I would like to start this newsletter off with a short update. A few weeks ago when around the time that I was thinking about doing this newsletter. I came back from work and felt the Holy Spirit urging me to call my wife. It was around 10-11 am my time and I never call around that time, so I pushed it off for the moment. But a few minutes later, the urge returned. So I went and called my wife and when she answered, she said that’s weird you called. I told her that I know, I rarely call her at this time. I only felt compelled to. She said, no, no. She was watching a woman on Tik Tok giving a message and the lady was saying “that your man hasn’t retuned cause God is not finished with him yet where he is at. And all that the lady said made my wife think of me. And at that moment I called her. I said, Honey, nothing is a coincidence with God. it is all part of His plan. Well, I asked her who the lady is? She told me her name is Yesenia Then and I came to find out that her ministry is in the DR and other parts of the world. So, I had mom order me 2 of her books and the one I am reading right now: “I dare you to grow” is helping me see a few things and it relates to this newsletter. I recommend you look into her books. Mind you, I don’t know much about her, just that her writing is very informative in a simple way. Well, here also is Jordan’s update, a short but powerful one. You might sometimes think, why would we complain or get angry about some minor things? Try day in and day out being treated like an animal and never or hardly getting “your way”. You can’t understand it if you haven’t gone through it. To feel like a worm and still have to be the light and salt of the earth. Well, that’s just it, if you are treated wrongfully and don’t curse or seek revenge, but love and bless those that despitefully treat you. Then you are being the light and salt of the earth and men will see it and that will glorify your Father in Heaven. Like today, 06/05 some guys were cussed out and threatened to be sprayed with pepper spray just because they wanted their milk exchanged because is was spoiled. A lieutenant cussed them out like if they were dogs and you could see the ignorance in this human being, a trader to mankind all for the love of money. That is what they say by the way. ” I am just doing my job”. Let’s see if that fly’s at the Great White Throne of Judgment. No one will have any excuse.
Jordan’s Update: Jordan called it being attacked by the devil, and he shared it at his Bible study group.
Last week they searched rooms and lockers, of everyone in my room (8 people) they took shelves from my locker. It sounds like a small thing but having no shelves makes it hard to be organized. The devil was bothering me so I would no see God’s blessings. I was out at the library so when I got back my stuff was dumped on my bed. You often feel shame or anger at this especially when you feel there was no reason for it to happen. I was not given shelves when I arrived, they told me there was none and just to look for some. Well, I found 2 and then they take them. I have to remind myself this is jail and always unfair. It took a few days complaining to God and myself, but it let me see things spiritually. Anyway, the same week I got commissary, God made it easy for me to find a job where I could be outside, I started going to class programs (these are all required to be in “good standing” and if I didn’t have to do it I wouldn’t be, but that’s what its like here) and I finally got my property. All those blessings happened but the devil made me want to think like ” I am doing right, I’m not trying to get away with anything or do wrong things in here. So why am I getting this happen to me? Basically, we wrongly think that if we do right we won’t have bad things happen to us, but if we look at Job’s story that is not true. Anyway, I have made it a joke and live with it. I have to reorganize things and when I get more food and blessed with more things, I just have to put them in the locker and hope they don’t fall out haha. God is overflowing me with blessings that I cannot contain.
Jordan.
Ok, now to the theme of this Newsletter.
This might seem like an odd name for newsletter. Please bear with me, I think there is something to learn here. I sure am.
You probably know by now that my name is Jonathan David and I am of the Grenon family. Let me show you what I believe is happening in my life.
Do you remember when Jesus our Lord would give names to His followers, more or less describing them? Take Simon Peter for example. Simon was his given name and the LORD gave him the name Peter when he was following Him. Also to describe who he wanted him to be. There are more examples, John and James were called the sons of thunder by Jesus. And we see in the Word of God later on, John is known as the beloved disciple. Whether John referred to himself as that or not, it still remains true to who he became. Don’t forget Saul became Paul. Also, in the Old Testament we see Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel and more. You see, the LORD sees who we will become and leads us on a path to become that man or woman. To become who He has made us to be. It does say in the Bible that He will give us a name that Him and I only know. In Revelation 2:17 it says-“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
This what I am about to explain is where I find myself in life. Going from Jonathan the man to David an anointed son of God. To be conformed to the image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. First, who is Jonathan in the Bible? And what was he like? In the Bible we will find more.
Jonathan was the son of Saul, Israel’s first king. He was the heir to the throne. When you study more on him, you will see that he was a very loyal man, to his father, to David, to his nation, to God. But why did he die young? Why couldn’t he at least have served with David, when he became king? I believe his spiritual growth halted when he decided to be loyal to the things of man, things of his father Saul. He remained loyal to Saul even when he knew that Saul was out of the will of God. You see, there comes a time in life when you must make a decision to follow God and His will for your life over everything and everyone. You will be put to the test. Sometimes the ways of the world are in tune with the ways of God and it is totally fine to adhere to man’s ways when it is that, Way. But for growth, to become who God made you to be, to become “David” am man after God’s own heart. We must take the path David was led on before becoming the man God wanted to be king.
So how do I relate to Jonathan’s life? These are observations of my own. I never have been in trouble with the “law”. So loyal to the laws of man.
I have followed my dad, Mark Grenon, in the mission work most of my life. Loyal to dad. I have told many ever since I was saved of the Love of Christ. Even Joe, my brother, as soon as I was saved. I grabbed him, shaking him, telling him that he needs to be saved because he was going to hell. I am scared for people, So I tell all people about Jesus. So also loyal to our Lord Jesus Christ. I was loyal and it was right to be. But the Saul in this story is man’s laws. They, the “government” told me to stop doing what the Lord Jesus commands us all to do. Preach the Gospel and heal the people. As Jonathan I wanted to stop, knowing what was to come. And that would have been the slow death of my spiritual growth. But God had other plans and began the transition from Jonathan to David in my life.
Now, what does that bring We can learn more from David’s story in the Word of God. I sum it up with the word persecution. David was pursued by his enemy. Saul wanted to kill him because he was jealous and envious of the anointed of the LORD. Now David didn’t become king right away, did he? Nope. Look at I Samuel 18:14, it says-” And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him.”
This is during the time when Saul tried to kill him and was very envious of him. And in verse 15 it says-” Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.”
When the enemy fears you. Do you think they will stop pursuing you? Not at all. The persecution will increase only more. When the levels of revelation, glory and integrity grow in us, the attack levels are also increased against us; this is because we become a higher threat to the devices and plans of darkness, then ever before. Sometimes the evidence of being effective at what God has called you to do is manifested in the intense battles you must continually wage. The sign that we have reached new levels of growth is the increase in pressure to which we are exposed. It’s all spiritual warfare, and it was for David also. He ends up running away and going to a cave, a “prison”, so to say. But many broken people came to him and there is where he started to learn on how to become a true leader. Through the suffering came forth the leader. There is so much more we can go into about David’s life. How he was far from perfect and made many mistakes. But what stands out about him is said in Acts 13:22-“And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all My will.
I will not compare myself to David, I believe to be the least in the kingdom of God. Maybe I think that because day in and day out, one just keeps being humiliated. So you see yourself in another light. Family doesn’t tell you all what they are doing, you hear surprises all the time. Your never really included in any decision making when before, everyone looked up to you. You are forgotten in many ways. I am not saying people don’t care, because they do show that they do. It’s just that your excluded out of most everything due to your circumstances. So, no one is to blame, it’s just what happens. Out of sight out of mind.
Now to become the man, the leader, God chose you to be. You must be set apart. Maybe I will write more on that next week. But getting back to what I have been writing about today. While in FDC Miami, one of the first guys I met when I arrived there and the one who was leading the prayer group. Said, after I was there a while and began teaching the Bible. “You remind me of David in the cave, many hurt and broken guys are flocking to you. (We wept together when he had to leave, a kindred spirit.) It got me thinking and studying more about David. And that is where I am now, I am in “David’s cave” learning how to be the man God anointed and chose me to be before I was born. While going through this, many broken men are around me looking for answers, looking for relief, looking for God. I do my best to show and tell them of the Love of Christ and how to walk in His will. So, I hope you can see what I am trying to explain, as the story isn’t over yet, I’m still in it.
Thank you all for your time, prayers, and support for us and our families. Dad and Joe don’t have direct communication with Jordan and I, figures. To divide and conquer is their thing. Maybe one day they can feel what it is like, well if it is the LORD’s will of course. It just might bring them to Him, cause suffering can do that.
God bless us all
Jonathan David
A servant of the LORD