Music Link:       https://youtu.be/VOQ6Ch5dehI     

John 21:15-17      New Living Translation

15 After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”

“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

16 Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”

“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.

17 A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.

Great Mini Sermon:       https://youtu.be/ghOeNlVR0vo

Last night, I felt led by the Lord to re-print a paper that I wrote a few months ago. And so, I told the Lord that I was going to need his help if he wanted me to find that thing. 

You see, I write all kinds of papers and then some I will post, nevertheless, I normally save the rough drafts which are written before I post a paper. Then a few weeks later, I might take down a paper from the internet, but before I do, I will copy it. 

So, normally as I have all of these rough drafts and copied papers I usually “save,” to my desktop. And then there are the little Camera manuals, or Digital Lighting manuals, my Bluetooth Speaker manuals, my MP 3 manuals, my Voice Recorder manuals, my Blood Pressure machine manual, my Manuals manual and just a host of other papers, such as reminders of Medical appointments, utility receipts, store receipts and whathaveyous. 

Well, then every few weeks I will have to clean the clutter from my Desktop, so I will put my “word,” papers in a folder, my PDF files in a folder, my music in a folder, and in a few months the whole process repeats itself until eventually I have to remove my folders from the desktop and either stick them in a Thumb Drive, or a Backup USB Drive, a one Terabyte USB drive or a smaller back up hard drive or even in one of five or ten other Thumb Drives scattered all over the place. 

And so, in so many words, what I am trying to say is that I am not one of the most organized bloggers on the net. I mean, I am sorry, but I know my limitations. Therefore, when God says “Hey John, why don’t you re-post this paper or that paper”…well, I just know that it is going to be a long night. 

Such was the case early this morning, as I woke up around four. After cooking breakfast, I began looking for the paper. Well, I remembered that last August or September, I emptied or dumped a number of folders into one of my External Hard Drives, but  instead of deleting the folders, I kept them on my desktop and had never totally deleted them. I looked through those and there were about four folders full of papers. I began there and couldn’t find any that suggested that they might be the one Paper in which I was hunting. Many times, when filing away the paper I will name the file something to do with the content about which I was writing. 

Nothing!

Well, after an hour or two, I pulled out that particular Back Up Device and began looking through there. So, what I am saying was that I was going through a few thousand papers looking for a paper which might be named something to do with CFNI, Gordon Lindsay, Revival, Healing, or anything that had to do with the content. Finally, I was about to give up and for some reason I double clicked a paper named “You Know.RTF.” 

(Well, first let me say that I am a very organized person, and you won’t find that type of disorganization in any other part of my life. I am very neat, as well, but for some reason I have just never come up with a better way to save papers, as I barely have time to write them all sometimes, let alone organize them.)

Well, there it was in all of its “glory” and I was glad as I never thought that I would be seeing it again. “You Know, sometimes I will just file it under the heading it was titled under. 

“You Know, what I mean?” 

Well, here is a parable of Jesus to help to better give you an idea…

Luke 15 New Living Translation

Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

Parable of the Lost Coin

8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

Parable of the Lost Son

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” 

You see, I was writing concerning the modern church and criticizing some of these “up and coming” Bible Schools that many times young people will invest their time and money into and then when the Holy Spirit shifts or moves in another direction or perhaps a founder of the ministry may fall; then these poor students are left virtually “out in the cold.”

Last year, one of these popular “Stream,” Schools was involved in a huge scandal that dated back some years. Well, I happened to be around that ministry in it’s height and I witnessed much wrong doing by the leadership. 

At the time, I prophesied that their school and ministry was one day going to fall like a “house of cards.” It did and it cost many students their “spiritual lives,” because of the years in which they had invested in a man and a ministry. Not only did it tremendously hurt hundreds and thousands of naïve youths who had been proselytized into becoming followers of Christ, but it also cost them years of their lives and thousands and thousands of dollars in which they had all invested in the school. Nonetheless, if any one of them would’ve talked to me I could’ve spared any one of them with simply the “Truth,” and a thing called “Common sense.” 

Nonetheless, what are you going to do, when an entire church leadership is willing to lie, slander and besmirch you because they refused to repent. 

I wrote about the things that were going on, I tried to warn the youth and the naïve, but it did no good. Lastly what I found out, as well, was that most in the “leadership” didn’t care anyway in the church.

I mean, when I say that “the leadership” was keeping knowledge away from the laity, I am not talking about a few in leadership, I am talking about at least fifty to one hundred individuals who all kept these secrets away from the knowledge of those who they were manipulating thousands of dollars from. 

You see, it was financially beneficial to so many to keep the students in the dark, lest they leave the community. In other words, many of those people purposely deceived all of the students while knowing that should certain incidents be brought into public knowledge the whole thing would collapse, as it eventually did. 

And so, as I was making this point last year, I was saying that if you get involved in one of these “Newest Stream,” Training schools, or Bible Schools, the classes that they better be teaching should be “BIBLICAL,” and not what’s “popular,” today in the church. Today, the church is so consumed with “Worship,” and part of the reason for this is because of the sudden influence in which “Music,” has played in the secular world. The other day I was watching some information on the fires of Los Angeles, and in one clip they showed over a hundred individuals who had all lost homes. Every one was worth at least two million dollars. Nevertheless, then I heard of one home owned by a “Pop Star,” and if I didn’t hear it wrong, it said that it was worth 2.5 billion dollars. 

I am like, “Two point five billion dollars,” I mean, that is just nutz!

What the hell is a person going to do with a house worth that much?

And then I heard of another the other day, and this little gal had four homes, all over the country and again I believed that they said she was worth a billion dollars. Each home though was like tens of millions of dollars.

So, anyway, when I was watching the clip on the many homes which were destroyed, I honestly felt so bad for the individuals. Nonetheless, as they showed many of them, I could never understand living in one of those. 

I mean, I am in complete seriousness, some days, I wake up and can barely make it from my bed to my computer over there about ten feet away. And so, as they are showing all of these huge homes, I was trying to figure out the best way that I could get from one end to the next? Finally, I came to the consensus that I would probably have about five little minibikes all scattered around the house, just in case I wanted a snack or something. 

Or you know, if I had to use the toilets.

Seriously though, what does Oprah do if she decides to wake up and wants a snack or something?  

I am sorry, I get off on these rabbit trails, forgive me!

Nonetheless, on that paper, I listed a number of classes in which I took from three different Bible Schools which I attended over the years. There were probably fifteen which I noted from “The Prison Epistles,” of Paul to John’s letters to the church.  From Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, Wisdom Literature, The Psalms, The Minor Prophets, Major Prophets, too many to mention again. But my point is that you don’t want to attend any school which is going to have ten classes on how to train your people to worship, or on how to take offerings, or fifteen ways to teach on “Tithing,” or “How Offerings have kept the church alive.”

You see, these types of things need not be taught in the church. If you want your people to give generously, then teach them about those attributes of Jesus which will move their hearts to be generous. If you want to teach your people how to manipulate offerings or tithes, then you ought not to be in the ministry. 

I am sorry, but this is just how I feel. 

God did not establish His church that anyone ought to profit from it financially. You see, his entire emphasis while on Earth was to teach that the gospel is given away freely and if you are making money from it, if that is your attitude that drives you every day, then could I suggest to you that you are a hypocrite and have no concept of the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

Why would I want my people to be known for such practices, if I were a church leader? 

Why would Jesus want a church filled with individuals who have been conditioned for years to walk in those kinds of false attributes? 

It would be like if you were a single individual living in some huge mansion with fifty four bedrooms and sixty baths, spread over a hundred acres. 

I mean, what a wasted life just by walking from one end to the other of YOUR PALATIAL MANSION, every day. 

You see, that sums up the modern-day church of the past few decades. What a lot of wasted space which hasn’t even satisfied the few who run it.  

No, if you are a young Christian and wish to obediently follow Christ for the rest of your life, then please attend one of these major established Bible Schools, or at least make sure that the classes that you are signing up for are filled with Biblical knowledge or Biblical concepts which will help you through your life and not just some popular Christian themed classes which happen to be popular at the moment. 

Last night, I listed a few Bible School chapels and forgot to mention that Times Square Church also has a Bible School in Pennsylvania somewhere. And there are others which have been established for years preaching the “Word of God.” 

Nonetheless, this is the main reason why one should want to attend any Bible School. 

Make sure that the Bible is the main emphasis. 

This is why for generations they have been referred to as “Bible Schools.” 

Anyway, the following is part of the paper that I wrote concerning one of my favorite Bible Schools. 

Part of a reprint from a paper that I wrote last year!

You know, I write a lot of ‘Papers,’ that I post on my websites. Nonetheless, normally I will write a paper, and possibly correct or add to it up to a day or perhaps, two days later. Well, then once I start on the next paper, the one before that is usually forgotten. In the past, in some instances, I filled most every available page. Nonetheless, on occasion I may get distracted with other issues in my life and I don’t even remember what I had posted in those previous months or weeks. 

You see, I very rarely go through my individual or collective websites to see if they are still relevant. 

I am sorry, but most of the time, I feel as if my writings were helped by the Holy Spirit and spoken “what” had been needed to be said at the time. Therefore, I seldom will ever go back to a paper written before to make it more appealing or to doctor it up that it may be more “accepting,” to whoever the Holy Spirit intended it for. 

In other words, I write what God has placed on my heart, not so that any individual “Paper,” is meant to please man. 

If you don’t like it, I couldn’t care in the least, then don’t read it please. But I am not going to “coddle,” any message to please any man. 

And so, in the past, I have been known to even ‘post’ something forget completely about my websites, and then to my surprise months later I will find something written in which I had completely forgotten about. 

Nonetheless, recently I recall writing a paper concerning my many years in the Dallas area. Many are not aware but there was a period where the Metro-plex was one of the driest cities around the nation “spiritually.”

You see, it was at the height when this “Tithing,” teaching took the country by storm. For years, it was taught by a particular group or “Stream,” of the body. Nonetheless, as many of these “Prosperity groups,” prospered, it was noticed by many other denominations and churches. Soon, the concept had been adopted by all kinds of churches, who also wanted to be “financially,” blessed.

Many were not even favorable to the “Prosperity Message,” yet they were not stupid. As they saw all these other churches “Prosper greatly,” by preaching the concept of the ‘tithe,’ they joined in with that part of the message, and some were, at the time, even “preaching,” against those which preached “Prosperity.” 

Nonetheless, what I am trying to point out here was that there was a period of a few years, where I could not find one church in order to “hear,” from the Holy Ghost. 

You see, I had always developed in my Prayer and praise life to a point where I could generally walk into a church and then during “Worship,” I could help pray down the Holy Spirit who in turn would anoint the speaker, to make his “words,” to become “alive.” 

Well, if anyone has been in a true “Worship,” environment where the Holy Spirit is given priority, then they would know exactly what I am talking about. 

You see, I could walk into a church where the “Pastor,” had been one of the worst “Preachers,” on the planet, yet after “anointed worship,” the man would have been transformed into a “Spurgeon,” straight out of the nineteenth century. 

This is what the Holy Spirit does. It is part of his role in the church. It is to make that “word of God,” to become alive in the hands of every preacher or speaker. 

Well, as I said, there was a period where the church had been so obsessed with the “Tithe,” message, that for the longest time, I couldn’t even “Pray down,” the Holy spirit, in order for God to transform the “Man,” meaning the preacher into another more “gifted or anointed,” man, as should be in the church. 

The reason for this fact was that even after I would help “Pray down,” the Holy Spirit to do his work, the speakers would have already tied the hands of God because they had all of these “legalistic sermons,” in which they preached “word for word,” to manipulate their congregations to “Tithe.” 

I recall a particular time after my mother had passed away. She was Catholic and I never ever heard her accept “Jesus,” as her Lord and Savoir. 

Well, she passed away on a Saturday, as I recall, but the next day I was in the first church early in the morning. As worship started, I gave it all in order to hear God yet heard nothing. 

I went to another church with a ten O’clock service I believe. Again, I gave it all to hear from my friend, the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t hear anything. Finally, that morning, I went to a third service and again in “Prayer,” I gave it all, and I prayed in a manner in which I had learned to Pray in order to bring the Presence of God into the atmosphere or for me to ascend to a ‘spiritual realm,’ where I had been used to hearing from God. 

Finally, in a moment during deep worship, there was a breakthrough, and I heard Jesus and could almost see him standing in heaven with my mother by his side. And He answered me, and he said, “John, not only is your mother right here beside me, but so is your Father.” 

Well, that was all that I came for, the service was concluded for me. I walked out of there barely holding back my tears and thanking the Lord for his wonderful and merciful “goodness.” 

So, anyway, as I stated, there for the longest period, the Dallas Metro-plex had been the driest “spiritually,” for the longest time. Nevertheless, God was always so good to me. You see, there was always a Bible School in which I could take refuge in called Christ for the Nations Bible School. It started way back in the seventies I believe by Gordon and Freda Lindsay. 

A Rabbit Trail: 

Gordon Lindsay’s small bio here mentions some of the most “anointed,” men of God which carried powerful “Healing gifts” in this latter past century of the church. I even see that he was converted through Charles Parham’s ministry, who was “in a sense,” the Father of William Seymour, the noted “Father” of the Azusa Street Revival. 

Following taken from:     https://revival-library.org/heroes/gordon-lindsay/ 

Gordon Lindsay’s parents were members of J. A. Dowie’s Zion City, Illinois when he was born. The city’s financial difficulties forced the family west in 1904, where they temporarily joined another Christian-based community led by Finis Yoakum at Pisgah Grande, California. When similar problems emerged the family moved to Oregon after only a few months. From here the family moved to Portland, Oregon where Lindsay attended high school and was converted during a Charles F. Parham evangelistic campaign.

During his youth he came under the influence of John G. Lake, former resident of Zion City, missionary to South Africa, and founder of the Divine Healing missions in Spokane, Washington, and Portland, Oregon in 1920. Lindsay joined the healing and evangelistic campaigns of Lake, traveling throughout California and the southern states.

Lindsay began his own ministry in California as pastor of small churches in Avenal and San Fernando and for the next eighteen years, he travelled across the country holding revivals in full gospel churches. This period of travel prepared him as perhaps no other man in the nation to establish communication among a variety of Pentecostals….

… By 1947 he had witnessed the extraordinary ministry of William Branham and responded to the invitation to become Branham’s manager. His managerial skills were soon obvious in the Branham campaigns, and in April 1948, he furthered the cause of the revival when he produced the first issue of “The Voice of Healing,” specifically to promote Branham’s ministry. To Lindsay’s great surprise Branham announced that he “would not continue on the field more than a few weeks more.”

At great financial cost Lindsay decided to continue the publication of the new magazine in cooperation with his long-time friends, Jack Moore and his talented daughter Anna Jeanne Moore. He broadened the scope of the magazine by including more of the lesser known healing evangelists who were beginning to hold campaigns and were drawing large audiences…. By March 1949 The Voice of Healing circulation had grown to nearly 30,000 per month and had clearly become the voice of the healing movement. It’s pages successfully spread the message of the Salvation-Deliverance-Healing revival across the world.

In December 1949, Lindsay arranged the first convention of healing revivalists in Dallas, Texas. The assembly was addressed by Branham, Lindsay, Moore, old-timers such as F. F. Bosworth and Raymond T. Richey, and a number of rising revivalists including O. L. Jaggers, Gayle Jackson, Velmer Gardner, and Clifton Erickson. This historic conference symbolized the vitality and cohesion of the revival.

The following year, the convention, now about 1,000 strong, met in Kansas City, with virtually every important revivalist in the nation, with the notable exceptions of William Branham and Oral Roberts. Lindsay exercised great skill and wisdom exposing several points of danger and tension in the movement proposed guidelines for the future. Lindsay understood the fears of the older Pentecostal denominations and leaders and tried his utmost to deal with the offending issues…..

… The Voice of Healing family of evangelists flowered in the early 1950s. Lindsay continued to publicize Branham’s work, although he was not formally associated with the organization; the nucleus of the fellowship was an influential clique which included O. L. Jaggers, William Freeman, Jack Coe, T. L. Osborn, A. A. Allen, and Velmer Gardner.

So, what I am saying is that this man had influence with some of the greatest “movers and shakers,” of the early Pentecostal movement. 

Sorry for that Rabit Trail, but I get excited just writing about the influence in which these men had in the “Spirit Filled Church.” 

Of course, I hope you would realize that all these “anointed men,” were “precursors” to the modern Charismatic Movements of today.

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages 

pre·cur·sor

/ˈprēˌkərsər/

noun

plural noun: precursors

1. a person or thing that comes      before another of the same kind; a forerunner.

Each one was a “Forerunner,” of the very last days in which Christ will return to the Earth. We would not have a “spiritual church,” without the ministries of many of these men. 

Anyway, as I said, even though I could find no “Spiritual life,” in the Metro-Plex for years, there was always Christ for the Nations. 

Many times, at the beginning of the year, I would see these kids, some very enthusiastic, but others, most likely were the PK’s, who had parents in which had been devoted to the school for one reason or another. This is how many Ministry parents are in the church, they want their kids to follow them into the same ministry that they came out of, and the truth is that perhaps their children “were never even called to minister.”

Perhaps, they could do better in a university fulfilling their “dreams,” of becoming a great sports legend.” 

I don’t believe any parent ought to force their children into “ministry.”

Years ago, I attended a thriving trending Bible School filled with Preacher’s kids. I am sorry, but many were the most rebellious ungrateful individuals attending the school. 

I don’t want to swear to this, as fact, but once I was told that a number of them had had a contest in which the winner would be the person who “laid the most young ladies attending the school.”

And now you have to understand that at the time, these were those considered the "Trending," the "Coolest."

These were considered the "Elite," among faculty, staff and even by many of their peers." 

They were the "righteous," because they came from "Preacher," families. 

Well, I have another description of the families that they must have come out of. 

One of the things they did by rejecting me because of my “giftings,” was to cause me to “Backslide.” 

Well, after I grew up, I realized that it wasn’t their fault, but it was my immaturity. Nevertheless, when I walked away from school that year, I just refused to be a part of any church while living a life of “sin.” 

You see, if I were to do that, then I would've been exactly like them. 

So, I just told God, "God I will never deny that you saved me from a life of drugs and sin, but as far as this 'Church thing," forget it. For the next four or so years, I was living in "sin," but I refused to be part of a church, as one of my former examples all pretended to be. 

And there have been many times in my life where I have told an individual that if you are going to live a double life, one of sin, all the time while attending an active church or pretending to be a Christian, then you ought to quit going to church. 

You see, you are not doing God any good, your brothers and sisters any good, or even yourself any good because you are searing your conscience. 

And I am not talking of Christians who are struggling with sin, but those who wallow in it. 

What you need to do is to get that out of your system and then once you purposely decide to give it your all again, then return to the church. 

But you see, we have in the modern-day church too many individuals, as those Preacher Kids, in my former Bible School. They are good for no one, least of all to the Lord. They attend church as wolves all trying to prey on other Christians or leading to other Christian’s backsliding. 

Then if they go on in leadership they normally have no other purpose, but to use the ministry for their own gain. If they seriously cared for people, they would have never entered ministry, nonetheless, many come from families where the parents just expected that they would “follow,” in daddy’s footsteps, 

Well, they have and that is why the church is as screwed up as it is. No, what I suggest if you are a backslidden Christian just walking a Pharisee life where your only purpose in following God is to see what kind of “career,” you can make out of it, then please, “Get the hell out of the ministry until you grow up and make a personal decision to follow Christ, not because of mommy or daddy, but because you care for others.” 

You see, it’s not rocket science!

More than likely, this is one of the reasons why the American church is so screwed up. 

We have PK kids who were forced to follow their parents in some form of ministry and which they have or had no interest yet have been indoctrinated to understand that this is their “allotted portion,” in life. 

Well, maybe it wasn’t, if you don’t wish to serve God’s children for the right purpose, then get the hell out of ministry. Ministry was not created for a class of people to be served by those who are under them which have not attained “Clergy-ship.” 

The ministry is not a “Career,” it is a “calling,” and “if I have never heard a call from God to serve his people,” then I would go back and either decide to love God’s people, or I would get a real job in which you might be qualified this next time. 

I recall one year when I was at a Tuesday night meeting where I always sat in the very back, as my voice normally carries all through a congregation or building. But these young men were talking all through the service and I will never forget this one ‘dude,’ he had his leg resting over the back of the chair in front of him, as if he were playing some video game or resting or whatever?

Nonetheless, normally within a few months the students would become more united and enthusiastic with “Praise and Worship.”

Then it was always a pleasure for me to drop by the school to re-charge my “Spirit,” having just spent the last few weeks in a couple of cities (Fort Worth, Arlington, and Dallas) which had become the driest “spiritually,” most likely of the Nation. 

But again, by mentioning those few students, my point is that many times all that it takes to disrupt or to grieve the Holy Spirit is a few selfish men as I have mentioned above. 

Nonetheless, this is why sometimes it is the responsibility of the students to approach those few who devils, and God forbid, but you may find it extremely gratifying and then “God help us!” 

(That was a joke, maybe?) 

Music Link:     https://youtu.be/okyaXlWB1X4

For lyrics click "more."