* 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.]

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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.]

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

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

* YES GOD IS LOVE - HE IS ALSO A LOT MORE THAN THAT

I am increasingly concerned with the continuing modern focus on the love aspect of our wonderful God.  Yes, God is love.  We know that.  The Bible tells us that.  Look at Jesus’ actions in going to the cross for us.

Yes, it is true.  God is love.

He is also many other things.  And this is where so many today who profess to be Christians just turn a blind eye.

God is patience.  He is long-suffering, but that patience does not last forever.  Eventually people have to realize who he is and what he expects. 

And he is jealous.  He is a jealous God.  You cannot have other gods before him.  You cannot put other things in life before him.  You just can’t.

And he is a just God who indeed does avenge.  Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. 

If you read the Bible you know that God will only tolerate evil so long, even in his chosen people the Jews.  Notice how he brings all sorts of calamities on the Israelites over the years when they are out of line.  Eventually at one point he even lets Jerusalem be overrun and the leaders taken away to Babylon.

And he makes it clear in the Bible that all these things that happen aren’t just necessarily by accident.  The book of Nahum notes the Lord’s way is in the whirlwind and storm.  And the book of Amos asks has disaster come to a city and the Lord not caused it?

Pretty chilling, is it not – certainly .  Except for the fact that we also do know the goodness and love of God!

Yes, God is God.  I wrote about that quite a bit recently in the newsletter in March titled NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.  People today just can’t seem to get a grip on the immensity of God.  All powerful.  All knowing.  All present.  He is God. 

We humans can hardly imagine God! 

One approach is to look at some movies where an emperor or other powerful figure is portrayed.  Maybe a movie about Caesar or Genghis Khan or some other powerful historical figure.  I expect you have all seen something like that.  Remember how sometimes a trembling subject or stranger is brought in before the ruler, and the subject is kneeling or crawling on the floor.  They are terrified because of the great power of the ruler.

Well, they should be.  The ruler can just decide to end their lives, or maybe send them off to some battle, or take their possessions away, or whatever.

I tell you, none of those rulers have even a tiny percentage of the power that our God has.  If people fear someone who can take away their life, how much more should they fear someone who not only could do that but also could send them for an eternity into a horrible place to exist?  Here is the actual scripture that makes that point:    “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”  (MT 10:28 NIV)

Most people just don’t appreciate the immensity of God or who he really is because they don’t know him – let’s be honest.  They just don’t.  God to them is someone in a book or someone talked about once in a while or at church.

But we are talking about God.  Yes, he is love.  Yes, he is patient. 

But do you remember when he killed everyone on earth except Noah and seven members of Noah’s family, because he was so upset by the behavior of people? 

And do you remember when he was going to eliminate all the Israelites because of their behavior, and start over with Moses?  Moses interceded and God decided not to do that.

God is love all right.  The actions of Jesus in his first visit to earth were love, all right.  Lots of demonstrations of compassion.  And his love for us comes through in our times of prayer and communication with him. 

But even Jesus is returning as the great leader of the army of angels and saints to win at Armageddon and then to establish his rule from Jerusalem.  Jesus himself kills everyone in the army opposing him at Armageddon.  Jesus.

I am telling you all this because I am so concerned that people today just look at the love aspect of God.  For sure he loves us and he forgives us and he wants the best for us.  But he also wants his plans to be fulfilled and his words to be obeyed. 

We are very near the time Jesus will come to collect his believers and take them away, giving them a new glorious body.  During the time they are away in heaven, the seven year tribulation will occur.  Yes, terrible things are done during that period by the antichrist, the false prophet, and the devil.  See Chapter 13 of Revelation, for example.  But many horrors poured out during that seven year period described in many chapters in Revelation beginning in Chapter 6 are horrors poured out on the remaining humans on earth and on the earth itself by God.  They are the wrath of God.  At the time of the seven year tribulation, God will have been long-suffering for long enough.  He still will be seeking those who will turn to Jesus, but he will also be pouring out his wrath.

Don’t let anyone mislead you so into thinking that God is only love.  Remember, he is absolutely God.  Someone to be feared as well as loved.  And yes, that advice about fearing the Lord is in the Bible too.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                    (APRIL, 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

* GOD’S TIMING – A MESSAGE FOR EVERYONE

Many years ago Cathy and I were in a wonderful Christmas Eve service at a local church.  As we were sitting there, suddenly the Lord spoke directly to me:  “John, these people are celebrating my birth, and here I am getting ready to come back soon.”

I knew immediately what he meant, and so I expect do you.  He has already been born as a human being.  That happened more than 2000 years ago.  Wonderful as that was and is, what is important now is that he is coming back soon.  The really important issue for people living now is whether they know him and are prepared for that return!

This past Easter season, or Resurrection Sunday as many like to say, I thought the same thing.  The crucifixion and the resurrection and ascension have all happened, and many years ago.  Thank God for that!  Thank Jesus for his going through with all that!  Still, that is the past.  Now we are at the point of his return.  How many of your friends and neighbors and people you interact with daily know that?  How many are ready for that return?

I know the answer to those questions.  Not many.  Not nearly enough.

You know, all this reminds me of many times and periods in ministry.  I have seen over and over that God operates in seasons.  At the peak of one of his seasons, things go really well, but when that season has ended the same things, the same approaches used that worked well in the past just don’t work as well.  I have also seen how he generally likes to do new things, how he likes to answer prayer and do things in ways we do not expect.

In our ministry I can see several seasons, such as years of primarily focusing on healing services and conducting Holy Spirit led services and leading people into the presence of God, and years of teaching and preaching the fullness of Jesus and all he did, and years of recording and producing CDs and producing and broadcasting television programs, and years of writing and sending out our various publications.  Yes, sometimes there has been overlap of these, but really they have been pretty distinct seasons.

If you are following God’s call and seeking to do all he leads you to as and when he leads, you will see there are seasons.  God has specific times for you to do something.  You may be living and working in fulfillment of what you understand he wants you to do, and then almost suddenly, or maybe slowly and quietly, what you are doing will gradually fade away and he will begin to move you in a new direction.

Many of you who have known us for several years know of my burning desire early on to teach and preach and lead people into the presence of the Holy Spirit and for them to experience divine healing.  So many people just did not know about any of that.  And then gradually we moved into focusing on the fullness of Jesus and all he did and all we are in him, still of course ministering in the spirit and healing as led to do so.  About ten or so years ago one time specifically Jesus spoke to me right in the middle of a service while I was up teaching and preaching:  “John, tell people who I am and that I am coming soon.”  So while we continued doing what we were doing, I began to shift more and more into teaching about the Lord’s imminent return.  As he revealed more and more to me on that subject and as I realized all the Biblical prophecies of events to happen before that return that had now happened, I focused more and more on the return.  Then about two and a half years ago God gave me very specific guidance containing several points.  The one I want to mention here is his point that now the return is my message.  In other words, that is what I should be teaching and writing about!  Thus my increased focus on all aspects of the return recently.  He gave Cathy an amazing scripture while we were praying about this guidance - 1 Peter 4:7.  I want you to look that up.  Amazing.  The Lord was also very strong about my not being distracted from what he wanted me to focus on – all that he told me then.

So at times when I see people crying out that we all need to have a type of program that we or others  had decades ago, I appreciate their heart and their desire that more and more come to know the Lord and realize where we are in time.  But I do not necessarily think we need to replicate what was done way in the past.

My experience is that God likes to do things in new ways.  He operates in new seasons.  Symbolically, he uses new wineskins, not the old tired and worn wineskins that will burst and fall apart and not work.

For a real end-time revival, or awakening, before the Lord returns, I think we all must be open to the fact that the Lord will likely move in ways we have not seen.  It is clear from the actions of various pastors and serious believers in past years who try to hold meetings that will lead to a revival, who hold all night prayer meetings over and over in preparation, that we and they just can’t on our own make the end-time revival happen.

God has to do it.  It has to be God’s timing!  We several years ago had a series of amazing meetings that still warm my heart and bring a smile to my face, meetings in which the Holy Spirit showed up in great power and in obvious demonstration.  People encountered God who had never done so in their lives.  Most people have never seen God operate right in front of them, right in their presence.  But they did in those meetings.   People were healed, people encountered the Holy Spirit, people met God.  Wonderful.  Amazingly none of these meetings led to all those present going home and dragging everyone they knew to our subsequent meetings. 

For example in one overwhelming meeting in a traditional denominational church the Holy Spirit touched everyone in the service.  I expect none or at best only one or two of the church members had never seen anything like that before.  But God chose that night to reveal himself to all.  One elderly man said to me later that he had been in that church fifty-seven years, and after that night he knew all that had been a waste.  What he meant of course was that he met God that night for the first time.  But do you know, the church never invited us back to do another program there.  And even though there were real repercussions from that meeting – for example one woman sent one of our CDs to relatives far away who then used it to hold teaching classes in their church – there was no large revival in that area.  The people who were impacted somehow did not act in a way that would lead to a large revival in the region.

Here’s my thought.  You know why that did not happen?  Because it was not God’s time for it to happen.  Just that simple.  I have seen serious born again, spirit filled ministers of God eagerly set up programs to preach to a community which they hope will lead to a large revival.  I have seen people like this set up ongoing programs to teach truths of Jesus that most just do not know.  And in all this I only see in general the same local believers attend who always typically come out to events like that.  There may be a few new ones reached.  But not many, not the hoped for revival.  Just not God’s time.

So my advice for anyone seriously contemplating setting up such a thing: have you heard from God on this?  Is this the time?  Is it now?  Is it your idea or God’s?

We are about at Jesus’ return, and I have no doubt there will be an end time revival.  So the time does have to be soon.  But’s let’s all be alert and sensitive and wise to take the steps God wants – not our steps but the ones he guides us in. 

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                               (APRIL, 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

LIVING IN THE MIDST OF MADNESS - Experiencing 2 Corinthians 4:4 in Action

Our newsletters and our Sign of the Times and A Watchman Warning publications for the last several years have focused on Biblical prophecies of things to happen before the Lord returns and on how they have been fulfilled.  As we have moved past the period the Lord referred to as birth pains, we have focused on what I consider the very current and deeper prophecies – the warning about deception and the warning about the falling away from God, the apostasy.  I don’t see how any of us could deny we are right in the midst of those. 

                                                                                                                                                

Recently, as I have written more about specific occurrences and behaviors in this world and how they relate to the prophecies, I have moved into at times pointing out drastically incorrect and evil and wrong behavior on the parts of people and countries.  Massive groups, governments, and individuals seem to have fallen victim to the Bible’s statement in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the god of this world (the devil) has blinded the minds of nonbelievers.  How else could you explain their behavior that so clearly leads to increasing dangers for the people, often being almost suicidal?  Yet they apparently cannot see the danger or just cannot believe it.

 

Below I give several concrete examples of this behavior that is truly insane to most of you, to anyone who can discern the truth and think rationally.  Thank God for those of us who are born of water and the Spirit, who have the Holy Spirit and have been baptized with the Spirit.  Such a person has the gifts, and one includes discernment, the ability to discern truth from falsehood.  It is these people – us – who see the horrible errors being made by leaders and countries and people, who realize the folly of so many actions today, and of course who are so distressed over these bad actions and over the blindness of so many around us. 

Just consider a few examples:

EUROPEAN FEAR

Recently the NY Times had a headline:  Europe Far Right Fueled by Fear.  There is only one thing wrong with that. It should have read:  Europe Far Right Justifiably Fueled by Fear.

If all Europeans are not fearful today, they are not alive.  Serious changes to their culture and peace are underway.  The threat to Europe of the huge muslim immigration of recent years and continuing today cannot be overstated.  The threat of the murderous jihadists who hide in this immigration pool is obvious. 

Europe is in for dark days. Look already at Paris and Brussels.  Europe seems incapable of dealing with this.  Allowing more people of a truly alien culture which harbors violent terrorists to enter every day is a policy of death.  The leaders seem incapable of recognizing what is happening.  I think this parable captures the views of the European leaders and media and many lost people:

Someone says there are a hundred people outside your home who think almost entirely differently than you and want to come in and live.  They want to maintain their beliefs and culture at the expense of whatever happens in your home.  And one or two of these are horrible terrorists who intend to kill you and your family while they are here.  You (representing the leaders of Europe) then say “Come on in!”

If ever there was a time when the leaders of the people were blind to what is happening and truly lost, today in Europe is that time.  Taking this on to America, those who cannot see the danger here from such blind immigration policies fall into the same camp.

TEMPLE OF BAAL

Hard to believe I am writing about this, isn’t it?  Many of us probably think of Baal as a word used in the Old Testament, not in our day.  But no.

Not long ago in Palmyra in Syria ISIS destroyed the temple of Baal that was there.  In their fundamentalist approach, they are opposed to any idols and structures like this.

Now, in some convoluted effort to remember this archaeological item (best word I could use for such a wretched thing), there are plans to build that temple in Times Square in New York City.  Or at least part of that temple.  And evidently plans to do so elsewhere in the world as well.

Can you think of anything more evil and more wrong to do ever, and especially as we approach the Lord’s return?  Baal?  The devil himself?  A temple?

What are the people opening up when they build such a temple?  What does this portend for New York City and the USA?  I think you can imagine.  God will not be pleased. 

Remember, the god of this world has blinded the minds of nonbelievers.  And those are obviously the people doing this.

BLASTED FOR PROTECTING THE CHILDREN

Recently the North Carolina legislature and governor took action to stop the application of a Charlotte ordinance giving a person the right to use whatever public restroom with which he/she most identified. 
The objective of the Charlotte ordinance evidently was to help that tiny percentage of the public who are transgender (figures I have seen are about 0.3% of the public).  But under this ordinance a ten year old girl could go into the ladies’ room followed legally by a strapping male with all the normal equipment.  This ordinance put all children and women at risk.

I have to think that any rational clear-minded person agrees with the state’s action to stop this ordinance.

But amazingly major corporations such as APPLE, American Airlines, Facebook, even Bank of America have come out against this action of the state.  There have been threats to move the NBA all-star game from Charlotte to another state.

I can remember and probably you can too when major corporations were focused on never offending the values of the majority of society.  Now they are backing extreme minority positions that do not make sense to us – except for 2 Corinthians 4:4.  Their positions don’t even make sense from a business standpoint as they are surely offending a large portion of the population with this backing.

REFUSAL OF US GOVERNMENT TO FORMALLY RECOGNIZE WHO THE TERRORISTS ARE

The extraordinary rise of radical muslim terrorists through major groups like ISIS and BOKO HARAN and the TALIBAN and AL QUEDA and more is well known by all of us.  I would suggest even the word terrorist is inapplicable.  This is a major movement, conducting a real war against western faith and values.

Yet the official government of the United States still refuses to use the word muslim in describing these groups.  And there seems to be a constant effort to downplay the seriousness of all this.  If the leaders of the government truly do not see the seriousness of this and cannot recognize this for what it is, they truly are living in 2 Corinthians 4:4.  And they are imperiling all the citizens of the country.

For those of you who do not keep up with this, let me say that these groups are active all the time, in the ongoing wars in the Middle East but also in terrible attacks on innocent men, women, and children in countries throughout the world.  In just the past few days we have seen the horrible Brussels attacks at the airport and the subway station and the terrible slaughter of Christians at a park on Easter Sunday in Pakistan (mainly women and children).

AMAZING SILENCE OF WOMEN’S GROUPS AND HOMOSEXUAL GROUPS AS REGARDS THE ADVANCE OF THE MUSLIM TERRORISTS

The American people for the most part still are largely ignorant of the culture and policies of fundamental islam.  Women are greatly mistreated and subjugated, for example.  When I was in Saudi, women walked behind their husbands, did not really talk to me on the street, were almost totally covered in clothing, did not get nearly the education of men, could not drive, were limited in jobs they could hold, and on and on.  I understand there have been some improvements in this recently, but the gap is still enormous between men and women.  And the Taliban, wow…they make the Saudis look like flaming liberals.  So why haven’t we heard more from the women’s rights groups in working for the rights of muslim women?  Can’t they see?  Can’t they read?  Don’t any of them know the truth?  Ah, it’s 2 Corinthians 4:4 in action again.

On a related front, fundamentalist muslims do not tolerate those who take illegal drugs.  Truly.  And they do not tolerate homosexuals.  So why in the world haven’t we heard an outcry from the LGBT groups and those who support open drugs here in protest against this treatment?  Why are members of these groups not in real fear of an increasing presence of muslims, especially fundamentalist muslims?  They should be terrified.  Why aren’t they pressing the government to take whatever action it can to defeat the jihadist groups?  Well, you know the answer.

WHY ARE MAINSTREAM CHURCHES SO SILENT IN AMERICA?

Why aren’t mainstream churches in America speaking out and mounting demonstrations against horrible government actions and demonstrations in support of positive steps such as the step the NC government took as described above?  Why don’t we see a million person march to Raleigh to support the governor and the legislature against the attack of those lost pagan leaders of the corporate world who are speaking out against their action? 

You can answer this, I think.  Fear?  Partly.  Lack of knowledge?  Partly.  We know that the fullness of the gospel is just not taught in most churches – the Holy Spirit, the filling and baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, healings and miracles, and now the imminent return of the Lord.  Amazing, is it not?  The Holy Spirit is God, you know.  A member of the Trinity.

When I early went into this ministry, one pastor friend came to warn me.  He said that some of the pastors of the churches I was encountering were not born again.  That is mind-blowing!  If they are not born again, they most assuredly don’t know the Holy Spirit and all that follows.  So what can they be teaching their congregations? 

The scripture 2 Corinthians 4:4 applies in individual churches too, you know.  If you don’t hear any of the issues I mention above being discussed in your church, why don’t you ask the pastor why not?  When the Lord returns, don’t you think he would want to find us out there doing all we can to advance his message and truth rather than being silent and withdrawn from society?

FOR MORE ON THE RETURN OF THE LORD: 

Many of our CDs, our television programs, and past newsletters – all of which are on our web site (television programs also on YOUTUBE) - focus on the crucial subject of this newsletter.  Go to them for much more teaching and revelation.  Request the CDs.

 

The August 2013 newsletter contains a trove of information on basic prophecies fulfilled.  Most newsletters in recent months deal directly with aspects of our time and the return.

 

And our blog contains dozens of writings on aspects of the return.  The home page of the web site connects you to each of the three latest articles and the blog itself, which contains all the articles.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                               (APRIL, 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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JESUS

                          

This Sunday all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ celebrate again the great accomplishment of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of his purpose for coming to earth in human form. 

It is beyond description in importance to us all.

That God would so care for and love the human race that he would come to earth in human form and then endure such atrocious treatment at the hands of beings he himself created……it is all astounding. 

In the extraordinary act of going to the cross and then overcoming it, the Lord overcame death, evil, sin, sickness, pain, curses of the law, in effect everything that separated people from God.  His actions brought absolute forgiveness from God for each one of us, those who would receive that.  In a phrase, Jesus reconciled humanity to God. 

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  Jesus overcame the world and in him we overcome the world.

As he said, he is the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the father except through him.

There is no one else – nothing else – that we should focus our time and attention on.  He is Jesus.  He is our Lord.  He is life.  And he is coming very soon.  He should and must be your top priority in life.  Yes, he will come again to impact overwhelmingly this confused, lost society in which we all live.  Come to collect his believers and then shortly come to win a complete battle over those opposing him and to set up his rule from Jerusalem.  In essence and truth, come to fulfill the prayer he taught us – Our father, who art in heaven, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In all things at all times wherever you are,

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                 (March 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

HEROES

Who are your heroes?

This is such a distressing time.  Let’s take a break for a minute.  Let’s think about something really good right here on earth, people who are good and meaningful in our lives.

So again, who are your heroes?  Can you even answer that question?

I remember reading a book about transitions in life many years ago.  The author made the point that most people know themselves so little they can’t even identify their favorite food.

Well, who are your heroes?

When I was a young teenager Mickey Mantle was my hero.  I loved baseball then and the Yankees even though I did not live in New York City.  And he was just a spectacular player.  Years later I actually met him for a moment.  Even though I was much older then and hopefully more mature, and even though I had long realized there was more to being a hero than just playing a sport well, he still was an overwhelming presence to me.  I managed to get out the sentence – “I saw you play a lot of games.”  And he replied a wonderful reply: “It was a lot of fun.”  I can’t imagine a better reply.  My hero Mickey Mantle thought playing baseball for the Yankees all those years was a lot of fun.  That was what I always thought it would be.

But back to the subject.  Who are your heroes?

Let’s right away rule out Jesus here.  He is obviously a hero, but he is also obviously far more than just a hero.  So let’s talk about other people than Jesus.

Do you have one?  A hero?  Perhaps your father, or your mother.

My dad is a hero to me now.  He and Mom had just been married a few years when WWII began.  He was a partner with two cousins in a new hardware/building supply company.  They were older.  My Dad made the decision to enlist in the Navy, and he did so at age 26 or so.  My mom followed him around as possible – in Newport Rhode Island and then in Washington when he worked in the Pentagon.  But eventually Dad was off in the Pacific.  About a month or two before he left, his younger brother died from a brain injury and my mother’s sister died in childbirth.  But my dad had to go, so he did.  By the way, my mom was pregnant with me then.

I was born while Dad was in the Pacific theater.  He didn’t see me until I was a year and a half old.  I have letters from him to Mom while he was in Guam.  Even after the war ended he was stationed there for a while.  And then he came home.

  

He always wanted to be an architect, but seemed to think that going to college then would just take too much time.  It was as if they had lost years of their lives due to the war.  So he went back to that hardware/building supply company where he still was a partner, and worked there his entire life, steady, hard-working, devoted.  My mother did have several serious medical problems over the years, and Dad was just there, steady, strong.  He is long gone now.  I found a thick book he put together while in high school.  It was all about his becoming an architect.  Never happened.

So Dad is a hero.  He was steady and steadfast.  He loved me and was the strong silent type of that generation.  When he did say something I listened and learned.

Of course, if you read this, you will think why  wasn’t  my mom a hero too.  She was left alone with a new baby coming, just after her sister and her brother in law had died. And she did persevere despite her medical issues, persevere for another thirty years after caring for my dad as he suffered from emphysema.

They are real heroes to me.

Also my Uncle June, who enlisted in WWII when he was 17 and then fought in the Korean War.  My mother tried to write about his exploits, and so I heard him describe things most veterans of those wars never spoke of.  One time all the tires of his jeep were shot out but he made it.  One time he was up a telephone pole when the enemy came over the hill.  He became a machinist expert and worked on all sorts of engines.  He loved fishing and always was warm and kind.  I still have a knife he brought me from the Korean war.

Well, another hero in my life.

More?

From the spiritual side, how about Oral Roberts.  Healed by God miraculously when he was 17.  Taking the truths of the power of the Lord into all sorts of places in a country where the people just did not (and today mostly do not) know what Jesus made available for them.  The Holy Spirit operated mightily through him.  And in the late years of his life, God brought me into his contact.  I ministered to a man whose father had worked with Oral in building the university.  The man wanted me to send Oral a note.  When I did, Oral immediately wrote back.  The man’s father had in fact put the university together, including the academic side.  But Oral took the time to tell me what he thought God was doing in my life.  And he wrote how he thought divine healing works.  Later on, after I had written him again, he sent his thoughts on another subject and then noted he would see me in heaven.  Lots of people in the world thought he was nuts, or strange, or a kook.  But he kept his eyes on the Lord. 

Others out there like that?  Oh sure, locally and nationally.  People who change the entire world and those who change lives for a few.  Most don’t ever make the headlines or news stories.

Here are a couple you’d never think of.  I recently saw the accounts of some terrible crime/terror attacks in the US before this age of modern terrorism.  One had to do with the Unabomber, who lived in a cabin somewhere in the west and mailed letter bombs to what seemed to be random victims.  Three were killed and many, many horribly injured.  One victim recounted how his life was changed forever, how there is no such thing as closure for such an attack.  Eventually the bomber was caught, I think by help from his brother who evidently realized this was the bomber.  The brother was given the million dollar reward that had been offered.  The brother proceeded to pay off the legal bills associated with his brother’s trial, and then he gave the entire rest to the victims of the bomber.  How could such a person have been reared in the same family with the bomber?

Another similar account.  I saw the story of the shooters who randomly shot people in the Washington DC area at service stations and schools and elsewhere about 2002.  You may remember.  The area was in turmoil.  One woman recounted standing at a station filling her car with gas.  She looked at a taxi driver who was doing the same.  The next moment, there was a sound, and she saw him moving toward her.  He had been shot.  The emergency people recounted when they arrived at the station, they found her giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to a dead man.  She just wouldn’t stop trying.

And then there was that airplane flight Cathy and I were on several years ago.  We sat in the midst of several of our young soldiers.  They were beside us and in front of us, all around.  They were young, so young, so bright and pleasant, full of energy.  They talked about various things.  One I remember.  They were so focused on their boots and on finding and buying better boots.  It seems the US issued boots just were not good, not nearly good enough.  The soldiers all knew that.  And so they were looking for and  hoping for better boots that they had to buy.  They were on their way to Iraq, or maybe it was Afghanistan.  They were so young.  My God, how is it possible to thank people like that enough, how is it?  The answer – it isn’t possible.  You can’t.  They were willingly on their way to a place of horror, where some of them might stay and never return, where some of them might end their lives or be horribly injured.  Just so people like us can stay here and live our lives.  So we can go on.  Heroes?  That is not a good enough word for them.  I’ll never forget looking at them, just looking.  Looking at their faces.  It is almost too much to think about even today.

Maybe a last one.  About a Frenchman who worked for me back in my business days, who was head of our subsidiary in Ethiopia.  That is and was a world almost no one in the West knows about.  I was there several times.  One time I remember getting out of a car in downtown Addis Ababa, and in the words of a lawyer with me, all the wretches of the world descended on us.  He wasn’t being unkind.  That was how so many of the hundreds looked, with their arms bent at ninety degree angles or nubs where their legs or arms ended, hobbling on poor crutches, all eager for something, for help.  That Frenchman lived there, and he enjoyed life there.  He always had that ability to enjoy life anywhere.  Out near his house we rode through a soccer field, all set up with posts and goals and such.  He had built that for the kids that had nothing.  And in his house I met all sorts of interesting people.  He had an African son he had adopted when he was in another African country. But the most important thing was how he sheltered and hid people from the communists that ran the country at the time.  The Soviets were advisers to the communist government, the Cubans were the military, and the East Germans provided the security.  All communists.  But of course not everyone wanted that.  And this Frenchman hid people in his basement and moved them on, obviously at risk to himself.  And he just enjoyed life, he and his wife.  And it was my joy to know them.

Thank you for allowing me to reflect on some of the wonderful people God has brought around me.  There are great people out there in this terrible world.  Wonderful people.  I could keep writing and giving examples.  Keep your eyes on Jesus and always be alert to see the treasures he puts in your path.  And while always being alert and discerning, don’t be so quick to judge everyone you meet.  We just don’t know most of what other people are really doing or what is going on in anyone else’s life. 

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

                                                                                                                        (March 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