Speaker: John Simon

 Series: May 2015

 Scripture: Job 38:1-7

The visiting minister, Brother John Simon, pastors a Message of the Hour flock in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A father of 3 children and grandfather of 4, Pastor John Simon is currently 70 years old and has been ministering from the early age of 14. Even before he received the Message of the Hour, the minister was deeply sincere and committed to God, and it was this depth of sincerity which earned him an Assemblies of God scholarship to study for three years at their theological college. It was while he was studying at college that a most notable thing happened. Someone stuck two unique books under his door. He read the two little books and they changed his entire outlook. He shared the news with fellow students at the college, and a revival broke out at that college. Shortly after, the minister received invitations from other veterans in the Message like Pastor Coleman. He preached for Pastor Perry Green and subsequently went to Guyana, South America, where he originally comes from. His life story shows that he is not a flash in the pan, as they say, or a Johnnie-come-lately. As happens with spiritual matters, the minister had a burden on his heart which was confirmed by another visiting minister’s greeting to the church. Pastor Vicky Abrahams of Kimberley, South Africa, conveyed greetings from the local church and spoke on the need for continued fellowship with God. Moreover, the minister had longed to come to South Africa, but was just waiting on God to open the doors. When Pastor Isaiah Brooks came over to Hamilton at the local church’s dedication and offered to go with him to South Africa, Pastor John Simon realised it was now God’s season for him to come to South Africa. Having received confirmation of his message for the morning, Pastor John Simon announced the title of his sermon as God’s attributes in Fellowship. The minister started off with the Prophet’s light-hearted definitional perspective on fellowship as simply two fellows in one ship. The idea is that where there is fellowship, there is unity. He noted how sports like football are used to unify people. A national team of a certain country may be composed of people of different races, who may not see eye to eye at a personal level, but happen to be harnessed by sporting events to achieve a greater good for their nation. Music is also used to accomplish a given purpose by uniting all the different people concerned. The same applies to food. The minister cited the example of a notable Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a top company who patronises a particular drinking place and meets up with a common man and they start sharing drinks until they unite and forget about their social differences. But the greatest of all unifying factors in the world is the Holy Ghost, which is new wine, which unites God’s people for God’s glory. The minister honestly pointed out the serious problems in the framework of the Message of the Hour. These problems have caused the loss of Brotherly Love and Fellowship among believers. He lamented, through the Spirit, the problems of criticising one another in churches, of backbiting and backstabbing, of categorising people and ministries and gifts and petty jealousies among the congregations, of undermining the influence of one another, of church jumping by believers who hop from one congregation to another while staying under a perpetual state of wondering about what the ministry is doing like typical wandering stars, of pastoral ministers who shun the dirty work of cleaning the fish which they catch for fear of smelling “fishy” like the very fish they should be dealing with, of the general absence of trust and loyalty in the believers resulting in some not paying tithes to the ministries that sustain them spiritually, like someone who eats at Nandos and decides to pay for the same food at Grillos restaurant. There are problems of stubbornness resulting from the mule spirits upon the people. Much as the mule has long ears but fails to hear, there are people with a huge thirst for just hearing new things, but act stubborn against the Word like a real mule. There are pastoral abuses of office, where pastors want to control the people like it is their own business apart from God. There are toxic teachers and abusive pastors who give the flock foot and mouth disease, standing on wrong principles and walking in wrong spiritual direction while spewing poison from the mouth as means of spreading the foot and mouth infection. There is lack of revelation among teachers and pulpits that are building empires around themselves instead of gathering believers for Christ. There are demons desiring to worship fellow men, as evidenced by people who baptise in the Name of the Prophet. There are people who are exploiting dollar power to preach fairy tales which are not related to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual sight is gone, and people now see two lords instead of one who is the one God of Israel as mentioned in the law that Hear ye all Israel, I the Lord Your God am One. It seems like someone has hit the preachers with a three-cornered knob-Kerrie which causes them to see more than one reality. They see a motor bike with one headlight as a car with two headlamps flashing. And they see a car with both front light flashing and assume it is motorbikes, and they want to walk in between the two lights. These people are jack-asses with the stubborn spirit of the mule on them. They resist handshakes with other fellow believers, and pretend to act as strangers one to another. It is high time we realised our position in the body of Christ and not wish someone to fall so that we may rejoice at that. We must notice our roles, and note the differences, and realise that like a rainbow, we are different in our own unique ways, but when we are combined together in our individual differences we produce a rainbow that is beautiful. The minister cast out all these demons from the people, and prayed that God deliver the people who are practising or following any of the follies highlighted. In order to fellowship together, we need revelation which comes under the inspiration of the ministry of the angel of Revelation 10:1. In the book of Job, God is showing us the scene of a father surrounded by his children. It is as if God has set up his High Chair of divinity there in the middle, and is enjoying seeing children run around his throne. It is like the ordinary father’s favourite chair which he loves to sit on in the home. And from that seat he is surveying the children enjoying themselves around the house. We fellowshipped together with God before the foundation of the world. Adam and Eve fellowshipped with God in the Garden of Eden. Melchizedek came down and met Abraham for the purpose of fellowship. The Lord Jesus Christ fellowshipped for 3.5 years with the disciples during his earthly ministry. Then the apostles continued with the theme of fellowship as the Holy Ghost acted out in them what restored sons and daughters of God should do. But why did God’s children rejoice in that scripture in Job? Why did they shout for joy? They rejoiced as they saw the Father laying the cornerstone. They rejoiced seeing themselves come back to earth to take up bodies of flesh in order to manifest the Lord Jesus Christ. They rejoiced seeing the whole panaromic view of the 7 Church Ages. They rejoiced to see the opening of the 7th Seal and witness the coming down of the Lord. They were happy to marry the Lamb Himself. They were happy to be in communion with the Lamb directly. They were happy to marry the boss’s son, according to the story of the rancher whose son desired a wife from among the girls in the father’s ranch. When a boy wants a girl in the minister’s schooldays, he would write a note to her and send it through his friend. And when the girl gives signals that she is interested in the boy, then the boy actually comes in the open to speak for himself. He no longer goes through the friend this time around. He goes directly. He only used the friend at the beginning when he wanted to sound the girl out, for fear of being embarrassed at outright rejection. Now that the ministry of the 7th church age messenger is over, we have direct access to the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s children rejoiced at that open door of access to God.