MY TESTIMONY!--Last-Day Church of Philadelphia!--Part 9 of "The Garden of Eden!"--Revelation Chapter 3. DFO1177 France, 27/4/81
1. PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYJ! AH, THAT MUSIC REALLY SENDS ME! That was one of my mother's favourites, too, she used to have me sing it to her.
"Sweet Leilani, Heavenly Flower,
Angels fashioned roses filled with dew.
And then God placed them in a bower,
It was the start of you!"
Well, here we are in the Garden of Eden, & back for another Revelation! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!
2. DO YOU LIKE MUSIC? BEAUTIFUL MUSIC? I THINK THAT SOUTH SEA ISLAND MUSIC IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MUSIC IN THE WORLD!--Of those beautiful, peaceful, sexy people!--Those wonderful wonderful friendly natives who love God & love His creation, & who really live close to God & close to His creation, perhaps understand Him better than civilised man because of their close proximity to His handiwork & His creation. PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!
3. WELL, TODAY WE'RE GOING AGAIN INTO THE BEAUTIFUL BOOK OF "THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass. And He sent & signified it by His angel unto His servant John." And tonight in this session we're turning to the Book of Revelation, Chapter 1, the 12th verse, where John says: "And I turned to see the voice that spake unto me, & being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, & in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man." That's Jesus, the Son of man. Notice it's spelled with a capital S.
4. "CLOTHED WITH A GARMENT DOWN TO THE FOOT & GIRT ABOUT THE PAPS WITH A GOLDEN GIRDLE." This is the kind of beautiful scintillating, sparkling, translucent, almost transparent, white shining garment of light which I've seen so often in my visions of Heaven, with which both men & woman are clothed in that Heavenly sphere!--Clothed, but nevertheless revealed, in which these beautiful translucent, transparent, see-through garments show their beauty in its full. The garments merely act as a frame, a beautiful frame for the beautiful picture.
5. 14TH VERSE: "HIS HEAD & HIS HAIRS WERE WHITE LIKE WOOL, AS WHITE AS SNOW: & His eyes were as a flame of fire; & His feet like unto fine brass"--golden--"as if they burned in a furnace; & His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: & out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: & His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
6. NOW HERE IS A PICTURE OF JESUS CHRIST AS THE APOSTLE JOHN SAW HIM in the book of this marvellous revelation, Jesus standing before him as a supernatural, marvellous, miraculous figure with all of these amazing attributes & this description of Him, shining like the sun & like gold & like the rainbow, & a garment of shining, scintillating, sparkling light, & yet somewhat see-through, from just above His breast down to His feet, such as I have seen many times in visions of that other World, of those heavenly spheres, of the people who live there dressed in these beautiful garments which hide nothing that is beautiful, & yet reveal all that is perfect & the creation of God! At the same time, beautifully gracefully clothing & framing God's most beautiful creation, the human body and Jesus Himself having a human body of a man born of the Virgin Mary, clothed in such a garment of light.
7. IT'D BE ALMOST BEYOND DESCRIPTION, I CAN HARDLY DESCRIBE IT TO YOU EARTHLINGS, Earth-bound humans, because it's something very Heavenly, very ethereal, ephemeral! It's just beyond description, it's so beautiful! These beautiful garments of scintillating, shimmering, sparkling & yet see-through garments of light. There stands Jesus in all His glory, in all His beauty, ready to speak to the Apostle of God, the Apostle John, & in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, seven beautiful bright lights, & seven stars in His hand! What a beautiful picture! My, what a picture that should make for the surrealist artists or the hippie artists if they what to make a picture of the marvellous, supernatural, Heavenly surrealistic beauties of Heaven itself, & the very Prince or Heaven, the Son of God Himself--Jesus! What a beautiful picture!
8. ALL RIGHT, NOW WE GOD ON DOWN & IN THE 16TH VERSE HE SAYS: "OUT OF HIS MOUTH WENT A SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD" This is, of course, symbolic of the Word of God which He compares to a two-edged sword of God. "And His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the First & the Last!" He's already said this in the 8th verse: "I am the Alpha & the Omega, the beginning & the ending, that which is & which was & which is yet to come," the First & the Last. 18th verse, "I am He that liveth, & was dead; & behold, I am alive for evermore!" Jesus died, was crucified by the Jews & rose again from the dead, & now He lives for evermore! "Amen; & have the keys of Hell & of death," so that He is able to unlock the gates of Hell itself to release its prisoners from the very jaws of death!
9. SO HE SAYS TO JOHN, "WRITE THE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN, & THE THINGS WHICH ARE, & THE THINGS WHICH SHALL BE HEREAFTER." He's going to tell him the history of now & hereafter. "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand"--Jesus is talking--"and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: & the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." Isn't that a beautiful picture? the great Apostle John who was receiving this marvellous, ultimate revelation of God, is seeing God picturing, like a marvellous felt-o-gram or a marvellous painting, a view of how God sees things!
10. HE SEES THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR, OR WHAT IS NOW TURKEY, THE PRINCIPAL CHURCHES OF THAT AREA, HE SEES THEM AS SEVEN BEAUTIFUL CANDLESTICKS. And then he sees their seven guardian angels as seven beautiful stars. The churches, seven beautiful candles standing before God, & above each one, a guiding star, its guardian angel! What a beautiful picture of the churches to whom John is writing this very epistle of this revelation of the marvels that God is about to show to him of their future, the future that they are to face, so they'll know what's coming! PTL!
11. THE LORD DOES NOT WHAT US TO BE IGNORANT, BRETHREN, BUT THAT WE SHALL KNOW THE THINGS WHICH MUST SHORTLY COME TO PASS. And this is what He was telling to the wonderful, beautiful Apostle John in that day, nearly 2000 years ago now, about 107 AD on the Isle of Patmos, exiled there by the Romans, because they were afraid of his Gospel of love, afraid of his mighty power, supernatural miracle-working power which protected him from being boiled alive in oil! God spared him, so they just tried to get rid of him where they thought he could do the least harm, on a desolate, deserted island in the Aegean Sea near the coast of Turkey, the Isle of Patmos.
12. BUT AS WE'VE SAID BEFORE, THERE HE RECEIVED THE GREATEST REVELATION GOD EVER TO MAN, THE REVELATION OF THE FUTURE & OF THE END, the marvellous glorious End that was to come, is yet to come, praise God, which has preached to more billions probably than any other sermon ever preached from God by man! So the Romans weren't able to shut him up after all. Why? Because he wrote it down, & preserved it for them & for you & & for me. And that's what we're trying to do with the revelations that God gives to us. God bless dear Maria, our Queen, who writes them down, records them, that they might be preserved for you, to guide you in these Last Days. Praise God! Hallelujah!
13. WELL, NOW WE'RE NOT GOING TO GO INTO THE DETAILS OF WHAT HE WROTE UNTO THESE SEVEN SPECIFIC CHURCHES which were in existence at that time in Asia Minor or Turkey, & into which he goes into detail in prophetic revelation in Chapters 2 & 3. But I think it might be interesting to you if you'll turn with me now to Chapter 3, the 7th verse. Here we find the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia. This was not Philadelphia, U.S.A.! Philadelphia United States of America is full of anything but angels!--One of the wickedest cities on Earth, along with Washington, D.C., & New York, Chicago, Los Angeles & all the rest of them! The U.S.A. is one of the wickedest nations on the face of the Earth almost to its end, about to destroy mankind! Anything but a place of brotherly love!
14. BUT HE'S WRITING NOW TO THE CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA OR BROTHERLY LOVE IN ASIA MINOR, TURKEY. and he says, "Write: These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David." Now, there's a very remarkable prophecy beginning here which was made to me personally three times by three specific individuals, strangers to me, people I never saw before, people I did not know, people who did not know me! This prophecy was made to me specifically, individually, on three separate occasions, at the beginning of my ministry for the Lord, when over half my life was already ended & I felt that it seemed that I had not yet found what I was supposed to do for God.
15. I WAS FED UP WITH CHURCHES & DENOMINATIONALISM, CHURCHIANITY, CHURCH MEMBERS WHO WERE SO COLD & HARD STIFF set in their ways. You couldn't get them to get out & witness, you couldn't get them to litness or preach the Gospel on the street corner, much less go as missionaries to some faraway foreign land. You couldn't get them to go into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature as Jesus had commanded.
16. THEY WERE STUCK IN A RUT, IN A HOLE, THE CHURCH SYSTEM which told them all they had to do to be a Christian was to go to church on Sunday, put their money in the offering, support the pastor & the denomination, & then they could go back & live for themselves & the Devil & their families 90-some percent of the time.--All the rest of the week, all the rest of Sunday, go out & have a Sunday-afternoon ride or their golf game or whatever they wanted to do, & live selfishly for themselves & their family, & to make money. And all they had to do to be a Christian was to go to church on Sunday, Sunday morning for about an hour, support the church, give their Money, & that was enough.
17. WELL, I GOT FED UP WITH THAT!--SO SICK UP TO HERE & FED UP WITH IT, I REALLY DIDN'T WANT ANY MORE OF IT! I had been through I don't know how many Bible colleges & universities, part way through. & got fed up with every one & stomped out of them because none of them satisfied me & what I was looking for. The last Bible College I went to I got so sick of it I stood up in class one day & stomped out a I said, "I won't need to know all this folderol & all this theological hair-splitting several different ways to preach the Gospel to lost man, to love the lost & with them to the Saviour. All I need to know is one verse of Scripture, John 3:16 'For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life,'"
18. I SAID, "THAT'S ALL I NEED TO KNOW TO PREACH THE GOSPEL IN ALL THE WORLD TO EVERY CREATURE! I don't need to sit around here listening to your theological arguments & your philosophical hair-splitting & all this ridiculous folderol you're teaching here in Bible college! All I need to know is Jesus & His love for the lost." And I stomped out of that Bible college for the last time & never went again! Thank God! I was sick & fed up with it!--And that was one of the best in the United States, one of the most spiritual, one of the most Pentecostal, one that really believed in the gifts of the Spirit a healing & tongues & all those marvellous things of God, one of the spiritual Bible schools in the Nation!
19. BUT THEY WERE MORE INTERESTED IN THEIR LITTLE THEOLOGICAL HAIR-SPLITTING, their little theological denomination. They were more interested in getting churches with fine salaries & incomes & a good car & a nice home, so that in that area where I was going to Bible school they didn't offer us very much chance of getting a pastorate, because already in Southern California they said there were as many as 600 ready-made pastors, educated, finished, preaching experiences & ready to take a pastorate--600 pastors standing in line for every church in Southern California in that one denomination alone!
20. YOU KNOW WHY JESUS SAID "LIFT UP YOUR EYES"? Because too many people have their eyes like this, they've got their nose right down to their local situation. They have myopia, they can't see further than the end of their nose, like this! That's all they can see is the local situation. "Let's see, now how is the local pastoral situation? Is there a possibility of me getting a church here? What is the salary? Has it got a nice parsonage? And will they supply me with a very nice car, at least one of those big ones that will be impressive to both the congregation & the friends outside," one of those gas-guzzlers that they use in the United States.
21. "THOSE ARE THE IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER, even if you have 600 men standing in front of you waiting for that church, it's really worth waiting for, because they pay a good salary & they furnish a fine beautiful mansion for a pastorate, for the pastoral mansion, the Manse. And make it possible for you to have a very fine car that will not be a disgrace to you nor your neighbours, & you'll be able to roll around in luxury & show what a preacher of the Gospel should be like & how he should look & how he should live, in such opulence & abundance & luxury!"
22. WELL, I MUST SAY THAT THE MINISTERS OF GOD CERTAINLY DESERVE EVERYTHING, BUT THEY SELDOM GET IT! But those in Southern California were getting their Heaven here & now in that beautiful paradise of Southern California with its gorgeous beaches & rich clientele & beautiful grand cathedral-like churches!--Even in my small missionary denomination the churches looked like cathedrals. High salaries, fine pastoral mansions & really luxurious limousines for our automobiles compared to the rest of the World.--That's it!
23. THIS WAS THE HIGHEST AMBITION OF NEARLY EVERY STUDENT IN THAT BIBLE COLLEGE, was to become a pastor there in Southern California amongst those rich churches & those rich people, rich housing, rich salaries, rich accommodations where they could preach pretty little pious pulpit platitudes to tickle the ears of their congregations & set them at ease in Zion so they wouldn't get under conviction about not going into all the World & preaching the Gospel to every creature!
24. AND I GOT SICK OF IT ALL & FED UP WITH IT ALL & STOMPED OUT OF THAT BIBLE COLLEGE and said, "All I need to know is Mark 16:15: 'Go ye into all the World & preach the Gospel'--the love of Jesus--'unto every creature,' & that's all you need to know to be a preacher of the Gospel! You don't need any big Bible education, you don't need to go to Bible college, not even a Bible institute! You hardly even need to go to a Bible class, much less one of these big denominational theological seminaries!"--Oh, excuse me, cemeteries--no, let's see, I get the word confused between "seminary" & "cemetery."--They're both just as dead & just as cold! So I got sick & fed up with it & I walked out & I never wanted to see another university of man or Bible college of man! I had gotten fed up with both of them.
25. AND I WENT TO MY DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OF MY DENOMINATION & I SAID, "I WANT A CHURCH WHERE I CAN PREACH THE GOSPEL." First I applied to the denominational headquarters in New York & said, "I want to go to the mission field." I didn't know any foreign languages but my wife could speak French, she had four years of French in college, & I had heard through my denomination one of the neediest fields in the World was Vietnam, of all places!--South Vietnam! Our denomination was pioneering the Indochina area of Vietnam & up into the mountains, where you needed to know French because it was the language of that area, French Indochina.
26. I'D HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT IT FROM MISSIONARIES & FROM REPORTS & SO ON, ONE OF THE NEEDY FIELDS, receptive, responsive, hungry people, wonderful people, beautiful people, so I decided that's where I'd like to go. I'd heard missionaries begging for labourers & I'd gotten inspired & thrilled! "The harvest truly is white but the labourers are few." (Mt.9:37.) That particular harvest happened to be brown, but anyhow, it was plentiful, & the labourers were certainly few. And my denomination was begging for missionaries.
27. SO I WROTE IN & SAID, "WELL, I'VE BEEN TO A FEW BIBLE COLLEGES I DIDN'T FINISH, & I've been to a few universities & never finished them either, but my wife did graduate from college & never finished them either, but my wife did graduate from college & she knows four years of college French, which is the official language of Indochina, French Indochina at that time--we'd like to go as missionaries." And they sent us back a long many-page application blank. We had to fill out our whole life's history--history from the sistery too!--From the colour of my grandmother's eyes & nationality & everything you could think of, all of our education & what we knew & didn't know. And by the time they got through with that application, there wasn't anything worth knowing about us they didn't already know!
28. AND BY & BY, AFTER MONTHS OF RED TAPE & WHAT-NOT, I GOT A REPLY FROM MY DENOMINATION. They said, "Thank you so much for your kind application. We appreciate your concern for the mission field & for the lost. However, already our Bible school & churches & colleges are turning out more workers & missionaries than the field is able to absorb." That's odd! Jesus said, "The harvest is plenteous but the labourers were few! Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth labourers into the harvest." But you know what they said? They said." The harvest is not sufficient for the number of labourers we're turning our of our Bible colleges, especially our faith is not sufficient to send'm to the field!"
29. THEY SAID, "BESIDES, YOU'RE OVER THE AGE LIMIT OF 30 WHEN WE ACCEPT MISSIONARY APPLICATIONS. Besides that, you're not only married now, but you have more than our limit, our quota of children." They had a population limit of missionaries. "We don't send missionaries to the field with more than two children, & you already have four! Besides, it's a very hard difficult field, physically speaking, & we understand that you were discharged from the army with heart trouble, & therefore could hardly be expected to go to such a difficult field as a handicapped person in ill health with a wife & four children, over our age limit of 30, over our child limit of two, & with insufficient education, because you have not yet graduated from one of our Bible colleges.
30. "AND EVEN IF YOU WERE NOT INSUFFICIENT IN ALL THESE OTHER LIMITATIONS, by the time you would finish your education in one or our Bible colleges of five years more education, you would be so far past the age limit & have so many more children that it would be totally impossible for you to be sent to the mission field. So sorry, Brother, but it's just impossible for you to go as a missionary with our denomination. We don't have the faith to send you with so many children & so old & so sick & so little education." That was what the letter meant, in essence.
31. "PERHAPS YOU SHOULD LOOK AROUND FOR SOME LOCAL FIELD, some local pastorate where you can be a blessing in your own country & to the local people, & perhaps help to raise money for those who are capable & are qualified to go to the mission field." So I'd stomped out of my Bible college, I was sick & fed up with that, I didn't want any more of that, & they turned us down for the mission field. So it looked like, according to what they said, the only thing left open for us was a local pastorate.
32. SO I WALKED INTO THE OFFICE OF OUR DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT ONE DAY, & I said, "Dr. Yaggy, I would like to have, if you don't mind, a church." He said, "Oh David, so happy to see you here. I know your mother well & she's very beloved in our churches & her evangelistic work. So happy to have you come to see me, Son. God bless you. It's nice to have you here. But, ahem!"--I don't know why these preachers and superintendents always have such a frog in their throats, ahem, maybe they're just stalling for time!--"But you must understand the situation here in Southern California is very difficult & very crowded. Yes, I know we have a lot of churches here, but we have so many pastors applying for churches here they average about 600 to the church who want to come from all over the United States & all over the World to pastor a church in nice sunny beautiful paradisiacal Southern California!"
33. SO HE SAID, "I'M VERY SORRY, THERE'S NOT MUCH CHANCE FOR YOU TO GET A CHURCH IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, particularly when there are very many, very highly qualified men with a string of degrees after their names & very few children & no big families & much more qualified than you are even for a church in our denomination in this much--sought after field of Southern California. I'm sorry, we just don't have anything available right now." Then he said, "I must warn you, there's not much opportunity or possibility that we will have anything available." I said, "Well, what am I supposed to do?" He said, "Well, you can just go back to college, back to school & study & pray & hope that God will open something for you somewhere where you might fit in somehow."
34. AND I THOUGHT A BIT ABOUT IT & I THINK I WENT HOME & I TOLD MY POOR WIFE & TOLD MY CHILDREN THAT THEY DIDN'T WANT US ON THE MISSION FIELD, that they had too many missionaries already! Besides, I was too old & not educated enough & I had too big of a family & in not strong enough health & so on. So you know that I did? I said, "I'll prove it to 'em!" I went back to the District Superintendent, who was a very busy man & I had a hard time even getting an appointment for a few minutes. He was a very fine man, good businessman.
35. DENOMINATIONAL LEADERS HAVE TO BE ESPECIALLY GOOD BUSINESS MEN & POLITICIANS, that's the most important part of their job & the most important qualifications & talents that they need to have, is to be a good businessman, know how to handle & raise money, first of all, that's the most important thing of all. Second is to be a good politician, know how to get along with people of any kind, any type, any where, how many, how few, any kind of church, be able to pat everybody on the back & shake hands & smile, cheer'm up & "Vote for me!--& don't forget that then-dollar bill or that 50-dollar pledge to keep things going, Brother!"
36. SO I SAID, "DR. YAGGY, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT! DON'T YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF A CHURCH, MAYBE WAY OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, that maybe is not rich & hasn't got much, & maybe someplace that nobody even wants! How about some place not here in Southern California, someplace that maybe nobody wants at all!" I had recently come out of the Army with an honourable medical discharge because I'd had double pneumonia & nearly died, & then they discovered my heart was very bad, leaked like a sieve, they said, & probably wouldn't last more than a year.
37. BUT I HAD PROMISED GOD IF HE WOULD HEAL ME, IF I DIDN'T DIE & HE'D BRING ME BACK TO LIFE, I'D SERVE THE LORD FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE & HE'D HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF ME. They told me when I left the Army, they said, "Well, you know you've had double pneumonia & nearly died, temperature of 106 degree, a lot of people die like that." I was unconscious three days & nights. They said, "And it's affected your heart, it's always been weak, you had heart trouble when you came in the army, you told us & we checked it & sure enough you had paroxysmal tachycardia, you had heart murmurs, leakage of the valves, & we've taken cardiographs & everything, & your heart is really in bad shape! We'll let you go, we'll give you an honourable medical discharge if you'll promise to go home & go to bed & stay in bed, & if you'll just stay in bed, you might live for maybe a year."
38. AND I WAS READY TO AGREE TO ANYTHING THEN TO GET OUT OF THE ARMY! I found out in short order after a few months that was no place for a messenger of God!--No place for a man of God who preached peace & brotherly love, & love thy neighbour & thine enemy as well, where they were teaching you to kill, not only your enemies but your neighbours too! I was a Conscientious Objector, I was drafted, I didn't want to go in, yet I did in a way & I wanted to kinda get out of the Lord's work & see the World--join the army & see the World!
39. THEY PUT ME INTO THE U.S. ARMY ENGINEERS BECAUSE I HAD AN IQ OF 176, which is one of the highest you can get. The average is supposed to be about 100, & mine was 176. So they put me in the U.S. Army Engineers where they have a lot of brains & they make maps & they build buildings & bridges & roads & dams, & damn it, they build about everything there is to be built! And then they teach you how to blow'm up! That's the most amazing thing! Once you've built them, if you have to retreat, then they teach you demolition, how to blow them up!
40. THE U.S. ARMY ENGINEER'S CASUALTIES WERE RUNNING AT THAT TIME IN WORLD WAR II, ABOUT 70-SOME PERCENT, because they were the first on the field building the bridges & the bunkers & the roads that led the army into the field in their incursions & invasions--& then if they got chased out, we were the last on the field which had to blow up the very roads we'd built & the bridges we had built & the bunkers we had built so the enemy couldn't use'm So we were first on & last off, & as a result we were first out!--Of this World! And my dear company that I had training with went immediately from there to North Africa, & the last I heard nearly every one of them was wiped out, including the nurses of the company I was in, in their battles with Rommel, WWII, North Africa, including my Company Commander Lieutenant that I worked for as his secretary.
41. WELL, AFTER THAT, BEFORE THEY WENT WAS WHEN I LANDED IN THE HOSPITAL WITH DOUBLE PNEUMONIA! Dear little Florida boy, raised & lived in the Tropics under the palm trees, my last few moments of freedom I remember lying virtually nude on the roof of a hotel in Miami Beach, basking in the sunshine, swimming in the surf. Then they sent me up to Washington, D.C., to Ft. Belvoir, the home of the Army Engineers, where the snow was one foot deep & freezing cold, & we were standing out in the cold for hours at a time being given, lectures on engineering equipment, until I froze both of my heels & came down with double pneumonia! Landed in the hospital with 106 degree temperature & dying!--Unconscious for three days & three nights!
42. BUT WHILE I WAS IN THAT CONDITION I WAS PRAYING! They thought I was unconscious, but I wasn't, really. I was conscious of the doctors & nurses moving about in the room excitedly & fearfully thinking I was going to die any minute, giving me all kinds of injections & drugs & hypodermics & intravenous feedings & all kinds of things. Maybe they did me some good, I don't know. Not too much good, because they said I was dying. I heard'm talking about it. They said, "Well, this poor guy, he's gone, he's dying, there's not much hope for him." They thought I couldn't hear'm because I seemed to be unconscious, but I could both hear'em & see'm. I don't know whether I was in the body or out of the body, but I know they were there.
43. MAYBE I HAD DEATH EXPERIENCE, IN DON'T KNOW! I've heard about some of those death experience where people die for a little while & then they come back. But it seemed like I was right there watching everything that was going on, hearing everything, but according to them I was lying there dead unconscious! I must have had my eyes shut, how could I see them? According to them I was dead unconscious & didn't move & they thought I was going to kick the bucket any minute, or that is, leave this World permanently. But I was praying when I heard they said I was dying & I thought:
44. "ALL RIGHT, LORD, I LOVE YOU, JESUS, & I KNOW I'M SAVED, I KNOW I'VE DISOBEYED YOU, GETTING INTO THE ARMY WHERE I DON'T BELONG. I'm a messenger of Life & Love, not a messenger of death & destruction, & I don't belong here. And Lord, I wish You'd get me out! Besides that, if You do raise me up & give me back my life, I promise to live it for You for the rest of my life, however long it may last. It's up to You, Lord, forgive me. If You want to take me now, I'm ready to go. I don't deserve it, but I know I'm saved & I Love You, Jesus, & I know You've forgiven my sins. I'm sorry I've disappointed You & failed You & I have not lived my whole life for you, but I'm ready to go if You want to take me now. But Lord, if You want to have mercy on me & give me back my life, I promise I will live it for You from this moment on, in Jesus' name."
45. AND INSTANTLY (CLAPS!) JUST LIKE THAT, I WOKE UP LIKE OUT OF A DEEP SLEEP, out of that unconsciousness! My eyes opened, I looked around, I looked at the nurse, & I said, "Hey, I'm hungry!" She said, "Oh no, no, no, no! Sta-sta-stay still! You-you-you're a very sick man! Do-do-don't move!" I said, "What do you mean?--I'm hungry! I want something to eat!" She said, "Jus-jus-jus-just a minute! I've gotta go get the doctor!" She was expecting me to die any minute, she was sitting there in a chair by the door to run for the doctor. She ran for the doctor & the doctor comes running back in with another nurse & he takes my pulse, he looks at me, he looks at my eyes, he tests this, that & the other.
46. "WELL, HE DOES SEEM TO BE BETTER! But of course he's gotta be kept under all this medication & all these antibiotics & intravenous feedings because he couldn't possibly eat. No no no! Ha, ha! Don't pay any attention about wanting to sit up in bed & eat & all this stuff he's talking about. He says he wants to go to the toilet? No no no, you just give him the bedpan." And I said, "I'm hungry! I want something to eat!" They looked at me like I was crazy, like I'd lost my mind! And I looked at them like they were crazy, they must have been out of their minds, be cause I felt fine!
47. GOD HAD GIVEN ME BACK MY STRENGTH & TOTALLY HEALED ME, & I WANTED TO SIT UP IN BED & I WAS STRUGGLING & RARIN' TO GO! Well, after quite a few consultations he brought in another doctor, & he finally brought in another doctor, & he finally brought in the head of the hospital, a colonel, & they went "Bub bub bub bub" over in the corner of the room. "Well, nurse, I guess since he seems to feel much better & he does seem to have all indications of it, I guess you can let him sit up in bed. But you mustn't let him get out bed or go to the toilet, you'll have to give him a bedpan. But since he insists, well, we can give him a few liquids, & then maybe after that you can start him on some nice soft foods like Purina or cream of wheat & a little milk & things like that."
48. I SAID, "OK, WHATEVER IT IS, BRING IT ON! I'M READY FOR IT! And I began to eat like a ravenous animal that had been starved to death, which I had been! And when the nurse was out of the room, I snuck out of bed & went to the toilet anyhow! I didn't like this business of her sticking that bedpan under & picking up my penie & sticking it in that hole & all that stuff. Well, it was kind of nice in a way--I especially liked those massages they gave!
49. BUT I WAS COMPLETELY, TOTALLY, WONDERFULLY HEALED, MIRACULOUSLY, so that I was out of bed walking around the room rarin to go, rarin' to get out in the ward. And I begged'm, "I want to get out of this room where nobody is & I've got nobody to walk to, I want to get out in the ward where I can talk to the other guys & I can read & have a little fun of a change!" And I was so hungry I sneaked out of the room to the hall & put my 5 cents in the candy machine & got a great big chocolate nut bar! But don't you children do that, because that's not a very good idea. But it was better than starving to death, & I was hungry! Midnight!--And the last meal they served me was at five o'clock! My God, you had to wait from then until seven o'clock the next morning to get anything to eat, you nearly starved to death! So I went there & I got my candy bar & I was every whit whole!
50. AND THE DOCTOR USED TO COME AROUND WITH THE COLONEL & SEVERAL OTHER CONSULTING PHYSICIANS & say, "Now this boy, this one here was the sickest boy we had in this hospital, & we don't understand which drug it was that brought him back to health so quickly! Three days out, unconscious, 106 degree temperature & almost dead, & suddenly he snapped right out of it & he sat up in bed & wanted to eat & get out of bed! And look at him now, he's healthy, gaining weight rapidly."--I got almost fat in the hospital.--"We don't understand which drug it was." And I used to look at them & smile & point up like this & say, "It was God!"
51. AND WHEN THE DOCTOR FINALLY DECIDED I COULD GO HOME, HE SAID, "WELL, IF YOU STAY IN BED YOU MIGHT LIVE A YEAR." I said, "Listen, I promised God I'd serve Him, but if you say so, all right, I'll try." I had to please'm, you know. So they gave me this nice medical discharge, honourable discharge, & my mother came & helped me, & Flew home in an Army plane.--Even hitchhiked from Palm Springs on home. And frankly, I never went to bed after that! I mean, I went to bed at night for sleep, but I was hardly ever sick a day in bed again!
52. AS MY DEAR PRESENT WIFE KNOWS, I'M HARDLY EVER SICK A DAY IN BED, & with my first wife, 25 years, hardly ever sick a day! I married her then after that & had four children, & then I went out & when I applied to the denomination for that church, I went out into the middle of the desert & built a little church out of adobe, six months in the summer time, in the heat of the Arizona summer, 120 degrees in the shade & no shade, to try to prove to my denomination I could do it, I could be a missionary.--And they still wouldn't believe it!
53. SO I FINALLY GOT FED UP WITH THEM & IT'S A LONG STORY! I went back to college & Bible college & school teaching & all the rest, had a wife & four children--then I finally decided that the church was just no place for me at all, & the only thing to do was get out & preach the Gospel in all the World to every creature, like Jesus said. So we just struck out with our little trailer, our old beat-up taxi cab, 19-ft. trailer & our little family of six, & started preaching the Gospel, everywhere we went preaching the Gospel, & the Lord blessed us & made us fruitful, & we went on from there to opening up Bible schools & sending out missionaries & starting our wonderful Family!
54. UNTIL HERE WE ARE TODAY WITH A FAMILY OF 8000 MISSIONARIES AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 COUNTRIES, 2000 MISSIONARY HOMES, preaching the Gospel in 40 languages in 40-million copies of Gospel literature every year to 400-million people, winning millions of souls to Christ every year! Don't say it can't be done. don't say that man's word is true & God is a liar. "Let every man be found a liar, but God be found true!" (Rom.3:4.) And I lived through it, god saved me, healed me, raised me up, put me out on the field in spite of denominations & everything they could do to stop me, the church & the Church System & the System itself!
55. I STARTED FAMILY, A REVOLUTIONARY FAMILY, A REVOLUTION THAT HAS SWEPT AROUND THE WORLD! A revolution of preaching the Gospel of the Love of Jesus Christ, the Love of God, in every language in every way possible, even through sex! Hallelujah! TYJ! That's why you see these beautiful girls! Why not?--This is the Garden of Eden! Why not a few beautiful Eves? Nothing wrong with sex, God made it! Nothing wrong with nudity, God intended it! And that's part of our gospel of love and of light! Hallelujah! TYJ! In Jesus' name.
56. SO THAT'S ANOTHER ONE OF OUR REVELATIONS, THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST WE'VE BEEN STUDYING TONIGHT, & which we're going to continue in our next lesson. So come back again to this paradisiacal island of the Garden of Eden, & have Eden in you heart with the love of God through receiving Jesus Christ as your Saviour! Study in this Book which is like the flowers of the Garden of Eden itself in its beauties & its truth! Come back again to the Garden of Eden & its beauties & its revelations! God bless them, Lord. Help them to receive You in Jesus' name, to find that Garden in their hearts through Thy Love, & to give it to others, in Jesus' name. Amen, PTL! TYJ! X! Goodbye! Come back again! We love you!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family