DO YOU HAVE FEAR? TURN IT AROUND!

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary




I never will forget how I used to be bullied before I learned how to fight. When I was in the 9th grade, there was this one bunch of hooligans that threatened me all the time back when I was a kid in Bell Gardens High School in East LA. This one chick, I think her name was Alice was known as the school bicycle, which meant everybody got a ride. She had these punks that followed her around and did whatever she told them to do. One was named Barry and the other I can’t remember and there was some other guy whose name slips my mind also. They kept pushing me around and Alice told me every day I was going to get my a** kicked. She kept saying “It’s coming down soon,” and crap like that until one day as I was on my bike riding home her boys all jumped out in front of me and knocked me off my bike. Alice appeared from behind a bush and said “I told you it was coming! Today’s the day punk!” She then said to her boys, “Kick his a**!” All three of her guys moved towards me at her command. At that point I had to make a choice; I could keep my fear and be dead meat, or I could cast out the fear and fight! I had a split second to react and all of a sudden the fear left. I grabbed my chain that I used to lock my bike at school, and I didn’t wait for them to reach me, as I swung the chain hitting one of the guys right in the face. He screamed like a little girl and ran off crying! Then that Barry guy ran as fast as he could and all I saw was his white sneakers disappearing around the corner like greased lightning! The other guy was no where to be found either. They left their girlfriend Alice all by herself who was screaming and crying and begging me not to hit her! I would never hit a girl but I told her she best leave me alone or the next time she wouldn’t be so lucky. I told her to “Git, git, git, git, git,” and she ran away as fast as she could. Those punks never messed with me again and when they saw me at school they avoided me.

The point behind this story is fear is never good. Fear can keep you down, make you a coward, and destroy you. God’s word says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but one of power, love and a sound mind.” Since God did not give us fear that means it could only come from one other source and that is Satan himself. We don’t need anything that comes from him! You see fear had me falsely believing that Alice’s boys where tough, bad, and invincible. When David was a little shepherd boy armed only with a sling and he saw Goliath the giant, he did not fear him. He looked at his size and was not thinking about how fast he could flee from the giant without him catching him, but instead he was thinking that because of his size the giant Goliath would make an easy target to take down!

We need to stop fear dead in its tracks and realize God gave us power! Matthew 28:18 says all power has been given to Jesus, and Philippians 4:13 says we can do ALL things through Jesus who gives us strength! Therefore if you believe God at His word then you have nothing to fear!

I could have kicked myself for all the times I allowed fear to rule over me when I was a kid, and it wasn’t until that day I took care of Alice’s boys, that I realized I didn’t have to be afraid anymore. You don’t either. Stand up to those who bully you! Take a stand against those who push you around. Stand your ground and say I will not be moved!

When African-American’s finally had enough of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists in the South who bullied them and kept them down, they all took a stand against hate and marched into towns in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi singing “We Shall Not Be Moved!” As a result and many sacrifices, today the civil rights African Americans didn’t have for years because of fear, they now have! Another song African Americans sang while marching against the injustice of the white supremacist system, was “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around!” They didn’t and they turned the entire system around. They all marched right into Birmingham Alabama and right up to one of the most notorious racists of all time, Police Commissioner Bull Connor singing that song. Connor turned the fire hoses on them, had them arrested and even turned the police dogs loose on them. In spite of this they just kept coming back singing, “Ain’t gonna let Bull Connor turn us around, turn us around turn us around, ain’t gonna let Bull Connor turn us around, I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin' Marchin' up to freedom's land!”

If you are living in fear, stop it now and turn it around! That is the only way you can have true freedom!

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world! 1 John 4:4

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

Excuse me, "Are you Jesus?"

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional
sales convention in Chicago .. They had assured their
wives that they would be home in plenty of time for
Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and
briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked
over a table which held a display of apples.
Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking
back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for
their nearly-missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in
touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of
compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been
overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved
good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they
arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a
later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the
apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.

The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly
crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and
at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled
produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping
and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up
the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize
her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them
had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in
another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said
to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we
did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He
continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too
badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered
blind girl called out to him, "Mister....." He paused and
turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued,
"Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered.
Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that
question burning and bouncing about in his soul:
Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our
destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people
cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a
world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as
He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting
Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the
Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too,
have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was
doing and picked up you and me on a hill called
Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really
need to be sharing what we know. God has blessed us!

"Success means having the heart, the valour, and the will to become the person God meant for you to be!" Johnny Lee Clary

“Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don’t believe it because it’s not the truth they want to hear.” ~Helena Cassadine

IT ALWAYS HURTS TO SAY GOODBYE

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary


My father –in-law passed away today and I was thinking about him. He had Alzheimer’s and was in a rest home for the last three years of his life. At first he knew me because I would go with my wife every few days and visit with him. However as my traveling schedule increased, my visits got few and far between. Over the last year whenever I would drop in he didn’t know me. As I was packing and getting ready to go on my 2010 Tour of Australia, I fully intended to go visit him as I have every year before I leave just in case something happens. I always bring him back a ball cap or something, and this year was going to be no different. However, I got so busy with packing, schedules, last minute preparations and being in a hurry to catch the plane I forgot all about going to tell him goodbye and didn’t remember until I was long gone. I remember back in 1995 I was on the road and traveling to a speaking engagement in Mississippi when my grandmother got sick and I fully intended to go see her as soon as I got back home but by then it was too late, as she had went home to be with Jesus.

It always hurts to say goodbye especially when we have to say it to someone we love. It can be very painful to be separated from a loved one. It is never fun to stand at the airport waving goodbye to someone you love or watching as the U-Haul truck pulls away from the curb as people wave goodbye. Although Graduation Day is supposed to be a celebration of achievement, it is also a sad day as students are saying goodbye to friends that have been with them every day for years. It is not unusual to cry when watching a video that shows someone we had to say goodbye to.

Paul was no stranger to the word goodbye. In Acts 20, he met with the spiritual leaders of Ephesus. It hurt him and them that he had to go away and would not see them anymore. Verses 36 and 37 tells how Paul knelt down on the beach with all of them and they prayed together and everyone put their arms around him and kissed him goodbye. The same thing happened at Tyre a few months later, as described in Acts 21:5-6.

It hurts to have to say goodbye to those we care about and love. When one of my mentors, Rev. Wade Watts, who was also my close friend passed away, I remember patting him on the shoulder as he lay in his coffin and said, “This is not goodbye, it is just so long for right now. I will see you again.” As Christians we can take comfort in knowing that if the person departing was also a Christian then we don’t have to say goodbye. All we have to say is “so long” for right now because we will see them again when we all get to Heaven and what a day of rejoicing that will be!

In Revelations 21:1 John was describing the New Jerusalem and was excited that the sea was gone. Why was he so excited about that? Well you see he had written the book of Revelation while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. The sea was what separated him from the people that he loved. In Heaven there is no sea and no separation, therefore we will never have to say goodbye to loved ones again!

I am looking forward to seeing my father-in-law, Mr. Bob Edwards again. Next time I see him, he will not have Alzheimer’s either and will be in his glorified body. I will see Rev. Wade Watts who will have both of his legs and be cancer-free! I will see my grandmother who will be in her glorified body and will be able to hear me without her hearing aids! My wife is sad that her father has gone on in one way, but she is happy in another way because she knows his suffering his over and he is enjoying himself now. Right before he passed away, my mother-in-law was by his side and was patting him and telling him, “It’s Ok, you can go home to be with Jesus now. I’ll be Ok.” Right after she said that he took his last earthly breath and went home. My wife had been praying that same thing over him for the last several days because she knew it was time for him to go be with the Lord.

That is the difference between the non-believer and the Christian. If someone is not a Christian they have no chance of ever seeing those they love again. A Christian does however. If you are a Christian look forward to the day when you will never have to be separated from people you love ever again!

FEELING REJECTED

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

I saw a bumper sticker the other day and it said, “Be Kind To Nerds: You Will Probably End Up Working For One!” You may not remember the nerd you used to bully and pick on in school, but he will remember you if you ever apply for a job at the corporation that he ends up owning or managing. It is a fact of life that sometimes the nerdiest guy in school ends up becoming a successful corporation president or owner. It is also a fact that the girl who was considered a dork and was picked on by the good looking “mean girls” who ruled the school, will probably end up becoming a high class success and have beauty treatments that transforms her into a model-type beauty queen while the mean girls become chubby soccer moms.

As you go through life you will encounter people that the in-crowd labeled as losers and totally rejected but they end up becoming extremely successful.

Jesus was sort of like that. Psalm 118:22 talks about “the stone that the builders rejected.” That is Jesus. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day labeled him as a troublemaker and even blasphemed his works attributing them to Satan. They would not believe that He was who He said He was and sought to kill Him. But Jesus was the real deal! The church leaders of His day thought He was just an old chunk of coal, but the truth was Jesus was the purest, most sparkling, highest grade diamond that ever existed.

You may have been rejected at school, at home, by a sports team, by someone you liked, by an “in-crowd” or even by a church group. Maybe they made you feel like an old chunk of coal, instead of a sparkling diamond. If that is the case I say to you, don’t give up on God or yourself! God loves you and knows your potential. He will never leave you nor forsake you! He is waiting to mold and shape you into the shiny new diamond that He knows you can be. You have to trust Him!

ARE CHRISTIANS PERMITTED TO JUDGE?

by Rev. Johnny Lee Clary



I can not even begin to guess how many emails I have gotten over the last few months from someone saying to me, “Judge not lest ye be judged also.” That seems to be the only scripture the secular world seems to know. People who do not even respect God enough to go to church and worship Him think they know it all because they heard that there is a scripture that says, “Judge not!”

The question is: “Are Christians permitted to judge?” The answer is not only are Christians permitted to judge according to the Bible, but it also teaches it is our responsibility to judge. No one is above being judged. We are to make judgments everyday. We are to judge our elected officials as to whether or not they are doing the job that they were elected to do and if they are not then we vote them out of office. You are an irresponsible person if you do not make this judgment. As parents we are to judge what type of friends our children are hanging around because friends can be the biggest influence on children especially teenagers. The Bible says “Bad company corrupts good character.” If you do not make judgments on the friends your child is keeping company with then you are one lousy parent. If you are a teacher, it is your job to judge the student to see if he or she is performing up to standard. You would be one sorry teacher if you just passed a kid onto the next level if you didn’t take the time to judge and see if that child actually learned what he was supposed to learn. As an employer, you have to make a judgment on who to hire or fire, and who to promote or demote. You would be one lousy boss and would be helping to bring your company to ruin if you hired or promoted someone that wasn’t qualified for the job. I mean you wouldn’t hire a hooked-on-drugs junkie that dropped out of school in the 8th grade and that had been in and out of jail to come in a be your bank’s executive board director would you? You wouldn’t hire some waitress that dropped out of school in the 9th grade and had been waiting tables down at the Dew Drop Inn, to come be your chief surgeon at the hospital to perform brain surgery would you?

What if we didn’t judge the German Concentration Camp guards who carried out the extermination of six million Jews? What if we didn’t judge Ted Bundy when he was on a nationwide killing spree where he claimed to have raped and killed a hundred women? What would you do if society would have said, “Judge not” and let him go on living in society doing whatever he wanted to do?

Two of the biggest responsibilities we have as Christians is to judge influential leaders whether that be in politics or the pulpit.

Luke 12:48 says authority and accountability go hand in hand; the higher the office the higher the accountability. This was practiced in the Bible when you read Duet. 13 where it says the Israelites were commanded to test and to judge their leaders. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 Paul says to test and judge all things and hold on to what is judged as good. People quote the “Judge not” scripture which is found in Matthew 7: 1-5. Jesus was counseling followers not to judge someone self-righteously, but then Jesus said in John 7:24 that we are to make a right judgment. There is a difference between self-righteous judgment and making a good clear right judgment. Why if it were not for judging, then how would we ever apply justice? Some punk robs a mom and pop general store, shoots the old couple to death and then goes on a killing spree and kills 7 more people before being arrested by the cops, and someone is going to have the nerve to say we should not judge him? Bullcrap! Thank God for our ability to make a right judgment so we can give this guy the electric chair ands make sure he never kills another human being again. Those of you who disagree and think he should be rehabilitated and turned loose again into society I bet would feel different about judging him if he had shot and killed your mother and father and raped and killed your children. Jesus commanded us to make a right judgment! Remember that God works through people.

Furthermore, in the church we are commanded by Jesus to judge false prophets, whose teachings and behavior lead people astray. Matthew 7:15-20. My gosh, imagine if we didn’t judge a guy like the Rev. Jim Jones of the People’s Temple who led a thousand people to Jonestown, Guyana and made them drink Kool-Aid with cyanide committing mass murder and suicide ? What if we didn’t judge some of those old perverted priests that were molesting altar boys? What if we didn’t judge Ted Haggard who was pasturing a 15,000 member church when it was revealed that he was having homosexual affairs with male prostitutes and just let him keep on pasturing the church? Anthony Venn-Brown used to be a pastor in a large denomination and in charge of Youth Alive working with young boys. He left his wife and kids for another man and is a perverted old creep that tells children “being gay is OK.” Anthony Venn-Brown is an active recruiter for the gay rights movement pushing the homosexual agenda on the little children. What if Australian Christians didn’t judge him? As a parent you need to make right judgments for the safety of your child. I mean was Jim Jones, or is Venn-Brown, or Ted Haggard the type of guy you want your children to be around? If you are a responsible parent not only you would never allow your children to be around these men, but you would never allow these men to preach to you from the pulpit.

Apostle Paul publicly rebuked Hymenaeus and Philetus saying their teachings spread like gangrene in 2 Timothy 2:17-18, and he got up in Peter’s face and rebuked him for hypocrisy in Galatians 2:11-14.

Use your head people! Common sense should prevail! Responsibility is making the right types of judgments! Many years ago doctors determined that the use of tobacco was harmful and causes cancer. The Surgeon General issued warnings that smoking could cause death. At the same token when a cancer is unleashed within the Christian community, we as Christians are required to warn the public. Failure to do so will result in the blood being upon our hands. Ezekiel 3:18

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

How To Deal With Discouragement

Discouraging Dipsticks

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

Most of you have been discouraged by others at least once in your life. Sometimes people can be vicious and cruel and make people feel so discouraged they feel like throwing in the towel. God does not want you discouraged. He wants you encouraged! He is on your side. No where in the Bible does it say, “Therefore brethren go discourage one another.” As a matter of fact it says just the opposite; to go encourage one another. (I Thessalonians 5:11)

Dr. Josef Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister was perhaps Adolph Hitler’s most valuable man. He once said if you repeat a lie often enough people will begin to believe it. That is how he got almost the entire nation of Germany to hate the Jews by telling lies about them. The Bible says Satan is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44) He will use people to discourage you because he does not want you to succeed. Why? Because if you succeed in fulfilling God’s calling upon your life then you damage his kingdom of darkness severely.

I think back of what would have happened if I would have believed all of the discouragement that came my way. My step-grandfather was one of the worst. When I was 18 I hit bottom and was trying to pull myself up, but every time I tried he said something in an attempt to knock me back down. I had been living poor without anything since I was 11 years old when my father had died. I was sent away by my mother to go live with my sister who was on drugs and was forced to live poor as she spent all of my inheritance money on dope and an alcoholic boyfriend she let move in to live off of my money. I dropped out of school in my senior year, left the ghetto of East LA out in California, packing up an old 1960 Chevy Impala car I had and traveled back to Oklahoma. When I arrived in Oklahoma I got a job in a service station only making $2.10 an hour but at least I was trying. My car broke down and I needed a ride and asked the step-grandfather if he could come get me. He picked me up after work and he had my little brother in the car with him. I climbed into the back seat and he turned to my little brother and said, “Let Johnny Lee be a lesson to you to stay in school and amount to something so you don’t turn out to be a bum like him, up there rolling around in grease for $2.00 an hour. He will always be a bum and will never amount to anything. At least you will be the good one.” I hung my head in shame. It hurt me to be downgraded and discouraged like that.

Thank God even as a sinner back then that I had enough sense not to listen to that old fart that was married to my grandmother. I got my act together, dropped back into high school, all the while keeping my job at the service station at night, got a decent place to live, graduated high school and went on to junior college. Yes I made a ton of mistakes along the way and lived a life of sin and almost destroyed myself many times, until I finally gave my heart to Jesus Christ 21 years ago and entered the ministry. Today I am ordained as an elder minister in the largest African American denomination in the USA even though I am White; I travel all over the world speaking to huge crowds, winning untold thousands upon thousands to Christ; hold record numbers of salvations and church attendance numbers in Australia and New Zealand; am married to a beautiful woman of God; have written a book; recorded music; have appeared on many well known TV shows all over the world; headlined newspapers; was a professional wrestling champion; and I am in negotiations for a movie on my life.

Just think, if I had of listened to the step-grandfather I would probably be dead or in prison today. I often find that people who discourage others are usually trying to take the focus off of their own failures. That was true in the step-grandfather’s case. He was a overweight drunk, an abusive husband to my grandmother, and an habitual gambler who gambled away my grandmother’s home and their life savings, forcing her to live in poverty leaving her nothing but debt when he died. He was a failure at life and he vented his anger at his own self upon me. He died the same year I graduated and when I graduated from high school he never told me congratulations and he refused to come to my ceremony. Remember people that do not succeed in life also do not want you to succeed.

I made up my mind a long time ago to believe God and not man. Man will tell you that you are a failure, and God will tell you that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. (Philippians 4:13)

Whose report do you believe; God’s or man’s?

When God told Noah to build an ark he listened to God and got to work building it. There were those who tried to discourage Noah and made fun of him until the flood came as God had promised. They were left outside to drown in their own discouragement while Noah and his family survived because he listened to God and not the discouragers.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. (Psalm 1:1)

In spite of God proving time and time again that He is for us there are still those today that choose to listen to the negative ninnies, and then get discouraged. Maybe someone has been telling you things like “You will never amount to anything,” “You can’t be healed,” “Healing was for those back in Jesus’ day but not for today,” “You are going to go broke,” “You can’t do any better than that person so you better get married to them, “ “You will never be a businessman so you better get used to digging ditches,” “You are going to lose,” and “”Don’t listen to those faith people as they are all of the Devil.”

Losers do not want to see you succeed. They will discourage you. Winners do want to see you succeed so they will encourage you.

Your biggest supporter that is cheering you on is God! The word says “If God be for you then who can be against you?” (Romans 8:32)

Stop listening to those negative ninnies! Kick those discouraging dipsticks to the curb! PUT YOUR TRUST IN GOD, not them for He will never fail you nor will He ever leave you! (Hebrews 13:5)

© Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries All Rights Reserved

"Success means having the heart, the valour, and the will to become the person God meant for you to be!" Johnny Lee Clary

Memories Of My Friend Billy Joe Daugherty

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary






Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty
April 23rd, 1952-Nov. 22nd, 2009

Today is a very sad day for me. As I write this on Nov. 22nd, 2009, I just received news an hour ago that after a month long battle with cancer, Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty, one of the world’s best known pastors, passed away early this morning and moved up to his eternal home in heaven. He was 57 years old. He was my pastor for many years before I moved away from Tulsa in 2007. He was not only my pastor, but my mentor and my personal friend. He pastured one of the largest churches in the nation, Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

This man was my friend. No , I can’t claim that I was one of his closest friends in the world, or that I was a part of his inner circle of best friends, but I did share a friendship on a personal level with him that was very valuable and taught me a lot about living a life for God. I would like to share some of those memories I have of him with you if you will let me.

Billy Joe Daugherty believed in me when others did not. I was the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and I quit the Klan and came to his church in 1990. I dedicated my life to God and learned under his ministry. Still there were those who believed that God would never save a former KKK member and certainly would not use him in the ministry. There were a few people who wanted me to leave but Billy Joe wanted me to stay. He had me preach for him several times and even lost a few church members who resented him continuing to support me and have me preach from his pulpit. He never abandoned me as a friend, even when I was hard to love. We once had a disagreement back in 1998, and I didn’t speak to him for a few months. He called me up on the phone and I was sort of rude to him, but he said, “Johnny I am thinking of you, I love you, miss you and you are always welcome back at the church. If I have done anything wrong to you Johnny, please forgive me.” With arrogance, I thanked him for calling and didn’t ask him for forgiveness.

A few weeks later, a girl who was a close friend of mine who attended Billy Joe’s church, committed suicide. I was devastated. I was thinking about walking away from the ministry about the time this happened. I was driving my car with tears in my eyes, when suddenly I felt the need to talk to Billy Joe. As I pulled up in front of his house, he walked out onto the front porch in his socks, and in spite of all I had said and did to him, he held his arms out to hug me as I walked up onto his porch. We sat and talked for the longest time, and he explained things to me that I don’t believe anyone else could have at that point in my life. I asked forgiveness for the way I had treated him. He forgave me and still believed in me. I asked him if I could come back to the church and he said “Of course you can!” Not only did I come back but he put me in the ministerial fellowship of International Charismatic Bible Ministries on which he was on the board. He made a beautiful video in 2006 about choosing to forgive in which featured himself, me and the late Rev. Wade Watts that you can see on youtube.com.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtyJId_620c


Pastor Billy Joe loved me and taught me the ways of God, and not the ways of man. There are some people who are on this earth today who can give a special prayer of thanks to God for Billy Joe taking the time to help me grow in God, because if it were not for what Billy Joe invested in me, some of them would have had broken jaws, their butts kicked, their houses burned down and maybe even worse because of what they did to me. I wasn’t exactly a nice little wimp when I was head of the KKK. I had been used to being a leader and in gang life all my life, in addition to being a pro wrestling champion, so it would take me awhile to renew my mind after I got saved and some church people did not take this into consideration. They kept pushing me on more than one occasion simply because either they were jealous of my ministry or just plain didn’t like me. Billy Joe was always there and saw it for himself and Billy Joe always told me, “Johnny Lee, see to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:15)

He never got bitter at anyone. I used to needle at him sometimes just to see how far I could push his buttons but he never lost his cool. At the church one night, I showed up with a whoopee cushion, a hand buzzer and some other things I purchased at a novelty joke shop. I went to shake his hand with that hand buzzer and he jumped about 4 feet in the air, but he didn’t get mad. A rather large lady did though when I placed the whoopee cushion in her seat and she told Billy Joe I needed to act my age and not my shoe size! Ha Ha! I got Pastor Sharon with the hand buzzer too and Billy Joe came looking for me outside the entrance door and then told me to behave myself! He didn’t get mad and said it with a half smile but I didn’t bring the joke stuff back to church anymore after that either. He was a pastor to me in making sure I was taught the word of God and since I have a worldwide public ministry also, he took the time to make sure that I represented Jesus in the right way. After all, I was a member of his church and whatever I did reflected on him. He made sure I was grounded in God’s word before releasing me into the ministry. He ordained me. He supported me. He was mentor to me and even when busy he took the time to call if I needed him or to go to lunch with me. He chastised me when I needed it and encouraged me when I needed it. There was that time that my ex-girlfriend Cynthia and I showed up at the church picnic with non-alcoholic beer and I teased Billy Joe asking him if he would like a beer! He gave me this look and then we told him it was non-alcoholic. He made the point to me that we knew that, and now he knew that, but does everyone else know that one of the ministers was drinking non-alcoholic beer? He explained about abstaining from the appearance of evil and causing people to be a stumbling block. ( 1 Thess. 5:22; Romans 14:13) I put it away after that.

He used to do imitations of Flipper the Dolphin when he preached years ago, and he could do that like no other. I bought him a Flipper ink pen that made the Flipper sound when you pressed the button. He got the biggest kick out of that. Then there was the time it snowed during a Wednesday night service and I ran outside after church and made snowballs and was pelting people and people were inside the door and told Pastor Billy Joe I was on the loose with snowballs. He came outside and made some of his own and threw them back at me. Being a former football player he had better aim than I did! I lost that battle!

Billy Joe used to take me with him to go do crusades in the low-income projects of North Tulsa, which is about 99% African American. I walked around knocking on doors with him to invite people to the tent revival. I never will forget what happened. He knocked on a door where you could smell the marijuana smoke and three big black dudes who looked like gang members came to the door and Billy Joe said “Praise the Lord guys! Look who I have here! I want you to meet the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan!” My heart almost dropped. I was not packing a gun and the first thought in my mind was “I’m dead!” Then one of the Black guys threw open the door, and reached out towards me and smiled and said, “Hey I saw you on TV! Let me shake your hand!” Two of the men came to the tent and listened to my testimony and gave their lives to Jesus when Billy Joe gave the alter call. He always was led of the Holy Spirit and seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

The first time Billy Joe invited me to preach for him at Victory to do a Sunday night service, I asked him if I could invite Rev. Wade Watts to come speak with me. He said that was a great idea! There was a group of people who attended Victory that hated me and they began to pray against the meeting and for God to open Billy Joe’s eyes as to what kind of evil person I was and to cancel the meeting. Of course they were praying this behind Pastor Billy Joe’s back. They didn’t dare say it to him. The meeting was advertised all over town and there was a big flashing marquee in front of the ORU Mabee Center that had our names on it. The KKK in Tulsa got wind of the meeting and sprung into action. Two twin brothers, Dennis and Daniel Mahon who were once my right hand guys when I was in the Klan, snuck into ORU Mabee Center and being experienced electricians they burned out the wiring system causing $300,000.00 worth of damages. There were no lights in the building when we pulled up in front and fire trucks were everywhere. The people who were praying against the meeting were dancing and jumping up and down slapping each other the “high five” thanking God for answering their prayers and canceling the meeting. $300,000.00 damage and these so-called “Christians” were celebrating! They celebrated too soon though, as Pastor Billy Joe drove up and told us to move everything across the street to the gymnasium and we would have the meeting there. Being a denominational pastor, Rev. Watts was not raised in the word of faith circles. He was not familiar with positive confessions all the time so when Pastor Billy Joe walked in the room, Rev. Watts stood to his feet, and said, “Pastor Billy Joe, I’ve been to Alabama and the Devil was there. I’ve been to Mississippi and the Devil was there. I’ve been to Georgia and the Devil was there. Now I’ve come here to Oral Roberts University, and the Devil is here.” Pastor Billy Joe immediately looked at Rev. Watts and said, “No Sir Rev. Watts! The Devil is not here! We ran the Devil out of here! We are giving no ground to the Devil! This place belongs to Jesus and we give Him glory!” Rev. Watts said “Oh OK.” I took Pastor Billy Joe aside and said, “Billy Joe, Rev. Watts doesn’t understand the Word of Faith,” and Billy Joe said, “I had to say something to him otherwise he would have went out there on that stage and told everyone that and would have alienated half that crowd.” Billy Joe was 100% right. Rev. Watts gave to no credit to the Devil that night when he spoke. We had 2000 in attendance and 200 people got saved at the altar call! To God Be The Glory like Billy Joe said!

As for the wiring job the Mahon’s did to ORU’s Mabee Center, the insurance cut a check for a million dollars and ORU rewired the entire Mabee Center and was able to purchase some additional items that were needed too! Dennis Mahon drove over to Billy Joe’s house one night and claimed to have put White Supremacist racist literature all over Billy Joe’s house and under the windshield wipers of their family vehicles. He also bragged that he cut one of Billy Joe’s tires on his car. I told Mahon he needed to get his life right with Christ and repent and he refused. Billy Joe told me to stay away from Mahon because he was crazy and to have nothing else to do with him. I followed Billy Joe’s advice and never spoke to Mahon again. In the spring of 2009, the FBI surrounded the home of both Dennis and Daniel Mahon in an early morning dawn raid and arrested them both as they were charged with mailing a letter bomb to a Black man in Arizona which exploded, crippling his hand. If he had turned the box the opposite way he would have had his chest penetrated with shrapnel and most likely would have died. They both are being held without bail and face spending the rest of their lives in prison. As Billy Joe always preached what the word says, “Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm. (1 Chronicles 16:22) The Mahon brothers reaped the seeds they had sown. (Galatians 6:7)

Billy Joe Daugherty amazed me on more than one occasion. Once a guy hit him at the altar call and as Billy Joe turned around to walk away he hit him again, and then security grabbed him. Billy Joe was bleeding and just kept right on preaching. Billy Joe didn’t want to press charges but the police did. He went to see the man in jail and the man refused to repent and even threatened him again. Later the man wrote Billy Joe a letter apologizing .

Another time Billy Joe amazed me was when Rev. Watts and myself were invited back to preach in 1996 and I took the service myself because Rev. Watts didn’t make it. He had been battling diabetes and gangrene had set in and so the day before we were scheduled to preach, his leg was amputated. On Monday morning I went over to Billy Joe’s house and picked him up in my car and we drove to McAlester, Oklahoma to visit Rev. Watts in the hospital. He was lying in his bed cracking jokes as Billy Joe and I walked into the room. Billy Joe told me on the way home that Rev. Watts had a special spirit about him, to be able to joke after having his leg cut off. He told me he personally could not do that and be in that good of mood and I told him I couldn’t either. As we were visiting with Rev. Watts, the Sheriff walked in. Rev. Watts went to introduce the Sheriff and he recognized Pastor Billy Joe and then turned to me and said, “You don’t remember me do you?” I replied, “I think so. You look familiar.” The Sheriff said, “I was on the Highway Patrol (State Police) back years ago when you were down here with the Klan harassing Rev. Watts. I came up and started telling you and your gang off for passing out those KKK pamphlets.” “Oh yes,” I replied. “You were the cop that after I told you we were in our legal rights to distribute the pamphlets, you said if you even found one on the ground you were going to hold me responsible and arrest me for littering. I think the fine was up to a thousand dollars, so we all packed up our sheets and left.” The Sheriff replied, “Very good memory! Yep..that was me!” The following Sunday Billy Joe was preaching. His services are carried on national TV. He told the story about how he and I went down to visit Rev. Watts and met the Sheriff. Billy Joe was telling how he stood back and listened to the conversation and said suddenly he realized that all those stories Rev. Watts and I had been telling were true! I said to him after the service, “Billy Joe you have known me now for a few years and you mean to tell me that you weren’t sure if my stories were true or not?” Billy Joe laughed and said, “Well Johnny Lee if I ever had a doubt in my mind, I don’t now! I’m a believer!” Ha Ha!

Pastor Billy Joe was really tired that morning and Pastor Sharon had made me promise that I would not keep him talking all the way down to McAlester as it was a long drive. She told me that if he wanted to sleep to let him. As soon as Billy Joe got in my car he kicked off his shoes and reclined his seat and went to sleep. I am one of these drivers that just can’t seem to drive without music, but I had to that day because I didn’t want to keep him awake. I had lots of questions to ask him and due to the fact that he pastored one of the largest churches in the USA, he didn’t always have a whole lot of time available so I wanted to use this time for talk. I had promised Pastor Sharon though, that I would not keep him awake talking so I felt it was more important to keep my word to her, so I didn’t disturb him on the way down but he was wide awake returning so I got most of my questions answered on the way home.

We discussed a lot of things that day. I was a little egocentric at that time in my life when it came to dating, as I had four different girls that liked me from the church, all at the same time. I liked all 4 of them. Three were on Pastor Sharon’s praise and worship team and one was in the church band. They were all fighting over who was going to get to be my girlfriend. I was such a player in those days. I remember telling Billy Joe that I found it hard being attractive and the object of desire for so many girls. Pastor Billy Joe shook his head and explained to me in so many words that I needed to come down off my high horse and realize that it is the anointing the girls were attracted to and not because I was some sort of modern day Elvis or something along those lines. He also explained to me of why I needed to set boundaries when it came to dating and conduct myself as a man of God. I didn’t end up with any of those girls after that.

Billy Joe also showed me how humble he was that day. I told him how I had been to Higher Dimensions church and how Pastor Carlton Pearson was driving a gold-plated black Cadillac and the Gospel singer Carman was driving a gold-plated Alexis. I asked him if I should upgrade my 86 Lincoln Towncar to keep up with ministry trends, and questioned him of why he only drove a 1991 Chevrolet Lumina when his church was 10 times larger than Pearson’s. Billy Joe told me that if that is what those guys felt they needed to do that was up to them but his car was worth a million dollars to him. I asked for him to explain and he did. He told me that if he needed to raise money to feed the poor or anything to get the gospel around the world, the people who give are not going to be hindered in their giving because of what he drives. He told me I had nothing to be ashamed about driving an older car. He said, “Your car is old but it is nice and well kept and people will not be hesitant to help you get the gospel out if they don’t see you driving a gold plated Cadillac.” He taught me a valuable lesson that day. Our job is to represent God and gain God’s approval, not man’s.

He practiced what he preached in not only what he drove, but also lived in a regular modest house, and he and Sharon shopped at Wal-Mart all the time. When I was invited to Carlton Pearson’s wedding, it was by invitation only. Many well-known ministers from around the world were there. I was given a seat on one of the last two rows in the back. I saw some very well known preachers come in and ask the ushers to seat them in the front. Then Billy Joe and Sharon walked in. One of the ushers immediately recognized them and asked if they wanted to be taken to the front, and Billy Joe said, “No, we will just sit here in the back next to Johnny Lee.”

You see, my friend Billy Joe Daugherty was not about being recognized and being given superstar status. To him there was but ONE Superstar and His name is Jesus.


Well these were just some stories of memories I will always have of my friend, Billy Joe Daugherty. I will say now what I have said to other friends and loved ones that have gone on before. This isn’t good-bye but so long for now. I will see you again, Billy Joe!

There is an old Jewish saying that goes something like "He who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure." Well I can truly say I found a treasure in Billy Joe Daugherty, because his friendship was a treasure, and the things I learned from him, I shall keep in my heart, soul, mind, and walk with God forever. This is just my story of a great man God allowed me to know in life, who was perhaps one of the greatest of God’s Generals that ever lived. You can ask anyone who knew him and they would agree. That’s my story and tribute to my friend, Billy Joe Daugherty.

Johnny Lee Clary



Rev. Johnny Lee Clary
(918) 919-0105 USA
0411213232 Australia
P.O. Box 972
Miami, Ok. 74355
Official Website:
www.xkkk.org