GOD'S WAY!--The Wind-Down! DFO 1659 10/83
1. LORD, MOST OF ALL HAVE THY WAY, THY WILL BE DONE! You know what's best better than any of us, Lord. Even all of us put together are not as wise as You. So lead & guide us as we lean not to our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge Thee, & we know that Thou shalt direct our paths. (Pr.3:5,6) Give us wisdom in all these decisions & & reorganisations that it may be Thy will, Lord, Thy will be done. Have Thy way. Give us the strength & the wisdom for this conference & lead & guide our minds & mouths, & most of all our hearts, in Jesus' name. It's Your work, Lord, Your children, & You have to help us take care of it the way You know is best, in Jesus' name. TYL! Thank You for Thy protection & provision & how wonderfully You have kept us going & productive for as long as possible. We ask Thee to keep us going as long as You want us to, & we know You will.
2. BUT HELP US TO BE AWARE OF THE WORLD SITUATION, LORD, & THE SHORTNESS OF TIME, to be prepared for alternatives & various other options & contingencies, & not to be caught unawares or by surprise by any sudden changes which may take place, & which will take place eventually, Lord, we know not how soon. May we just be doing what You want us to be doing when it comes, Lord, & we know You'll take care of the situation. Bless our Family here today, Lord. Keep them safely & quiet while we have this conference, & the people in the city too so we won't be disturbed, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.
3. WHEN WE HAVE ANY TOP-LEVEL DECISION-MAKING CONFERENCES, WE FEEL THAT CHILDREN DON'T HAVE TO BE INVOLVED NOR BURDENED WITH MATTERS WHICH ARE ABOVE THEIR SPHERE & their line of duty or their comprehension or even their capability of bearing those things. For example, I don't think parents should discuss financial problems & big problems of any kind before children who would understand them. And compared to you top leaders, in a sense some of our workers are still babes, in some ways both in experience & spiritual stature. Besides, much more is able to get done by committee or small group more efficiently, so the less people who are involved who really have no part or place in those deliberations, the better. So we try to keep the top-level conferences at a minimum, for only those involved.
4. (DAD COUGHS.) AMEN, LORD, REBUKE THE ENEMY IN Jesus' name & bless & keep my throat so I can talk. I've just been fine until a few moments ago when I choked on my own spit or something. But I'm sure anything like that is of the Enemy, not the Lord, so pray for me.
5. SO NORMALLY WE DON'T TAKE THE WHOLE FAMILY HERE INTO CONFERENCES THAT ARE ABOVE THE HOUSEHOLD LEVEL OF DECISION. In other words, they pretty much run their own household without us having to worry about just how they organise it. They have their meetings when they decide to have them by their own choice & they do their shopping & cooking & teaching & care of the children & manage all the various household duties themselves with almost no interference or involvement by us, setting us free to take care of the larger, bigger things on the, you might say, international level in which they don't need to be involved. They have enough to do already!
6. THANK GOD FOR SUCH A GOOD, EFFICIENT, INDIGENOUS STAFF WHO CAN TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES & RUN THE HOUSE & FREE US FOR MORE IMPORTANT THINGS. Well, I shouldn't say more important because if we didn't have them we couldn't do the important things at all, so they're very important! They make our work possible. So who's to say what's more important? But at least this happens to be our field & our involvement & our responsibility in making international decisions & supervising the World work. That's why we involve as few as possible in this, whereas the others all have enough work to do as it is & are totally involved in their own departments. It's not necessary for them to be in on business discussions or financial discussions or top-level personnel discussions. But we do often confer with them, particularly about people that they know that we don't know, to get their opinions on them, etc. So anyhow, that's what this is all about.
7. RIGHT NOW WE'RE HAVING TO MAKE SOME TOP-LEVEL DECISIONS ABOUT ORGANISATIONAL CHANGES & PERSONNEL CHANGES & MOVES, SO IT'S TIME FOR US TO HAVE ANOTHER SUNDAY CONFERENCE! Sunday's our day off, so therefore it's the only time when we can relax & enjoy a conference! Nobody's supposed to be involved in anything else on Sunday, they're all supposed to be free for reading, praying, studying & inspiration--& you can do at least two or three of those things in this meeting, everything but reading!--Except sometimes we have to read reports & read a few stats or something.--Ha!
8. BUT THESE MEETINGS ARE OFTEN PRAYERFUL & INSPIRATIONAL AS WE STUDY THE SITUATION, & A LOT OF WHAT WE DO & SAY IS SORT OF THINKING ON OUR FEET, AS THEY SAY. I've found that in such meetings, like our Family meetings downstairs, that there's no problem in knowing what to talk about or what's needed, if I just open my mouth, the Lord fills it! I've found the same is usually true in these top-level policy & business conferences, that the Lord often gives us answers while we're together in unity of mind & heart & even almost body, & in prayer, that the Lord has to come across. He has to give the answers & He loves to give the answers when He sees we're united in love & in worship of Him & prayer & purpose, mind, heart, spirit, of one mind, one heart, in one place. This is the marvel & the secret of the Day of Pentecost, first chapter of Acts, as you recall. So PTL!
9. WE ARE GATHERED HERE TOGETHER THIS DAY, DEARLY BELOVED, IN THE PRESENCE OF THESE WITNESSES, TO BRING OUR HEARTS TOGETHER IN ONE MARRIAGE! PTL?--And be united together in every way. I guess you recognise the old line. I've said that so many times & married so many couples, I've got it pretty well memorised. In this case, by the authority vested in me--not by this state--but by the greatest State of all, the Kingdom of God! TTL!
10. I DIDN'T WANT TO BE A LEADER, I JUST WANTED TO WORK FOR THE LORD & PREACH THE GOSPEL & WIN SOULS! I didn't mind so much just being a Prophet where all you had to do was just listen to the Lord & get Messages from Him & pass them on. You can do that on top of the mountain alone & about all you really need is one secretary, & that the Lord gave me right off the bat. You don't have to have anything to do with organisation or running a kingdom or business affairs or finances or personnel or anything. Most Prophets were quite loners & were not involved in politics or business or finances, much less personnel.
11. THE LORD TOLD ME A LONG TIME AGO THAT HE WAS SORRY FOR ME, BUT HE'D ALSO MADE ME A KING! Well, I don't know if He was really sorry, but in effect He was sorry. I told Him I just wanted to be a Prophet, & He'd already made me a Prophet by that time. We were in London & I said, "Lord, I don't care to be involved in the politics or in the business or management or the organisation or the finances or the personnel, I'd lots rather let somebody else run it."
12. THIS IS WHEN WE FIRST BEGAN TO HAVE SERIOUS TROUBLE WITH THE CHAIN, beginning with Jethro & Deborah back in the States. I said, "I don't want to get involved, that's one reason I left. I want to get away just to be with You, Lord, & listen to You, Lord, & get the Word & pass it on to the flock." But the Lord as good as said, "Well, I'm sorry, but you're not only a Prophet & a Priest to pray for the people, but I've also made you a King & you must also rule over the Kingdom."
13. I NEVER THOUGHT I HAD THE ABILITY OR THE TALENT OR THE TRAINING FOR IT OR ANYTHING, because I had never done anything great in the way of organisation or personnel or business. I was usually broke, a poor Gospel beggar, what some people call a Gospel bum, so I didn't have any money to worry about. We were usually ministering independently & alone so we didn't have any personnel or organisation to worry about, & I wasn't writing any Letters or Books or anything so I didn't have any pubs to worry about!--Nothing to worry about but to be absolutely free & just go round like a Gospel Gypsy, preaching the Gospel & expecting the Lord to feed me meal by meal & usually give us some place to lay our head, thanking the Lord for the freedom to just be a mouthpiece for the Lord, etc.
14. IT WORKED FINE FOR ABOUT 50 YEARS, IT WORKED GREAT! But then all of a sudden came the big bomb & the boom & I landed right in the middle of the muddle & had to learn organisation & finances!--Of course it's not too hard to learn finances because we trust the Lord & He always supplies, we just have to figure out how to give it away & how to best use it for the Lord, who needs it & who doesn't, what's needed & what isn't.
15. BUT I WAS REALLY A LONER ALL MY LIFE, A LONE WOLF, & I REALLY DIDN'T LIKE TO BE AROUND PEOPLE. I was very shy & didn't want to organise, didn't want to manage, had no desire for power, had no desire to be over anybody, I didn't even like to be over myself! I was indecisive, timid, shy, with an inferiority complex & it seemed to me that I would have been the last one in the World God would have ever picked to be a leader or an organiser or a leader of people in any way. I wasn't even a very good preacher, I couldn't even hold a church--one & that was it! It didn't take them long to have enough of me, so I decided that wasn't my calling either. I tried teaching & I really enjoyed that. I think it was good training for what I'm doing now, because a lot of what I have to do now is teach you folks what I know & what I've learned & what I've learned from others.
16. HOWEVER, I DID LEARN A LOT FROM WATCHING FAMOUS PEOPLE & FAMOUS LEADERS & FAMOUS PREACHERS & FAMOUS DENOMINATIONAL HEADS who when I was a little boy lived in our home & preached in our church. I heard the adults' conversation & I sensed & felt their spirit & attitude & how they treated little children like me, & I learned a lot from that. I found out the greatest men were truly humble men. They never passed up a little child without a pat on the head or a kind word or a loving attitude & thoughtfulness, & "suffered even the little children to come unto them." (Mt.19:14) And I think that was a great lesson to me. The bigshots who wanted to be bigshots, they didn't have time for little kids. They just breezed on by like I didn't even exist!--And children sense that too.
17. YOU MAY THINK IT'S RATHER IRREGULAR OR PERHAPS UNIMPORTANT, NOT NECESSARY, A DISTRACTION, BUT I CONSTANTLY STOP WHEN I'M SPEAKING AT THE TABLE DOWNSTAIRS TO SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OR PAY ATTENTION TO THE CHILDREN. If they even interrupt me or ask a question I answer it immediately, because I think they're important & I think they need to be paid attention to. If you just brush them aside like something else is more important, pretty soon they get the impression that you don't think they're important at all!
18. I THINK THE CHILDRENS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO A FAMILY MEETING ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT AS ANYBODY'S, & MAYBE SOMETIMES MORE IMPORTANT! Therefore response in required, is necessary, even though it interrupts the general train of thought. Their little minds may be travelling on another track, & just because they heard you say some word they didn't understand, they want to know what it meant. Well, at least it shows they're listening. And they don't ask about every word you say, so they must be understanding some of what you say. And it pleases me to stop & pay attention to the children.
19. I GUESS I DID LEARN A LOT FROM OTHERS--GREAT MEN & WOMEN OF GOD, PREACHERS, TEACHERS--& READ A LOT, & I'M SURE ALL OF THAT CONTRIBUTED TO MY KNOWLEDGE OF LEADERSHIP, READING THE BIBLE EVEN, HOW THEY DID IT. There was only really one great Prophet of God who was an organiser, Moses, & he wasn't even a good organiser if he hadn't had an advisor who told him how to do it, Jethro. That's why I named Jethro, Jethro to begin with. I as good as told him I didn't want to be bothered with all these little things, little decisions, little items of business. I said, "You take care of it! Assemble your judges & let them decide on these minor little things."--Just like the Prophets of God did in the days of the Apostles. They soon learned they had to turn the tables over to deacons to take care to take care of business & the ordinary run of affairs of every day & the people, so they could devote more time to the Word of God & prayer, as they themselves said. (Acts 6:2-4)
20. SO I DIDN'T REALLY WANT THE JOB! As I've said before, I think most of the great Prophets of God--of whom I'm probably the least--didn't really want the job, didn't ask for it, but sort of got pushed into it, sometimes even against their will. They even complained about it, they even objected, like Moses. It says he was the meekest of all men. (Nu.12:3) Apparently he was normally sort of shy & quiet & meek, so for him to get aroused enough to kill an Egyptian who was abusing & apparently torturing & almost killing one of his brethren was quite something!
21. WELL, ONCE IN AWHILE I GET AROUSED LIKE THAT TOO! It takes quite a bit to arouse me, but when I do, I'm apt to arouse you! But I think I'm usually pretty patient & pretty easy-going, in fact I'm a little lazy & I don't usually do anything that I don't have to do. The trouble is that there are an awful lot of things that I have to do, so I can't get by with being too lazy. And of course I give everybody else something to do--everything I can possibly get out of & figure they can do that I don't have to do--so that I get by with as little work as I possibly can, which most leaders should! Because as I have said many times before, any leader should only do to those things which he or she alone can do & nobody else can do for them. You should only do the things that only you can do, because you'll have plenty of that to keep you busy, & you should shove off on other people everything you possibly can that they can possibly handle.
22. THEREFORE I THINK WE HAVE OPERATED FAIRLY WELL-ORGANISED & FAIRLY EFFICIENTLY & EFFECTIVELY WITHOUT TOO MANY SERIOUS PROBLEMS. We've had a few trials & tribulations & crises, & the Lord allows these tests to sometimes weed out some & test our own faith & get rid of the chaff & trim down the army like Gideon's so that the few you have left to take care of are 100% & can do several times as well & as much work as the big mob that's impossible to handle. And that's one of the things that we're in the process of doing right now.
23. AS I SAY, I DIDN'T WANT THE JOB OF BEING THE GOVERNOR OR THE KING OR THE RULER, BUT IT WAS COMMANDED ME BY THE LORD, SO I HAVE TO DO IT WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT! Well, He's made it pretty easy by giving me people like you & dear Peter & Maria & quite a few others to help hold up my hands & carry the burden & direct the battle. As long as I pass the Word along, what God wants, then they put it into effect & work out the details & the logistics & a lot of other things, take care of personnel & things I don't usually get involved in.
24. BUT THEY DON'T USUALLY LIKE TO MAKE ANY MAJOR DECISIONS OF ANY MAJOR MOVES, PERSONNEL CHANGES OR OTHERWISE WITHOUT CONSULTATION, WHICH IS WISE, because they want to know what the Lord thinks about it & what He has to say. Usually I don't know so I have to ask Him. But because He needs somebody to be the leader, I'm the one He usually gives the answers to that they don't know. He gives them lots of answers on their own that I don't have to be involved in, but when it comes to something that I need to be involved in & there needs to be a general consensus of opinion, we never make any major decisions without consultation with each other, as you probably already know.
25. IN FACT, WE TRY TO LET YOU RULE YOUR OWN FIELDS & YOUR OWN DEPARTMENTS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT INTERFERENCE, without prying or getting nosy or interfering or hanging over your shoulder.--Unless you don't get the job done or you make a mistake & we find out that maybe there's a weakness there & we need to keep a closer eye on what you're doing to see what the problem is.
26. BUT NORMALLY I GIVE A LOT OF LEEWAY, DON'T I, PETER? DON'T I, MARIA?--FREEDOM OF YOUR INDIVIDUAL OPERATION. Haven't we? We haven't pried into your every move & every thing--only when you asked us & wanted to know what we thought you ought to do about things have we given you suggestions. Sometimes we've even told you that we thought you ought to make that decision yourself.
27. WE CAN'T MAKE ALL THE DECISIONS, AS I TOLD JETH IN THAT FAMOUS MESSAGE, "FOR GOD'S SAKE FOLLOW GOD!" (No.4) Here he was phoning me halfway around the World, & I was standing in a hotel lobby with everybody listening on the only telephone in Cyprus--at least in that hotel--screaming to be heard! And here's he's asking me what to do about this little thing & that little thing over there when I didn't know a damn thing about it! I hadn't the faintest idea what the situation was or anything. The only reason he wanted to ask me was he didn't want to have to make the decision because he didn't want to have to take the blame in case he made the wrong one, which so often happens.
28. SO MANY TIMES I'LL TELL YOU, "WELL I'M SORRY, BUT YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE THAT DECISION BECAUSE YOU KNOW THE SITUATION BETTER THAN I DO, YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE BETTER THAN I DO!" I often say that to you & Maria, don't I, Maria? And therefore that's up to you. You know your finances, you know exactly how much you have available right now or what cash & this, that & the other, so it's up to you to make that decision. It's not up to me to make all those table-level decisions--only when it comes to being a major policy decision, a major reorganisational or structural change or personnel change, Unit change, ministry change. Then the Lord usually has already spoken & given us leading along certain lines & advance knowledge of how things are going & which direction they're moving, therefore how we should move, which I think He's doing now.
29. WE'RE GETTING READY FOR THE BIG BUST & THE BIG BLOW, & it's time to get things reorganised & trimmed down to size to where we as the top shepherds will not have such international Worldwide responsibilities other than feeding the sheep the Word. We're trying to trim down our organisational responsibilities & oversight because we believe the day is coming when it may be very difficult, if not impossible, to communicate, particularly on lots of minor, local decisions which these folks are going to have to handle on their own indigenously, to be self-governing, self-supporting & self-propagating--the three phases of indigenuity.
30. I BELIEVE WE HAVE TAUGHT THEM ALREADY TO BE PRETTY WELL SELF-PROPAGATING, RIGHT? I don't have to interfere with their witnessing or how they do it. Once in awhile I have to step in & say, "Hey, wait, you're doing it the wrong way! That's not the best way, that's not the safest way, not the most productive way, fruitful way, secure way, we'd better change the tactics of the battle!" And sometimes that's all according to how things are going in the World or the country or with that particular people or what religion they have.
31. THE WAR IS ALL THE SAME & THE OBJECTIVES OF THE WAR ARE THE SAME, BUT THE BATTLE IS VERY FLUID! Various battles & battle tactics & strategies vary from situation to situation & area to area, so we frequently have to be changing this & changing that & advising change, etc., on these minor decisions.--Whereas the war is steadily moving in the same direction toward the same goal: "Preach the Gospel in all the World to
32. SO WE HAVE TO KEEP IN MIND IN OUR WARFARE THESE MAJOR GOALS, THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE & WHAT WE'RE REALLY IN THE ARMY FOR, & not to forget those while we get involved with a little here & there & find out we've lost sight of the Man & His main objective. (1Kg.20:40) Do you follow me or have I quit meddlin' & gone to preachin'? Well, I'll stop preaching in a minute & we'll start meddling. I'm just kind of summarising how we operate.
33. AS LONG AS YOU'RE GOING THE RIGHT DIRECTION & DOING THE RIGHT THINGS & you're fruitful, productive, efficient, effective, economical & getting the job done, we just would prefer to let you go ahead & do it. We only get the word through to you once in awhile that this is what the Lord said, this is what He thinks you should do now. Or if you ask us what to do, we may give you some counsel & advice or say, "Well, you decide that yourself, you know the situation better than we do. That's a decision which is up to you." So I think there's really quite a bit of freedom in our operation, isn't there?
34. I SOON FOUND OUT I COULDN'T HANDLE ALL THESE PUBLICATIONS & I HAD TO TURN'M OVER TO MY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OVER HERE! She now has complete charge of the FN & all other book publications--except my little one which is the easiest one of all! I just sit here playing around with that all day having fun & listening to the Lord & dishing up the Word!
35. AS I'VE SAID, I'M REALLY IN A WAY JUST we couldn't find anybody else. I tried for years to find somebody else & you can see what a mess it got things into! For years I refused to be anything else but the Prophet & the Apostle & I refused to have anything to do with the business or organisation & I put it in the hands of others--Jethro, Deborah, Josh, Rachel, Eve, the whole Chain--& you see what happened.
36. WELL, I WOULD SAY THAT, LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN, IT WAS NOT ALL ENTIRELY OUT OF THE WILL OF GOD, IT WAS JUST WORKING OUT GOD'S PLAN. God knew I couldn't stand it & couldn't have borne it at that time. I had to have other people carry the business affairs of the Kingdom & operate the offices & solve financial problems & all those things, I just couldn't have carried the load then. She & I were alone & about all the load I could carry was hearing from the Lord virtually daily & getting messages & prophecies & dreams & visions & lessons & whatnot from the Lord. I would spend all day just dictating while she took it down, & we soon found out that I speak slowly enough that she could follow me on the typewriter without even using shorthand.
37. THAT WAS OUR FIRST TRANSFER TO BUSINESS MACHINES FROM HAND WORK! Of course, even when she first took it down in shorthand, then she used to read her notes & type it anyhow, but we finally virtually eliminated the shorthand stage & went straight to the machine. Now we're going to all kinds of machines to simplify & speed the job, thank the Lord! She never touches a typewriter any more, she even rarely uses her shorthand except when there's not a tape recorder handy--another business machine we have found greatly helpful. So she's very little involved in the hand work or even the machine work. About the only hand work she's still involved in is me, & she's very handy with that, praise the Lord! That's one reason the Lord must have called you girls handmaidens. Amen, Peter? PTL! She's very good with her hands!
38. THANK GOD FOR SEX, AMEN?--ONE OF GOD'S GREATEST GIFTS!--And the beauty of ... I started to say women, but they seem to think our bodies are beautiful too! I try to object, but Maria still thinks I'm beautiful. So thank God for the beauties of our bodies which God created. We have virtually made that a doctrine, that we're not to be ashamed of them nor be ashamed of nudity or sex, all wonderful gifts of God to be enjoyed unashamed & unabashed--only some people want to bash you for doing it! So it's become one of our distinctive doctrines & practices as well & for which we are most condemned, criticised & sometimes even persecuted.
39. BUT AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE, THAT IS PROBABLY THE MAIN THING TODAY THAT KEEPS US DIFFERENTIATED & SEPARATED & CALLED OUT & SET APART from amongst other Christians & the churches in particular, into whom we might have fallen back & compromised. There's a great temptation to compromise, especially for our poor missionaries trying to raise support, not only compromise at home but compromise on the field for security, support, influence, protection, provision & all the rest. The Devil uses all kinds of tricks to get you to compromise, & once you've compromised, then you begin to become more & more like them & closer to them until pretty soon you can't tell the two apart!
40. BUT THE LORD OBVIOUSLY WANTED US TO BE VERY DISTINCT & VERY DISTINCTIVE & VERY DIFFERENT, VERY REVOLUTIONARY, VERY RADICAL, EVEN FANATICAL, & in such a way that it would be virtually impossible for us to fall back into the same rut as other Christian groups have done & other Christian revolutions & so-called revival movements, etc. I think our sexual freedom has probably been the greatest differentiation between us & the average Christians & Christian groups & churches, & probably the thing for which we are condemned the most, criticised the most & about which they are horrified the most!
41. WHEN I WAS MAKING THAT HEAVEN POSTER I WAS TEMPTED TO COMPROMISE A LITTLE BIT HERE & THERE, but I thought, "What the Hell! Why am I trying to please outsiders & Church people & tone it down when I'm really making this for us & our own children to inspire & encourage us!" Why tone down the message just for the occasional stranger or visitor or church person who might happen to see it & criticise it? Even if they have to keep it in their bedrooms, I think it would do more good than having to compromise the Message & tone down the art, etc., just to please the people, outsiders, Christians & churches, etc. So I went ahead & splashed it all over just like it is there! They may not be able to show it in public or in churches--or when they have visitors they may not be able to leave it on their living room wall--but they can show it to really trusted friends & I think even their fish would probably enjoy it!
42. IT SEEMS LIKE THE WORLD & WORLDLY MEN, BUSINESSMEN, ETC., CAN STAND MORE OF OUR RADICAL DOCTRINES & RADICAL PRACTICES THAN CHURCH PEOPLE, & THEY CERTAINLY HAVE! They've accepted our FFing with open arms, including our FFers! So I don't think this poster's going to offend them any. In fact, I think it's going to appeal to the World that we're a little more sensible than the stupid, idiotic, narrow-minded, narrow-visioned, blue-nosed, ultra-conservative, do-nothing-&-prohibit-everything Church people! I think they'll think we're a lot more sensible & reasonable & natural & normal & that this kind of Heaven will appeal to them a whole lot more than those churc Heavens that we have seen lately. It sure appeals to ME more--of course I'm already a radical--but I think even to the uninitiated & people outside the church.
43. I'VE ALWAYS FOUND PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH TO BE MORE OPEN TO THE TRUTH & THE REAL GOSPEL & DOCTRINES CONSIDERED RADICAL & HERETICAL EVEN BY THE CHURCH. They're more open to receive the truth with a greater open heart & even easier to win to the Lord than some unsaved Church people who are insulated, hard-shelled & almost impossible to get through to through their so-called morality & self-righteousness.
44. MY MOTHER USED TO SAY THAT THE HARDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO WIN TO THE LORD, EVEN TO WITNESS TO, IS THE MORAL MAN, the moral Christian who thinks he is good enough & he doesn't need God, even the moral Church person who thinks they've got enough religion & they don't need any more.--Which is of course exactly what Jesus faced with the scribes & the Pharisees. And you can see how they hated His radical doctrines--they killed Him & thought they were getting rid of Him. They were jealous over His popularity with the general public & the World, jealous over His personal popularity. It looked like they were going to lose most of their people & crowds & popularity & sheep & authority & control over the people & the minds of the people, so they had to step in & figured the best way to get rid of the Message was to kill the Messenger. But thank God they did it too late. In fact, it merely accomplished the Lord's purpose of saving us all, thank the Lord!
45. SO MAYBE THAT'S ENOUGH PREACHING FOR THIS AFTERNOON, THAT'S THE GENERAL IDEA! For some reason or other, it seems virtually all my major projects are being accomplished, winding up or winding down to a finish. All the great things & wonderful things & desperately needed things & things I had a burden for & an idea for, most of the actual major publication projects which I have been involved in personally & are my own little pets & babies will be virtually all finished soon.
46. SOMETIMES WE DELAY ONE ISSUE OF THE BOOK FOR THIS OR THAT & THE OTHER, & WE'RE USUALLY WORKING ON TWO OR THREE ISSUES AT ONCE, ODD AS IT MAY SEEM! I don't have to explain that to you right now, but that's just the way it happens.--Something else important comes up & we shove it in the first issue, & we take something out & push it in the next issue, & sometimes we even have an overflow into the third issue! So sometimes, & it's often happened, two Books will start like two horses in a race, coming to the finish line almost in a dead heat, neck-&-neck, with a photographic nose finish, if you know anything about racing!
47. I USED TO LOVE HORSE RACING BUT I WAS TOO CHINTZY & TOO POOR & TOO JEWISH TO BET ON IT!--Because I didn't like to lose money. I used to love to go to Las Vegas & Reno & visit all those clubs & get all that free entertainment. Of course, they thought you were playing the machines & the tables & they were going to get it back many times over--but not with me! I bought my one-dollar drink & sat down & enjoyed the show & that's all I lost!--And I didn't even lose that, I got to drink it, & the show was free! I used to tell people who gambled, "I don't like to gamble because I don't like to lose money!" I like to give it away, but I sure don't like to throw it away!
48. I DON'T LIKE TO GAMBLE, I LIKE TO PLAY A SURE THING, PRAISE THE LORD, & I'VE HAD A LOT OF SURE THINGS & THEY'RE ALL WINDING UP ABOUT THE SAME TIME! We just finished Book 15 whose theme was "Heavenly Colour," all about the colour poster, & Book 16 is Heaven's Girl. Now Book 17 looks like it's going to be our Christmas Issue.--In fact, it looks like we're going to combine 16 & 17 into one big 8-signature issue as one of your Christmas presents!--Not only just to make it a Christmas present, but because they're both reaching the finishing line about the same time, this week! And of course it's a lot easier & cheaper to run all of it together & have just one binding, one cover & one mailing.
49. IT LOOKS LIKE THE INDEX IS ALSO GOING TO BE FINISHED--our new Combined fairly odd Index--but at least it's an Index, it's better than nothing, & a lot easier to use than 10 or 13 books! So it looks like we're going to have that finished by the end of this week, & what were going to be Books 16 & 17, both finished by the end of the week & probably turn out to be just one volume.
50. WE JUST SENT OFF BOOK 15 & THE COLOUR POSTER & WE FINISHED ALL THESE BIG MAJOR PROJECTS THAT I HAVE DREAMED ABOUT DOING & tried to do for so long, as well as the current projects & the usual Books, etc., not to speak of the fact that we've got Heaven's Girl rolling now, that's another major project. That's one that may keep me going & interested for quite awhile, but it's mostly going to keep dear Eman busy because I'm thinking more & more that it most effectively would be mostly pictures, but with explanations, captions & maybe some slight general running narrative. I don't know what the Lord's going to do next, it hasn't happened yet.
51. BUT THE PICTURES ARE COMING & AREN'T THEY BEAUTIFUL? I think we've got it! He's got it, he finally got the inspiration & they're rolling. They're coming out & I think we've got maybe two dozen pictures already.--And that's saying something for Eman who used to be as slow as molasses in January, or Christmas from January to December! But he's learning now to be fast & quick-sketch with as little detail as possible, just her & what she's doing & whatever other persons might be necessary, no background unless it's necessary, like the stone & the grave & things like that.--Nothing else, just the action & what is absolutely essential to the picture & the story.
52. SO THAT'S THE MAIN PROJECT NOW THAT I'M INTO, HAVING FINISHED UP ALL THESE OTHERS, THANK THE LORD! And Maria's sitting over there brightly smiling, cheered up again, thinking I was going to tell her I was about to quit! Her face had fallen before, but now she's happy again that I'm talking about Heaven's Girl. For a minute she was getting a little worried that maybe I was going to resign or say it's time I can now quit & depart in peace or whatever. Well, after these major projects this week are done, I do think I'm going to slow down a little bit & might even take a vacation or something. We could take a vacation & leave you here to run things! Actually, it more or less runs itself, thank the Lord!
53. ANYHOW, MARIA HAS ALMOST THE ENTIRE RESPONSIBILITY NOW AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE {\ul \i FN}--{\ul \i FNs} THAT IS, MORE THAN ONE {\ul \i FN} NOW--& VARIOUS BOOKS & PUBS. If you think we're anywhere near the end of those, just forget it! They're endless & she's got more ideas & pubs in the works than a dog has fleas, & they really keep her itchin' to finish'm, & pushin' & pushin'! So don't worry, if I ever run out of something to do, that'll be the day, because she'll never run out! If I run out of my work or my job, she'll give me some of hers to do.
54. BUT ANYWAY, I DO BELIEVE THE TIME IS SHORT & THE DAYS ARE CERTAINLY EVIL, & I keep having this feeling that we don't have much time & something's gotta give, something's gotta break! The World just can't go on much longer the way it is--the collapse has gotta come & the economy has got to crash. It's been crashing for years, it's just now beginning almost to hit bottom & take a nosedive & bang the bottom clear out one of these days soon. I was wondering if this year was going to be another Black October, but it looks like we might get through it, Lord willing, I hope!--Then maybe it would only be a Black 1984!
55. IT CERTAINLY THREATENED TO BE A BLACK DECEMBER WITH U.S. & EUROPEAN INSISTENCE ON THE DEPLOYMENT OF THOSE MISSILES--while Russia is insisting that they don't & has already declared that if the deployment begins they're going to walk out on any further talks on any kind of disarmament. Forget it! There will be nothing left but confrontation which could lead to war, & will eventually.
56. EXCUSE ME IF I PICK MY NOSE IN PUBLIC, BUT IT ITCHES! That's one thing Emanuele & I have in common. I hope I'm not allergic to any of you folks! I'm always descending from the sublime to the ridiculous, & I hope you'll pardon me. It sort of gives you a little comic relief to ease the tension for the moment when I get you up there hanging on what's coming next, then suddenly you're able to relax. That helps. I don't necessarily do it purposely, I'm just that way. That's the way the Lord made me.
57. I DON'T SEE HOW THE SOVIET UNION COULD EVEN ALLOW THAT DEPLOYMENT UNLESS THEY CERTAINLY COMPENSATE FOR IT BY EXTRA DEPLOYMENT OF THEIR OWN. For while they've already got the edge & they've got the lead, why should they let the U.S. catch up to them?--Unless they figure they're not quite in position yet, they haven't quite jockeyed into the proper position in the race to where they're ready. They may have a few things they'd like to finish up before the War & want to get in a better position. Even if the U.S. should deploy the missiles in Europe, Russia's going to be busy deploying a lot more in other places & closer so they'll be even more prepared even if the U.S. goes ahead with the deployment. That's about the only reason I could see that they would want to allow the U.S. to go ahead & deploy those missiles without just flat-out pulling the trigger & pressing the button & stopping them.
58. BUT REGARDLESS OF THEIR REASONS, I KNOW THE LORD'S REASONS!--HE'S TRYING TO HOLD BACK THE FLOOD AS LONG AS HE CAN TO HELP US FINISH THE JOB. And I've gotten a lot of those jobs finished, thank the Lord, that I have been wanting to do. Maybe the Lord's going to hold off so that some of these jobs Maria wants to be done can be finished, like the Quotebook & the Poetry Book & what else? We don't have time to name them all here. Last I heard there were some 36 of them, something like that, that she wants to get pubbed if we have the money & if we have the time.
59. BUT I FINISHED THE FAMOUS PROPHECY SERIES & GARDEN OF EDEN SERIES, NOW A LOT OF PROPHETIC SERIES ON THE TRIBULATION & A LOT OF THINGS. We finished the BOF, we finished the Millennium Series, the Heaven Series, the Heaven Poster & I'm just trying to say that we accomplished quite a bit & I'm quite pleased.--If not finished, I'm quite satisfied with how much we've accomplished & that we're nearing the goal, thank the Lord, at least I am. Maria has so many ideas up her sleeve, I don't think she'll ever get finished! But just about the time I thought I was going to be finished, the Lord gave me this new project, Heaven's Girl, so they're all saying "thank You Lord" & heaving a sigh of relief because they were afraid I might quit. For some reason or other they want me to stick around awhile! Well, I've gotta stick around long enough to get acquainted with you, so you'll know what I'm like & you'll remember me that way, Lord willing.
60. BUT IF YOU DON'T "ABIDE IN THE CALLING WHEREIN YOU ARE CALLED," YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE LOTS OF PROBLEMS! (1Co.7:24) God knows what you're best suited for & what He wants to use you for & what kind of tool you are, so you had better do what He knows you can do best or you can fall flat on your face & fail at other things. So be sure you stay in the calling wherein you are called & you know what it is, & for God's sake, at least like the old coloured lady, know when it ain't! That's one way I found out when it wasn't or when it ain't--by trying other things--& for 50 years, at least 49, I went on wondering what it was, because everything I tried wasn't it!
61. GOD WAS SAVING FOR ME A JOB THAT NOBODY ELSE HAD DONE, THAT I COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE DREAMED OF OR IMAGINED, BECAUSE THE CONDITIONS DIDN'T EVEN YET EXIST! The hippies didn't yet exist, it was just completely out of this World, too far out! I had to even learn their language, a new language!--Ha! But when the time came, thank God, I recognised it, "This is it!"--And the anointing fell & the inspiration came & I just exploded & it happened, thank the Lord, & you're a result of it, all of you really! TTL!
62. THE LORD WAS WORKING ON BOTH ENDS OF THE LINE, MAKING YOU READY & ME READY BOTH! He was making you ready to hunger for it, desire it, need it, get desperate enough to seek it & to need a Shepherd to lead the sheep. He was preparing the sheep as well as the Shepherd & finally got us both together! And I think we make a great flock! PTL? (Maria: You're a wonderful Shepherd!) Well, only because of the Lord!
63. I CAN'T DENY BEING WONDERFUL BECAUSE THE LORD SAYS "WE ARE FEARFULLY & WONDERFULLY MADE"! (Ps.139:14)--And I'm often full of wonders, the Lord's wonders, & besides that, I'm often wondering what to do next! So I'm really wonderful, full of wonders!--Full of wondering sometimes, once in awhile even wandering, but most of those days are past, thank the Lord! I found out what I'm supposed to do & I do it, most of it right here in this chair all day long, 6, 8, 10 hours a day, sometimes 12. I get out for a little swim most days--I missed mine yesterday but it was kind of rainy anyhow--but I do need some exercise & I get it. I'm not much of an athlete any more, I used to be, but at least I keep in shape enough to stay alive & have enough sex to enjoy life as well, & we have lots of fun! PTL!
64. I'M HEALTHY & FEEL WELL MOST OF THE TIME, VERY SELDOM SICK--only once in a great while when the Lord wants to talk to me or teach me something or I'm foolish in some way & suffer for my own sins. But He's kept me in good health & I'm strong as ever, if not stronger than I was when I was young! (Maria: Your heart's so much stronger than even 12 years ago!) I'm better now than I was then, so thank the Lord for that. Of course I'm a little more careful & prayerful & sensible & take better care of myself as well.
65. I HAD HEART TROUBLE NEARLY ALL MY LIFE, but I remember what my brother said to me one time: "Well Dave, who knows? You might live a long time! The doctor told me that the best way to live a long time is to have some chronic ailment that makes you take good care of yourself all the time & not do anything foolish or over-do. That way you'll watch your diet & your exercise & be cautious & careful, etc., & you're apt to live longer than the guys in the peak of fitness & health who over-do & are too strenuous or careless or something like that."
66. SO I'M STILL HERE, ANYWAY, & I'LL BE HERE AS LONG AS THE LORD WANTS ME TO BE & AS LONG AS YOU REALLY NEED ME. (Maria: We really need you!) The day's coming when the Lord will want you to learn how to stand on your own feet. I've really asked Him to take me before the worst comes because I think in my nearly 70 years I've been through enough. Why should I suffer the worst trouble the World's ever going to have? I would sure like to see it, but I can see it from the other World, I don't have to be here & suffer it. I might even be able to help you more from there! PTL!
67. BUT ANYWAY, ALL THAT TO SAY THIS: WE'RE WINDING UP QUITE A FEW THINGS & I'VE SORT OF BEEN WONDERING IN SOME WAYS WHY, but it looks like the World is sort of winding up quite a few things too, & to say the least, the time is getting very short.--If not this year, the Antichrist may be revealed I would say in '84 or '85 & certainly by '86. Even Halley's Comet's going to come in '86, & to me that's one of the most significant signs that our date of '86 for the coming or the revelation of the Antichrist, the beginning of his reign, is probably pretty accurate.
68. 1986 COULD HARDLY BE THE MIDDLE OF HIS REIGN OR THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIBULATION for the plain & simple reason he would have had to be in power 3-1/2 years before that, so he should have started sometime this year.--Of course, the year isn't over yet!--And what time in '86 we don't know. But I'm more inclined to believe it's probably the time of his revelation or his coming into power or taking control, & I can't see how it could be any later than '86. The coming of Halley's Comet to me is even a Heavenly sign--"signs in the sky" God's Word promises us--that a great man is going to come on the scene, a great ruler, a great king, great World events, cataclysmic events, tremendous changes which great comets have, if not actually brought, at least been a sign of.
69. SO IF THAT'S TRUE, WE'RE HOPING WE'LL HAVE AT LEAST MAYBE A COUPLE MORE YEARS TO TRY TO FINISH UP BEFORE HE REALLY TAKES CONTROL.--But of course we are also convinced that either the Crash or the War or maybe even both have to come first in order to put him in power, to give him the excuse he needs to have people lay down their lives & sacrifice their bodies & everything they've got, to have him save them from disaster & from their own destruction. All this you've read in the Letters, I don't have to repeat it, but I'm just summarising a little bit to tell you why I think the time is very short.
70. AS I SAY, IT COULD BE NEXT YEAR FOR THE CRASH TO BOTTOM OUT SO TO SPEAK, OR THE BOTTOM TO FALL OUT, & either the Crash is going to bring on the War or the War's going to bring on the Crash, one or the other. From recent lessons you probably figure that I was convinced that it's now definitely going to be the Crash first, the Great Confusion first, bringing on the War. Well, I don't know really, that's why I just wrote yesterday "Wait & See!"--We'll have to wait & see!
71. WE KNOW THAT ONE OR THE OTHER IS GOING TO COME SOON, & I think whichever one, it's going to be followed very closely by the other one.--Because unless the Antichrist solves it with a Pact, the Covenant, the Crash would most certainly, probably, bring on the War, a war of some kind. It may not be the Big One, it may not be the Atomic War, but it could be a big conventional war.
72. SO FAR THEY'VE FOUGHT QUITE A FEW BIG CONVENTIONAL WARS WITHOUT RESORTING TO ATOMIC WEAPONS, EVEN SINCE THEY USED THE FIRST ATOMIC WEAPONS. The World has fought several big wars, wars in which the U.S. has lost more men & bombs & materials & cost more than even World War 2!--The Korean War, the Vietnamese War, & now they're getting into the Mideast War. The Communists are trying to keep'm out of it by giving them all kinds of other little brushfires to worry about, but the [EDITED: "Zionists"] don't want them to worry about these other things like Central America & the Caribbean, anywhere else but Israel & the Mideast! They want the U.S. right there to give'm a helping hand to conquer the Mideast & turn it over to Israel, just like Lebanon. It's not Israel conquering Lebanon & turning it over to the U.S., actually it was Israel conquering Lebanon & then having the U.S. move in so they could turn it over to Israel. [DELETED]
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76. [DELETED] [EDITED: "T"]here's all kinds of evidence that the Zionists cooperated with Hitler. They were gung-ho for Hitler because he was doing them a big favour, driving the Jews out of Europe, which was just what they wanted him to do, & into Israel! They needed immigration to Israel to build up the population so they could fight the Arabs, which they finally did. [DELETED]
77. I'M SORRY I HAVE TO ALWAYS GET INTO THESE POLITICS & CURRENT EVENTS & HISTORY, BUT HISTORY HAS AN AMAZING WAY OF REPEATING ITSELF! There's hardly anything new under the sun, as the wise man Solomon said (Ecc.1:9), & everything that happens today has happened before, only more so today, & it's happening again. [DELETED]
78. SO I JUST CAN'T SEE HOW THINGS AS THEY ARE NOW CAN POSSIBLY LAST MUCH LONGER! I don't think you have to have me preach you any more sermons on this. I've taught enough on this, said enough on this, written enough on this, so certainly I've made it very clear. But as we get closer & closer to the events & to the End, you begin to see it more clearly all the time. The Lord begins to clear away the mists.
79. --JUST AS WHEN WE WERE IN HUNTINGTON BEACH & DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. We weren't doing much with the hippies or anything, it certainly wasn't making any money, not even enough to support us, & we were mooching off my poor Mother & her pension & the little gifts that her friends sent in. And she was feeding us & housing us in her tiny little one-bedroom cottage, if you can imagine, a team of about a dozen! Up to that time she'd been living alone there, & here we all came in on her, supposedly just to spend Christmas! Of course it was her own fault, she invited us & said she wanted us to get the burden for the hippies. And it was all part of God's plan, because as soon as we got rolling, the Lord took her & we had the whole house & wall-to-wall hippies!--And got the house behind her & filled that one up too, & the Club, & so it went!
80. SO GOD ALWAYS HAS A PURPOSE & A PLAN & WE CAN'T ALWAYS SEE IT RIGHT AWAY. On one desperate day we had an 11-hour prayer meeting with my Mother, really seeking God desperately, crying out to God & weeping & asking the Lord for answers & messages & getting tongues & interpretation & prophecies & Scriptures. That's when we got that 68th Psalm. (No.83.) And the Lord also said some other things along with that. I'm so sorry I didn't have a good secretary like Maria then, because she would have gotten them all. She would not have let one Word fall to the ground & we would have had some beautiful, priceless prophecies, visions, descriptions & things the Lord gave.
81. BUT ONE I REMEMBER VERY CLEARLY WAS WHEN THE LORD SAID WAIT! We said, "Lord, what are we going to do?" He just said, "Wait!"--And that is sometimes the hardest thing in the World to do. Yesterday I gave a lecture on "Wait & See"! We don't know exactly what to do yet because we don't need to know, but we need to prepare & get ready for what we do know is coming. We may not know exactly when or exactly how soon or exactly how or what, but we know it's coming soon! Right?--Whether War or Confusion or revolution or economic collapse or whatever.
82. SO HERE WE'D COME TO THE END OF OUR ROPE IN HUNTINGTON BEACH & WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, SO THE LORD SAID, "WAIT, PRETTY SOON YOU'LL KNOW!" The Lord gives such childish childlike little simple illustrations. The Lord can give you a message, a vision or a picture of something so clear in such a simple little way that any little child could understand it. He said when you're driving down the road through the mists & the fog becomes thicker until you can't see any distance ahead, what do you do? Well, some people just keep on barrelling through & they have 70-some-car pile-ups, just crash one after another into each other because they didn't slow down. They didn't have the patience, they couldn't wait, they had to keep going. "We've got to keep moving somewhere!"
83. --LIKE THAT LITTLE CARTOON I JUST CUT OUT OF THE PAPER ABOUT DENNIS THE MENACE & LITTLE JOEY WANDERING THROUGH THE WOODS. Dennis said, "Well Joey, we're lost!--But we're sure making good time!"--That's a picture of the World today, they're lost but they're going hellbent, hell fast to destruction, not willing to stop, not willing to wait, not willing to hesitate, not willing to stop & find out why or ask why or ask God to help'm or anything else, just going wilfully on their own way until pretty soon they're going to crash into the stone of destruction & judgement!
84. SO THE LORD SAID, WHAT'S THE SENSIBLE THING TO DO WHEN THE FOG GETS SO THICK YOU CAN'T SEE A CAR LENGTH AHEAD OF YOU?--You pull off the road onto the shoulder, way out of the way of the traffic & these big trucks & crazy speed demons & whatnot & get out of the way! Just pull way over & wait until the mist clears, till the fog clears, dissipates, departs & you can see clearly.--And that's one of the most difficult times for a Christian.
85. YOU FIGURE, "WELL, WE'RE CHRISTIANS, WE'RE THE LORD'S PEOPLE, & BESIDES THAT, WE'RE THE FAMILY, WE'RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW EVERYTHING! We're supposed to know all the future, people expect it of us! It's kind of embarrassing if we don't know exactly what's going to happen next or when or where! What's the matter with you, Dad, aren't you supposed to be a Prophet? Aren't you supposed to know exactly what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, where it's going to happen, how it's going to happen, what's going to happen? Why don't you tell us? Tell us now!"
86. IF THE LORD DOESN'T TELL YOU & HE DOESN'T SHOW US, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? It doesn't mean we're supposed to stop working, but sometimes it means keep right on doing what you're doing, keep busy, keep working--but wait! Don't make any drastic moves, don't make any drastic changes, necessarily, except perhaps some little ones that you need to make to prepare for what is coming, so that when it happens you won't be caught short or with your pants down or unprepared without any alternatives or contingencies, or caught short of finances or short of personnel or short of supplies as we almost were the other day. There are some things we do have to prepare for.
87. WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE, BUT IT DOESN'T SAY WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE WHEN WE KNOW WHAT THE FUTURE'S GOING TO BE! We may not know which comes first, the chicken or the egg, or when, but when you see a mother hen sitting on a batch of eggs & you know you've got a rooster & you know you've got fertilised eggs there, the hen is already there & so are the eggs, you know you're bound to get chickens sooner or later! Now you'd better not count'm before they're hatched because you don't know how many may hatch, & sometimes some of them don't. There are very few failures that way, however, where something is wrong, where sometimes the eggs get away from the mother hen & get cold or something.
88. SO YOU KNOW YOU'RE GOING TO GET A HATCH!--YOU MAY NOT KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY OR EXACTLY WHEN, BUT YOU KNOW IT'S COMING. You can see the signs, you can see the eggs, you can see the hen, you know you've had a rooster all the time with her, so you know some things are going to happen. And in that case you need to protect the hen, you need to keep her in a box away from others & away from snakes & devourers & foxes & weasels & all kinds of things that catch hens & eat'm, & snakes that even swallow whole eggs, shell & all! We found a black snake in the hen house one time that swallowed three eggs & there were three big lumps all the way down his body!--Swallowed'm shell & all!
89. SO YOU PROTECT & YOU PROVIDE & YOU PREPARE! When a woman is pregnant she has nine months to get ready to have the baby & accumulate the layette--I started to say the layout, she's already been layed out--but the layette & prepare for the coming of the child when she knows the birth is going to come.
90. WELL, THESE ARE PREGNANT TIMES, WE KNOW A BIRTH IS ABOUT TO OCCUR! The only reason we don't know the date is be-cause we don't know when it was fertilised & when conception took place, only God knows, & maybe He's protecting us from that so we won't even be worried or frightened or whatever. But I've found He always lets us know in due season. When we need to know, the Lord will tell us. Hasn't He always? Peter, you've been around with us a long time, doesn't He always?--Even if sometimes it's at the last minute. (Amen!)
91. BUT I DON'T SEE HOW THINGS CAN KEEP ON GOING THE WAY THEY'RE GOING RIGHT NOW, considering the international situation in particular, both politically, militarily & economically, & in some ways even the local situation. There's a rising tide going on & a change is bound to come & I wonder what it will mean to us & when? Why doesn't the Lord tell us in advance?--Maybe because we'd make some kind of plans that would let the cat out of the bag too soon & be poor security.
92. I THINK PERHAPS THE THING THE LORD IS TRYING TO TELL YOU NOW IS THAT THE TIME IS SHORT & WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR IT & PUBLISH AS MUCH AS WE CAN! Thank God I've gotten out most of what I wanted to do, that I felt was absolutely essential & necessary to get out before anything happened, & now I'm working on Heaven's Girl & I hope I can get her out & busy, certainly at least before the Tribulation comes! Well, we've got a few years before that, God willing, & I'm supposed to live that long, I hope, or I hope for your sake, or I hope for the Lord's sake & whatever He wants me to do.
93. BUT BESIDES KEEPING BUSY & ALL THESE THINGS WE HAVE TO DO, WHAT PLANS SHOULD WE MAKE? That's what bears on this meeting. There are a number of different things we can do now & start doing now which we are already doing to prepare for what's coming. When it comes, War or Crash or Antichrist or whatever, this much we know, as far as I can now see it is bound to circumscribe or restrict or limit what we're doing now. Whether War or Crash, people's income will be interfered with, its transportation & transference will be interfered with, so therefore whatever comes first, what we are going to feel first is a financial pinch, a financial crunch!--Except for some miracle of God, if He wants to drop it out of Heaven & get the numbers on the bank notes right, He can do it if we need it!
94. BUT IF WE KNOW THAT SOME OF THESE MINISTRIES HAVE SHOT THEIR WAD & HAVE RUN THEIR COURSE & HAVE DONE THE BEST THEY CAN DO FOR THE TIME BEING & now we're just sort of coasting along, rocking along, what we really need to have is a little change of course & do something that's more needed, such as follow-up. This I've already talked about before. So already we're cutting down on radio & its impossible volume of mail of supposed Clubbers, especially the "Niners" & all of that, which means we can cut down tremendously on expenses & Office Units, etc. And because we've been on the air so long & we've got so much music in stock & so many programs already prepared, we can also cut down on Musical Units.
95. WE DON'T NEED SO MANY BIG BLOB 50-TO-100-PEOPLE MUSICAL UNITS TO HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF by the tune of thousands of dollars to support all those people & their families & the support personnel & all the rest, because we now have enough music. I think we've got enough music in stock & enough programs already recorded to keep us going from now on as long as we're going to be able to stay on radio, which may not be very long.--Not that I want them to stop, but we don't need so much, & we certainly don't need so much personnel.
96. A SMALL HARD CORE TEAM OF EXPERT PROFESSIONALS CAN NOW CARRY ON! I told MWM long ago that when they moved from Greece I was only planning on a few experts & their families going, that's all. I said, "From there on with your children you've got enough technicians, musicians, DJ & kids to not only put together shows out of stockpile music, but even to add additional music & jingles & announcements & whatever you need. You don't need any more people than that."
97. IF SOMEBODY HADN'T PAID FOR THEIR TRANSPORTATION FOR THAT WHOLE BIG LOVEVILLE BLOB TO SRI LANKA, I NEVER WOULD HAVE AGREED WITH IT! But they had the faith for it & they wanted to go & they raised the money so I let'm. But now I'm wondering if maybe it wasn't a mistake even then, because look what happened! Well, they insisted, so that also meant we still had a big Blob to support. I told Simon when he left Greece to go to India: "Your limit is going to be only so much for your Unit from now on"--& we wound up paying two or three times that instead!
98. AS YOU WELL KNOW, I OPPOSED THE MOVING OF MCV MUSIC FROM THE BEGINNING! I said no. I said, "First of all, we can't afford it. Second, we can't trust some of those people. A lot of them are just recently returned backsliders, & why should we take'm & support'm & go to all the trouble of transportation clear to South America & whatnot?" But they said, "Oh, we'll raise our own money, we'll go by faith, we want to all go & go together, blah blah!"
99. WELL, I'M AN EASY MARK, I'M A PUSHOVER SOMETIMES & TOO SOFT-HEARTED. Like the Lord, when people just insist on having their own way & they're going to go ahead Hell or high water & do it themselves anyhow, sometimes you just have to let'm do it. Just like a parent finally has to let a child go ahead & stick his finger on the hot stove. After saying "hot" a long time & "you shouldn't," that's the only way they'll learn! Well, I guess they learned!
100. PERU GOT TO BE A HOTBED OF NOTHING BUT TROUBLE! And my Lord, you'd think that High School would have learned after four floods & gotten out of there before the fifth one! Some people are ever learning & seem to never come to a knowledge! (2Ti.3:7.) I knew something was wrong with that whole set-up! I had opposed MCV Music moving from Puerto Rico in the first place, & then when I had suggested the place for the Office & all that & it worked out perfectly & everything was going great & smoothly, then they up & away wanted to insist on leaving there & all the big Blob wanted to stick together & move together, blah blah blah blah! So I weakened in that case where they absolutely insisted & I figured, "Well, they won't be happy unless I let'm go" & we even helped pay for their transportation.
101. WE WOULD ALL PROBABLY BE BETTER OFF RIGHT NOW, MONEY AHEAD, WORK AHEAD, PERSONNEL AHEAD, EVERYTHING AHEAD IF I HAD BEEN A TOUGH FATHER--& I should be sometimes--& set my foot down despite displeasing some people & just said a flat no & that's it! "You're not going, I don't think it's wise!" We could have saved thousands of dollars, besides a lot of time & trouble & probably the sacrifice of a lot of equipment. I understand they left a whole stash of equipment behind that they couldn't take along & all kinds of stuff, & deserted that nice camp they had there that was ideal for that kind of situation.
102. OH, THE HORRORS WE WENT THROUGH IN HAVING TO MAKE THAT MOVE DOWN THERE JUST BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE INSISTED ON IT! But we just had to let them go. They insisted on going, they wanted to go & they wouldn't take no for an answer, they were going to go anyhow, so they went. We not only had to move'm there, but move'm again! But I am determined now we're not going to move so many people again.
103. LIKE OLD FARMER BROWN & MRS. BROWN & THE BEAR, THEY GOT THEMSELVES INTO IT, NOW LET THEM GET THEMSELVES OUT OF IT THE BEST WAY THEY KNOW HOW, because we can't afford now to move'm all back & we're not planning to support such big Units any more anyhow. We're even going to trim down the Office & the office work & the whole Radio Ministry, radio, everything! The only thing we're really going to push now is follow-up! I'm willing to take even the same amount of money if we can raise it & put it into follow-up rather than into music & radio & offices!
104. SO WE'RE ALREADY PREPARING! If we can push the whole Radio Ministry down to the local level & put the major emphasis on local follow-up, we will have it in the hands of the local families where they can take care of it no matter what happens to the World or the World Economy or the War or whatnot! We won't have to furnish them with either radio or correspondence or tapes or anything, because they will be right there with the people & ministering to them locally within the national boundaries of a local country by the Nationals even if all the foreigners get thrown out! Do you understand? See what I said about when I get a little excited I start yelling?
105. SO WE'RE ALREADY PREPARING TO TRY TO WHITTLE THIS OPERATION DOWN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO WHERE THE LOCALS CAN HANDLE IT LOCALLY IN THE EVENT OF THE COMING EMERGENCY. We will continue to produce radio shows, Lord willing, as long as we've got even a small hard core, & about all we need is one disc jockey, one technician & one musician to do it, with a stock of music tapes & a little studio to put it together. We'll continue as long as we can afford it & feel the need for it & as long as the good, effective, fruitful, profitable stations want it & are willing to take it & it's getting good response, & where it's getting good response. But all the chaff & all the fat we're going to trim off!
106. WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET OUR PERSONNEL FOR ALL THIS FOLLOW-UP?--WE'VE GOT IT! Let's turn these musicians loose! Let's turn these office workers loose that are no longer going to be needed in an overloaded Musical Blob or an over-worked office staff, because there's not going to be so much production any more, there's not going to be so much correspondence any more. Let's free them to go out & do the follow-up & reap the harvest!--Amen?
107. OF ALL THE PEOPLE ON EARTH IN OUR MINISTRY WHO OUGHT TO BE INTERESTED IN FOLLOW-UP & REAPING THAT HARVEST, IT'S THE PEOPLE WHO SOWED IT! Right? Amen? Who could have better motivation than those people? Now all they need to do is learn a little living by faith & beginning to trust the Lord for it. We're going to help them all we can to get started & we've already done it! We've already got teams sent off to the fields from the various Musical Units, giving them Pioneer funds to get on their feet & get going, & we'll do it as long we can. We're not just turning them out in the cold on the street, we're turning them out into the heat of the harvest, praise the Lord?--Before the cold comes & destroys it & the Winter comes & it's no longer possible.
108. SO WE'RE ALREADY WORKING ON THIS BUSINESS OF GETTING OUR OPERATION TRIMMED DOWN TO SIZE, TO A SIZE WE CAN HANDLE. By this, of course, we're already saving personnel for where it's most needed, transferring it from Production & Sowing Units to Harvesting Units! Any good businessman in his right mind would do that. If business changes & situations & conditions change, he'll make those changes. The Office Units are not going to have near as much correspondence to take care of any more, we may even be able to combine some of them & certainly trim down their staffs to a very small skeleton staff that will be very small & fit in almost anywhere, are economical & can carry on what little is left to be done along the correspondence, duping & distribution lines, etc.
109. YOU SAY, "DAD, SO WHAT'S NEW? YOU SAID ALL THIS BEFORE!" Well, maybe this I'm going to say is not even new. I think there's something else the Lord is doing besides trimming down the unfruitful parts of some ministries.--Not unfruitful ministries, radio has not been an unfruitful ministry by any means! I hope those poor folks didn't misunderstand me by my former Letters.--But unfruitful parts of those ministries & fat on those ministries that we no longer need, unfruitful operations & stuffed & padded correspondence & stats & whatnot, trimming it down to what is really necessary, what really needs to be done, what's really effective & fruitful & productive & what is really going to gain good solid disciples & Family Members.
110. SO WE'RE TAKING CARE OF THE RADIO FAR & WIDE & I THINK IT'S WORKING OUT BEAUTIFULLY! You even had some ideas I didn't think of, & you should. I expect my leaders to be idea people & think of things on your own--you're closer to the details. You're closer to the trees than I am. I have a general view of the whole forest & I can see where there are general needs or if there's a forest fire coming or what we ought to do with sickly areas of the forest, if there's a blight or things like that. But you've got your nose up against local areas of the forest & local trees & you should be able to know what the local need is, the immediate need of your particular areas of responsibility. Therefore you should come up with time-saving, money-saving, personnel-saving & labour-saving ideas on those details!
111. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BE INVOLVED IN ALL THAT & HAVE TO THINK OF EVERYTHING! It's enough for me to have the Worldwide responsibility, as Paul said, of all the churches (2Co.11:28) & be receiving from the Lord what to do about the whole situation & the general condition & the general direction & all of these things. But my Lord, you folks ought to certainly be thinking at least about the work you're doing & how to save time & money & work & personnel, short-cuts, cut-downs, cut-offs in some cases, I shouldn't have to think of it all! So that's what I expect of you leaders is to do that sort of thing in your area of responsibility, whatever it may be. PTL! Amen?
112. SO WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT?--I'M TALKING ABOUT HOW THE LORD IS LEADING IN DIRECTIONS TO PREPARE US FOR WHAT'S COMING. We are cutting down in a lot of these uneconomical things & some of the unfruitful aspects & all the rest, trimming down to where if need be either they can eventually operate on their own or on very little money or very little direction, or if necessary & a real hard crunch comes, be phased-out completely.
113. THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE CANNOT DO WITHOUT & SURVIVE & CONTINUE ANY MINISTRY, & there are some ministries that we can do without if we have to, that we didn't have when we started & we probably won't have when we finish. I'm already warning some of them, they might as well know it, & radio's one of them. Can you think of any others right off the bat? What are our main ministries?
114. WELL, I THINK OUR LOCAL DISCIPLES & THEIR WITNESSING & PREACHING THE GOSPEL & WINNING SOULS, THAT OF COURSE IS OUR PRINCIPAL MINISTRY!--PERSONAL EVANGELISM! No matter what happens, they're going to be able to carry on locally & under local shepherds, right? No matter what happens, that's not going to stop, not as long as they've still got mouths & bodies & food to keep'm going. I'm sure the Lord will supply it somehow, & even if their shepherds were taken away they'd still know what to do.
115. WE'RE NOT LIKE THE CHURCH PEOPLE OR THE CHURCHES--TAKE AWAY THEIR CHURCH BUILDINGS & THEIR PASTORS & WHAT WOULD THEY DO? They wouldn't know what to do! They wouldn't have anything to do except maybe sit at home, read their Bibles & pray, that's all, & most of them don't know how to do that! It would be a new experience for them. And witness? Oh, time out of mind, forget it! They don't even know what witnessing is! They wouldn't hardly know what you meant if you said it to them. They've never been taught to witness, they've never even been preached to about witnessing, they don't even know they're supposed to witness! Maybe if they'd sit at home & read their Bibles & pray they'd find out they're supposed to witness!
116. I'M SURE THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL WORK & WHEN IT COMES, MAYBE SHE'LL EVEN BE ABLE TO USE A FEW CHURCH CHRISTIANS, AS WE HEARD & SAW IN THE "WHISPERING VISION." (No.334.) Maybe some of them will finally get to work & get around, & when it's the hardest ever & under the worst possible conditions they'll finally start witnessing. But they'll have to do without their pastor & their church building & their hymnbook & maybe even their Bibles! I don't know what they're going to do if they didn't memorise any Scripture, but at least they know John 3:16 if nothing else, & that's about all you need to know.
117. BUT CERTAINLY I HAVE TRIED TO TEACH OUR PEOPLE TO KNOW WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW!--Even if I'm not around & Peter & Maria are not around & nobody's around but you & the Lord & His precious Holy Spirit! Even if you haven't got a Bible or a hymnbook or a church or a pastor or anything, you've memorised a few Scriptures & at least you know John 3:16 & you can go out & tell people that the Lord loves them no matter what's happening, & He'll even take care of them no matter what's happening if they'll receive Him & have faith for His protection & provision. Amen?
118. SO THAT'S OUR BIGGEST MINISTRY, OUR MAIN MINISTRY IS OUR PEOPLE! That's our greatest resource--our people, our Family, & I believe with all my heart & soul no matter what happens, the Family will keep going to the bitter End! So we don't have to worry about that, we're not trying to cut down the Family. In a way we're kind of trying to push them down to a more local effort & more local follow-up & more personal evangelism & more soul-winning & more discipling, but we're certainly not trying to cut'm down, God bless'm!
119. SOME PEOPLE IN SOME OF THE FIELDS MAY HAVE THOUGHT WE WERE CUTTING THEM DOWN because we have sort of put down some of their former, ineffective, unfruitful ministries & even unsafe ministries & they've kind of gone off in a huff, even backslid because I didn't glorify them & glorify their ministry which I thought was rather ineffective compared to safer more personal methods. (See No.1590.) So of course our greatest resource & our greatest ministry is our people & their personal witness & getting them to where they can be indigenous & carry on without us if necessary. Amen?--In case we're cut off from them, from publications if not actual communication.
120. ANOTHER OF OUR MINISTRIES WHICH HAS BEEN LARGELY DEPENDENT ON US & CENTRALISED HAS BEEN RADIO, which we're now trimming down, & may eventually be forced to phase-out completely! By that time we hope to have all the local names & addresses & local teams for follow-up so that we're not losing anything. We may have lost our air-wave contact with them, which is rather uncertain anyhow, we may have lost our means of outreach in that way, but by that time we hope to have enough names & addresses that we'll have a fulltime job of reaching them personally locally, which is far more effective anyhow, & that can be carried on without us by the local people.
121. I'VE SPENT YEARS TRYING TO PREPARE OUR PEOPLE TO CARRY ON WITHOUT US, now we're going to try to get'm so they can carry on that Radio Follow-up Ministry without us, God willing, even if radio comes to an end. PTL? Lord help us, in Jesus' name, to say what You want us to say & not more than needs to be said, to prepare Thy people, Lord, for what has to be done. So Lord help us.
122. WHAT HAVE WE DONE? WHAT HAVE WE PREPARED THE PEOPLE TO DO?--We've prepared them to minister pretty much without us & now we're trying to prepare them to govern themselves without us & be indigenous without us, as much as possible. I want to keep giving the Word as long as we can, so the very last ministry that we could possibly go over & see where we could possibly save or cut or whatever, would be of course the Word! And of course the parts of our pubs which are not the Word would probably be the first to go, sad to say, like Family News, maybe even Specials, then maybe even some of the Books & Volumes, things that are not absolute necessities & which we may not even be able to afford if we don't get'm done pretty quick.
123. I'D PROBABLY EVEN HAVE TO CUT OUT OUR NICE LITTLE NEW WORLD NEWS DIGEST! How do you like it? Isn't it cute? I'm really enjoying it. I have to read the paper anyhow, so I might as well share it. I got the bright idea of doing it this way & it's working, thanks to our dear WND Editor who's helping me.--And of course everybody that's involved, Mordy for printing & all the rest. We can't do anything by ourselves.
124. BUT AS I'VE OFTEN SAID & SAID RECENTLY & I SAY AGAIN, EVEN IF WE GOT DOWN TO NOBODY BUT ME & MARIA & HER LITTLE TYPEWRITER & A FEW SHEETS OF PAPER & CARBON, WE COULD STILL GET OUT THE WORD TO THE MAIN AREAS, even if you had to dupe it in your local areas & pass it around by hand or courier like they did in the days of the Early Church & Paul. I mean there were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Christians by that time! Think how they must have had to try to duplicate, without Xerox & duplicators & printing, the Letters of Paul! If they hadn't, you wouldn't have them today, because there had to be a few of those that would survive down to the present. So there must have been enough people who had'm & had copies to preserve'm.
125. SO IF THERE'S NOTHING LEFT BUT TO GO BACK WHERE WE CAME FROM & BACK TO WHERE WE STARTED WITH ONE LITTLE PROPHET & HIS DEAR LITTLE SECRETARY, WE COULD STILL BE GETTING OUT THE WORD! I hope it doesn't come to that too soon, & I don't expect it to come to that very soon. That would be in the very last crunch, in the final stages, if ever, where things were really restricted & finances limited & even forbidden. But thank God for the post, that's one thing that usually keeps going even in war time!--Even though sometimes it was limited or censored or aerogrammed or whatever. That's how the aerogrammes originated, that's all they allowed during the war, to cut down the volume of mail & planes, etc., particularly overseas mail, because they had to use planes for other things, as you know, & have room for other things besides mail pouches & baggage.
126. SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO THE SAME THING, CUT DOWN, & THAT OF COURSE WILL BE THE LAST THING TO GO & WE HOPE THAT'S NOT TOO SOON. In the meantime, we're not cutting down the people, but we are cutting down international supervisory personnel--in other words, WS Units. We're going to have to start chopping off WS Units which are not absolutely essential & necessary & cutting down. We're already doing it on the Radio Ministry & we're at the same time creating other Units on the local level like the IHCs & the NOs & NROs, trying to push a lot of this down to the local level where they can take care of it whether we live or die, sink or swim! Amen? Don't you think it's good preparation for them for what's coming? And we've almost got it pretty well in operation now where it's really rolling! TYL! So something else the Lord is doing is cutting down on, you might say, so much supervisory personnel & actually getting more of them into more effective fruitful ministries where they're more needed.
127. MANY AREAS OF THE WORLD STILL HAD SAVAGES WHEN I WAS YOUNG! Now they're pretty civilised, at least they've got them pretty much under control, & the savages are now arising in the former civilised countries, in the asphalt jungles & the Hard-Rock circles & drug circles! That's where the worst savages are today! All you have to do is watch them on TV & you know! They're demonic! They look & dress & paint themselves up & dress themselves like the savages used to do in Africa! Missionaries used to bring us home movies of savages like that, that now you see on television amongst the Hard Rock bands of the U.S.A. or the Punk Rock of Europe! It's the same thing! Demonic! Devilish! Demon & Devil-worshippers! In their dress, their paint, their hairstyles, the whole thing is back to the jungle, back to savagery!
128. SO WHILE THE FORMER SAVAGE PARTS OF THE WORLD ARE NOW GETTING CIVILISED, THE FORMERLY CIVILISED PARTS ARE NOW GOING SAVAGE, GOING NATIVE SO TO SPEAK. Their native nature is demonic, wicked, anti-Christ & anti-God & that's the way they're going. So I believe now since these Third World people are sort of Johnny-Come-Lately & slowly developing & now just beginning to get civilised, God's going to let them continue a little longer & have a little more mercy on them & give them a little longer day of grace. And here so many of the Family are in the Third World to enjoy it, thank the Lord! He knows best!
129. BUT WE DON'T NEED SO MUCH SUPERVISORY LEADERSHIP ANY MORE. The more work we push down to the local level the less we need at the top. Besides, we can't afford it any more. If we don't need it & can't afford it, why have it? So we're getting rid of it as much as we can & putting them into ministries that are more needed, where they're more needed & they're more necessary & will maybe be even happier, more fruitful & effective.
130. I THINK SOME OF THEM HAVE GOT THE OFFICE BLUES ALREADY & will be tickled pink to find out we're going to let them go out on the field & back into inspirational work & field work & get away from their damned desks! Well, it doesn't look like we'll ever get away from ours, we'll be the last dogs at the desks, because that's the way it is. But some of these people will no longer be needed for desk work & offices, Musical Units & all that. We're pushing them out in the field & just saving a handful of the absolute top indispensable personnel, best personnel, for indispensable jobs & ministries.
131. WHAT DID THE LORD MEAN WHEN HE SAID, "THE LAST CHRISTMAS"? (See No.1634.) Could it be our last Christmas in this place? Could it be our last Christmas like that with our children & our staff, should we have to flee or something? I don't think it's our last Christmas on this Earth, unless the Lord's going to let the atom bombs bombard us & give us a quick exit--sudden death, sudden glory! Well, what a way to go, thank the Lord, get it over in a hurry! I don't know why those words came to me. I couldn't swear it was the Lord, but that's how they so often come. It was as though the Lord was saying, "Enjoy this while you can, this may be your last!"
132. WELL, IN THE LORD'S MERCY, MAYBE HE'S GOING TO EXTEND THAT A LITTLE BIT. He gave Hezekiah 15 more years. After He'd already predicted that He was going to die, He extended things for him. (2Kg.20:6.) So PTL! It could have been our last Christmas for a lot of reasons. I got really sick & nearly died this past year, but I'm still here, thank the Lord. It could have been my last Christmas. What did the Lord mean by that?
133. MAYBE HE JUST WANTED ME TO APPRECIATE IT WHILE IT WAS LASTING, THAT WE SHOULD APPRECIATE THESE DAYS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH--Heavenly Family, Heavenly Homes, Heavenly children, Heavenly work--& treasure every one, every passing day, every bit of fellowship, every bit of love, every bit of contact, every bit of luxury & supply of every need & wants as well!--That we should be thankful & treasure it & be grateful for it, day by day, every moment of every day, be praising & thanking the Lord, even if it's our last! So I don't know exactly what that was for or what it means, but maybe we'll know before the year's over. It's not over yet! Next Christmas hasn't come yet, has it?
134. I'M NOT TRYING TO SCARE YOU, DON'T TURN PALE & FAINT OR ANYTHING, I'M JUST TRYING TO SHAKE YOU UP A LITTLE BIT TO REALISE IT MIGHT BE LATER THAN YOU THINK! Boy, to read the newspaper you'd certainly think so, & to see all the things that are going on abroad you could certainly be justified in almost thinking so, that it could be almost over! But the Lord has promised us a little more time & He's promised us we would not be cut off before our time. And we know there're some prophetic events that still have to take place, so we believe we have a little more time. But for God's sake, let's get ready for it & prepared for it so that when it happens we will be able to continue the best we can as long as we can with the most we can!
135. SO I HAVE ASKED YOU, SON, TO GET UP AN ECONOMIC SURVEY, CONTINGENCIES ON WHAT WE SHALL DO WHEN THE BOTTOM FALLS OUT & THE INCOME FALLS AWAY--which it's bound to do if any one or both of those things happen. What will we do? How will we live? Two months of survival food is not the answer to the cataclysm. It might be for a little while, & if the bombs drop & hit the owner of the house, we might be able to stay here rent-free for awhile!--Ha! But otherwise we may not be able to pay the rent & be able to have such a staff.
136. WE KNOW NORTH AMERICA'S HAD ITS DAY, & EUROPE, WHAT ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA? Well, we're still booming there as far as radio & radio disciples are concerned, & I believe the Lord's going to let it go on until we reap them. But otherwise we have had a great reaping there in the past & South America's heard about us & had our Message for years, right? We've had revival after revival there, so to speak. So I might say they've had their chance, or at least they're finishing their chance about right now & God is sort of drawing His emphasis Eastward.
137. HE'S ALREADY PARTIALLY WITHDRAWN HIMSELF & US & OUR MESSAGE FROM NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE, & IT SEEMS THAT HE'S EVEN MOVING ON FROM SOUTH AMERICA NOW. Why else would He have turned us around & sent us here instead of South America? He told us at the time flat-out that it was the Land of the Past & this is the Land of the Future! (No.1283.) If it's the Land of the Past, then it must have had its day & the best is yet to come here! So that's what I wanted to tell you, all that you already knew & I already talked about I suppose! So I hope as a salesman you'll be convinced & buy it when I tell you the cuts we have to make & the moves we have to make & we must make & we're going to make!--Although I never make any major decisions without you, do I?
138. THIS IS A DEMOCRACY AS LONG AS YOU AGREE WITH ME! It's not a dictatorship, I don't boss you around & push you around & make you do things, do I?--Except maybe once in awhile when you slip up I may get you out of bed & make you get out & do it. And you always agree with me, so how could that be a dictatorship? Ha! PTL! Well, the Lord runs things the same way!
139. HIS IS A DEMOCRACY, THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN WHICH HE IS AN ALL-POWERFUL, TOTALITARIAN DICTATOR & HIS WILL WILL BE DONE!--But only by your choice! He doesn't make you do it, He lets you volunteer. So it's still in a sense a democracy. He runs it, but He asks you to help Him run it, & He'll give you all you can possibly do to help Him if you'll do it. And He'll give you all the freedom you can be trusted with to do it if you'll get the job done. PTL?
140. PEOPLE WHO APPRECIATE THEIR FREEDOM & USE IT RIGHTLY DON'T HAVE TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO OR DICTATED OR FORCED TO DO IT, THEY DO IT ANYHOW. That's why God can't trust some people & some countries with democracy, because they have to be kept in cages like wild beasts & they need dictators! They need tough laws & strict governments. They can't be trusted with freedom. Can we be trusted with freedom? Well, as long as we obey & do the job & get it done He'll give us all the freedom we can stand to do it! PTL? Amen?
141. ALL RIGHT, THAT'S ABOUT IT & I THINK THAT'S PROBABLY ALL YOU CAN STAND! It seems like these conferences always have to last about three hours, I don't know why!--Maybe that's my limit, all I can stand. So PTL! Do you understand what I'm driving at?
142. GREAT CHANGES ARE TAKING PLACE! Great transformations are taking place & great revolutions are taking place, & we must be prepared for them & start now so that they can be finished & completed & in operation by the time the emergency occurs, not wait till it's too late, & I believe that's what we're doing right now.
143. GOD MUST BE GOING TO BE GOOD TO THE POOR OF THIS PART OF THE WORLD & MERCIFUL TO THEM & help them last as long as possible if for no other reason than our sake, as well as their sake. If the whole rest of the West & the Western World & the North goes down & everything with it, these dear little peons & peasants & poor people will still remain!
144. THERE'S A GOOD PROMISE FOR YOU: "THE POOR YE HAVE ALWAYS WITH YOU." (Jn.12:8.) They're still going to be here. How about that? He didn't say that about the rich, did He? But the poor ye have always with you. Boy, that's a good Scripture to get! They're still going to be here. I believe that was a promise. In this case it's a promise to us, thank You Lord, & as long as we're here with the poor, God helping us, we'll still be here for awhile! PTL?
145. LORD, YOU HAVE A PLAN & A PURPOSE. We may not know all of it yet or how much of it or what it all is, but we know that You never fail & You always have a reason & Your plans never fail, Your methods never fail, & though we can't always see the end from the beginning, Lord, we know that You can & all we have to do is follow.--As long as You're there leading us & guiding us.
146. WHEN YOU PUT FORTH YOUR SHEEP YOU GO BEFORE THEM & LEAD THE WAY (Jn.10:4), leading those who need to go out into the field & helping them to be more than willing & happy to go, & those who need yet to stand back there by the stuff, Lord, to be still diligent & willing & faithful to stand by the stuff, who shall receive equally with them who go forth to the battle, in Jesus' name. (1Sa.30:24.) All we ask is for Thee to have Thy way & lead us in all these things, that we may stay in Thy will, Lord. Thy will be done.
147. THANK YOU JESUS FOR ALL OF THESE WHO HAVE BEEN SO FAITHFUL & SO DILIGENT & THAT YOU'VE PRESERVED NOW TILL ALMOST THE VERY END, & which You will preserve, we believe it, Lord, just as long as we need them & as long as You need them, & You'll keep us going, Lord, as long as we're able to operate together. We're a good team, Lord, we've worked well together, even with some far away, so we believe You're going to keep us together & keep us & keep us busy for You as long as possible, in Jesus' name, amen. PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! TYL! GBAKYAMYAB till Jesus comes!--And beyond!--In Jesus' name, amen.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family