they confront something like these two deaths!  Imagine their horror.  And anger.  And fear.  And panic.  And pathos. 

This is a strange strange world in which we live, dear friends.  I have said that more than once, and as the years go by and I see and experience more and more, I see that is so more and more.  We have a wonderful God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – and we know all he reveals to us and all we are open to receive.  And even with all that, we know so little. 

In recent months I have been pressed somehow to consider more and more just how beyond our comprehension God truly is.  Imagine if you can (you really can’t fully) just how and who this God is.  Imagine a being who can construct a world, planets, people, a universe, a solar system, a galaxy.  The mind reels just thinking about it.  And this Jesus is his son, his first son, his only son.  We too are adopted in as sons of God.  How wonderful is that.  But imagine who and what we are talking about.

If we spend much time reflecting on that, speaking about that, praying about that, we will be staggered.  We just don’t know.  What is truly going on?  Well, we do have some knowledge, the guidance that there is a mammoth battle between good and evil that is soon coming to a culmination.  We are indeed even living in the last of the days before that time.  We do understand there is a huge spiritual world out there that we really don’t see or comprehend.  Only once in a while, those who are truly in touch with God, with the Holy Spirit, sense some depth of that.  Sometimes people see an angel or two.  And yes, sometimes real believers see God’s miraculous work right in front of their eyes.  We do.  I hope you do.  We certainly also see marvelous divine healings of people with serious problems.

But the fullness of God?  Wow.  Remember Paul’s great prayer that we would comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ?  God.  Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit.  Even our most serious churches sometimes speak too flippantly in referring to them.  Awe is the word.  Awe is the feeling.

One famous pastor of old, Oswald Chambers, says that the closer we get to God the more we realize how little we know.

 

Well.  One thing we do know – that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). 

We put ourselves in Jesus’s hands.  He is our shepherd and we his sheep.  We keep our eyes on him.  He is our hope.  Our only hope.  Without him, no hope.  Thank God he came two thousand years ago and went through with the plan his father and he had to redeem humankind.  And thank God he is coming back soon! 

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                                                      (October 2015)

                                                                                                                      Copyright © 2015 by John Newlin

[NOTE:  This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included.  We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]

P O Box 15797, Wilmington, NC 28408 * 910 395 1465

www.johnnewlinministries.org           Email: info@johnnewlinministries.org      

Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin         Blog:    johnnewlin.blogspot.com

BEING TRUE TO "THE CALL"

Sometimes God calls you to go “this” way. But another way – “that” way – would be more comfortable, more convenient.

Going that way would line up with the expectations of family and friends. It is where they think you are heading, now they see you have been called. It is what they naturally expect. It fits well with the traditions of the church your family attends. It would be logical.

That way seems like what you naturally would want to do. But Jesus has called you to go this way - - - this way is the call. Perhaps less adulation, less praise, less public recognition. Maybe more hardship and less remuneration. Loneliness in human terms. Strange, even to friends and family.

This is the way you have been called, and this is where you know you must go. And as you go this way, they are watching. They see you heading in a strange direction. They do not understand, at least most of them. A few may. And you, you just keep going… this way.


Comment:

If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus, if you are going to follow him, then you cannot simply choose an attractive course and action. You have to go where he calls you to go and do what he calls you to do. Otherwise, you are following yourself or the interests of others.