WesleyGospel Ministries

Let Your house be filled with Your glory Lord
(Let Your house be filled with Your glory Lord)
Let Your house be filled with Your praises Lord
(Let Your house be filled with Your praises Lord)

Let the redeemed of the Lord
Give You glory
And let the redeemed of the Lord
Sing Your praises
Let the redeemed of the Lord
Fall and worship You
Evermore (Evermore)
Evermore (Evermore)

–Vineyard Music, “Let the Redeemed”–

—

The earth is the Lord’s
And everything that’s in it
And all of His people
All there be unto Him

He raised the land
Above the waters of the sea
And laid a strong foundation
In the ocean deep
The earth is the Lord’s

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
Who shall stand in His holy place?
The righteous will worship in His holy presence
And taste of His goodness and receive deliverance

These are the people that the Lord will bless
These are the ones who love His righteousness
The earth is the Lord’s

Open wide the gates
Open wide the ancient doors
And the King of Glory
The King will enter in

Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty
He is the Lord
Triumphant Lord

–The Maranatha! Singers, “Psalm 24 (The Earth Is the Lord’s)”–

—

I, the Lord of sea and sky
I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save
I have made the stars of night
I will make their darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?Here I am, Lord
Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night
I will go, Lord
If You lead me
I will hold Your people in my heart

I, the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide
‘Til their hearts be satisfied
I will give my life to them
Whom shall I send?Here I am, Lord
Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night
I will go, Lord
If You lead me
I will hold Your people in my heart

–John Michael Talbot, “Here I Am, Lord”–

—

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul:
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
–Psalm 19:7 (KJV)–

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
–Hebrews 8:8, 10 (KJV)–

The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.
–Titus 2:11-12 (KJV)–

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, 
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
–John 1:29 (KJV)–

We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.
–Hebrews 10:10, 12 (KJV)–

The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
–Acts 20:28 (KJV)–

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past…being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
–Romans 3:25; 5:9 (KJV)–

We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace.
–Ephesians 1:7 (KJV)–

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins…And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
–Colossians 1:14, 20 (KJV)–

Almost all things are by the law purged with blood;
and without shedding of blood is no remission.
–Hebrews 9:22 (KJV)–

Through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you…ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
–1 Peter 1:2, 9, 10, 18, 19 (KJV)–

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin…If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
–1 John 1:7, 9 (KJV)–

Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
–Revelation 1:5 (KJV)–

—

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (BGEA, 1992).

The worship of creation
Seeming endless
But it will end
And every knee shall bow

Thoughts of a coincidental existence
And a futureless world corrodes into the
Spinal chord of the narcissistic man
A paradigm shift for worse
My ego is my god
Given authority by the enlightenment
Of science
The enlightenment of the age of freedom
Freedom – the name in which we legalize all
The name in which we tolerate all

Credibility for truth, image for substance
Weakness and failure
Unbearable elements in life
Subtly opposed through an endless flow of
Constantly replaced trends, neither allowed
To mature nor to fade
The surroundings
A mirror reflecting the signals
Of admiration that makes my identity
A constant egocentricity providing a
Purging of anything threatening popularity

The peak of this shallowness
Displayed by the so-called stars
In their quest for self-actualisation
This beautiful people experiencing
The illusion of narcissistic prosperity
Uncritically and boundlessly admired
Simply for their own sake

–Extol, “Paradigms”–

—

Dr. Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints (Zondervan, 1986), ch. 5: “Family.”

Dr. Hugh Pyle, The Truth About Rock Music (Sword of the Lord, 1985).

David Wilkerson, Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth (World Challenge, 1985), ch. 4.

The first testimony is from Ronald Reagan, an evangelist with Church of God (Cleveland, TN). The same as Mary K. Baxter, who published A Divine Revelation of Hell (Whitaker House, 1993). Howard Storm’s book is My Descent Into Death (Harmony, 2005). Storm was a pastor in United Church of Christ from 1992 until 2011, which is surprisingly enough, a mainline liberal denomination. Across the denomination, tolerance of the gay lifestyle seemed to have been a mixed bag, reaching it’s fully gay affirming position in 2011, the year that Storm retired. After his retirement, he continued to travel around and share his Hell experience in these increasingly liberal UCC churches. These testimonies were the precursors to Bill Wiese’s 23 Minutes In Hell (Charisma House, 2006). As far as I understand, Bill is a non-denominational evangelist. Along with the evangelistic ministries of Ray Comfort, Leonard Ravenhill, David Wilkerson, Paul Washer, and Andrew Strom–Wiese’s testimony has had a tremendous impact on my spiritual life. Rawlings’ book is unique in that it’s a collection of visions of Hell by a born again medical doctor. Visions and dreams of Hell have been written about for all of human history. We have a reference to them in Job 33:15-18: “In a dream, in a vision of the night…He may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing…to preserve them from the Pit.” These continued in medieval Europe after the Bible was written: Eileen Gardiner’s Visions of Heaven and Hell Before Dante (Italica Press, 1989). They were also journaled in the Great Awakenings. Such things come from the realm of the spirit, are timeless and eternal, are an interracial and international collective human experience, far exceeding the boundaries of the written word; and we have the most reliable references to them in the pages of the Bible: the divinely inspired, authoritative, inscripturated Word of God to mankind. –J.B.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
–James 1:26 (KJV)–

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:
not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
–John 14:27 (KJV)–

Experiencing the felt presence of God is absolutely essential to real Christianity. While I respect Dr. John MacArthur for grounding many pastors, readers, and radio listeners in a Biblical worldview, I simply can’t agree with the essence of his walk since he said, “I’ve never felt the presence of God. I don’t even know what that means.” Jesus spoke to such a man once. His name was Nicodemus. He said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But he didn’t understand what Jesus meant, he didn’t understand the spiritual analogy: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Now, at this point Nicodemus should’ve understood what Jesus was talking about. He explained what he meant, in both literal and symbolic analogical language. Nicodemus still didn’t understand. And the reason was the same as John MacArthur’s: both of these men probably had the same amount of theological education and status as religious leaders, but NEITHER of them had personal experience with the Holy Spirit. It makes me even wonder if MacArthur was saved, because Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” In other words, it seems to me that Jesus was saying that unless you know what its like to be Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, and yes, feel the presence of God (how else could you know?)…you cannot enter the kingdom of God! That’s another way of saying, “Saved and going to Heaven,” because the same language is used in 1 Corinthians 6:10: “Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Unrepentant dying criminals are put into this category. Its another way of saying these people will die and go to Hell for eternity. Jesus was surprised at Nicodemus! He really was surprised that he was basically a doctor in theology and had absolutely no experience of the Holy Spirit during his whole life: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:10).

I find the MacArthur phenomenon very disturbing in light of this fact. I had always been left with a depressed sort of feeling any time I’d run across his cessationist statements, but his blatant and even confident admission that he’d never felt God’s presence during his whole life, and to teach that nobody else ever has felt God’s presence, is absolutely alarming, sickening, patently false, and downright deistic. And it completely contradicts the histories of both Catholic monasticism and evangelical revivals. The Journals of George Fox, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Francis Asbury, and Charles Finney are filled with references to the felt presence of God. Much of the book of Psalms assumes the felt presence of God; as does every reference to the “Spirit” with a capital S in the Bible. What about the fruit of the Spirit? Never felt the presence of God? That would imply that the fruit of the Spirit has no emotional or felt component: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). Try proving to a judge in a courtroom that none of these aspects of the Holy Spirit can ever be felt; or that a saved person doesn’t even know what they mean! No way, real Christianity is a relationship with the Holy Spirit influencing our thoughts and feelings, and our reaching out and “feeling after him” through prayer, closed eyes and raised hands, contemplation, worship, singing, and Biblical obedience (Acts 17:27). This is what Jesus means when he says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” Not as the world giveth! The “world” is EVERYONE, nominal Christians and nominal non-Christians, who have no experience of the Holy Spirit! “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). Well, is this you? I hope so, because Jesus died on the cross and tore the veil of the temple for this.

All of you cessationists just need to repent and be converted, “that your sins” of unbelief may be “blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). You’re flirting with atheism. The words of Dr. William Wisner, the 19th century Presbyterian pastor, are enough to give anyone pause: “Never before had I beheld so solemn an assembly, and never, before or since, have I FELT SO DEEPLY THE AWFULNESS OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE” (Incidents in the Life of a Pastor, p. 76). He is not far from each one of us; so why don’t you just humble yourself and get rid of these anti-charismatic sentiments, and “draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you!” (James 4:8). Walking in near proximity to Jesus while he talked about the Bible with them, the disciples on the road to Emmaus shared their experiences of the presence of God. “They said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). We too should become familiar with talking about God’s presence with each other: it will only increase our faith in God, and our sensitive awareness of his felt presence in our lives.

—

Jonathan Edwards, “A Day of Fasting and Prayer for the Continuance and Increase of the Gracious Presence of God.” March 16, 1742.

—. The Religious Affections (Banner of Truth, 1961).

—. Jonathan Edwards on Revival (Banner of Truth, 1984).

—, ed. The Life and Diary of David Brainerd (Baker, 1978).

John Owen, Communion with God (Banner of Truth, 1991).

Matthew Henry, Experiencing God’s Presence (Whitaker, 1997).

Charles Finney, Experiencing the Presence of God (Whitaker, 2000).

A. W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God (Bethany House, 2010).

—. The Fire of God’s Presence (Baker, 2020).

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Whitaker, 1982).