April 28, 2018 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm PDT 

Ricci Wilson, Pastor John Chin, along with our California State Coordinator (SC) Joyce Simley and Assistant SC Laura Kent are hosting our Northern California Joel’s Army Rally! 

Location:

Convergence House of Prayer

220 Hammond Ave 

Fremont, CA 94539

Lunch provided!

Pre-registration Required 

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April 28, 2018 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm PDT 

Kin and Debbie Clark will join our Michigan State Coordinator Pat Panzer to host our first Michigan, Joel’s Army Rally! 

Location:

Concorde Inn

44315 N Gratiot Ave 

Clinton Township, MI 48036 

Pre-registration Required

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May 5, 2018 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm PDT 

Ricci Wilson, Pastor John Chin, along with our California State Coordinator (SC) Joyce Simley are hosting our Southern California Joel’s Army Rally! 

Location:

OC Chinese Christian Assembly

9881 Trask Ave 

Garden Grove, CA 92844

Lunch provided!

Pre-registration Required

I am going to be very vulnerable with you. There was a level that I was challenging God for in my walk with Him, and when I set my heart to that challenge, things around me began to happen. Some of the things that happened were so painful that I felt like I was being shattered into a million pieces. The storm got so thick and so long that I forgot that for which I was vying. I became so weary in the battle that I lost the vision of what I was even fighting for. It did not mean I turned away from God. I still fought for God, and I still wanted Him more than I wanted to breathe. Nevertheless, what began to build in my heart was a resentment over all the wars, and I did not even know it.

Several weeks ago, the Lord began to show me where resentment had come into my heart here and there through all the various battles. When we were in New Orleans, the battles were so incredibly intense. On top of everything else that I had to walk through, I was constantly, every single day, fighting for my virtual life until I became so physically weary that I did not know how I was going to be able to keep going. Battles happened around the circumference of my life. My daughter was severely injured three years ago; she just had surgery to hopefully fix that injury. There was intense suffering on her part and on mine. Just because you are a minister does not mean you quit being a Mom. I will not even go into all the things that were touched before God began to put His hand across the troubled waters. It felt like everything in my world was being shaken and shaken until I felt like I was blind. I could not even see through the fog.

I wondered, “Why didn't You protect my daughter, Ricci? Look what she has gone through. Look what her children have gone through because of this. Why?” I did not know there was just this little seed of resentment that had been sown into my heart. I honestly did not know. There was also a little seed over the struggle for life for the years that I lived in New Orleans. You just cannot know what it is like not to be able to breathe for four years unless you have lived there. It was horrible. I am still recuperating from what I went through in New Orleans.

The Lord finally brought me out of New Orleans and He brought me to a place where my physical being could begin to heal. When He got me to a certain place, He started dealing with the baggage that I picked up along the way. Every time He shed the light on another issue that caused contention in my heart, I cried and cried. The one thing I want to do is to do it right. I had wanted to do it right so badly that I ended up shoving things down left and right instead of dealing with them. That was, until I felt such a distance from the Lord that it was unbearable. I fasted, prayed, and pleaded with Him, “Please show me where all this began!”

Circumstances are going to come deliberately to cause offense in your heart before God. You cannot let the offense take root. You cannot just shove things down—you have to deal with them. When you feel offended or if you are offended with God, deal with it. He knows it before you ever say, “Lord, I'm offended with You.” Deal with it, and let Him help you through it. Because where there is offense toward a person or toward God, it is going to slow down your ascent.

Now as He dealt with this stuff that built up over those terrible years, He showered me with His love. He helped to strengthen what had become weak. But it can only happen as the light of truth touches that area. If you are not willing to let truth in to do what it needs to do, you will never be healed. You have to understand that during that period of time, I never quit chasing after God. It was not that kind of thing. I did not go back out into the world. However, there were these tiny barriers that built up in my heart, and it came out of fear. There was the fear that He may lead me into another storm, such as I had just come through, and I would not make it. Now that is an unreasonable fear, isn't it? But that is the kind of thing that comes up out of offense.

That is why I am being vulnerable with you. If you want to go deeper in God, learn to deal with your offenses properly. If you will do that, God will help you to not make the mistakes. Take truth very seriously. I cannot tell you enough: take truth seriously. Whether the Holy Spirit tries to correct you with truth or He sends someone to you to correct you with truth—love it. Love correction. Plead with God for His correction. I tell Him all the time, “You correct me where I'm wrong because I know that where there is contention. You are always right, and I am always wrong.” That is true of you as well. Cry out for the correction and then humble yourself deeply so that the correction can heal you. That is how you get to the next step, and the next step.

When God has done His work, your walk with Him will seem refreshed. That is what is happening with me. Now we are getting back to where we were, where I spend the hours, and I love every minute of it. Do not let your walk get old. Keep it fresh and alive. Do not lift yourself up in pride, stubbornness, self-righteousness or the things that hinder you from seeing His glorious face. Always go down low so that He can be lifted up. Keep your walk like a fresh morning spring that you want to go to every day.

Father, I pray that You will lead those reading this away from temptation and deliver them from evil. I pray that in Your shepherding of their souls, You will show them the light. Let them taste the fruit of truth, and may they find it a sweet thing that they desire very much. Father, strengthen them with grace to gain it, appropriate it, and to eat of this wonderful, delightful fruit.

I would save anyone from having to go through the fiery trials, Lord, except that I know these trials cause us to grow. As You begin to bring us out of the trials, if we keep our heart right, we will find years of growth that was kept hidden under the covering of the trial.

Lord, may they love Jesus above all else. Let Your Spirit come upon them even this very moment, and let Your Spirit renew its effort to teach them how to love Jesus more. We are so human, Lord, and we are so given to the ways of the flesh, but there is something from Your Spirit that is living and alive. It will carry those who yearn for Christ into the higher places, into the deeper places, and help them to dwell in what is real. I hunger and thirst for You, Lord. It is You that I want and long for, and I pray that you will put that fire in the heart of every person reading this. Those who have gone through the sifting of the trials and the burning cauldron and have felt almost a death come to their spiritual life, send Your own fire into their hearts. Revive us, Lord. I want a faith that is real.

I remember one time, in the midst of a fiery trial, Lord, You appeared to me. You asked me, “Nita, what is it you want from this?” I said, “I want to hand You, Lord, a beautiful vase that is ornately decorated with the emblems of this trial. I want the vase to be gold so that it will shine in Your face and glorify You, so that You will know that I chose to trust when it was so hard.” I will never forget the way You reacted. You began to smile. Your smile grew larger and larger until You became iridescent and translucent. I am so thankful that I said the right thing.

Birth in the hearts of those reading this, Lord, the grace to let You deal with their heart, even if it means going through a fiery trial, Lord. Deal with the hardness of the heart that keeps them separated from You. Give them faith to believe, hope to stand, and trust to walk. Pour heaven's substance into their hearts. Help us to understand, Lord, that the path into the Holy of Holies is the path of the cross. We must walk through it. We must learn to submit to it or we will never learn submission to the great King of glory. You told us to pick up our cross and come follow You! Pick it up! You want us to learn to submit to it and come follow You!

Thank You for my trials, Lord. Thank You for what I have gained from them. Thank You for what I learned about You in them. I would not trade any one of them for what You have taught me. Thank You for the trials. They are always given to make us strong and that we may be sharers in Your holiness. Put that same thankfulness in the hearts of those reading this, Lord. Teach us Your way, O God. Guide and direct us. Unite our hearts that we may fear and honor Your name. In Your precious Name, Amen.

In His Love,

Nita Johnson